Spectacular Tentacula

Anybody in the mood for a picture of me grinning because I have made myself a very technically-interesting, but ultimately very silly hat? Yes!

Oh, I am very aware that I am cute. Don’t worry about telling me about it.

This little project started its life as something very different, initially. In late 2020, I got this lovely skein of Quince and Co. Puffin in a holiday yarn trade (color 152 Kumlien’s Gull, for those who need to know [and yes, of course I looked up who Kumlien was {and yes, it has to do with birds}]) with a bunch of crafty friends, but I wasn’t sure what to do with it. I do not knit with bulky yarns very often, and I only had just the one skein with its 112 yards. It had to be a small project that showed off this fluffy loveliness and used as much of the skein as possible. {Anybody else really enjoy all those nested brackets? Me too.)

Last summer, I saw this video from historical maker extraordinare, Morgan Donner, and I had a moment where I knew that this would be the perfect project for my squishy 100% wool Puffin skein. A nålbinding hat! I had never tried nålbinding before, and in my quest to learn everything about all of the fiber crafts, I thought that this would be a fun treat.

I used this great tutorial to help me get started, and this guide for more info about joining in the round. I made a good little go of it after practicing with some scrap yarn. Things were looking good.

And then I just completely lost interest.

Nothing against the craft of nålbinding AT ALL, I am simply just not cut out for it for some reason. I find the hand position difficult to hold comfortably. I had a hard time figuring out where I left off and getting my thumb back in the right configuration if I put it down for any length of time longer than 30 seconds. I find the fact that you can’t quickly “undo” things very hard to deal with, since you’re essentially just tying knots over and over. And the constant splicing since you can only work with a short-ish length of yarn at a time? Oh, this is just not for me, and it was a sad discovery since I really love the way that nålbinding fabric looks.

Back to the drawing board, then. My dinky little coaster-sized attempt sat there on my desk judging me for several months. But then, last month, I was scrolling through Tumblr (if you guys aren’t onto knitting Tumblr, you are seriously missing out), and I saw the loveliest, weirdest hat with the loveliest, weirdest stitch pattern ever.

The Tentacula Hat, dreamed up by the wonderful hat-designer Jenny Noto, contains a stitch pattern that really requires you to trust the process and dig right into your knitting with a spare double-pointed needle since you didn’t feel like getting off the couch to find a crochet hook. Those crazy swoops? Done by drawing out loops from five rows down from your working row, on both sides of your needle. It’s a tricky thing, but it feels like magic when you get it right and the tension is perfect.

It’s pretty nifty, right? The pattern comes with directions to make the hat with four different yarn weights, and the “light super bulky” instructions were perfect for my Puffin, with just the tiniest bit left over.

Now, most people who are making this pattern, and beanies in general, are topping them with super-trendy, elegant, dignified faux fur pom-poms. You know the ones.

Not in this house. Pom-poms aren’t meant for elegance or dignity in here. Pom-poms are supposed to be silly. They are supposed to be big and weird and floppy, and there was no way I was going to pass up the chance to make a big weird silly pom-pom for this awesome hat. I bought the biggest pom-pom maker that I could find.

I wrapped it with the last few yards of the puffin, plus some leftovers from past projects from a million years ago (Filatura di Crosa 127 Print in color 27 Olive Multi, and Noro Kuryeon in color 213), just to add some fun color pops.

BAM. Or rather, POM.

It got a bit of a bath and a trim, but I was (and still am) digging the differing textures in the more unfinished result. It’s sort of a raggedy mess, and it’s exactly what I wanted.

I feel like I need about 18 more of these technically-demanding, yet intensely silly hats for no good reason. Any one else want one? Pom-poms on me?