Irish Hiking Hat and Scarf

So I wanted to learn how to cable and a friend at knitting group showed me the basics and it really did seem as easy as everyone promised me it would be. I was going to do some practice cables, but decided to jump right in to the Irish Hiking Scarf (which is apparently a popular pattern for young cablers like myself).

Once I got rolling someone at knitting group mentioned there was an Irish Hiking Hat pattern as well and I got all over-excited (as I am prone to do) and started on that too (here is a solo shot of just the hat):



and loved working with cables!

Now the end result of my impulsive hat-making was that my scarf is much shorter than I would have liked (I only bought yarn for a scarf and then took some to make the hat), it is a suitable scarf length, but I tend to prefer longer scarves. Also, the hat doesn't actually fit my ginormous skull...

So, we are chalking this up to practice and I will donate this set to charity, it is perfectly functional and fashionable, but not quite perfect for me or a gift.

While working on this set I found a pattern that was adapted from the Irish Hiking pattern, but is reversible! It is called the Palindrome Scarf (and hat!) and I believe that will be the gift project I will be starting soon for various Christmas gift recipients.

Oh, and this came in the mail yesterday:

So much yarny goodness!