duds happen - part 1: a hat for me. NOT.

i share so much of my finished knitting projects i don't want to give you the impression that duds don't happen. oh they do. 

i'm not a very careful knitter, you see. i cast on, hope it works out, and forge forward, hoping for the best. dud projects are inevitable.

i set out to knit myself a spring hat, just like the girl's: the adult version of the same day beret pattern. i used the most beautiful yarn: madelinetosh merino dk in the really delicious victorian gothic colourway. i mean, just look at it! 

i used the recommended needle sizes, got gauge, followed the pattern faithfully, and even blocked the beret on a plate. 

see? 

for all intents and purposes, i really was being more careful than usual.

does this look like a beret to you? 

this may have looked like a beret on the model. but it certainly sized a bit too small for me - even as a regular toque. had i shot myself facing forward, you'd see my early morning face and an unusually small head for a 37 year-old.

i should've knit for a bit more length and it would've been perfect. i was super bummed. i kept picking up the hat, putting it on, adjusting it on my head this way and that, taking pictures of myself, and then scowling at it. i very nearly wanted to fling the bloody thing up, over the fence, and into the garbage bin jut outside our yard. 

but the yarn was too pretty. i thought maybe i would frog the darn thing and start over.

then the wife rescued it by putting on the boy and sending me this picture. 

and lo, it fit him perfectly. and he was asking for a purple hat. it's so dark a purple it's nearly black. but he's wearing it and it is purple. so it would seem that i've fulfilled my knitterly-momma duty. 

but i still don't have a spring hat.