The Delight of Decreasing
There’s always a burst of energy for me when I reach those magic words “begin decrease” on a hat.
It means I’m racing toward the finish line of my project. It means the rows will get shorter and shorter from here on in. As a knitter continually haunted by the growing rows of top-down shawls, “begin decrease” is the chocolate cake of pattern directions. Dessert course! Most delicious!
Not that any of the middle section of this hat has been at all tedious. Rather, it’s been peaceful, engaging, and productive at a pleasant speed. Everything I look for in a knitting project. I only have to look down for a small portion of each row, and it just plain feels wonderful to knit.
My only complaint with hats is that unlike socks, you can’t really try them on unfinished. Sure, you can slip the in-progress hat on your head, but it won’t give you a true taste of what the thing will look like on your noggin when blocked and finished. Considering how ridiculous I look in most knitted hats, this represents a sizable risk for me. I’ve loved knitting it, but will I love wearing it?
Then again, that’s not really a problem, is it? Because you and I both know that if I don’t fancy how it looks on me, it won't take long to find a head it fits perfectly. Granted, if this were a large, complicated shawl, I might balk at gifting it. But a hat? It’s just the right size to release with pleasure to someone else.
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Having said all that, I really like how it feels and hope I do like how it fits.
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