Leftover Yarn and Baby Hats

Whenever I finish up a knitting or crochet project, and I have that little ball of yarn leftover, I don't ever seem to be able to just throw it away.  Instead, I save it knowing that some day I will make something out of it.  It seems like such a waste of a potential project.  Recently, in the midst of a big craft room reconstruction, I gathered together a number of lonely, little balls of yarn, and decided I needed to actually do something with them. 

Baby hats came to my mind first, so I chose a nice soft yarn, and began knitting away.  To make it easier to keep the little yarn ball under control, I used a cute little bucket to keep it contained so that I wouldn't be constantly chasing it as it fell off of the table.

I was making great progress .....

when several stitches fell off of one of the double pointed needles.  I tried briefly to get them back on before they began unraveling as quick as they possibly could.  When this happened, I decided I would much rather just pull everything off of the needles and begin once again.  I think the time I spend trying to pick up those little stitches is too stressful, and especially on this small of a project, the stress just isn't worth it to me.  So soon after I took the above picture, my sweet little hat looked like this:

Not to worry though.  I just began once again, and was extra careful when I got close to the end, holding my breath through every decrease round.  This time around success was there waiting for me.

So, one half of a ball down (the hats really don't use up very much yarn), and many, many more to go.  But with the variety of yarns I have to work with, I certainly won't be getting bored.