FO: Cozy Oregon Hat (patent stitches)

I finished Ed’s hat today and am really pleased with the way it came out!  Here’s my in-house hat model:

I had a hard time reclaiming the hat from Boy 1 after our front porch photo shoot, so maybe he needs one of his very own.  I have plenty of yarn left – the finished hat weighs in at 64 g.

I spent a fair bit of time yesterday playing around with the decreases.  I learned that the pattern looked best when I only did decreases on the light-colored rounds (which are more knit-y than purl-y), and you have to do some fancy float dropping on the patent stitches to make the line of the light yarn nice and straight.  The decreases go down by 2 stitches each time, also in order to preserve the two-color columns.  And to get a nice rounded crown, I began the decreases every 4th round and then sped them up to every 2nd round, ending with 8 stitches at the top.  It took me a bit of swatching to figure all this out – here’s the evidence: But I think the end result is worth it – check out the bird’s eye view! I love how this turned out.  Did I say that already?  I feel so clever and want to cast on again for another one right away.  But… Bada Bing calls.  I also need to finish up some Christmas tree ornaments.

And before I know it, it will be time to pack away some sock yarn and plan appropriately interesting-yet-simple projects for travel knitting.  Any suggestions?