FO: Jayne Says...

-or-
The Anatomy of a Photo Shoot: The Jayne Hat

"Man walks down the street in a hat like that, you know he's not afraid of anything."

-Wash, "The Message" Firefly

So I finally finished something. And boy is it a winner! Andy was so excited he wouldn't even let me take his picture:
He grabbed the camera from me (it is his camera after all) and decided self-portraits would be the best route:

Andy: Should I be smiling or growling or what?
Me: Nice smirk. Do you have to use me as the tripod?

Andy: Yes. Okay, how about this:
Me: Ummm a bit gassy looking, actually.

Andy: (Laughing.)
Me: Hmm, post-gassy self-satisfied face? If that isn't Jayne Cobb, I don't know who it could be.

Andy: Okay, now:
Me and Andy both: This one is screaming, "Something smells bad."

Of course I warned Andy I'd be posting them all. How could I not!

Specs:
Pattern: I ended up reading several Jayne Hat patterns and then adjusting it to my own wicked Vanna-White-LionBrand ways. See, I tried following the pattern I'd originally linked to a few posts ago, but it was far too large, maybe even for my brother! Instead I did something like (cuz did I take notes? ha ha ha, funny) this:

• Doubling up the yarn (I knit from both ends) CO 52 stitches on size US 11s double-pointed needles (like knitting with 1st Grade pencils!) with the "rust" color.
  
• Rib (k1p1) for 5 rounds
• Knit straight (gayly forward, I am 12) for about 3.25 inches.
• I switched to "mustard" and knit for a while, constantly bothering Andy to try the damned thing on to figure out when to start decreasing.
  
• Then I decreased one stitch per needle every other round until I had about 8 or 10 stitches. Gather and pull through.
• Put the thing on Andy to figure out where his ears are, then mark out about 14 stitches each for the flaps. The space between the flaps is bigger in front than in the back as I'd like him to be able to see if he really does use this for snowboarding.
  
• I picked up and knit the stitches that were just above the ribbing using the "brick" color.
  
• Knitting back and forth now, I figured out how to attach the flap to the edge of the cast on to strengthen the flaps a bit.
  
• Then knit to just above his jaw line and decreased pretty fast...two each row until there were 4 stitches, then bound off and left an uber-long tail that I made some fancy knots with.
  

The strings are longer than a real Jayne Hat for the simple reason that they needed to be long enough to actually tie. (Again, in case he does use this puppy for snowboarding.)

So I mentioned the needles, but for posterity: US 11 double-pointed. Possibly the largest needles I've ever used, aside from actually using real pencils, maybe.

The yarn: Vanna White's LionBrand collection. I tried so very hard not to lose the ball-bands just for you! See how much I love you all: Rust (135), Brick (133), and Mustard (158) all for less than $3 a ball!