Hat Finished -- Lessons Learned; and More Yarn coming!

At first glance, this hat looks pretty good. But I know where every error and problem is and I know why some of them happened. So this was a great project if only for the lessons learned.

1. Be careful when substituting yarn. Part of me was just wanting to practice a little knitting and use up some old yarn at the same time. This pattern called for a 100% wool sport weight yarn. I used an acrylic that feels a lot like a cotton. But the other half of me isn't satisfied with the end result because I am not sure I like the feel of the hat, the too crisp look of the hat, and because I ran out of the cream color, I had to go with a solid blue top and did not do the fleas/specks/dots at the top of the hat.

2. Don't get lazy and not read and re-read the pattern. It also helps to print out the photo of the finished product to which to refer while knitting. It would have eliminated some mistakes I made -- like putting the motif designs in the wrong order. Having a picture would have helped me figure out the way the top was constructed, as it was, I didn't count the stitches in the pattern and just assumed that the repetition was 1 for 

each needle as opposed to 1 and 1/2 for each needle. This made the top of the had too elongated and I used way more yarn than I should have used.

3. Put in life lines before starting each new motif. This would have saved me some time in correcting some errors and given me the option of correcting others. For instance, I could have quickly ripped out a couple of rows instead of painstakingly  "un-knitting" each stitch, one at a time. By the time I had realized that I should have put in the boarder motif immediately above the horse, I had finished all but one row of the hearts motif.

4. Be more relaxed when knitting the 2 strand color work. I was hurrying through part of it and got the floats on the back a little tight. This gives some of the hat a bunched up look.

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Since I finished the hat, I ordered some more yarn for that mitten pattern from the front cover of Mostly Mittens. Because of lesson learned number 1 from above, I specifically ordered the exact same yarn used by the author albeit in slightly different colors. I ordered Brown Sheep Naturespun Fingering Yarn in graded shades of green and pink. I am hoping that they look as good as the combination on the picture of the mitten on the cover.