redwood hat, finished

Here's another quick finish. I actually finished it twice. I got this gorgeous shade of rust (aka redwood) at my favorite yarn shop down in Pacific Grove. I had knit a hat last year using the same yarn and wanted one for myself. What I didn't realize though was that I got the DK weight instead of the worsted weight. Ooops! 

That's ok, I thought the original was a bit big on me anyway, so I went down just one size on the pattern and then knit it as-is. I finished it in 3 days and it turned out pretty good. It blocked out even better. I was relieved to see that it grew quite a bit. Of course, the fabric is a lighter weight than the worsted weight version, but I've decided that's ok. What was kind of bugging me though was that it was just a smidge shorter than I wanted. I wore it one day to see how I felt about it and I was motivated enough to go back and rip back the crown to add one more repeat of the slip stitch pattern to the body. What I didn't realize there was that I was actually adding two repeats of the pattern because of the way the crown is worked, but in the end my mistakes still led to a hat that I love nearly as much as the original and that has been on my head pretty constantly since I finished the fix. 

I love this color and I love that I had the gumption and skill to adjust what I wanted. It's giving me some optimism about that sweater I am currently mad at and ignoring... I also really like that this pattern is out of a book I have on my shelf. I definitely have plans to air out some sewing patterns from the shelves; I'll have to find some more fun small knitting projects to tackle from that stash, too. It feels good to use what I've got.