So Pithy!

I decided to participate in a "craft-a-long" through Craftster. I have never before participated in these strange collective efforts, but my understanding is that it's a net-based support group. There's a central pattern or theme, and the interested parties post pics and comments and questions as they work through their projects.

This particular craft-a-long is for "Mary Jane's Pithy Hat". The creator was inspired by and wrote patterns for two different yet similar hats worn by Kristin Dunst in both Spider Man 2 and Elizabethtown. I'm working the open-weave Spider Man 2 hat in a lovely variegated wool from Manos del Uruguay.

My bitchy qualms about the site/pattern: The creator only posts pics of the hats you are supposed to be emulating, but not of the results. I don't quite trust that the finished product is going to look like the movie photos. She does mention that Mary Jane hat from Spider Man 2 will result in a hat with a bias stitch that will not be perfectly straight as the original. Okay, fine. So where's the pic of the results?

Also, for the purist in me, I'm wondering about the choice of using the "purse stitch" for the first hat. It seems to me that there's another stitch that can be used to create that tidy, straight look the open weave in the original possesses. A veil stitch maybe?

I decided that I'm going to work through the pattern as is since I don't mind the purse stitch. Due to an amazing Mother's Day sale at the local yarn store, I did end up purchasing two skeins of the Manos. Depending on whether or not this project takes only one skein (as it's appearing might be the case), I may go back through and re-write the pattern so that it's closer to the original hat.