Tah-dah!

Here it is [drumrolls, audience murmur quiets down]--

Alex's hat. He is the "spice"* of DD2, and already has my vote (I've never met him--yet) because he is so good to my daughter. The stripes are the colors of their school, Tufts University. Aren't those mighty snazzy colors for a school? (I once went to a school with orange and black--yich!)

(Technical info: 1x1 ribbing, size 6 circular, Bouton d'Or Ksar for the beige, scrap brown and light blue).

It's already off in a 2-day shipping box so that he will actually receive it before he leaves college for his winter break plans. Talk about cutting things close!

OK, I'm really proud of myself because yesterday I found I had messed it up (1x1 ribbing, circular, how could I mess up? but I do'ed--sigh) . When I got home, I got to the row with the mistakes (above and below each other, thankfully) and unraveled it. I had inserted a stitch holder below that I think would keep it from getting out of hand on the unraveling thing, right? Then, with my crochet hook I re-did it, telling myself all the time, "If it doesn't fix it, you can take it to the LYS and get help. Don't worry." But when I was all done, I smoothed it out and--voila! it was indeed fixed. Can't even find the place where it was. [Smiles bashfully but clearly pleased with self.]

Now I'm off to knit the last rows of DS's Christmas request--the charcoal gray scarf in two stitches, which I think I did pretty cleverly. This will require blocking though so I gotta finish it today and get it in the mail Monday.

Cheers, all, and happy (holiday) knitting!

*"Spice" comes from a boss long ago who always invited us to holiday parties by saying "Spouses and spices are welcome too." I think that's perfect.