I was looking for a quick but not mindless project to work on while I wait for the oodles of yarn to arrive in the mail for my next BIG project. I sat down to page through my knitting books for inspiration when My Grandmother’s Knitting popped open to Jared Flood’s Tilden Baby Hat. I loved the colors and simple but beautiful pattern. I definitely wanted to knit this for myself, but the pattern was for a toddler sized noggin. I recalculated the pattern for a worsted weight yarn at 6 stitches/inch instead of the fingering weight yarn suggested in the book. I figured that I should get a 21 inch circumference hat and, since I generally aim for 20 inches when knitting hats for myself, I decided to go with it and have a slightly slouchier hat. So, away I went to happily cast on with Wool of the Andes in Oyster Heather and Tidepool Heather and actually finished the hat in a few hours.

Once I got it off the needles I realized just how… LARGE it was! It wound up being 24 inches rather than my estimated 21. I wore it around the house for a bit to see if I could love it as the huge, comfy, very slouchy hat that it was. Nope. After pondering my dilemma for a bit, I decided to try my hand at wet felting it in my kitchen sink.

After a bit of scrub-a-dub time while watching a movie, I had a very felted hat. I rinsed it with cold water and pressed it with a towel to get the extra moisture out. Now it seemed just so… tiny! I pulled it on and realized that it was just the right size after all! I folded the front edge up and wore it around the house for the rest of the night to let it really mold to the shape of my head.

I wore it to the office this morning and I can’t stop smiling at how good it feels to wear a hat that is the perfect size. I can’t wait to try felting other things!