In Which I knit a Hat

Yesterday (well, technically two days ago, as it is 12:06 a.m. now) was October 1, 2008.  No, that date has no significance to me other than the fact that once October hits, I finally feel like Fall is here and summer is not coming back.  What did I do to celebrate this occasion?

I knit a hat, of course!

Yes, that is the only picture I took of it.  I'm surprised I was able to knit this up in one day.  In fact, I ripped the entire thing out around 9:30 p.m. and started over, but did that stop me?  No.  Granted, it was a long night, but I finished.  I wove in the ends this morning, and gifted the hat to a friend in the afternoon.

The pattern I used is the Machu Picchu Earflap Hat from knotanotherhat.com.  I used Alpaca with a Twist Big Baby in Embers and Carnival Red (the colors which the pattern called for - very creative on my part), one skein each.  Alpaca is so heavy!  This is the first time I have ever knit with 100% alpaca and I couldn't believe how heavy it was.  Seriously.  Heavy.  Silky soft, too.

I knit the smaller size hat and still came out with one that was comfortably large on my head.  I doubt that I would have had enough of the MC to knit the hat if I had done the larger size.

The story of this hat is a simple one.  On Friday (Friday?) night my friend was complaining about how a few years back he had lost his earflap hat and really missed having one.  "No, not one of those large furry ones" he said, "the kind that looks hand-knit."  I don't think at that point he knew just who he was talking to.  I very innocently figured out his favorite colors (brown and red) over the course of the night and later on went searching on Ravelry for earflap hat patterns.  When I came across this one, in brown and red, I knew that it was the one I had to make.  I ordered the yarn, bought the pattern and knit the entire thing yesterday, the same day that the yarn arrived.  Edit:  Only the knitting happened yesterday, not the ordering of the yarn or the buying of the pattern.

I skipped over the part about crocheting around the bottom of the hat, partly because I hate even touching crochet hooks and partly because I wasn't sure I had enough yarn to do so.  The curling in the front actually kind of looked like a design feature (sweet!), so I didn't bother.  I didn't block the hat either because a) I wanted to gift it today and giving someone a pile of smelly, wet Alpaca doesn't quite say what I wanted it to and b) it's a hat.  I know I should have washed/blocked it (the yarn kind of smelled too), but it's too late for that.

As an aside, does anyone know of a good online store to buy buttons?  I'm looking for some simple wood buttons for my aran cardigan and my LYS doesn't have any.  I would be very grateful for any suggestions.

 Keep your eyes peeled for some more Malabrigo in the future, this time of the Chunky variety (I like to mix it up every once in a while).