Knitting binge

Even though my family celebrates xmas on xmas eve, I usually feed someone on xmas day. Not this year. Some might think it sad to spend xmas day alone, but after all the flurry of xmas preparations, I was ready for a day of R&R.

To get through all the holiday knitting, I listened to a lot of books on CD, the most recent one Stephen King's Under the Dome (30 disks!) Not quite done with that story, I binge-listened while I binge-knit this hat for my g'daughter.

Pattern: Official Kittyville Hat, by Kitty Schmidt
Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash, in colorway 838 (pink)
Needles: US7
Modifications: worked and reworked the ear flaps until I was satisfied (see below); also, no ears.

I've knit this hat before, but always in dark colors. In pink, the ear flaps just did not look right along the edges. I tried this, that, and the other thing, and finally settled on slipping the first stitch of each row knitwise, then always knitting the last stitch of each row. That seemed to clean them up, at least well enough.

Ordinarily, I would knit this yarn on US8 needles. Since my g'daughter is but five, I used US7's with the hope that the tighter gauge would mean I would not have to adjust the pattern to get it to fit her smaller head. She hasn't tried it on yet, but the styrofoam head is close to the same size as hers, so here's hoping.