passerine hat : finished

Finally !  Blocked and gifted. The Passerine Hat.  In the loveliest Starcroft Fog yarn from Maine island sheep.

 I will be honest with you, it is not a fun knit. Working with this yarn that I love, and knowing the giftee would appreciate it got me across the finish line. The birds are charming but the pattern is one verrry long chart . You knit across the verrry long chart twice per round. Within the chart, there's no rhythm or repeating sequence of colors, as in most colorwork. There are, however, very long floats. This means you have to  catch the contrast strand along the way. The chart was wide, so knitting it off my phone wasn't working, and that's my preference for knitting on the go or on the beach.   How shall I say this? The project didn't match my knitting lifestyle. (I say this tongue in cheek, really, who could pull off saying that seriously? Please read with a slight whiiiine in your voice)

However, it's kind of true. Above,  in my lap, the triumphant decrease to the crown. On a 5 hour train ride to DC,  I got the last ten rows of chart knit, and completed the hat. You can see it's pretty puckery pre-blocking, but it flattened out nicely. (Also you can see how my knitting matches my dress. Snaps for that!)
I betcha there are a ton of unfinished Passerine hats in the knitting world, hiding away in project bags near and far.  I'm happy to say my sister loved it and it looks perfect on her, and yes... I put some birds on it. (had to be said. Right?)

It's a sweet hat, just go in prepared!

A few notes: the yarn I chose has a slight halo, which softens the outline of the birds a bit but also covers the contrast if a catch shows--so overall a win. I added a few rounds in the decreases, to make it slightly slouchy and less beanie.