knitted hat #1 finished

Isn`t the Internet an amazing thing? If this was a diary or a scrapbook hidden in my drawer, nobody would ever read it, which wouldn`t in itself be such a great loss to the world but... then I wouldn`t have met Sandra, for example - a lovely lady from Kansas who was so helpful to me yesterday, despite of being slightly caffeine-deprived. While musing re: how it made my day and the wonders of the Internet in general, I also realised that I unnecessarily overcomplicated things in my last post by adding a photo of mine with 4 different items on it, and at the same time referring y`all via the link to another photo which also had 4 different hats in it. Why didn`t I just show you a picture of the pattern - doh!?!

I have no excuse, except maybe that I had the Mother of All Headaches yesterday, it took me two horse-strength pills and most of the day to get rid of it. On the bright side, though, I don`t know which ingredient of those tablets affected me so but by the time my head was OK, I became so alert that I couldn`t sleep till almost 2 in the morning. As a consequence, my first hat is finished:

Unfortunately, it is almost an inch shorter than it should be, and while I secretly congratulate myself on judging so accurately where I should start shaping the crown that I have about 2 metres of yarn left, it also resulted in this slightly teacozy-ish shape. Whereas it should look like the top left hat in this photo:

Now, I refuse to call it yet another Hat Fail. Actually, I`m beginning to suspect that the problem is not with the hats I knit but my head. I tried this one on a dozen different ways but, obviously, I`ll never look like the model in this photo. Thanks to the K1B knitting, it`s nice and stretchy but no matter which way I`m pulling the excess material, it looks nothing like this on my head. Instead, I have managed to imitate the look of Papa Smurf, a member of the French Resistance, a demented Highlander, Tommy Cooper in his fez, and even somebody with a KFC family bucket on their head.

Never mind, after a bit of stitching done - I must crack on with the DALD sampler! - I`ll tackle the green yarn and the same pattern but this time I`ll follow it to the letter... maybe that`ll help..? If not, I guess I`ll just have to change the shape of my head somehow..?