A Cap for Dad

It's kind of hard to think of gifts for my mom and dad; however, when I hit upon the right thing, they are the BEST ever at being appreciative. I have already written about Mom's Summit Stole that I gave to her for Mother's Day. She calls me periodically to tell me about all the compliments she gets when she wears it. I like that. I snapped this photo of them when they took us out to dinner for our anniversary around Memorial Day. For Mom's birthday I bought her 2 shawl pins but I forgot to get photos of those. Maybe next time.

Mom has been hinting that Dad would like another hat so I knit one for Father's Day, and presented it along with a batch of oatmeal-raisin cookies. From their reactions in this photo you might think they had just won the lottery, but no, it's just their joy is seeing a hat. (He had already eaten some of the cookies.) See what I mean? Pure rapture for a knitter.

Dad tried it on right away, although he drew the line at wearing it in 90 degree heat.

Yep, it covers his ears, too!

The pattern is Vegamot, a free pattern from the blog Hespetre. "Vegamot" is an old Norse word meaning "crossroads". I like the way the 3 and 1 ribbing flows into the main part of the hat. I used a provisional crochet cast on because I could check my gauge right away. That really was unnecessary and caused a little frustration when I went back down to pick up and knit the ribbing. The reason is that I didn't knit a plain row before starting in on the pattern. I learned that little tip from the Knitmore Girls podcast in their review of a Lucy Neatby DVD. Thank you Jasmin and Gigi. Now I know why that provisional cast on was not so provisional. Lesson learned! Needle and yarn notes are on my Ravelry page.

This pattern was fun to knit and I like the end result. In fact, I believe I'll be making more of these.