The wonderful hat that I must give away

For Christmas and my birthday (also in December) my brother gave me yarn. Of course by "gave me yarn" I mean about two weeks before Christmas he accompanied me to the yarn shop, waited impatiently for me to make my selection (anything I wanted as long as it was under $80), and handed over his credit card. As far as I am concerned, this is the most perfect way for a brother to Christmas shop for his sister. Among the things I picked out were two skeins of Malabrigo Merino Worsted. One skein in the Sunset colorway and the other in Black Forest. I have grown ridiculously fond of this yellowy-orange/charcoal color combination though the yellowy-orange is not ideal for my skin tone. I actually bought this yarn with a project in mind. Stephen West's Botanic (rav link).





I was slightly worried that in striping the two colors I would end up looking like a bumblebee but I have been assured by several people that I do not. That is what I consider the "outside" of the hat because that is the side that you see as you knit so I think of it as the "right side" but really the hat is reversible and has no "right side." The other side is, I believe, magical because you would never guess from the unassuming outside that such a funky bold inside is just waiting to come out.



And, the coolest part is the crown (which I do not have a good picture of because these pictures were self-taken and it is quite difficult to take a good picture of the top of your own head).



In short I love this hat. I love the pattern. I love the yarn. It was fun and quick to make. It's soft to wear and fits me well. But, I must give it away. You see, there is a slight flaw. It's not captured in any of the pictures (no one but me will ever see it) but I know it's there. On one of the decrease rows, near the top just where the crown picture cuts off, I held the yarn to back instead of to front while slipping a stitch. This caused a charcoal strand to float tauntingly over my beautiful sunset column. I did not notice until the hat was complete, the ends woven in. I suppose even then I could have gone back and fixed the error but that is not my way. No one else seems to notice, even after being asked, "can you see an error?" Everyone has examined the hat and declared it "really cool" and "made with skill," but I know it's there. Therefore I will give the hat to someone who can't "see" the error and make another flawless one for myself (the hat takes less than .5 of a skein of either color.) Oh woe is me, I must make another awesome hat in awesome yarn. My life is so hard.