Hurray! Hat Is Done!

Little did I know just how challenging this Fair Isle hat would be.  I knew that it would be a little difficult to knit because of the small needles and the thin yarn, but I was surprised to find out just how hard it would be.  First of all, the weight of the yarn was supposed to be the same, but for some reason, some of the colors were thinner than others.  This made the tension difficult, and the nice Fair Isle patterning did not show up as nicely as it should have.  Unfortunately, the camel color was one of the thin ones and that was my main color and the color that the cuff was knitted from.  Because it was so thin, I had a hard time keeping the tension even since I had to keep passing the yarn back and forth between front and back on every stitch.  It took me two days to do the 4 1/2 inch cuff, and when it was finished, it was so thin that it didn't really hold its shape.  I anxiously started the Fair Isle pattern for the body of the hat.  I always get excited to see how it actually looks.  It is fun to see it all come together.  I really liked it at first, and thought it was going to be really pretty.  However, after two more days of working on the hat, I finished it and was very disappointed.  I didn't like the way the top looked, and I was still unhappy with the cuff.  After weaving in the twenty-five or so dangling strings on the inside of the hat because of so many color changes, altering the top so it wasn't so pointed, and sewing the cuff in place instead of just leaving it folded, I actually started to like the hat.  I think it is going to be okay now.  At first, I didn't even want to give it as a present, but now, I believe it will actually be quite nice.

This is the final look. 

I still don't think I am finished with hats yet.  I looked at the sweaters for the kids and realized that everyone got hoodies except for Dot and Lucy.  I really wanted to make the Fisherman's cable knit sweaters for them and completed theirs first.  Without thinking, I did all the other sweaters as hoodies.  I feel like I need to make hats in place of the hoods, so it is back to knitting more hats.  It shouldn't take nearly as long as this hat since I can usually finish a hat in a day...two at most.  I plan to try to make their hats cabled to match the sweaters.  It might take a little while for me to figure out how to do it, but I think I will be able to.  I have knitted cabled hats before, so it shouldn't be too difficult.