A late present

My boyfriend's birthday was a few weeks ago.  I was trying to crochet him a woolly hat.

 I am a real beginner with crochet.  In the first week of January I decided to teach myself crochet from a book I bought with the Christmas money my stepfather gave me.  The first week was really tough.  The book was showing pictures of how you should have your hands when crocheting - well quite frankly mine did not want to crochet like that at all.  After a few days of struggling I decided to have a look at You Tube videos of people crocheting in action.  I decided not to worry about my hands but the stitches instead and then I was away with crochet.

I made a few things in my first month a mini storage box, a flower, a twisty scarf and I decided to make my boyfriend's present out of crochet.  I had no idea what to make and he said he would love a woolly hat with a pompom on the top.

Please bear in mind this was 3 days before his birthday and ordinarily this would be enough time to browse in a shop and purchase something appropriate.  But this was my first project making something as a present for my boyfriend - it had to be good!

This was also the first real project based on a round and this really challenged me.  There were a few duff starts before I was confident that what I was working would resemble what I wanted it to be. Needless to say 15 days late, I'm still working on his woolly hat but its almost finished and then I can make the pompom for the top. But as a good friend said - who gets a bespoke woolly hat these days?

Not wanting him to be without on his birthday, he had a handmade card and I baked him a chocolate cake with happy birthday candles so he was chuffed with that.

His real present (the woolly hat) is nearly finished except for the pompom - lets hope I'm not too much of a perfectionist with that bit!  Poor Matt...