What a hat! I like that party hat!

When my kids were considerably younger, one of their favorite books was Go, Dog. Go! We had so much fun looking at all the dogs. There's a bit about hats that builds and builds until one dog wears a fantastic hat, which another dog dubs "that party hat." Well, I have a new party hat that any dog would like! 

This is a very simple, reversible hat made from Felici sock yarn. I needed an easy palette cleanser project after finishing the Bottoms Up socks. I've made this hat twice already, so I knew it wouldn't be taxing. And it's a stashbuster. I pulled out all my skeins of Felici sock and asked S1 to pick the two she liked best.

She was immediately drawn to this one, which is an old colorway called Aurora. I bought it in 2008. I actually bought two balls, but I made a pair of socks for a six-year-old and so I only needed one ball. The other one has been patiently waiting. Here are those old socks:

Then I puzzled over which yarn to use for the other half of the hat. None of my stash skeins coordinated very well with Aurora. I went pretty far down the rabbit hole of choosing a new colorway to order before snapping back to reality. Stash projects aren't supposed to require new purchases! The helix technique crept into my head, and I thought about my small stash of leftover Felici yarns. I keep them all in their own jar. I dumped them out and sorted them:

On the left are the Felici Sport leftovers; on the right are the Felici Sock leftovers. I thought some colors on the right were promising. I got out my scale and realized that if I combined the leftover Abracadabra and Cochineal, I would have enough for a second hat:

Abracadabra has more contrasting colors - here are the original socks:

Cochineal is a more tonal colorway - I've used it on socks and also mittens (the top one):

Helix knitting is basically a one-row stripe in the round, so it's really knitting in a spiral, and you don't see any jogs when you change yarns. I worked the second hat with this technique, and I really liked the result. I knit this quite quickly because I wanted to see what combination was coming next. To my eye, this side of the hat is a lot more dynamic and vibrant:

Here's the first side, knit with just one colorway (Aurora):

I started each with a provisional cast on. I joined the two hats by working three-needle bind off in purl. This creates a strong division between the two hats:

You can still pull them apart, but you'll only see the right side of the fabric.

S1 has claimed this hat and I just saw it walk out of the house for a grocery run. 

I have two balls of this more staid colorway, Meridian (purchased in 2009):

Now I think I'll enliven it by helixing it with some other Felici leftovers. What a great way to use up this yarn. I used to knit a lot of socks from Felici, but I don't anymore - I find that it felts with wear. It's superwash, and I wash my socks very carefully, but they still felt at the heel and toe. This shortens the sock and makes it increasingly uncomfortable to wear. The yarn is very soft, though, and perfect for hats - especially when the thickness is doubled for warmth.