Grammy's Hats and Mitts. I've worn them my entire life, every single member of my family has worn them their entire lives (and I'm not just talking brothers and sister, I mean cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews!) When I went to Vancouver last month and my brother and I were waiting for the bus and it was un-seasonally cold, we both pulled out our mitts from Grammy. (Vince was wearing a hat from Grammy too, but I was wearing my Winter Snowflake hat.)

Anyways, all that to say that it wasn't until recently that I really discovered the brilliance of Grammy's hat pattern. I think that I always took it for granted because I was so used to it, but after knitting several this past week, I'm officially a big fan and will never take it for granted again. The brilliance of this pattern lies in the ribbing. The entire body of the hat is knit in 6x2 ribbing, so though it's a wide and subtle rib, it means that the hat fits perfectly every time. It hugs the contours of the head and is stretchy so it fits just about any head size. The rim is worked in 2x2 ribbing, and meant to be turned up so not only do you get a double layer of warmth over your ears, depending on how much you roll up the rim you can make it longer or shorter, again making it fit any head size! That makes this hat perfect for gifts, since you don't always have the recipients head available for fitting, you know this hat will fit every time.

This is a great project for using up leftover yarns by making fun stripy hats. Grammy's hats were almost always striped and always had a pompom on top. I love the pompom!