I finished the first of the gift-hats last night.

Here it is being modeled by "Algonquin," a teddy bear I made perhaps 10 years ago:



I don't really have any critters with heads big enough to model adult hats.

Here's the hat by itself:



I used the pattern from the November 2002 "Real Simple" but the decreases were pretty wonky (they had you purling places where it would look better to knit) so I just modified on-the-fly. I'm pretty happy with how it came out; those are colors the recipient will like.

For my mom's hat, I decided I'm going to use a different pattern. The rustic quality of this hat will work well for its recipient - but I think my mom would do better with something dressier (as dressy as a bulky weight hat can be...). I've been perusing my copy of Hip Knit Hats (which, despite the word "hip" in the title, which is usually something that makes me avoid a book, is a very nice book. It was one of my 40% off coupon snags from JoAnn's). I think I'm going to make the hat called Vita - it has a flattish crown with an "edge" and is all stockinette. Most of the hats shown have a tiny band of very subdued fur yarn to frame the face. I've got some Valeria di Roma "Cisne" that would kind of sort of work for that (it's not an ideal color), but I also took a snip of the yarn with me and I'm going to look for an appropriate yarn - if one can be found - this afternoon.

(My latest quilt is done at the quilt shop, which meshes nicely with my "I really, really need to get out and do some fun stuff" feeling. So I'm going to get my quilt and hit the JoAnn's and the Hobby Lobby and the "tarZHET" and maybe the bookstore and do my grocery shopping for the coming week).

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I had to sign someone out of my stats class yesterday (it's past the regular drop period, but people can still drop until Thanksgiving - with, of course, a greatly reduced refund [if there is one at all at this point]). He said that he was just "bad at math."

I kind of hate that excuse.

I remarked also - sort of ruefully - that it seemed like he "had" to miss a lot of class (I want to leave it open in case there's some kind of chronic-illness thing, or wife with bad morning sickness thing, or some other mitigating circumstances other than I Just Felt Like Sleeping In). I said that, and kind of looked at him with an arched eyebrow, waiting either for his agreement, or for some kind of explanation as to why.

"No," he said. "I'm just bad at math."

Okay, fine. If you want to believe that. The fact that you missed about 1/3 of the classes and have done less than half the homework - and I will remind you that the "lab" portion of this class is actually homework time - we do not meet for a regular lab (though if I get my way that will change sometime) - do not have anything at all to do with it.

And you know? I've had lots of people in the past come to me before the class ever started, and somewhat apprehensively comment either, "I'm not so good at math" or "I don't really like math."

And I'm very calm, and very reassuring, and I remind them that Statistics is not The Calculus and that it's very applied, and most of the math involved is actually arithmetic rather than big-M Math, and a lot of the Really Hard Stuff we let the computer do for us anyway, and I tell them my three secrets of success in statistics:

1. Don't skip class even though it's at 8 am
2. Do all the homework
3. If you don't understand something, or if you mess up on a homework, either stop me in class and have me explain it again, or come see me in office hours.

And you know? A lot of the people who listened to that advice wound up getting B's or A's, even though they're "not so good at math." A lot of the class is just attention to detail. People who are good at paying attention to detail generally do well; people who skip doing homework or who aren't in class often don't.

But, I wanted to say to the guy that I had had a lot of people come through the class who claimed not to be good at math* and they almost all wound up doing well. But I didn't. If he's not willing to accept that his poor attendance hurt him, I'm not going to keep trying to push him.

(*And sadly? 90% of the people making that claim have been female. What is it about some women getting convinced they're bad at math? I mean, I'm sure there are a few people who genuinely ARE, but in my experience, a lot of the women who seem scared off by math are actually quite good at statistics. I do not know if it is because statistics is so applied - and therefore, it's easy to see what you're doing and why. Or maybe my teaching mode is particularly female-friendly for this class. Or maybe it's the "attention to detail" thing - lots of women, in my experience, are good at detail-stuff. Either it's a biological, brain-wiring thing ("gatherer" rather than "hunter"?) or maybe it's how women learn to succeed in school in this culture. But I always groan a little when I have a woman come to me at the start of class all scared because she's "not good at math.")