Trouble with our dear EZ

#1

So, my husband and son recently admitted to me that the wool hats I knit them are more like screen doors than storm doors. They have been dutifully wearing them for 2 years now and I feel honored and horrible! I want to knit EZ’s “A very warm hat” and I have the book with the “instructions” in it. Hahahahaha, very funny Ms. Zimmerman. Lots of people seem to have been able to figure this out and I feel like a dunce because I can’t figure it out! Here is the ravelry page:

It’s exactly what I’m looking for but her instructions, on page 95 of “Knitting Without Tears” don’t really help me out.

Do I knit the hat and then pick up sts at the bottom edge? There has to be one cast on edge, right? What happens there? I’m so confused!!!

Thanks for any help!!

Ann

#2

I don’t have that pattern so I don’t know how she did hers, but this is how I made one. You just have to keep track of how big you made one side so they will be the same. Making it in wool would be good, too.
http://www.elann.com/ShowFreePattern.asp?Id=178024
http://webhome.idirect.com/~quanah/patdoublehat.html

#3

Oh, thanks so much! I’m anxious to make some “storm doors” for my husband and son!!

:cheering:

#4

As a retired Forest Ranger who knitted myself some very warm woolly sweaters - and froze in icy winds, there IS a remedy:

I got a lightweight nylon windbreaker to wear over my warm woollies. Worked like a charm!! Wind stayed out, warm woollie got warmer! It’s an unbeatable combination, especially since wool is the best to keep you warm in a cold rain.

Hope this helps - you might be able to work it into your hat somehow. But yarns and knitted garments simply do not block the wind. Fact.

Hope this helps,
Dot

#5

I think thats why those ganseys from the Isles around Britain were knitted on such small needles and [U]so tightly[/U], they had to keep out the wind and rain.

#6

Maybe I can somehow work a layer of polar fleece in the middle. Or, maybe I save the effort and let them both wear the polar fleece and gore-tex hats they’re wearing now! I’ll knit something for myself!! Hahahaha!

#7

If you notice the cheap $1 hats are double knit. That is why they are warm.

Knit a double knit wool hat (like that one <------) and they are extremely warm.

(Ooops, I don’t have an avatar here showing that hat I’ll have to rectify that.)

#8

There was a good thread about the warmest possible hat on Ravelry recently with some good ideas.

Dot’s idea of nylon was one, fleece linings were another, and both of those being the warmest. TechKnitter has information about lining hats with fleece on her blog. Here is a LINK. She also has info about just lining a headband into the hat, of fleece.