A New Hat

I have finally finished the Vertical Stripes hat, two months after casting on. As I expected, I like it - once finished.  But I will not likely knit this again. 

First off, Darth was kind enough to to lend me his helmet to model this hat.  It turned out a bit too small for X's head. 

I started off both keeping track of the number of rows knit, but also the number of inches each panel measured.  This didn't work as well as I hoped because my panels still ended up different lengths.  I couldn't get a good measurement of each one without stretching them out unproportionately.  So after 4 panels of varying lengths, I ended up just keeping track of only the row count.

Each panel is connected up to row 50, after which I knit each panel for another 20 rows separately.  For a total of 70 rows.

I used two of each of the following stitch patterns for a total of 10 panels: seed, garter, twisted, basketweave and cable.  My favorite panels are the cable and the twisted stitches. 

Cable Stitch

Twisted Stitch

I joined the last panel to the first panel differently than what I read the directions to say.  In the pattern, it says to pick up a stitch before the first stitch on the right side of the panel and a stitch after the last stitch on the left side of the panel  only on the right side of the work, not picking up any stitches on the wrong side of the work (essentially picking up one stitch on the outside of each panel to join the corresponding adjacent panels).  I found this left my left side join looking sloppy, so instead I picked up a stitch before every first stitch on the right (vs. left) side of the panel every time I turned my work.  The joins were then consistent with the rest of the hat.  Clear as mud?  That's what I thought. :)

This hat was a challenge for me to finish because I always found things I'd rather work on.  Since the hat is too small, X won't be wearing this one.  I'll put it away and save it for later.

On another note, I have now finished the head to the Giraffe.  So now I have 2 pears, one large and one small.  And I cast on for the first leg today.  This pattern is going quickly.  Tnight I'm hoping to either finish at least one leg or perhaps work on my needle case.