The hat looks gorgeous on you!! (Wish I could be a "hat person" too!! Sigh) For help with decreasing you might want to take a peak at http://www.knittinghelp.com/knitting/basic_techniques/decrease.php . Great video help!

Hats, they are definitely an obsession. I'm making hats for everyone for Christmas. So mobile.

I look silly in hats. People laugh at me when I wear them. I think it has something to do with my horrible hair.

The hat is beautiful! Maybe I'll make a hat to match my blue scarf someday. I live the shiny blue yarn, it will make a lovely hat!

Gorgeous hat. Just call it therapy.

...coincidentally my magic scarf has two stripes of Lion Brand Wool-Ease chunky in green (Willow 173)...

I think it looks great! and the pointy parts - if you find out how to get rid of them, you will share right? I still get them on my hats!

Oh - and the blanket with the awesome green n yellow yarn is done!

April

You look great in the hat, Laurie. I, on the other hand, add a new and tragic dimension to the word 'dork' when I wear a hat.

The hat is adorable! I understand the desire to make more. And the blue shiny Hat formerly known as Scarf?... LOVE IT!!! Love the colors & the texture!

April! I couldn't comment on your site because it was blogger peeps only. But I have to say. Oh my. Oh my! That is one beautiful blanket! It's so gorgeous, it's like a wall hanging, just art! Love it!

Maybe I will make one of those as a tablecloth. Or, I guess, more accurately ... a table "cozy." ha!

The new green hat looks great and the blue ribbon is beautiful. Now I wish I had that for my tie one on wrap.

xo

ha! i finally get to comment fairly early in the commenting queue! by the time i usually get to one of your posts (i know i'm not a very good stalker) there are already 87,053 comments so i don't feel like commenting anymore because then that would require me to be witty or something to differentiate myself from the 87,053 other comments! (take a breath) rockstar knitting girl.

anyway, nice lid...

the hats are lovely! i think the pointy things on the decreases are par for the course. they seem to be less noticable when the hat is knitted in a less chunky yarn, i think. i feel like knitting on the bus is not easy and bask in the glow of your mad knitting skills.

You look so cute in your new perfect hat! And the blue sparkly one will be so fun, you're going to be the official Queen of Hats before long :)

You're such an adorable "hat girl" Laurie. The hat is cool too!

You are a hat making fool. The blue is lovely... I guess I need to get on that hat for my nephew...he's only 15, but his head probably would have been strained in your orange mushroom hat. He's got a huge noggin'!

omigod! i too am obsessed with knitting hats right now. probably because i finally had some success. now i'm thinking...hmm...must knit green hat like laurie's and i have some sparkly blue yarn that could be a cool hat and what about knitting a hat and felting it? i've never done that.

i have done the other kind of felting...by hand...with raw (as in fresh off the sheep) wool...i don't recommend it. unless you wanna smell like a wet sheep for days.

so...go you! do your thang!

I found this blog on a whim, and while I'm not a knitter and really have nothing worthwhile to add to the conversation at hand, I just wanted to mention that I've been in a similar life situation. Life goes on. The best is yet to be. Good luck.

Yay for your hat! It looks great.

I love making hats. I just started a new one in fact. And you should definatley finish the Ugly Mystery Knitted Cat Thingamajig. We want to see it!!

That hat looks cute on you. I always feel silly in hats. Got to get to making them to get over that some day. And, the points - that's called a design detail, honey (always chalk it up to "design detail"). Points are all the rage these days!

Didya ever get the yarn I sent you?

You do look darling in that hat..I always look like Dopey in a hat. Does one need a wool hat in Southern California in June??? ...was looking at the same yarn in Joann,Etc. yesterday...commented that this is the yarn the "Laurie" is using... Love the color!

Love the green hat! I'm in love with the color green, especially the ugly greens. Like avacado. So hats off to you for finishing the green hat ( pun intended ). I'm jealous of how you can use 2 yarns....that is ADVANCED knitting!

Hey, chickie - you ARE a real knitter! You're amazing and you can do ANYTHING that you want to do!

You look lovely in that hat - I'm sending you a millinery book. You can do anything, remember that!

Thanks Laurie - Its nothing against you, I just have it set that way to keep the E.D. Spammers from commenting. I'll be starting a hat soon with the leftovers.

Love the hat. I so wish I could wear hats. I just have a huge fat head. I can't even wear ear warmer headbands. My head is just shaped wrong. lol Thank God I have a kid to make hats for. hehehehe Can't wait to see the kitty tube. You and Jen are really making me want a pet. But not a cat. :P

You like multiples of 12, I like multiples of 3....
The mystery cat thingamajig will soon be done? At last it will be demonstrated to the world!

jesus are you popular!! whoa! anyway, i have a headhugger pattern that is really good for not having the pointies, also i did a british seaman's hat(ew seaman!!) from hollywood knits that is not knitted in the round, and it came out really well, the photo is in my knitting photos...

LOL at Natasha! Ha Ha

Nice hat, I used the same yarn with 10.5 16" addis to make an snb hot head (in the round, no flat knitting for me, my seaming sucks big time).

