On the flight home from holidays in Vancouver, I cast on for Thorpe with a scrap ball of Cascade 220 leftover from Husband Sweater #2. I had weighed it before I left so I knew I would be tight on yardage, but I decided to give it a whirl anyway. By the time I changed planes in Houston with only 3 rows left on the second ear flap, I ran out of yarn. I wove in the ends on the rest of the hat, spit spliced the tiny bits together and managed to eke out enough to bind off half of the last row.
When I got home I scoured through the stash, but found no more of the yarn. Not even a scrap. My plan had been to use a contrasting yarn for the crochet edging anyway, so I bound off the last row with my favourite Cascade 220 colour, 9404. It blends in seamlessly with the rest of the edging, so I needn't have bother tearing my office apart looking for a 12 inch snippet of the charcoal.
Because I was running so tight on yardage, I skimped a little on my modifications. I was using a worsted weight instead of the chunkier weight suggested by the pattern, so I worked a few extra increase rounds but not as many as I should have. The result is a tight-ish toque that looks great straight on, but sort of like a helmet from the side. Function before fashion though, right? At least my ears will be warm. (And next time I'll make it bigger.)