Not My Favorite Child...

My daughter, Lilli, is 21 months old. She is not my favorite child right now... The other day I was on the computer and Lilli was watching a video. Or at least I thought she was watching a video. It seems she'd decided to entertain herself with my knitting. I was about 1/3 of the way finished with a hat that I'm knitting for my sister. Lilli got into my knitting bag. She broke a couple of my wooden dpns into small pieces. Then she pulled my ball of yarn apart. Then she pulled the stoppers off the ends of my circular needles and pulled some of the stitches off. I discovered this when she started bringing me the pieces of the dpns. Now, Lilli is an adorable child and I love her with all of my heart. After several hours I forgave her, and reprimanded myself for leaving my knitting within her reach. Upon further inspection the damage wasn't too bad. The dpns were fairly cheap so I'm not the least bit concerned with those. And I was able to save the hat without having to rip it back. So all was not lost, and I learned a valuable lesson: Never leave your knitting within a child's reach.

The Roll Brim Hat

So I wanted to make a hat that would keep me warm and be some what stylish. I decided on this pattern.
Only I wanted to use some yarn that I already had (Lagoon), yarn that was really soft and would be very, very warm. Keep in mind that I am a fairly new knitter. I was good and knit a swatch and made guage. So I set off on my quest. About 3/4 of the way through the hat I knew something was wrong. But I was determined to finish the hat, and finish it I did. I tried it on and thought "Hmmmmm, this seems a little big." But I wore it nonetheless thinking that we would adjust to each other, my new hat and I. Then a gust of wind almost blew my hat off and I realized I had a problem, a big problem. My hat was not only a little big, it was very big. Very, very big. The yarn I had used was indeed soft and warm, but also kind of stretchy. And I got lazy in my knitting and didn't keep my stitches as tight as they should have been. The result was my giant hat. I threw it in the washer, but all it did was get it clean. And if anything I swear it's bigger. It must grow when I'm not watching it. Because every time I look at it, it seems bigger. It now sits on the counter above the dryer. "The hat that ate Malmo..."