R2D2 hat

I knit this hat based on a design by Carissa over at Carissa Knits. It actually took me two attempts to get it right. The first time, I followed Carissa's pattern but decided to use a stranded (or Fair Isle) technique for the blue blocks instead of using duplicate stitch as she suggests. The problem with using the stranded method for this hat was I found that it made the colorwork sections have some strange puckering, and overall I didn't like the way it looked. So I ripped that out and started anew.

The second time around, I knit a striped hat like the pattern calls for and added the details afterward using duplicate stitch (or overknitting) and a little bit of crochet. This turned out rather nicely. I modified Carissa's pattern, however, when I noticed that the top of R2's head is actually somewhat different from the version in her hat. I also changed some of the details and instead of using the projecting bits, I just made colored circles on the hat where they would be.

(Yarn: Cascade Cash Vero in 030, Cascade 220 in 9457, scraps of black and dark grey. Hat models: Vichu, R2D2)