Lidsville Hat by Debbie Stoller...

I'm now working on a hat for a very good friend of mine in the 'Son of Stitch N Bitch' book, by Debbie Stoller, which can be viewed here.  As you can see from the picture here, it's a very nice hat, but it seems very difficult to put together.  I have viewed some blogs other people have left, who have successfully made the Lidsville Hat.  I had made my friend a little cap about a year or two ago, and he wants a new one, we were browsing the ever so helpful website, Crochet Pattern Central, and came upon this cap.  I was having a problem getting the 'template' to cut the plastic canvas (in the front to keep the hat stiff), and asked a few gals on Ravelry, one of them was totally nasty with me, saying that she's reported me, that it's against Ravelry's rules to ask for copyrighted material, which I was not aware of.  All she had to say was that it's against the Rules to ask for this material, and I should take it down.  Had she approached me nicely, like that, I would have taken it down, no problem.  There's just some really nasty people out there.  Also, since I got the pattern from here, which is at myLifetime, so I didn't really think that it was 'illegal' to ask for a tracing of the template!  Also, if it's 'illegal' to post this material, then why is it on Google Books?

I digress.  Instead of the Donegal Tweed yarn that this pattern requires, I'm using Lion Brand Wool Ease Worsted Weight yarn.  It should make a good substitute, considering the gauge is very similar and the color that I have of the Wool Ease, is a nice brown, earth tones color that changes ever so slightly from a light to medium brown.

I've already completed the 4 back pieces (I'm completely at a loss at how this will fit together, but I do have faith!) and am working on the body of the hat.

I find that projects like these are very challenging, especially for me, since I hate stitching pieces together, but my motto is 'work at what you're not good at'.  If you don't work at what you have trouble with, it can lead to getting bored of making the project and abandoning it.  It's always best to keep things interesting by working on what you're not good at.  But that can work both ways.  You shouldn't just 'skip' along stitches that you're not completely comfortable doing before moving along to the next stitch.

Crocheting & knitting is all about repetition.  The more you work at it, the better you get.  I look at past projects that I've done and I can totally see mistakes that only another crocheter/knitter would notice.  If I notice an error in a project that I'm in the middle of making, even if the error is 10 rows below my current position, I think it's worth it to unravel it, to correct the error.  It's not very fun seeing 10 rows of your hard work disappearing just to fix a mistake, but, you have to think to yourself that you are putting so much time and effort into what you're making, so it may as well be perfect, because if you don't fix the error, you will always notice it and it will be a huge eyesore for you!

Anyone who wishes to share what projects they're currently making, please leave a comment!  Thanks!