not finished with the colourwork yet...

Meet alpaca colourwork hat version 2.0

The first one, I cobbled together a pattern, but didn't realize until knitting it, that:

1. It was too short, and

2. the rate of decrease at the top gave it a distinctive conehead look. Not attractive.

So considering these don't take long - (Really, Knit Tech, get your butt into colourwork - it's so easy and so very fast!!) - I knocked up another one, after fiddling with the pattern (making it longer, and changing the rate of decrease.) As I neared the top, I realized I still needed to quicken it up, so I changed the top on the go, and It turned out quite nice.

To block hats, I use a balloon, set upon a cup. Works amazingly well, and shapes the hat perfectly.

Here you can see the difference between prototype version 1.0 and better version 2.0. The first version on the left has a distinctive cone-ish look. The second one on the right is much more rounded.

Plus, this is after blocking. I severly blocked the first one. Before blocking, the only head it would have fit is:

And as much as I like Dan Ackroyd, I'm not mailing him a hat...

This goes in the Giftmas box (a term totally stolen from Carol - thanks Carol!)