Toasty Ears Cap
I actually completed this hat over a week ago, but I've just been slow about getting a picture taken and posting it. I followed Allison's New York Street Cap pattern almost to the letter and just have a few things I'd like to mention about it. First, I knitted about six extra inches in the middle of this double-layer hat so that there'd be about three inches of brim to turn up for extra toasty ears under four layers. Second, the stitches at the top of this hat do not divide up well if you switch to double-point needles. The designer mentions that she prefers the two-circular method so she probably never realized this. As I completed the first crown, I divided up the stitches evenly and was constantly shuffling stitches from needle to needle in order to do the k2tog decreases. When it came time to do the second crown, I planned ahead to avoid this. Since there are seven decreases per round, I arranged the stitches so that two decreases were done on each of the first three needles (one in the middle and one at the end), and the final decrease was done on the end of the fourth needle. This places half as many stitches on the fourth needle as on the other three, but makes for much less hassle. Another little trick I employed to make the top neater was to knit the final round on much smaller needles. Finally, once I had folded the inner layer up into the outer layer, I took the yarn end from the outer layer, poked it through the center of both crowns, and wove it in on the inside of the cap, thereby making sure the two layers don't pull apart. Overall, a quick, easy knit that both the recipient and I are very pleased with.