Into the Pines

Hello everyone! I’ve got a knitting post for you this week!

I made the Bluebird Mountain Knits Into the Pines hat which was on my #makenine2019 list this year. At the end of April we booked a last minute holiday to France, we booked a camping trip to spend ten nights in a tent just outside of Paris. That kind of holiday is right up my street and I was really looking forward to it, but I knew that if I was going to be spending ten days in a tent, in a forest with no tv, wifi or any technology I was going to want to take some things to do! I decided that this was my time to really dig into some knitting projects I’ve been thinking about for a long time so I decided to treat myself to some special yarn.

I ordered one skein of Malabrigo Rios Vaa yarn with the intention of making myself a winter hat. I have been wanting to make myself an Into the Pines hat since I first saw it on Instagram and thought that seeing as I would be knitting in a tent in the French countryside then what better time to knit this forest-inspired pattern?!

The pattern is really well written and was easy to follow even for someone like me who is not a very experienced knitter. The beautiful tree design is created just by using cabling which is a really deceptively easy technique. If you can knit then you can do cables so this really beautiful design was actually quite simple to do, it just meant paying attention to the pattern.

WHICH I DID NOT DO!

Damn it, I am used to following patterns. I sew, I knit, I follow recipes. But I missed a very important instruction in this pattern that I didn’t notice until it was too late. And now the finished hat fits my four year old instead of me! lol.

After the twenty rows of ribbing, it tells you to change the needles to a bigger size. I did not notice this, I did not do this. I didn’t notice until I was halfway up the trees when I suddenly thought “This is looking a bit small…” When I examined the pattern I saw that I should have changed to a bigger needle size ages ago and hadn’t. I could have pulled it out and gone back but I hadn’t brought any other needles with me and I was really enjoying the process of knitting so I decided to soldier on.

I actually think it was meant to be this way as ever since I started this hat, my four year old kept asking “Is this for me, mummy?” I kept telling him “It depends on who it fits” in the hope that when it was finished I could squeeze it onto my head. I can, but it’s not comfortable so I eventually told him that it is for him and he was thrilled. We took these photos in the Forest of Fontainebleau and I cannot believe what a beautiful place it was. Some people like beaches, some people like cities, my heart belongs to the forest.

Now I want to make myself one seeing as I still don’t have one! I’m going to have to order myself some more yarn (although probably won’t be able to treat myself to Malabrigo again!), also while I’m dreaming of new stuff, I think if I had one of those interchangeable needle sets I would have probably had the other needle sizes with me. I also think they would make it incredibly easy to change needle sizes – you just unscrew one pin and screw a new one on! I am definitely hoping to get one of those sets for my birthday and have been looking at some lovely colourful sets like this Pony one and would be absolutely perfect! Hope my husband gets the hint! Ha!

Anyway, this was a really enjoyable knit so I’m not mad about having to make another for myself! I am actually looking forward to it already!