This was the scene Sunday morning.

This winter, my weekend tradition has been to sleep in, then bring coffee back to bed with whatever knitting project is in progress. Today, I really wanted to finish something. Enter size 17 needles.

Earlier this week, I purchased 3 skeins of Dale Freestyle to make this hat. Its called Alpha, from the Rowan Ribbon Twist Collection, but my inspiration came from seeing the version at Action Hero. I substituted 3 strands of aran-weight yarn in place of the ribbon twist. The Dale Freestyle worked perfectly to gauge. The pattern is actually really well done. You knit flat, starting from the top, increasing each row. At the bottom are a few rows of garter stitch, with the earflap stitches placed on holders during the cast-off row.

Its a good hat, I think I like it. I wasn't thrilled at first, but its growing on me. sometimes favorite things are ones that aren't love at first sight.