Scandinavia-Inspired Hat...Finally Finnished.

If you are a knitter, you might recognize this scenario. 

You have plans to celebrate a birthday with a loved one. You start a smallish project two weeks ahead of time thinking that you'll have it finished and wrapped long before the party. That's always the plan. The reality is maybe not so tidy, particularly if you work full time and have a toddler.

A certain friend of mine has Scandinavian roots, and this certain friend had a reason to celebrate recently. Two weeks ago I cast on this hat, making it up as I went. I found some inspiration on Pinterest, charted out some little motifs on graph paper, and worked away all day Saturday between bathing four children, feeding them, and keeping a toddler both busy and safe.

A few inches in, I realised that it was coming out too small. That happens with colour work...the strands crisscrossing the wrong side of the hat tend to pull it all a bit tighter (which makes if cozier, yes, but tighter). It fit my six year old's head perfectly. So, I frogged it (for you non-knitters out there, that's ripping it out...rip-it...ribbit. Get it?)

Away I went, going against my better judgment and making the ribbing in the same size of needle that I used for the rest of the hat. When it came time to decrease for the crown, that ribbing was just a tad floppy and well, it bugged me. So, I finished the top of the hat. Then I started raveling the cast-on edge. Tedious work indeed, and at this point I had about 2 days left to finish this hat.

Finally, I took some scissors to it. Gasp! I know. I carefully snipped out one row of stitches just below the heart motif, picked up the stitches, then knit down, adding some white lines and specks, then switching to a smaller needle for the band of ribbing.

I finished it after school yesterday, wrapped it, and delivered it to its grateful recipient.

My intention was to present it here with a beautiful pattern to share. But you can see that it might be a convoluted kind of pattern if I write it all down as it came about. So.

It's Finnished. I'm going to make another one all in the right order, with no scissors, frogging, or floppy ribbing to be found. And then I will share the pattern here.

The End.

Or maybe it's the beginning.