Gifts!

I love knitting gifts, although I always suffer from the "What ifs". To lessen those, I try to knit only for people I know will appreciate it, and to think carefully about the item (which is partially why I changed my mind about knitting alpaca gloves for all the men, LOL). One person I haven't knit much for, but would love to, is my little brother's girlfriend. Especially after finding out she got a new black coat...cause everything goes with black, and she's young enough to be able to rock the trends, and she's working part time in Toronto so she needs to follow the trends :)
Shortly before our family Christmas get-together this year (after losing my aunt--the party hostess for over 30 years--no one knew what to do for Christmas. I had always hoped to start hosting, at least for the immediate family, but Rob didn't want a party. He, ummm, doesn't get along with everyone in the family, LOL. So, I decided to host an afternoon get together while he was at work! Perfect for everyone!), I decided to knit Miss C. a slouchy hat. I had several patterns on Ravelry marked as options, but I kept coming back to the Meret by Woolly Wormhead. I had made it last year, with hilarious results but I knew that was my own fault for bad choice of yarn. This year, I had two yarns to choose from, Red Heart Superwash wool, which was a little thick for the gauge, and Georga's "Mercerized Wool" from Wal-Mart, which, despite the gauge on the label, was too thin. I went with the heftier Red Heart as I really liked the mossiness of the green for Miss C who has lovely hazel eyes. I think I knit the small or medium size...made it a bit longer...spread the decrease rows out a bit towards the end as I was stuck in a traffic jam due to an accident, and also because I didn't want to rip out the whole last dec. section just to add another repeat which might have made it too long.
I finished it up the night before the get together, and gave it a wash and tried to stretch it over a dinner plate. They weren't big enough to get tension on the hat, so I just left it to dry. Big mistake. Not only was it still wet at the end of the next afternoon, it had grown, esp. as I removed it off the plate. Now, if I had read the yarn reviews on Ravelry, I would have found this out. I felt bad giving C. a wet hat but then a few days later I let her know she could machine dry it to tighten it back up.
Since C. is working on a career in the legal field, she's cautious about what gets shared on the internet. I asked Hugh to alter her face for me, LOL, but I couldn't find the picture he did. So I did one of my own :)

You might notice she's wearing the hat with the purl side out. It's a more subtle look, and I like it!

I then went on to make her a pair of plain, simple mitts. She said she didn't need flip-top mitts or gloves, just mitts. I did something different though, to keep me interested. I added some short rows to the thumb gusset as I did the increases. I find sometimes, the mitten pulls up on the thumb side and the cuff doesn't lay equally all around. It seems to have worked in theory, and the pair I made for myself are staying put better than other mittens that I constantly have to tug down. I thought I had been making the thumbs too short before, so I had switched from making the thumb before the hand, to doing the hand first...this gives a better fit when trying it on to check the thumb. I also tried making more of a gusset in the thumb "crotch", which did help, but seemed a bit messy and hard to duplicate between mittens. These little short rows are not the tidiest either....perhaps next pair I will try doing them between the sts that get the inc, rather than right to the edge of the gusset. I've been making mittens for over 15 years and just when I think I have it perfected.....