seems like this happens a lot to me. where I "forget" to swatch and then end up with something not quite the size it was supposed to be... you'd think I'd have learned by now. this time, it ended up being too big. like, seriously, way too big. like I could wear it as a skirt. which I didn't. I don't quite have the self esteem to wear a four inch long skirt and I don't think those around me have quite the stomach to witness it either. plus, I think my picots looked like snaggly crocodile teeth. grrrrrr. or whatever sound crocs make.

I was marveling at how far I'd gotten before I came to my senses and admitted to myself that the hat was indeed too big. I think it's because I had no idea how big the brim was supposed to be. it looked all big and floppy in the picture... at any rate, we quickly went from this:
to this:
and then back to this:
and that's where I am now. and the picots are looking better. and I think it has much to do with sl1-ing kwise instead of pwise. I guess when I read through the directions, I thought it said to put the stitch back onto the left needle, but really, it said to slip it (way to read directions! way to check gauge! F- for me!).

but regardless of all that, for the record, picots take for-freaking-ever. and knitting with cotton sucks. well, this cheapo cotton, anyway. how not stretchy and fuzzy and slippery it is. I can't believe I had previously made another hat and a baby sweater (which I was too lazy to seam before it isa outgrew it and ended up frogging for this current hat) and didn't remember what a pain it was. it does make for a nice, soft fabric, though. I hope other cotton, specifically blue sky, isn't this yucky to knit with, since I was planning on making a sweater for myself out of the 6 hanks of it that I've had sitting in a plastic bag under my dresser for the last 6 months or so...