A bunch o berets or tons o tams

When I fell down this particular hat rabbit hole, I decided to do four hats in addition to the Borjana beret to illustrate the different construction techniques.

With the exception of the beige hat, the other four yield the same end result and demonstrate why one would choose one method over the other.

The orange and the blue same yarn, different colour, same ultimate shape, different construction technique,

The traditional method, whether from ribbing up or top down, has an expanse of rows with no increases to interfere/complicate colour work, cabling or other stitch patterning.

The gotcha aspects of the tradition method include relying on blocking (not an option with some materials) to achieve the desired end shape, and knowing when to begin and end the plain knit rows -- too many makes a too large hat and too few makes it too small.

The "all the way to the diameter" method makes adding colour work or other patterning more of a challenge because there are increases and/or decreases at every point except the ribbing. There are more increases (and therefore stitches) in this technique than there are in the traditional method to get the same size hat but there's no blocking required.

I finished the orange in progress, blocked the blue and moved on to finish the Universal Yarns (aka the only acrylic of the bunch) beret.

Since I was already thinking matching mitts (fingerless or otherwise) and I wasn't keen on working the ribbing in a semi-self-patterning faux fair isle yarn, so I shopped around the stash and found some Paton's Look at Me in a co-ordinating colour for the ribbing.

As the Universal Yarn hat is a heavier gauge, larger needles, it also has a different stitch count all 'round but it is roughly the same size as all the others.

Although I've started a hat from the alpaca/merino blend I picked up while back in Cleveland, I've mostly moved on to mittens and the ever popular fingerless mitts.

By missing yesterday's Whistlestop knitting, I'm really in the solo knitting ranks.

With the ongoing every twelve hours fight over antibiotics, there's no way I'm making it to this month's Knitnite.

At this point, I can't even remember the last time I made it to one.

So I'm down to The Knit Together and one last Whistlestop for end of the year group knitting.