Knitting the Sidewinder Beanie & How to Fluff Up Fur Pompoms from Amazon

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The Sidewinder Beanie is a new favorite hat pattern of mine that is typically knit out of Malabrigo Rasta, which is a super bulky single ply yarn. A few posts back I shared my attempt to substitute a plied yarn for the Rasta and, although it made a pretty hat, it was nothing like the stunning beanie in all the photos. So, as promised, I knitted it out of the correct yarn and it really made a huge difference:

It turned out so pretty, and it’s so simple to knit that, honestly, picking out what pompom I’d use for the top was the hardest part!  …I went a little overboard and bought a 20 pack of faux fur pompoms on Amazon so I had many colors to choose from:

By the way, see how icky the pompoms look in the photo above vs. how pretty the pompom looks on the hat in the first photo?  These guys get squished pretty badly in shipping, but the secret trick is to attach the pompom to the hat, then blast it with a hot blow dryer until it fluffs up!  These particular poms have a little elastic loop on them, so instead attaching it directly to the hat, I sewed a button onto the inside of the hat and then I used a crochet hook to pull the elastic bit from the outside into the inside and wrapped it around the button. This is a neat trick because I can easily detach it for washing or if I want to swap out a different color, since I have so many!

Now, as usual, my project details:

yarn details

Malabrigo Rasta in Porrinho
Super Bulky Weight
100% Wool
Hand Wash / Dry Flat
$23 per 150 g/ 90 yd skein
Purchased from WEBs in December 2022

project details

pattern: “Sidewinder Beanie” by Aspen Leaf Knits (purchase on etsy or via Ravelry)
size knit: Super Bulky Size
needles: US size 13 (9 mm) and 15 (10 mm) – both 47” fixed circulars for magic loop
yarn used: 61 yards (102 grams)
duration: January 16 -17, 2023