Black Mage from Final Fantasy

 My older sister want to know if I could crochet a hat for Johnny, her husband.  She wanted a Black Mage from final fantasy and wanted it worked into the hat.  This first image is the results of my first try at making a Black Mage hat, I was unhappy with how it worked up.  Do to the fact that I could not start the BM until after I finished all my increase rounds I was not able to get the whole mage on the hat it grew to long.  If I had tried to start it earlier the increases would have made the color changes and rows not line up properly.   I also had to fight the image from twisting.  What I mean by that is as you crochet in the round and slst to move up a round your stitches will slowly slant or twist or spiral in that direction.  To fight that I had to increase right before all my color changes and decrease right after.  I failed to take into count that all the bulk of the yarn will bulge which created a 'dip' along the colored portion that my inc/dec helped exaggerate.

Backup Plan

I started my backup plan even before I showed her the hat.  She liked it from the image I texted her, but I just was not happy.  I wouldn't charge someone for this hat if I had been paid to make it I would offer it for free or offer to re-due it at no extra cost- that's how much I disliked how it came out.

Now there is nothing particularity wrong with the hat, its just long and would need the brim folded up which in turn would cover up the gist of the image defeating the purpose of having it. Also the brim was wibbly wobbly, but whatev's Johnny said he liked it and would wear it.  So then I showed them my backup plan. I free form crochet a black mage that I plan to stitch onto a plain crochet beanie.  They loved that idea!  So I just need to remake a basic black hat and stitch it onto it.

I made this free form one with my E sized hook so it would be a bit smaller then the one made as part of the hat which was worked with and I hook.  I tried to block it by damping it with a spray bottle and pinning it to a sheet of cardboard so the point of the Mage's hat and his brim would lay flat and not curl up on itself so when I do stitch it onto something it wont pull at the stitches and warp the item.