Warm & Fuzzies: The Oslo Hat

I first came across this pattern fairly early in my knitting days, when I was still new to Ravelry, and it quickly got buried under the many other projects saved to my favourites. It wasn't until recently I decided to delve back through my list for a hat pattern to knit that I rediscovered the Oslo Hat by PetiteKnits and now I haven't stopped seeing it everywhere, Instagram, Youtube and even in Heather & Hops Discord group. I knew pretty quickly that this was the Hat project the universe was telling me to knit.

I'm not one for buying yarn for a project, but rather collect pretty yarn and hope I find a project for it in the future. Luckily, for this project I already had the perfect yarn in my stash. I'd previously swiped some Man behind the Curtain Woollen Wytch yarn on my Sock base during my last dye up and I'd also picked up some Debbie Bliss Angel mohair yarn a few months ago at the Knitting Centre in Wells.

Ant and I like to go on random day trips and adventures in our spare time, and since I've started knitting again, I like to make sure there's a yarn shop on the way. So with our visit to the Bishop's Palace Gardens in Wells, we stopped by the Knitting Centre, a cosy little treasure trove of yarn on a quiet side street. I've never knit with Mohair before, mostly because I never knew where to start with it, but thanks to listening to Katt's Heather & Hops Podcast videos, I'd built up enough courage to give it a go. When I bought it I had no idea what it was going to become, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted a cosy fuzzy warm mohair hat.

I started this project using the Standard Oslo Hat pattern, not realising there was any other edition until after I'd cast on the stitches and knitted a few centimetres. Ever the maverick , and loathe to wasting my time frogging back and recasting on this project using the 'Mohair Edition', I decided to just carry on. This project ended up being a mixture of both patterns, standard edition cast on with mohair edition measurements.

I really enjoyed knitting this one up, it felt like a quick easy project to get out of my system. I'd completely finished it inside of a week, which is true madness for me. Even which the mismatched measurements, the hat fits perfectly and looks fantastic. To start with, it was a little tight, but with some wear its stretched out nicely to fit comfortably. Saying that though, it could've been tight because I didn't gauge swatch yet again, and I'm generally a tight knitter.

The only part of this part that threw me through a loop was the mention of using German Short rows when turning the work to knit reverse stockinette stitch. I couldn't quite picture what the designer was asking me to do. I've used German Short Rows before in the Fairy Gathering Sock, so I know what they are and how to do them. I was just unsure as to why the pattern suggested them in a certain section. Luckily, with a little snooping on Youtube, I found two videos by the pattern creator that explained all; unfortunately however, the videos were in German so I didnt understand a word. However, the video footage was nice and clear and I soon understood, so if you're planning to knitting the Oslo hat and get stuck at the same part, I definitely suggest watching the videos.