First FO of 2011

I finished this hat sometime in the first few days of 2011. I have a couple pictures of it on (it is very nice) but they are blurry. So, this is all you get.

The pattern is "Hermione Hearts Ron". It is taken from the hat Hermione wears in the movie "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince". It calls for fingering-type weight yarn. I used worsted and changed the numbers accordingly. The original hat has 12 repeats of the 11 stitch chart....I only did 9. This also means I had to fudge the crown decreases. I ended up frogging the crown twice. The third time I knit it, it was good. (Now what *did* I do??)

Oh - yes. I decreased the purls first by p3, p2tog. Once those were gone, I decreased the knits NOT by k2tog, but on the same line as where the purls were going away, by ssk. So the crown swirls one way and then the other. It looks nice with the cables.

I have also decided that I like cables, but not big blocks of purl inbetween. I'll keep that in mind for future projects.

The yarn I used for this was Dream in Color Classy, a superwash worsted-weight wool. I love it! I have used their Smooshy yarn before (sock yarn) and I was underimpressed. But this stuff is great. I loved the feel, the fabric, and the colors (this colorway was "Lunar Zazzle"). I would knit with it again in a heartbeat. I am actually resisting the urge to purchase enough to make a sweater.....since I have plently of sweater yarn right now.