Lokki pipo beanie

In Finland I picked up a knitting pattern book called “Pipo on Pääasia” which roughly translates to: The beanie is the most important issue… which misses the play on words from the Finnish because “Pää” means “head” so… the beanie is at the head of important issues. Sometimes language nuances just don’t translate :)

Anyway, keen to continue cabling practice, I checked out a few of the patterns and decided on one called Lokki (which translates as “seagull”) that looked suitable for a few balls of Debbis Bliss Cashmerino Aran I had waiting to be used.

I read reviews on Ravelry suggesting that some people found even the large size too small so I began with that and tried it on my head as I went. It was feeling large but it was hard to judge how large it would be. I finished it up and … oh boy … it’s massive!

Big Lokki beanie (side view)

Big Lokki beanie (back view)I contemplated unravelling it (I’ve already unravelled these yarns once before when I was playing with stranded knitting) but perhaps I’ll grow to love it… so I decided to buy the same yarn in a colour I prefer and can see myself wearing.  Trusty brown :)

This time I used the smaller pattern and I decided to skip the purl row before the crown, adding the extra stitches on the final row of the cable section.

Much better fit!

Small Lokki beanie

From this I’ve learned:

  • Read through Ravelry comments and project details to check what weight of yarn they used, what sized needles, etc. Their comments may be completely irrelevant to your version of a project.
  • Un-do before cutting the yarns on a project when my gut tells me it is just not working out.
  • I prefer a more fitted beanie :)