As I mentioned in my previous post, a decision has been reached about Henry’s winter hat. I want to get all the hats done and dusted before the cold weather actually arrives so that I don’t have to knit hats at midnight in December. So with a combination of cajoling and nagging and not moving from the pc until he had been forced to look at Ravelry, Henry chose his hat.
To refresh your memories, here he is in last year’s hat:
Struan by Ysolda Teague, which he did love and wear a lot. So maybe I shouldn’t have been too surprised when he chose THE SAME PATTERN for this year’s hat. But I am allowed to have a little scream of frustration because there are about seventy bajillion men’s hat patterns out there and I am going to knit the same one all over again!
The original hat is a bit worse for wear now. Squishy Rowan Pure Wool Aran is not ideal for a hat that is going to be used and abused by a teenage boy. So I have plumped for Lion Brand Cotton-Ease instead. I really wanted to used Rowan All Seasons Cotton but if I can avoid weaving in any extra ends where I can, then I will.
Small balls are something I have been thinking about a lot this past week. 
I don’t understand why yarn companies sell heavier weight yarns in 50g balls. There are very few things you can knit with 50g of aran or chunky yarn, other than tiny hats for babies or cozies for inanimate objects. I was reading my copy of Knits Men Want this week which was probably a bad idea because it makes my blood pressure go up – brilliant patterns but incredibly sexist – but I still have occasional fantasies about knitting MrB a sweater before I come back to my senses. In any case, would need thirty or more 50g balls of aran weight yarn for a sweater in his size. Thirty. That is a stupid number of ends to weave in. I know not everyone is knitting for a giant person, but please won’t somebody think of the end-weaving?! 
laughing to myself (not at you!) and saying Yes! Yes! Yes! There have been times where the thought of weaving all those ends made me nix the pattern or the yarn… therefore, made my hubbys sweater in eco wool with 478 yds a skein (or somewhere there about) and I was so proud of being clever and at the same time satisfying his love for being green!!! Really, what can you make with those tiny skeins???
Would have to agree about the yarn sentiment- I am not much of one for weaving in ends either. Maybe the justification for the small balls is that the price tag doesn’t look so intimidating- until you multiply it out by however many balls a project will need. Even the price of a child’s item in a heavy-ish wool can make me cringe.
I love that hat and have queued it for Luke for when he’s older
. I agree with you on the small balls, it’s so annoying. That’s one thing about my hoodie that I’m finishing tonight, it’s got soooooo many ends to weave in (my least favourite thing of the knitting process).