I've taken a big liking to tackling small projects that use up stash, are instantly gratifying and are cute and challenging to boot! The Inga Hat is just such a project.
The new technique that I learned from this great hat is how to knit a braid. Every time I saw people on other blogs knitting braids, I always thought that they were really pretty, but that they must be quite tricky, or at least finicky, because people always seemed to lament doing them. But then when I saw that Hello Yarn had voluntarily added a second row of knitted braid to her little Inga, I figured they couldn't be that bad. And it wasn't bad at all! Very much worth the effort. It fits really well, I'll definitely wear it next winter, my only complaint is that I wish I had reversed the colours, like I wish that I had done the background in the turquoise and the pattern in white. I like the colours together with a hit of yellow for umph, but in retrospect, and after exploring finished objects on Ravelry, I think that results seem to be better when the darker colour is used as the background. I can see myself knitting this hat again, so next time I'll make do it that way. Also, before this hat is considered totally finished, I plan on using double stitch to make the little dots in the center of the pattern yellow, I think it'll make them stick out more and kind of look like jewels (I stole that from Hello Yarn too). All in all, I love the pattern, and the shorter version is perfect for my little head.
