FO: Christmas Deer Hats

Happy weekend, everyone!  I'm stealing a few minutes this lovely Saturday morning to write a quick post before Scott and I head up the shore for the weekend to go climbing.  I'm pretty psyched- we're going to check out an area that's previously un-climbed, so it's going to be fun but mildly dirty work.  The nice thing is it's only a 5-mile hike in to the new place on the Superior Hiking Trail, which is supremely gorgeous this time of year!  We're going to camp up the shore, and then tomorrow we'll be hitting up Shovel Point to introduce a friend to outdoor climbing.  I'm just psyched to get outside on such a lovely weekend after so many days of rain!
Luckily, that rain allowed me to not only finish my Ombre sweater, but I knocked off the second of two Christmas Deer Hats I'm knitting for family members.  Score!

Pattern: Fornicating Deer Chart by Anne Rutten
Yarn: Brown Sheep's Nature Spun Worsted Weight, in "Pepper" and "Orange You Glad"
Timeframe: Both hats took me between May 20th and August 30th.  Not bad, if I may say, for two colorchart hats. :)
MODs: The original pattern is only a chart, so I had to figure out exactly how to make that in to a hat.  I CO 96 stitches, did about 2 inches or so of 2x2 ribbing on the bottom, K 1 row in MC, then repeated the deer pattern 3 times around the head.  At about 5 inches from the bottom of the hat, I started decreasing 6 stitches every other row, then when it looked closer to done I decreased every row.  I did it differently on each hat, and mostly just eyeballed when I though I should decrease.  It worked well, in my opinion!  Ben's hat has the multi-colored poof ball, and Sam's hat has the all-orange poof ball.

Needles: If you look, you probably notice that one hat is smaller than the other.  Ben's hat is knit completely with size 6 needles, and on Sam's hat I switched to size 7 needles for the colorwork portion, since Sam has a bigger head than Ben.
Worst Part: There were a lot of floats to deal with in these hats, but it's also forced me to get better at knitting floats, so I guess that's a good thing...?
Best Part: Reactions of friends seeing the hats so far.  This leads me to believe that when Ben and Sam open them at Christmas time for all the family to see, they'll be quite a big hit. :)

I'll be bringing the Onward Shawl with me to work on in the car as we drive up the shore, and hopefully I'll be working on it tonight at the campfire!  I really only have two knits that I'm working on right now- the Onward, and my brother's Fornicating Deer Vest (the advanced version of these ridiculous hats).  The Onward needs to be finished by Christmas, and I'm hoping to finish my brother's vest in time for him to wear it to family Thanksgiving.
Super classy, you know. :)
All right, one more cup of coffee, then time to pack all the gear in the car and head up north.  It's too gorgeous out to linger at home for a long time this morning!