Trials and tribulations with pointy sticks

I don't want to go so far as to say that my knitting mojo has deserted me, but it has been a trying few days.  (And yes, this post title could easily be a blog name - but if you swipe it, please give me a little credit - 'kay?)

I'm temporarily stalled on the Cabled Fingerless Mitts, because I cannot seem to grasp the difference between the two different directions of the pattern's increase stitch, and when to use one or the other. (Make 1?  Make 1 what??? 1 to the left? 1 to the right? 1 upside your head maybe???) This, is as I said, just a temporary problem and the project is on hold until I can meet with my knitting guru (A.K.A. "mom") for some proper instruction.

So in the meanwhile I tried casting on the Villandry Scarf with some of that lovely alpaca I recently scored from Let's Knit in Gardena.  Now, I've swatched that pattern before, with some acrylic I had in the charity knitting bins, and determined that I did like it, but it just needed a softer yarn.  (Like alpaca, right?) But last night I worked the first 9 rows, which is just a little more than two repeats of the overall stitch pattern and could clearly see that it looked like crap.  I took a few minutes to fully appreciate it's crappiness and reflect on what could be done to remedy the situation, theorized that smaller needles might be the solution, and frogged it. If I'm in the right frame of mind this evening I'll collect a sampling of needle sizes and give it another shot.

And the last, but possibly the worst episode in a tragic saga of knitting gone wrong, I finished the Beaufort hat:

And you're wondering what's wrong aren't you?  Because this hat is beautiful.  The color is great, the stitch pattern is wonderful, and the perfect combination of just enough variety to keep me entertained but not so much to drive me nuts.  This hat is so freakin' gorgeous, it even looks good inside out:

But what you will not see is a picture of this hat on me.  Because on me - it looks like ass. Really, it does. (And NO I will not model it for you!)

This makes me just so incredibly sad.  And to add insult to injury, it is quite small, and highly unlikely to fit anyone else but me. (Or perhaps a 12 year old with an equally pointy head.)  Upon further consideration, (and a second cup of coffee), I think the reason it looks so incredibly heinous on me is that this particular style doesn't have any brim at all.  It does have a 1 inch band of 3x3 ribbing that could conceivably become part of a brim.  So I'm going to get creative, and attempt to pick up the 72 stitches on the cast-on edge, and knit me a good, healthy 3x3 ribbed brim.  Best case scenario is that the hat actually looks good on me and we both live happily ever after.  Worst case scenario? Viva la rana!