When good gauges go bad

Lame title, I know. Especially considering I refuse to do gauge swatches on hats. Sweaters, yes. But not hats. Even the great Elizabeth Zimmerman used hats as swatches.

So, really, its my own fault that the first hat that I knitted turned out gigantic. It was meant for Morgan - as a Valentine gift. The cute little hearts were too sweet to resist. He was in need of a new hat since the ganomy I had knit for him had gotten way too small. Now that I think of it, I did knit him a handspun earflap hat a little while back, so I'm not sure why his mother asked for a new hat. Oh well, who am I to resist knitting hats for gorgeous little boys. Not me. Resistance is futile.

In any case, I now have two heart earflap hats. The first hat was knit in size 18 months to 4 years. Perfect for our 2 1/2 year old Morgan, right? Except, it turns out that the finished hat ended up too big for me! Likely great for my large headed offspring, Amy. There is no such thing as too many hats, she tells me. So, I'm lucky in that regard. When my hats have gauge issues, they are sure to fit someone in the family right?

The second hat, I ended up going down a needle size and knit the newborn size. It'll be a perfect fit for Morgan. I should have paid attention to the comments that other knitters had said about this pattern on Ravelry. A lot of others had said that this pattern ran kind of big. Who knew it would be that big though!!

Oh, details about the hat. The pattern is from the book "Weekend Knitting" and its called "Almost Famous Luggy Bonnet". I knit both versions in Knitpicks telemark yarn, except for the yellow hearts, they were done in knitpicks stroll tonal held double.