Boyfriend's Birthday Present

This hat was really great to make. Once I got started, I was finished in a day. I was working on relatively large needles (at least compared to those ridiculous US 3's I'm using on that belt) and a few afternoons ago I said to myself, "Okay, I'll finish the green band today," so I did. Then I thought, "Well, I might as well attach the white as long as I'm here," so I knitted the first row of white, and then the next couple so I could weave in the end and then get past that a little. Then I thought, "Well, I'm only going to have 20 rows in the white, I can finished that up." Once I reached the end of the white I had the same thought about starting the orange, and then I realized, "I'm going to start decreasing after only a few rows of orange anyway, and once I start decreasing, it will go much faster anyway, and once I start decreasing I can't stop because I'll lose count, so I might as well just finish it up." Then I thought I might as well just stitch up the back of the hat, since I already had it out. Then I figured I might as well look up how to make the poof ball I knew I wanted on the hat. Then I figured I might as well make the pompom, and once it was made it didn't make sense not to just attach it. . . . And that's the story of how I made this hat in practically one sitting.

I didn't use a pattern for this, but rather decided first that I was just going to use garter stitch since that's what the scarf is, and then that I would make the green band half again as wide as any other color so that it could roll up because I love the folded up brims; I feel like they just keep ears that much warmer. It is, again, 80 stitches wide, and the green is 32 rows. I measured that 20 rows was about 2 1/2 inches, and I know from previous hats that I want the hat to be about 6 or 7 inches total, not counting the brim, so I figured 3 sections of 20 rows would do it (the extra 12 rows in the green make the brim). That just left the orange and decreasing. Now I'll admit to being only okay at math on a good day and downright lousy at it on a bad day, so that definitely had an effect on the orange. I wanted it to be 20 rows, and I was going to decrease first with 10 stitches (knit two together and then knit 8 normally), knit a row normally, then 9 (knit two together and then knit 7 normally), knit a row normally, then 8 and so forth down to when I was just knitting two together for every stitch. In my head this made 20 rows because I had also knitted two rows before I started decreasing. Anyone who'd good at math must see my problem. Yes, I started with 10 stitches, but they came out as 9, and I didn't end knitting a row of single stitches, so I actually ended up with 18 rows for the orange. If I could do it again, I would do 30 or 28 for the green, 20 for the white, but I would knit 4 rows or even 6 before I started decreasing in the orange, partly because it's the top of the hat and so is less visible on top of the head, but also because the pompom covers up a good portion of the orange.

I watched a million videos on YouTube before I felt comfortable making a pompom, but once I felt comfortable, I was sure it wouldn't be a problem. That was not so. I wish now that I'd taken a picture of the pompom when I first cut it off the cardboard and tied it. It looked ridiculous. The top, bottom, and center were the length I wanted them, but both sides poofed out to make the thing twice as wide as it was tall. After some trimming I finally decided that this was as good as it was going to get and attached it to boyfriend's hat. I don't think it looks too bad. I believe the problem was I used too much yearn or had too small of circles for the amount of yarn I wanted to use. I am glad I went with the tri-colored poof rather than just orange as I had originally planned.

Finally, as the title will tell you, this is boyfriend's birthday present, and today is his birthday. He already knows it's coming because I'm terrible at surprises, and I knitted a good portion of it while he was around, but that doesn't matter. It turned out, and I know he likes it.

Happy birthday, boyfriend!

Irish Flag hat

Last year, I meant to knit boyfriend an Irish flag hat to match his Irish flag scarf, but I didn't even finish the scarf in time, so there was no way that hat was going to happen.

Just to be clear, these Irish flag things may seem kind of silly, and they kind of are, but many of you must be thinking that there's no way he's going to run around looking like he's wrapped in a flag, and I'm fooling myself thinking he will. Well, he's got a good bit of Irish heritage including the red hair, and he loves all things Irish. You should see our living room: there's an Irish flag, and Irish flag with an "Irish Drinking Team" crest, and Irish Brigade flag, and two flag that have something to do with the four ancient kings of Ireland. Irish music plays more days than it doesn't. The candles in the room are all green, white, and orange, although that is more my doing. You know, to keep with the theme. So he does wear the scarf and I'm confident he will wear the hat, too.

I did start an Irish flag hat sometime last year, and got about eight rows in, but then one night we had guests over, and my knitting bag was upended. A friend ended up tangled up in this particular project, and I was afraid he was going to strangle himself (it was a pretty rowdy night) if I didn't do something, so I had no choice but to cut my knitting off of him. It just broke my heart to do, but it turned out to be for the best because I'm terrible about checking the gauge of my work, so when I checked the isolated piece I had, it turned out to be too big.

In the end, I'm now using US 8 (5mm) needles, the same needles as I used on boyfriend's scarf. Rather than the original 90 stitches across, I'm working with 80 stitches. I've barely got the piece cast on, so there aren't any pictures yet, but it's going to be a plain old garter stitch. The video I've linked for the cast on is the simple cast on. It's the one I typically use for hats and other things I want to have a more elastic end. It's also the cast on method my grandmother taught me when I was a little kid because it's easier than other cast on methods.

Happy knitting!