Happy 4th of July, I knit a hat

Towards the end of last winter I realized everyone in the family had a hand knit hat, except me.  I decided that needed to be fixed.  I'm not a big knitter, but I can handle scarves, hats and the occasional very simple baby sweater.  I needed a hand work project to work on at the in laws in May, so I started my hat.  I'm not much for patterns, so I just cast on what seemed like a good number and set to work, thinking I could always frog it, if the size was horrendous.  Fast forward to the last week, when we had visitors in town, so I pulled the hat out again to work on while chatting.  Last night, I thought I should just go ahead and finish it.  Hubby and I were watching Green Hornet, which is a such a bad, lame movie.  It wasn't bad enough to be funny, it was just lame.  Anyway, I did get my hat almost done.  I got all the decreases done and was about to tie it off, but the movie wasn't over.  Then I thought about those baby hats with the stem on the top.  I'd always wanted to try it and the hat was rather plain, so I went for it.  Here I am modeling the hat I finished off this morning.

 I thought it might flair out more at the bottom, but it didn't.  Oh well, it will keep my head warm as I shovel snow next December.


A good shot of the top of it on the Wee Monsieur.  I just love a self striping yarn.

 Isn't the little knotted stem on top cute?  Now I know how to do it, I might try a pumpkin hat for the next baby I run across.