The Stress Ball Hat, The Pompom Of DHOOM & The Beret That Is Not Blue

This is my Stress Ball Hat.



And this is my pompom of DHOOM.


And I really must admit, I'm quite in love with both of them. I want to thank Ms. Neither Hip Nor Funky (but nevertheless very cool, IMHO) for a brilliant pattern that fulfills all promises of stress-relief, and then some. The world in general is a better place, when you are the proud owner of a Stress Ball Hat.

Also a slightly different place, apparently. One in which pikelet likes pompoms. For indeed, my fomerly hostile attitude towards pompoms is somewhat dissipated after the making of this uber hat and my very own pompom of DHOOM. Possibly because I'm just astonished that I managed to successfully make a pompom at all, let alone a kick-ass pompom of DHOOM like this one. It's thick, fluffy, soft, springy, dense, squishy, warm and generally fun and comforting. And I like that I can feel it sitting on top of my head and bobbing about a bit when I move ^_^

So, the knitty gritty . . .

Pattern: Stress Ball Hat Pattern from Neither Hip Nor Funky
Yarn: Cleckheaton Merino Spun
Needles: 6mm circs & dpns

Modifications: I didn't have any Rowan Big Wool, and I didn't have any 10mm circs either, so substitution it was. This pattern is actually super easy to sub though, thanks to the sizing notes. I just cast on 70 (instead of 50) stitches, worked 12 (instead of 8) rounds of garter and picked up 13 (instead of 9) stitches for each earflap. It's come out at about the same comfy no-ease fit as the pattern pictures. Done and done!


But wait! There is more. I would also like to introduce you all to . . .


. . . the Big Blue Beret.

Only, it's not blue, and it's not particularly big either. This is thanks to some nifty pattern mods. Okay, here we again . . .

Pattern: Big Blue Beret Pattern from 10 Feet High
Yarn: Cleckheaton Country 12ply
Needles: 3.75mm circs, 5.5mm circs & dpns

Modifications: After falling in love with this version, I copied all the mods made by mmmfruit. You can read all about them there, because she explains it perfectly and I suffer from far too much concentrated laziness to type them out again myself.

All the remains is . . . . to pompom, or not to pompom?