12 year knitaversary project, only half a year delayed - & now on a deadline!

did something kind of wacky for the earflaps, instead of standing a single sided flap, I charted an interior & cast on as for a sock toe & worked double sided in the round, two at a time. unorthodox perhaps but now the year & my initials are forever part of this hat.

got to the part where I join the ear flaps with casting on for the hat & realized I hadn’t changed background colors so I ripped back to fix it, so it’s right I guess.

because learning new things is fun, I used new-to-me Chinese waitress cast on between the earflaps. made it wacky by working left handed so the stitches would end up on the R needle but looking back I feel a little bit as though using an icord + provisional cast on would have saved me tedious time in finishing.

unthinkingly worked the 2nd decrease round at the wrong place, didn’t realize until I had worked the next chart section completely ripped back 10 rounds to fix it, cuz it’s gotta be Right.

pattern doesn’t specify so I picked up the applied icord from RS. worked ties 2aat, easily picked up sts thru the icord with 3.75mm crochet hook. used same to darn in alllll thoooose ennnnnndsssss stitched the terminal knots hecka in place

gave everything a really good steam block along the way, tugging the colorwork every which way & rolling the ties between my palms to settle.

FO sans tassel is 146g/403yds (368.4m)
dark gray (baby alpaca) 19g/42yds
plum (WotA sport claret heather) 20g/50m
raspberry (WotA sport fairytale) 9g/22.5m
dark purple (stroll eggplant) 17g/78.5yds
teal (WotA sport sapphire heather) 25g/62.5m
dark blue (WotA sport winter night) 25g/62.5m
dark orange (jello dyed millend) 14g
light orange (millend) 11g
- abt 50yds for both oranges together
sage green (WotA sport avocado) 6g/15m

then made my very first & bigass tassel! it’s glorious. made wraps longways around a dvd case; 10-13 for the inner lighter colors, 15-18 of the mediums, & 20-25 for the darks. tried to keep bulk of the wraps stacked in the middle, as the bulk & number of wraps grew, I made sure to get a few on the outside margins. it’s joined to the chullo with the top tie strands pulled inside & bowtied (like I usually do with my poms so they’re removable for laundering)

hat dash finish line
podium

update jul 2024: finally got the satin lining stitched in there! I hated covering up all that beautiful WS stranded colorwork but this will save my hair from those grabby wool fibers the crown of the lining has a hemmed opening so the tassel is still removable for whatever reason, like washing or replacing with a faux fur bobble maybe future’s wide open.