Stashbusting Yarn for A Knitted Headwarmer

When I was searching Ravelry for sweater options I ran across some smaller cute chunky yarn projects. When I ran into some sweater questions I decided to stop on it and pick one of the "easy" and "quick" projects... can you feel the sarcasm? :)

In all honesty it was user error but that doesn't make the frustration and row ripping out any less. 

I started with this lovely headband but my yarn was too fuzzy? bulky? poofy? to show the lace pattern so after three attempts I switched to a different more chunky favorable headband pattern. Found HERE!

I thought this large cable might show up very well in my yarn and thankfully I was right. I wanted it to be a wider band than what was there so I increased two stitches, one on each end. I then knit purl knit the three "band" stitches to form a seed stitch.

It was an easy pattern to follow, so easy that I didn't even  mark my rows... so when I picked it back up I didn't know where I was and ended up having to knit and rip several rows until I got myself straightened out. (watching TV while knitting had nothing to do with it either!) On the plus side I now feel I have a much better understanding of how cables are formed.

Photographing it was another battle. 

I'm thankful to have accomplished it! This actually will be a Christmas gift for one of my best friends. She has one of these made from fabric in almost the same shade of blue so I'm hoping she'll enjoy it and it will be useful to her.

Am I even wearing this thing correctly?

Despite all my troubles, which were mostly self inflicted, (but the TV wasn't the problem!) this is a really great little pattern. If you want a quick gift or to practice learning how to do cables before you embark on a bigger project, this is a great project.

So do you knit for other people? I usually don't since it takes me so long and there is so much I don't know about it. This was a small enough thing I thought I would give it a try. When and where do you knit? Any tips on keeping on task while watching TV? :)
Hope you all have a great weekend! Happy Sewing!