Navy Watch Cap

With the weather turning cooler dh approached, asking if I would knit him a Navy Watch Cap. Not real clear on what a "watch cap" was I surfed the web and found several free patterns. Though the colour was not traditional I had some dark brown Alpaca lying around waiting for a project. Feeling nostalgic, though I would not take my first breath for several decades after the pattern was made, I chose the Red Cross pattern. It makes better sense to me to use an original pattern whenever available, to lend to a more authentic project.

Because it is an old pattern there are references that are no longer available and when my fibre sister, EM, asked what I did to resolve the gauge issue, my reply was, that I did what I do best.....that's right....I ripped it. After knitting a few rows I tried the circumfrence in respects to my dh's head and found I needed approximately 20 stitiches less. I also used circular needles where they called to knit the first 6 rows on straight then transfer to double pointed needles. I can't work out why the pattern did not call for circular, were these needles not available in 1942?.

The pattern is a very basic rib, there aren't even any decreasing, so I can, as I mentioned in the previous post, work on this project while enjoying Saturday Tea or watching TV, or any activity that does not require my hands.