What is it?

Anybody know what this is? What's your best guess? I really want to be a sock knitter, so I decided that I needed to practice knitting in the round....voila.....my first hat. Unfortunately I have a 22" head, and the pattern only had choices for 21" or 23". I didn't want to make it annoyingly small (who wants to be constantly tugging on their hat?), so the larger one seemed the obvious choice. This choice may not have been so bad if I had been able to get the correct guage. What I thought was 5 stitches/inch actually turned out to be 4 1/2 stitches/inch. Now to some of you this doesn't sound like a big deal, but believe me, it makes a huge difference on the resulting size of the hat. This hat is going to be a monster. I am sorely tempted to frog it and start over, but I figure I still need to switch to double pointed needles as I start to decrease, and I've never used them before either, so I'll probably screw it up anyway. I might as well resign myself to the fact this one is going in the dress-up box for the kids. It's good practice anyways!

I'm off to do a little shopping with Melissa today. I have a gift card that needs spending, and it will be really nice to hang out with my sis for once with no one else around. She said that she's going to moniter my gift card spending and make sure I only spend it on myself, not the kids. She knows me too well...but what can I say, it is easier (and more fun) to buy for the kids than it is for myself. Then I don't need to try anything on only to come to the realization that nothing fits a woman with "curves". I can continue to live in my little happy land and never be the wiser.

Wish me luck.