FOlio Fest Day 1: The Shinko Hat(s)
Read other entries in this series here as they are available.
Pattern name: Shinko Hat (Ravelry link)
Designer: Kirsten Johnstone
Yarn: Hat 1 Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool in Oatmeal , Hat 2 MollyGirl Unplugged in Electric Love (she’s not actively dyeing right now, but you should join her mailing list!)
My Favorite Thing about This Hat: It fits sooooo well. As I mentioned in the intro post, I got into knitting in large part because I have a hard time finding storebought hats that fit me. Figuring out which knitted hat styles fit me best has also been a little bit of a trial and error.
I picked this pattern on a whim because I’d never tried brioche stitch before and I loved that the large size actually seemed like it would fit my head. The original version of this hat, knit in some leftover Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool from another project, was my favorite hat for an entire winter, right up until …
What I’d Change about This Hat: I stretched it out. This isn’t the hat’s fault. But I made the mistake of hanging the hat from a hook on my door (this was in the tiny NYC apartment days) by the brim. This was okay during the winter when I grabbed it every day and it also spent a lot of time stuffed in my coat pocket, but after several offseason months hanging from that hook uninterrupted, by the next winter it was so stretched out it was too large even for my head. (This did, however, lead me to my current practice of putting a small single-chain crochet loop on the inside top of all future hats I knit so that if I did need to hang the hat, it would not stretch the brim.)
Would I Knit it Again? I am doing so right now! I grabbed some lovely MollyGirl Unplugged (a worsted weight non-superwash wool) this past summer with a new version of this hat in mind and cast it on a few weeks ago. Here’s my progress so far:
I highly recommend this hat if you are looking to learn brioche stitch, or if you just want a cozy warm hat that fits a lot of different head shapes. Just be careful how you store it.
This Week’s Charity:
The Instituto del Progreso Latino, an organization which has long been providing educational and support services to Latino immigrants in Chicago, has been at the forefront of the community response to the influx of migrants in Chicago since September 2022. More than a year into this situation, many of the initial community outreach efforts have had to shutdown as volunteers burn out and donations dry up. As someone’s who has witnessed both NYC and Chicago’s response upclose, Chicago’s grassroots effort has been really impressive, but we’re in dire need of more sustainable long-term support solutions; Instituto del Progreso Latino has the infrastructure to manage that.
The Instituto has partnered with the City of Chicago on an Amazon wishlist to provide arriving migrants with badly needed clothing, toiletries, and other items. Winter is fast approaching here in Chicago (we had snowfall on Halloween), and very few of the migrants have coats, hats, or even suitable shoes for cold weather. If you would like to purchase warm clothing or other items to help in this effort, visit the wishlist.