Making it Better

So I finished the body of the colorwork hat yesterday, but it was just too long. Silly long. I'm making a size small - to better fit Gerry's head, my male head fit model - and when he put it on it almost went to his nose.

I had several options, but I only considered two seriously; rip out the top and make the decreases more severe, or take some length off the bottom and rework the hemmed edge. I opted for the second solution because I was happy with the hat top, and also wasn't very pleased with the hem (or the bottom rows of colorwork)

Here are some images of how I did it.

1. I inserted my needle into each stitch of my revised bottom row of colorwork. Since this is a repeating pattern, it was a bit easier than when I attempt this in a solid color.

2. Then I snipped a stitch in the row below and slowly pulled out that yarn out, bit by bit. Since this is colorwork, it involved snipping two strands of yarn (one red and one white) This part felt frighteningly like an episode of "Danger UXB"

3. When the snipped row was entirely removed, the stitches I'd captured before remained on the needle.

4. I worked them in white for about 8 rows, did a reverse stockinette st row, then decreased 8% of the stitches and continued in stockinette st for about 8 rows.

I bound off and stitched the edge to the wrong side, folding it at the rev st st ridge (which creates a lovely turning ridge.)

And thus I saved the hat. Now I have to add the ear flaps and make the actual collar from the painting.