Hats off!

I finished the hat I was working on for my love yesterday!  And it came out really really well; I am quite happy with the result.  At the end, it took a little bit of extra work to figure out the last details, because I used a different yarn weight than the pattern called for, so I had a different number of stitches to work with.  I also must have randomly picked up a stitch somewhere along the line, because I ended up with 81 stitches at one point.  How does one do that???  Anyway, I got it all figured out, and it came out incredibly well.  I couldn't wait for Christmas, so I gave it to him last night as soon as it was done.  He wore it to work this morning.  :)

So now, on to a new hat, this time, for my sister.  Her favorite color is orange, which makes things difficult, because it is very hard to find the happy medium between colors that are "orange" in the sense that they are not quite brown, and colors that are so orange the scream "I'M GOING DEER HUNTING!!!!".  Especially for a hat.  SO I looked and looked, and even considered finding a compromise color that was still bright and cheery, but not so closely related to killing Bambi's mom.  In the end, I finally came across a perfect orange mohair, but  its intimidating, as a new knitter, to think about tackling something like that.  Plus, its so fine, I'm just not sure I can make that into a hat!  After a discussion with the woman who owns Moonshine Fiber, and explaining my predicament, we decided that I should try the mohair, but that I could hold it together with a wool blend of a slightly lighter, more pumpkin-y orange to make it a little more substantial. 

I have had the pattern that I wanted to use for awhile...  Its a basic hat with a ribbed brim, but with one awesome exception.  It has a button flap in the back to allow the wearer to have a ponytail without smushing it under a too tight beanie.  My sister has gorgeous long hair, down to her waist, and there is a LOT there.  As with any lady with longer than chin length hair, hers starts to get super static-y as soon as the first snow falls, so she wears her hair in either a long braid or a big knot on the back of her head for most of the winter.  Obviously, though, when you have that much hair knotted up on the back of your head, it makes wearing a hat rather difficult.  So this hat will be, I hope, a perfect solution to this problem.  We'll see.  :)

I started this hat last night, after I finished the one I made for my man.  I'm only about 10 rows in, but its coming together nicely so far...