Tale of two hats

Well, knitting. Yep. Knitting. There are times when I'm super excited about a project and I'm having a grand 'ol time knitting and then I notice it. That ball of yarn shrinking far too quickly. I shrug it off thinking all will be fine there's not a whole lot remaining of the project. Then I get obsessive. Am I using too much yarn? Are my stitches too BIG? Several thoughts that consume me until I finally take a moment and confirm yes, there is a problem. 

Drat. Double drat. 

I ran out of yarn, with only 5 tiny rounds to go. Now what?

Tomorrow is hat day at school. This is a big deal to my young spirit filled girls. You have to have a good hat for hat day, a really good hat, to properly show your school spirit. I was commissioned to make new hats for my girls for this very special day.  A hat just like mine. Awwww. Of course I couldn't refuse them and their sweet little smiles and daarling leetle selves. I agreed to make them their very own Mama-like hats for leetle heads. I finished Leah's Tuesday. She was happy and proudly wore it to school for a test run. Next was Olivia's hat. I began Wednesday happy and steady working round after round. All looked fine and the hat came along as usual. I was looking forward to having two girls in matching new hats because that's so cute. Today I spent the evening knitting along as the standard DC area tragic events on the nightly news distracted me. I came near the end of my pattern to the point of my reduction rows and noticed that my once fluffy chubby ball of yarn had transformed into a fluffy strand of yarn the length of my forearm. Arrggghhh! Oh nos! That's when I had to think about what for the next step. If I had been using the normal wool I typically use when making hats this would not be a problem. I'd check my stash and pull out a complimentary color and continue on. No, not this time. I made these hats out of a nice organic cotton which was a great choice for hats that need to be washed. It is not a typical yarn I keep on hand. I had only two choices: go to the store and get more or hope there is enough yarn from my hat's skien that I can squeeze out the end of this hat. 

I opted for choice two. It's rainy/sleety/snowy out and the store is about to close. I sucked it up and attached my other skien to this hat and pushed through. The only problem is that this new yarn is a tad different in color, more tan than white. I wasn't sure how Olivia would like it as she knew there was not enough yarn remaining and had become quite alarmed that her hat would be unfinished. I managed to finish the hat. I had to cut out 2 rows of knitting to barely get this yarn to the end. Turns out the hat looks pretty good having two colors. The darker color is on the crown so it gives the hat a slight color contrast. Olivia likes it with two colors, I figured she would her and her eccentric self (that being a Mama trait). I'm relieved because I really didn't want to have to start another hat here at 9pm to have done by tomorrow by 9am. And I would have done that because I'm that kind of Mama. 

The hats are cute and I'm glad they will be happy to wear them tomorrow. I might have to make a few more of them in different colors and I'll make certain to have enough yarn for each hat.