Irish Flag hat

Last year, I meant to knit boyfriend an Irish flag hat to match his Irish flag scarf, but I didn't even finish the scarf in time, so there was no way that hat was going to happen.

Just to be clear, these Irish flag things may seem kind of silly, and they kind of are, but many of you must be thinking that there's no way he's going to run around looking like he's wrapped in a flag, and I'm fooling myself thinking he will. Well, he's got a good bit of Irish heritage including the red hair, and he loves all things Irish. You should see our living room: there's an Irish flag, and Irish flag with an "Irish Drinking Team" crest, and Irish Brigade flag, and two flag that have something to do with the four ancient kings of Ireland. Irish music plays more days than it doesn't. The candles in the room are all green, white, and orange, although that is more my doing. You know, to keep with the theme. So he does wear the scarf and I'm confident he will wear the hat, too.

I did start an Irish flag hat sometime last year, and got about eight rows in, but then one night we had guests over, and my knitting bag was upended. A friend ended up tangled up in this particular project, and I was afraid he was going to strangle himself (it was a pretty rowdy night) if I didn't do something, so I had no choice but to cut my knitting off of him. It just broke my heart to do, but it turned out to be for the best because I'm terrible about checking the gauge of my work, so when I checked the isolated piece I had, it turned out to be too big.

In the end, I'm now using US 8 (5mm) needles, the same needles as I used on boyfriend's scarf. Rather than the original 90 stitches across, I'm working with 80 stitches. I've barely got the piece cast on, so there aren't any pictures yet, but it's going to be a plain old garter stitch. The video I've linked for the cast on is the simple cast on. It's the one I typically use for hats and other things I want to have a more elastic end. It's also the cast on method my grandmother taught me when I was a little kid because it's easier than other cast on methods.

Happy knitting!