Elf hat

This is the fourth hat I made over the holidays and I realized I haven't posted it yet!

I have wanted to make an elf hat for a while now, but it seems like I always missed the boat.  It's probably just  me, but I think elf hats are most suited for kiddos under 2 years old.  When I first go the idea to make an elf hat, my nephew was already too old (by my standards) and then I somehow never thought to make one for my friends' children until they were too old...

My friend from work now has an 8 month old daughter and I figured she is at a perfect age for an elf hat!  This is the same girl that I made the magic slippers for when she was born.

I looked at several patterns on Ravelry and decided to go with Autumn Forest Gnome Hat.  I didn't want to make the hat in very holiday colors so that the little girl could wear it into spring as well.  Obviously, since I was using variegated yarn (same yarn as I used for the crochet cloche), I opted not to work any stripes.  Truth be told, I am also unsure of how to handle stripes when knitting in the round...

The one thing that was hard was deciding how to finish off the top.  I had initially planned on flipping the hat inside out and finishing off the end in the hat as I normally do.  However, since the last few inches is an I-cord, that plan obviously didn't work.  I ended up threading the yarn through the I-cord and cutting it.  I don't think anything will unravel, but it does make me uneasy.

Although I like the leaf at the tip in the original pattern, I think an elf hat needs a pom-pom or a tassel.  I decided to go with a small pom-pom, however I did tell my friend that if the pom-pom falls off or loses a lot of yarn, I will make a tassel for the hat.  I have not made a pom-pom since elementary school when my mom showed me how to make one.  I made a pom-pom, attached it an airline luggage tag and used that as my book mark for years.  I was kind of upset when I lost it:(  This pom-pom does not seem very sturdy and I am afraid it will start losing it's yarn.  I also was not sure how to attach it, since I couldn't properly work in the ends.  I decided to sew it to the tip of the hat, make several knots and then thread the two ends through the I-cord.  The ends were then cut.

Knitted with Red Heart Soft using US6 needles