The Hat is DONE!! First project of 2012...

Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!! The hat is DONE! And in time to meet Sonda for lunch! Hope she likes what I've done since it's her sock yarn.

Here's my version of the Sockhead Hat by Kelly McClure of Bohoknits.  I call it the "Not-So- Slouchy-Sock-Hat."

Mind you, Kelly's pattern is lovely. I've seen it done by some of the knitters in our shop, and they've done it exactly to her specs, and it's adorable.

I just like hats that fit closer to my head. So I altered this a bit. It's got a 4" 2x2 rib, and then you do a 9" body before you do the decreases.

I did a 7" body and then did the decreases. It fits closer to my head, and I can adjust the ribbing to pull down nicely over my ears. The size 2 circs and then DPNs were small!! I know - there are knitters out there that think those size needles are "logs." But I don't knit socks (yet) on anything smaller than a size 5. I'm working on it!

Here's a shot of the decreases. It just tickles me. Just the mechanics of doing the decreases, coupled with the self-striping yarn - it just fascinates me that we do that with string and 5 sticks (at that point, you're working on the DPNs).

Frankly, this pattern was much more clearly written than the pattern I used for the (temporarily misplaced) periwinkle alpaca hat. Those decreases were all over the place, and Kelly's pattern lays them out for you so neatly that it's a breeze to do this and make it look spectacular. And really, I had been working steadily at it, but also - it knitted up kind of quickly - for me.

I'm looking forward to wearing this today, since we got our last blow of snow (till Saturday, at least) and I've got a couple places to go.

The yarn is 40% alpaca (see, I still snuck it in there), 40% superwash merino, and 20% nylon. It feels very light, but as many of you know, alpaca is really, really warm without a lot of bulk.

So, next, I warm my hands up (its 17* here...brrrrrrrrrrrrr) and then relax a bit before I pick up the March Baby Blanket. Heck, that's on size 9 needles - THOSE will feel like I'm knitting with logs.

Go visit Kelly's etsy site. She's also bohoknits on Ravelry so if you want to post what you've done with her pattern, or just look at what others have done, I think that'd be great.

I've completed my first project of 2012! That bodes well for the rest of my WIPs and all those things that I'm sure will scramble the project list for the year.

I haven't bothered to figure out how many stitches it is. After all, I don't want to lose my knitting mojo!