Foliage Hat complete

So, I've been a little under the weather this past week, I think I've got a case of the flu. It's kind of knocked me flat and I am still feeling pretty crappy. But better, I think. Finally.

I did get a little knitting done during my downtime, and finished the Foliage hat. I think it came out kind of neat. I wasn't sure if all the yarn colors were going to detract from the pattern of the hat at all, but I don't think it really did. I think it kind of works.



I loved knitting this...it was fun to start at the top and work down from there. The top makes a neat pattern, and the colors were fun too:



A detail shot:



But here's the thing...I almost ran out of yarn. I thought that this not being a roll-brim hat that sucks up yarn for the roll part might work...well, it did, but this was all I had left:



Whew! I had to watch my yarn at the end and only did 5 rows of ribbing instead of the 8 that the pattern called for. My technique is that I used as much as I dared, and then knotted the remaining yarn in the middle, and knit another row. Since I didn't quite reach the knot, I knew I had enough for one more row (ie, the bind-off). But, since I wanted it to be as stretchy as possible, I did a sewn bind-off. That actually took a little less than a row's worth of yarn, fyi.

Anyway, really fun hat to make. Although I'm not as sure I'm keen on how it looks on me...it sort of sticks up a bit and gives me a big head, hee. But that's probably just my own self-criticism!

Specs on this project:

Pattern: Foliage from Knitty.com
Size: worsted weight version
Needles used: Size 7 (16" circs and DPNs) and Size 5 (16" circs)
Yarn: Noro Kureyon
Color: #188 (purples, greens, dark grays/black)
Amount used: entire ball with none to spare!
Started: 2/17/08
Finished: 2/20/08
Notes: I was running out of yarn so I only did 5 rows of ribbing and then bound off (using the sewn bind-off method for stretchiness).