Making hat for kiddo’s troop leader per request. Also making two baby hats to go in diaper bags that are donated to the first two baby girls born on 3/12/17, the anniversary of Girl Scouts being founded in the United States.

Pattern is not in Ravelry, but can be found here.

PATTERN NOTES:

• Found that even making gauge, sizing was too large, so am working the teen size to compensate.

• Initially modified distance between ear flaps; pattern calls for counting over 26 sts then working second flap; however, the math didn’t make sense to me. On a hat with 72 sts, when the ear flap spanned 8 sts, 26 would not leave me at a midway point. Recalculated so that flaps would be symmetrical. Moved over second flap so that it began (and ended) 28 sts from beginning and end of its partner. DO NOT DO THIS! I TOTALLY should have trusted the pattern. While I did end up with a symmetrical hat, I did NOT end up with a hat that fit properly. After finishing the second ear flap and trying the hat on, it was clear that symmetry is highly overrated when it comes to ear flaps. Frogged second ear flap and measured where ear flap should be if it was going to fit me, assuming that it would fit the recipient in a similar fashion. The result? Exactly 26 stitches from the first flap. SMH.

• Based on the above revelation, and the fact that the hat clearly has a front and back, I ordered a few pins/badges so that I could find a unique way to delineate the two sides. (Apparently, doing a subtle embroidered stitch on the inside, without going all the way through the hat, would’ve been too easy…) I gave the recipient her choice, and she selected a badge - “Awesome Girl Scout Mom” - which she TOTALLY is, and we agreed it would be best suited for the back of the hat.

• Laid out all of the cookies using Claw Clips to hold them in place. Originally made the number of each type the pattern called for, but decided that it needed an extra brown cookie, so made one more.

• Applied all cookies (but NOT the badge or ties) and gave the hat a bath. It wasn’t so much of a blocking, as it’s 100% acrylic, but after living with our cat and kidlets, I never like to send anything out without a cleaning. Even after a vigorous squeezing, the hat took over 2.5 hours to dry, on high heat no less. Acrylic is a mystery to me…

• Worked the ties differently than in the pattern. Instead of a braid, used a Lucet to make a four-sided braid. I had never heard of this before, but saw information about it in Jackson’s Hat and was intrigued. It’s almost a mix between an I-cord and a braid, and looks really nice for an adult hat. Ties are 20” long.

• Worked two small pom poms, one for the bottom of each cord. Used my Clover set, in the 1 5/8” size (the yellow one).