Ravelympics 0-( No medal for me

This is the WIP I decided to wrangle for my event in the Ravelympics. It is now about 14 inches (35 cm) long, but I failed to medal because I set it aside to do 3 ad hoc projects. This knitting has been interrupted to bring you the felted teddy bear in that I posted 2 times ago and now two hats. The brown one is for Bev's 50 hats project. It's actually using the yarn from earlier incarnations of this scarf. The purple hat has a recipient, but he or she must remain secret.

Brown Hat details:

Pattern: Claudia Hat by M.J. Kim
Yarn: Main yarn is Alpaca Silk by Blue Sky (50/50); held with 2 strands of lace weight alpaca.

Gauge: a bit tight, should have been 5.5--It's a trifle small for me, but it will fit somebody important.

Needles: 2.75?

Remarks: The cable pattern was hard, but I did manage it. I took it on mostly for the cable experience. To be sure, I know how to make cables, but I've never done so many, so close together, that crossed different ways. I don't recommend it at this gauge with triple stranding. The ribs show so well because the knit stitches are twisted on every row with a background of reverse stockinette. The color in the sink picture is fairly accurate. This is a very soft, but sturdy hat. The only modifications I made were on the crown shaping where I went to decreasing every other row sooner than the pattern called for and cinched the top at 12 stitches instead of 6. I made these changes because some of the pictures on Ravelry looked pointy to me.

Purple Hat details:

Pattern: Top Down Bonnet with (out) Anime Character by Adrian Bizilia from Hello Yarn

Yarn: KnitPicks Elegance (or maybe Ambrosia)

Gauge: I don't know, maybe 6 spi, maybe 5.5

Needle: U.S. 4, I-cord on US 2
Remarks: There are over 400 of these in the Ravelry projects gallery. The pattern appealed to me because it covers the whole head and has ties. I am an admirer of what I think of as little Swedish caps, made out of sewn fabric usually. I did find a couple nice patterns for something more like that, but I thought they swooped down too far on the forehead. I didn't want to take a chance that the mother would think that looked goofy.

This pattern is very, very simple. I barely needed to refer to it once I understood the construction. The modifications I did are pictured. Instead of a garter stitch border all the way around, I only did that on the front. I put in a ribbing in the back because many of the ones pictured on Ravelry fit loosely in the back. I copied this idea from another Raveler. From the same Raveler, I got the idea to use the picot bind off on the front. Incidentally, the pattern runs small. I made the child size to get a 1 year size. I admit that I didn't worry about gauge, though.

The yarn is soft and should be very warm for it's weight. Just plain adorable. I've already started another one, this time in sock yarn.