Johnnie's B-day Hat - Fails and Success

My friend Johnnie, who I have known now for like 12 or 13 years recently commented on some of my knitting pics on Facebook and mentioned he wanted a hat. I bumped him up over other people I have promised hats to cause I love him so much AND he married Tristan and me at a time when it wasn't legal for him to be married in California. so needless to say I feel indebted to him and wanted to get him a groovy hat. 

I started one before I left Austin, tackling what I hoped would be a new skill (double knitting). I was unsuccessful at doing it so I put the project on hold until I moved to Mass cause I wanted to be able to have something to do when I got here. Since I got here I had attempted a couple different hats and wasn't happy with any of them really until I found this pattern for a checkered hat on Ravelry by Spirals420. Johnnie wanted Royal blue & Kelly green so it was a perfect 2 color hat to do. But I am a tight knitter and didn't realize I would knit this thing so tight (with the two strands of yarn) that it would end up being too tiny for my dear friend's big head, or even mine. I will be giving this one to Tristan since he has such a small head. It is super thick and warm, which will be better here in Mass than it would have been in Cali anyway. I really like this pattern though, especially the added touch of a star top its fancy. I think I will make another one in Orange and Grey or Black and Grey.

Taken with iPhone in bad light, sorry. 

I did finally just re-use my plain hat pattern that I did for the purple diagonal dot hat for the final hat attempt for Johnnie. This one turned out to be successful. It will be big enough number one, and also I added a little Greek pattern from the Stitchionary Volume Three. It turned out decent I think. I even got a "that's cool" from Tristan WHILE I repeat WHILE he was playing video games. Normally he can't pay attention to anything but the screen when he plays but he noticed. The flash might be a bit harsh so hopefully you can make out the pattern.

That's it for this one. On to the next project, which is a sock. I will finally try to finish a sock for a change. Keep you posted on that one.