Experimenting with a new pattern

A friend recently found this pattern on ravelry (also for sale through Etsy) so I thought I'd give it a go -- skully hat pattern -- I have to admit that I am generally very nervous of trying new stuff; I get kind of comfortable with what I can do and what I'm (relatively) good at so I tend to stay inside my comfort zone. But it's good to dip a cautious toe into the bigger, wider world of crochet so I thought I'd give it a go.

Buying the pattern on Etsy is a cinch - you can download it straight away and then print off a copy to work with.

I used just some cheapish acrylic yarn that would be easy to work with (and easy to rip out whenever I made mistakes!) and the recommended size hooks for the pattern.

 Here's a close up of the 'skulls'

 ...and the finished hat...

I have to admit to having kind of mixed opinions about the pattern -- next time I'm doing it I will add a few more rows of the rib as I feel just one round of it isn't enough.

The hat came out TINY compared to how it was meant to - this size is meant to fit an adult but I'm not sure if it was me working too tightly or what but it was tiny; I ended up leaving out a round of the skulls so that I could decrease the length of the hat as the circumference was just so small.

The decreasing came out kind of funny too - I'm not sure if that is me and my wonky crochet or the pattern itself - next time I will concentrate a bit harder I think ;)

It's definitely a pattern that I would use again and I do want to perfect it -- this attempt was very much a proto-type and a bit of an experiment. I tend to make a lot of alterations to patterns anyway but I was definitely going to add more ribbing to the bottom edge and then thinking about doing the skulls in single bands (in one colour) and then doing bands of plain trebles in a contrasting colour to hopefully make the skulls stand out a bit better.