Baba's Hat: A Story!

Earlier this fall, my mother-in-law asked me for a hat.  You should know that my MIL is an AMAZING old-school knitter, who used to whip up knitted creations constantly.  She isn't knitting as much anymore, and of course I will drop anything to knit for her....

When I asked her to describe the hat of her dreams at Thanksgiving she said, "Just like Bella's!".  But Bella's hats over the years look like this:

So, I asked, "With skulls?" (pretty sure the answer is no) 
She said, "No, I'd like a grey hat that fit's like hers, and lined to the top."
So, I was like, "Sooooooo, you want two grey hats?"

Well I procrastinated and pondered what I knew was going to be the world's most boring hat... and then I went stash diving!  Do you know what I found?  The most lovely skein of Swan's Island Worsted, in a lovely deep dark grey.  Knitting with this yarn is like knitting butter, so at least even if I was bored to tears, my hands would be happy.

Next up, I needed yarn for the lining, so I went to my LYS, and found the perfect grey hand-dyed skein of Zen Yarn Garden Serenity Worsted, a cashmere, wool, nylon blend... need I say more?  I was going to make THE.BEST.LINING.EVER!

Then I came home, and swatched, got 4.5 sts/in, provisionally cast on 100 sts, and knit for like an inch and a half, and almost abandoned ship, but then I decided that maybe, just maybe, I could get away with 4 rows of garter stitch in the lining yarn?  She can't object too strongly, it's still grey, right?  So, I did that and all of a sudden the knitting started to fly.  At 6 inches tall I started decreasing, and the first hat was born.

Then it was time to go back, unzip the provisional cast on, and start the lining!  I used a needle two sizes smaller than the original one, and knit until it was 5.5 inches long (and yes, all other work knitting was ignored during this time, knitting with cashmere in st st in the round is SO FUN!). and did the top decreasing again.  Right before starting the top decreases I took a moment to weave in  all the ends, so when the lining was done, so was the hat.  More details on Ravelry...

The result?... I want to keep it, but I gave it to her yesterday and she loved it, so I guess I'll just have to make another for me one of these days!

p.s. I have no idea how that snow is falling the first pic... google worked some of it's mojo with one of the photos I uploaded, pretty magical, huh?