Vivat Victoria Regina Imperatrix Cuniculorum

Imperialist Bunny Hat, Completed.
Originally uploaded by panopticon.

The Imperialist Bunny Hat is finished.

I somehow feel as though Elgar should be playing under this photo, don't you?

Embroidering the face was fun, once I came to understand that yarn does not behave exactly like floss.

It took me two tries to get the left eye to lie properly flat, and two tries to make a second eye that matched the first to my satisfaction.

The yearning, goggle-eyed expression is jarringly similar to that which appears on my face when I'm standing in front of the Leica display cabinet at Calumet Camera.

Pattern Erratum

The pattern for this hat, to be found in Stitch 'n' Bitch Nation, is delicious to knit and I recommend it. However it does contain one small error.

See how the headband bulges out in front? The pattern directs one to purl all those stitches. The idea (judging from the photographs) is to create a flat garter stitch border that grows seamlessly from the garter stitch flaps on the back of the hat. To this end, the pattern instructs one to purl all these stitches.

I was four rows into the headband before it occurred to me that when knitting in the round, purling all stitches doesn't give one garter stitch, it gives one reverse stockinette, which curls inward.

Oh, fudge.

I was feeling very stupid about this until I remembered St. Elizabeth Zimmerman's dictum, "It's not a mistake if you know how you did it."

And ultimately I've decided I liked the curled headband so much better than the flat that I'm doing the matching Little White Bear Hat the same way.

I have to cut this short, but do drop in later if you want to find out why it looks like Cher has been hanging around on my sofa.