My Hat, It Has Three Corners

The third and final hat for the month is a triangular tam.  Because I've had such a very excellent track record of running out of yarn at the end, and because I was planning on knitting this hat from scraps, I decided to begin the hat with a very small amount of turquoise, then finish it in a large amount of brown.  Thus, I would have planned to make the hat two colors from the beginning, and this hat would not have an odd splotch in the middle of it.

So I swatched, cast on, and knit the hat.  I must say, it did  make a hat-shaped object.  And it is triangular.  However, upon closer examination of the pattern, this hat was doomed from the start.  See, it calls for a gauge of 11 stitches to 4 inches, and it asks you to cast on 36 for the bottom band.  For the mathematically inclined among you, that means that the hat effectively has a circumference of about 13 inches.  Of course, hats fit best with a bit of negative ease, let's say 10% for the sake of argument, so it should fit up to...14", maybe 14.5".

For those of you playing along at home, that's tiny.  That is baby hat material.  Now for the silver lining.  1) My gauge was a little off, rendering the hat a little larger.  2) The yarn I chose was quite springy, thus rendering the hat a little stretchier.  I can get the hat onto my head, but it is obviously too small both in feeling and appearance.  Mr. Mouse did manage to squeeze it onto his head, but it looks a little silly.  It will make a lovely hat for a child, should I ever come across one to whom I am inclined to gift a hat.

Oh, and I totally had enough of the brown to make the whole hat one color.  That's alright; I find the turquoise band rather fetching.