Hat, Hat, Hat

Here is my finished Continental Purl practice hat. Please ignore the ribbing oops that happened on the first and second row. I was purling backwards or "combined" if you will, (which I shouldn't have) and I managed to also mess up and do one too few purls along the way. Hence half of the bottom looks a little screwy. Other than that it was pretty spot on. I decided that I really needed the practice in the ribbing, so I carried it all the way up the hat. I must say this hat looks way better on me than the plain stockinette ones do. I just don't have a good close-fit hat head. I do look lovely in all hats with brims and texture.
Anyhow, once I got to the top I wasn't exactly sure how to do the decreases and continue the ribbing. I suppose I could have knit them as I saw them and just k2tog when I needed to, but I thought the stockinette would look okay. I was wrong. It doesn't look so bad in this picture, but in person, it looks rather silly. If I decide I need some more practice, I'll try to continue the ribbing all the way up. I'm fairly certain that would look far less silly, but I've been wrong before. Also, I don't imagine that the ridiculous amount of times I screwed up on the decreases helped any. I had had a very rough day and a worse night on Friday, and I'm sorry to say the hat paid for it. Thank goodness it was cheap yarn. Which I must say that I hated at first (Lion Brand Wool Ease), but really don't mind now. It's stretchy and fuzzy, and pretty soft. It doesn't take a beating very well, and it gets a little splitty, but at $2.50 a 100g (I think) skein, who am I to complain?

So other than finishing that hat and starting this one, for just a little more practice, and mindless knitting, I didn't really get anything done this weekend. Well, by not getting things done, I mean in knitting. What did get done was a major trip to the grocery store, a cleaning like our house hasn't seen in awhile, a bunch of cooking, a dinner out with Boyfriend, and an attempt at a Superbowl Party. So you can see why the knitting didn't get much action. Honestly this hat is the most I knit all weekend, and all of this, including cast on, was done during the super bowl. Apart from having a rib where it's 2k, 1p, 2k and having 4 purls in a row in the back (because I can do math, but I can't divide and watch football) the hat is working out well. I now feel very comfortable knitting continental, even on dpns, and doubt that I will go back, except to finish my socks. Don't really want to switch horses mid stream there. I'm still a little iffy on the purling, but by the end of the ribbing here, I was doing it without thinking and the tension was far more even than it was on the wholey ribbed hat. Also, I'm splitting less plies and cursing less too. Good news, all around.

Hoepfully for tomorrows post there will be a finished swatch in the right gauge to be seen. Keep your needles crossed! =)