Shedir

This knitting for myself thing is kinda fun. Finished the hat on Saturday night, but have been crazy busy with family stuff and hardly get a minute to myself on the computer due to said family. Luckily I've had my spiffy new hat to keep me warm in this autumn weather. I love it! So comfy, exactly the right size and much quicker than I would have expected too. This is more than a little due to my adjustments to the pattern, explained below.

Pattern: Knitty's Shedir, from the Breast Cancer Awareness Issue
Yarn: Knitpicks Wool of the Andes worsted in Sapphire Heather, one full skein plus probably 5 yards. An even more beautiful color in person.
Needles: size 3 oak dpns that I made myself (oooh, so crafty!)
I was knitting by the seat of my pants on this one. I started out by casting on only 112 stitches, enough for only 7 repeats of the cable pattern instead of 8. My half-assed, non-gauging logic for this was as follows: I always have to go down a needle size to get gauge. Always. I would not call myself a loose knitter, I never drop needles and my stitches are even and consistent, but to get gauge on the needles called for in most patterns I would have to cause the needles PAIN. I figured that if it was too small for me, I would give it to the Monkey. Too big for me, it would be the start of a sweater for the Monkey. Fortunately, like Baby Bear's porridge, it was just right. I only knit 6 rows instead of 9 of the plain ribbing, and then only two repeats of the cable pattern instead of 5. After that I did some measuring and calculating, and determined that 25 rows would be a better finished length for me instead of the remaining charted 31 rows. No problems. I removed lines 73, 76, 79, which are repeated rows anyway. Since I had only seven points in my star instead of the proscribed 8, I needed to decrease a little faster to avoid the conehead look. After line 81 I drew the tail of the yarn through and pulled the seven stitches closed, eliminating another couple rows and ending with the perfect length.
I'm short enough that I've received several compliments on the nifty star on the top already. I had no idea the top of my head was that visible.