Amanda hat (holiday FO)

I often forget to post about the projects that I actually finish because most of my finishing happens around the holiday rush, when I'm not at home. This time, however, Gina over at Sleepy Eyes Knitting alerted me that she was having a contest for people that knit her pattern "the Amanda hat." I like contests and I already made the Amanda hat for lf, so... perfect!

Had I known that I was going to end up posting this picture, I might have tried to take a better photo of it. That is my hair oozing out of the back of the hat. I took it out of a ponytail, so there wouldn't be an unsightly lump bulging out of the bottom of the hat, but I'm not sure if this is better.

Pattern: the Amanda Hat (pdf), by Gina House

Yarn: Lion Brand Microspun, black -- The yarn is at least 6 ply and so it is pretty splitty, but the fabric comes out soft and is machine-washable.

Modifications: Since the yarn is sport-weight instead of worsted, I may have actually swatched and changed the total number of stitches. The garter ridge is not quite in the middle, but I made the sides a little taller because I wanted the top to be sort of flat. I also did more dramatic increases to achieve a flatter top.

Verdict: I think lf liked it (I saw her wearing it twice before I left town), so thumbs up. I like the textured stitch pattern, which involved a slip-stitch technique that I hadn't tried before. Looking at the versions made in Malabrigo, the suggested yarn, make me want to make another one, but I should probably knit up some of the other yarn I have lying about instead of buying more... oops.