September 2011 hat #1 - A Little Pigskin

First, let me apologize for my lack of posting. Even though I hadn't gotten any hats finished, I should have posted another time during the month, about something. A great hat collection effort I heard of, a new pattern available, something. Oh well, too late now, a good lesson learned. As I mentioned in my last post, September is a typically a tough month for me, how I ever made four hats last year is beyond me.

I finally got this little number finished on the 29th. It is a bit hard for me to accept that my first hat for the month was completed two days before the end of the month. Really? I have lots to say about the timing, but then I'd be whining, and no one wants to listen to a whiner, at least I wouldn't. I found this cute pattern on Ravelry, realizing that I was going to "lace-up" the football at the end I thought I'd add a couple of yarn overs (yeah, I know, me and yarn overs) and then appropriate decreases into the pattern, at appropriate intervals. I thought this would eliminate any bunching of yarn. I didn't like the row decreasing that the pattern called for so I ripped it back to the brim and started again, this time hiding the row decreasing on either side of the laces. Well, the whole yarn-over idea was stupid. While yes, the yarn didn't bunch, the holes were too big and looked out of place. I ripped it out, again. I knew I didn't like the decreases in every other row so I decided to just knit a typically hat and deal with the decreases in a couple of rows towards the top. I also then changed the tip of the hat above the white stripe to four sections to mimic the end of a football. The decreases don't really work out evenly, but it isn't noticeable. The laces were more difficult than I thought, only because I'm so picky and I wanted them to lay just so.

The pattern is available on my pattern page. I used Berroco Comfort in Falseberry Heather and Pearl. I used 16" size 7 circular needle and 1 set of size 7 dpn. Stitches used are knit, purl, and K2tog. Anyone ready for a little football?