Notes on Shaping Gnome's Hat

I knitted the hat in the rounds from the bottom up. Next time I would start from the tail end and knit it in the rounds from the top down. Reasons? Because after knitting the 7 rows for the cuff I had to purl all the way up. Then it was very hard to stuff the tail end. I had to use long tweezers. So knitting from the top down means you could stuff the tail end as you go along and a lot less purl to do.

I used a 100% wool yarn for the hat. It didn't look right when it came off the needles. So I decided to wash it and to block it. After washing it by hands, I put it on a large plastic knitting needle that has been threaded through a funnel; you could see it on the left of this picture. I was waiting for it to dry.
After it's dried, I hand sewed the cuff to the hat by using a running stitch. Then using long tweezers I stuff the tail end very lightly. I don't use any hair spray on my hair so I don't have any. I have some heavy duty starch in the house for the laundry so I sprayed only the tail end of the hat with the starch, and tied it in zigzag shape with a small piece of yarn.

Waiting for the tail end to dry.
Once it's dried the zigzag shape holds quite well.

The hat is so much softer after the wash and it looks OK now to me. I found that the hat sits on the head very well on its own. So I decided not to attach the hat to the head as suggested by the pattern. Instead I give the little gnome eyes. This way he can have a little sleep with the hat down. Or look wide awake with the hat sits a little bit higher up. I thought it would be a nice feature and would be more fun that way.