With the Christmas holiday approaching too quickly (as it always seems to), I decided I had better step up the pace on my Crochet Seafarer’s Cap project (for which I am using this free pattern), if I were going to have it done in time, but before I knew it there were ten crochet hats.

First, I had to finish the ninth hat. As of sunset Tuesday, it was close to being finished, but there were still a few more rows to be crocheted, a seam to be joined, a top to be gathered, and ends to be woven in.

Using a 5.5 mm hook (along with scissors and a bent-tipped yarn needle), I got to work, and in relatively short order the ninth hat was done:

Now all that was left was to make one more hat.

After sorting through my yarn stash — which hardly seems smaller than it was when I began this year’s stash down effort on November 1 — I settled on Red Heart Super Saver light gray.

Using the same tools as I had for the previous nine hats, I got to work and did not allow myself any distractions, save meals and walking my dog.

After getting off to a good start last night, I picked it up again this morning, and even after having to frog several rows due to a careless oversight, I continued forward.

Buoyed by my progress, I took just a brief break for lunch, and shortly after 1:00 pm today, I had finished crocheting, and all that was left was the detail work.

After running a couple of errands that could not wait for another day, I did exactly that, and completed the tenth cap:

Here they are lounging on the deck for a group photo:

and here they are, all lined up, and ready for action:

I hope that my cousins and their compatriots are able to make good use of the caps, and while I would love to luxuriate in the sense of accomplishment one feels when a project is finished, I need to get busy and move onto the next thing.