A decrease you may like would involve a left slanting decrease (psso) followed by a right slanting decrease (k2tog) at four different, equal locations (although it does make a dreaded "X" at the crown, a down with mr. x project, perhaps?).

A good example is this pattern:

http://www.coatsandclark.com/fun_and_free/yarn/lw1268.htm

Just subtract one stitch and do it in the round, converting your ws purl row to a knit row. Use stitch marker between each decrease, or just put in on four dpns when you get to the decreases.

The best thing is, they have "the math" all figured out for many different size heads and yarn weights. And, it is free! Truly a favorite of mine. I've done a few in boucle yarn, with fur carried along on the ribbing, they are quite nice. The first one (a miscalculation on my part) was called "giganticus", though, and was more like a hood, ah, but I digress.

Hats are fun, but mittens....and socks.....They are like Lays. You can't make just one. Well, actually you can, but that would be very bad. BTW, go to katyknits.typepad.com and stroll (or scroll or whatever) through her archives to Oct 16, 2004 and you will see that a ginormous cat thingy (wait, that sounds obscene..) can, in fact, be considered a hat. Maybe the next hat should be black and sparkly with a little half veil-thingy with beaded X's to wear to court to give you courage.

Woo hoo! Great lookin' hat, lady!

23.5 inches. Yes, it is a massive melon. I can't help it; it runs in the family. And sure, I could always use another hat. I don't know how I'm going to deal with the Boston snow next winter after my last two Los Angeles "winters". Plenty of handmade hats will certainly make it a bit more bearable :)

The green hat looks great! If I'd kept that yarn it would have sat in my stash for the rest of time, one sad solitary ball left over from my Mom's sweater. The yarn is definitely happier with you.

I miss you too! I'm in Encino-backyard-knitting withdrawal. I'll ring you tonight.

You look so cute in the hat, Great job! Here is a very handy site that will help you make any size hat with any yarn any size needle! "Super Simple Circular Hat Calculator"
http://www.earthguild.com/products/knitcroc/marypat/hatcalc.htm

OMIGOD - how cute are you!

Laurie- Guess what! My mom bought me yarn on her vacation and she's going to show me how to knit! I'm going to be back in Southern California is a couple weeks so I'll be a pro by then and we'll have to get together and have a knit extravaganza!

My hair is way too puffy to wear many hats (even though I love them) without having some nearly criminal 'hat head'. But I do enjoy knitting them. :) I plan to make a few more as gifts for Yule/Xmas/etc... (you get the idea).

Anyhoo, great hat! :)

For a nice flat hat top, start at the top and make a square or a pentagon or a hexagon, but only increase every other row. When you have enough stitches, stop increasing and just knit around until it's long enough.

'Cuz, you know, undeniably, the absolute worst thing about a glue-sniffing carjacker is those horrid visible panty lines. :) You crack me up every time!

I think that you look cute in hats! I think that it is the universe's way of compensating me for being unable to pull off bangs that I look adorable in hats.

Of course, this only works if I don't have to take the hat OFF. My hair is apparently afraid of hats since it tries to get as close to my skull as possible whenever confronted with a hat.

my first finished nonscarf project was a hat! i felt so accomplished! maybe I should make another one.... i like yours there....

me and mommy like your hat very much - it is almost cold enough here for us to wear it. Brrrrr.. no walk for me today

Oh, and I sent you an image through email that was inspired by this post. Let me know if you don't get it.

Ooo, I just (almost) finished my first real knitting in the round hat this weekend! I have to say it was really fun and pretty quick. If you're at all a Sci Fi fan you might even recognize it!

Oh and PS Laurie...if you are so inclined, I've got my own "crazy aunt purl crazy neighbor story" shared on my blog. Just so you know, you aren't alone!

You are so dang cute!

Cute hat! We need to move you to a colder climate so you can actually wear some of these creations. Or you could just send any extras to me.

Scary view out your office window--clicking on the third thumbnail gave me vertigo. But you must be Real Important to have such a cityscape view!

Blue sparkly hat-to-be looks cool. The sparkly bit looks like the yarn I used in a wrap recently. I lurve blue.

I love your blog...and your cats
Here is a great site for increases and decreases. All of the decreases are lined up so you can compare them AND match them with increases. http://www.knittinghelp.com/knitting/basic_techniques/

Sorry, didn't see the link already posted!

hahahahahahaha...I almost peed in my pants when I read that thing about visible panty lines!!!!!

Love the hat! I am addicted to cute hats (and true, could be much, much worse). You can never have too many.

You are beautiful in the picture and one bang-up writer, too. Maybe you wrote the last Writer's Digest "personal writer's issue?"
Prescription for perfectionism:
Calculate the number of "errors" you usually make in a week.
Divide by 7.
Add 15%
Do that number of things "wrong" on purpose ever day for 3 weeks. (i.e., undersear inside out, unmatching socks..
Discover that NOBODY REALLY CARES... even if they notice.

Best wishes.