FO: Turn a Square

About mid-November, my stepmom texted me a photo of my 6-year old nephew wearing a hat that barely covered the tips of his ears, informing me he needed a new hat. I often have trouble knitting for my relatives who live in the deep South (warm woolies not being as useful there), so it was nice to have a giant blinking sign as to what to give my nephew for Christmas.Sometimes I think knitters are all on the same wavelength. I did an advanced search in Ravelry and settled on Jared Flood's Turn a Square hat. I started knitting it up, and within a week, I heard not one, but two podcasts where the podcaster was knitting the same hat, but both had been recorded before I ever made my decision. Did I pick up their brain waves? Does Ravelry move more popular items to the top of the heap? I'd like to think I made this decision independently, but now I'm wondering if there was some ESP, or at least an algorithm, involved.I initially thought from the picture that the original was made from three colors of yarn, but then I realized later that it calls for one solid and one self-striping - however, my brain was already fixated on a three-color version. I was also determined to stash bust for this and ended up using leftover soft and washable Berroco Vintage from my son's Log Cabin Afghan. The yarn has worn well over the past three years, even with being machine washed and dried often, though some of the colors (I'm looking at you, navy!) are more susceptible to pilling than others.The pattern is a free Ravelry download. The name comes from the way the decreases at the top are done, which makes the striping square off.It calls for a tubular cast-on. Now, being a process knitter, I usually love learning new techniques, but given that I knit this in its entirety on a plane while almost 8-months pregnant and while entertaining a 2-year old, I just didn't feel like it. Fortunately, the instructions tell you how to skip that part, if you desire, and just do your normal cast-on. I REALLY appreciated that.I cast on in Nairobi, slept a lot on the plane, and finished during my layover in Amsterdam. Great hat, quick knit, visually striking, and free pattern. I'll probably make this again, and I look forward to trying the tubular cast-on when I'm in the right knitting head space. I can't wait to see this on my nephew, but since it's a Christmas gift, for now, you'll have to be satisfied with pictures of the hat modeled by someone else. This hat will probably drown my nephew a bit, but he won't have to worry about his ears being exposed again for a while. :)