I meant to do that...really

Ha! You didn't think I would make it back to post again so soon, did you? I have to admit I'm a bit surprised myself.

I finished the bonnet in time, early even. I wove in all the ends and sewed on the button Sunday night. There was no feverish finishing on the bus Monday morning.

You might notice the band around the top is not solid garter stitch like it's supposed to be. I fell into the meditative flow that is stockinette stitch, but then also automatically went back to garter stitch a row or two later. Did I rip back and make it all garter stitch? No, of course I didn't. It became a design feature of alternating stockinette and garter stitch.

Speaking of design features, making this pattern in two colors instead of one was a bit fiddly at first. I knitted in green up through the first increase row. Then I added the pink on the next wrong-side row. If I had thought ahead a little, I would have wound the green into two separate before starting this little adventure. Unraveling half a ball of yarn, cutting and rewinding it while knitting is not one of the more fun things I've done in my life.

 I could have stranded it, but I didn't want to. That would make it a much slower project, for one thing. In all honesty, I just wanted to keep it simple. So, I used a simple intarsia technique, crossing the contrast and main color yarns at either end of the row. 

The right-leaning increases were leaving big holes, so I knitted those stitched twisted. I wrapped the yarn counter-clockwise around the needle before I pulled it through the stitch. Otherwise, I followed the instructions in the book for the increases.

The pattern gives measurements for the finished product, but that's not really useful unless you have the average head size memorized for babies anywhere from newborn to 12 months of age. I went down a needle size and a yarn weight and still ended up with a hat that fits my four-month-old. I made the strap six inches instead of the stated seven, which I think was still a little too long.

My co-worker loved it and thought it was perfect. I'll probably make a couple more of these since I have other co-workers who are expecting. They may or may not have the same "design feature." We'll see.