Ladder stitch, anyone?

As soon as I sew together the pig wearing striped pants that I made (oh, sweet alpaca!) for my nephew, Jack I'm beginning a new project. The pig is a long-since overdue gift and a testament to my avoidance of all things unfinished. Folding an unfinished project carefully and laying it in a hand-woven basket seems to make all the difference in my guilt level. But now I have so many unfinished projects (hot-pink felted purse that needs felting, one and a half fingerless gloves in Noro, and the pig to name a few) I am mustering all my self-discipline and making myself finish one (just one, mind you) before beginning my next project.
Now that my startling confession is out of the way--on to the ladder stitch hat. My next feat will be a ladder stitch and cabled hat. Drum roll please...another rasta crown attempt. No spiritually significant triangles here, folks. Just pure, utilitarian dread wrangling.

épico: An extended narrative poem in elevated or dignified language, celebrating the feats of a legendary or traditional hero.

When I called the quest for the rasta crown epic, little did I know how true this was to become. My tubular cast on was beautifully executed, and the brim actually had to be stretched to fit, but alas, my problems seem to lie elsewhere; Iuri's dreads are so long and heavy they pull the hat back instead of letting it stand straight on the head. I am still problem-solving in my head about this issue. I think that any hat of this design, no matter how I tweak it, will flop around on his head. Something more substantial may be in order here. As I hypothesized, word is getting out that I'm knitting rasta crowns. I am becoming a legend in my own time--which means I get more chances to perfect this project. The good news is that not everyone has long, heavy dreads so this pattern may be well-suited to them. It's back to the drawing board for Iuri, I'm afraid.

The epic adventures of the rasta crown

Have you tried looking for a good rasta pattern? Oh, you'll find berets, snoods, chulos, and newsboys, but good luck if you need to help someone wrangle their dreads. I considered designing my own pattern, but the hunt was just too much fun. In the end I found http://www.woolywormhead.com had lots of rasta hats to choose from. I ended up choosing "starburst" because of the sweet triangular pattern on the crown. Rastas, by nature, are very spiritual people and I thought that triangles represented a lot (spiritually speaking). My first attempt at this hat proved to be a long night of frogging since I thought I'd be lazy and skip the tubular cast-on. I had never tried a tubular cast-on before, but realized that it was time to try something new when the 1X1 ribbing didn't have nearly the hold to keep dreadlocks under wraps. My second attempt looks beautiful, even though I haven't blocked it yet. Tomorrow will be the moment of truth (and photographs) when we see if it is a good fit! I've noticed a lot of rastas wearing hats with a drawstring through the brim to tighten it so it won't fall. I think a well knit, custom sized hat should not need a drawstring. Time will tell.