WiP Wednesday - Progress!

I'm happy to say that I have a project or two to post today!  Although, Wednesday snuck up on me so I really apologize for the pictures - I had to take them with my phone since I left my camera at home!  It was Canadian Thanksgiving so we had Monday off...and now, all of a sudden it's Wednesday and I haven't taken pictures or prepared my post!

Thanks again to Tami for hosting the WiP Wednesdays on her blog.  It's definitely a good motivator to get some knitting done!  I love seeing what everyone else is working on too.  Feel free to join in!

I've made good progress on the "Hat With a Duck Part" (the Half-Pipe Hat by Debbie Stoller).  After restarting the tubular cast-on a few times, see last Wednesday's post, I finally got it and I'm really liking the way it looks:

I'm hoping to have the hat finished by the weekend.  I'm also hoping that I don't run out of yarn!  I can't remember if I have more of this yarn in my stash - I think I should but I bought it a while ago so my memory is failing me.  I'm almost done the ribbed section, then a section of stockinette stitch, and finally I'll need to add the brim (need to go buy some plastic canvas for that).

I have made a little more progress on the Hippo (by Susan B. Anderson, from Itty Bitty Toys).  I think I just needed a bit of a break from knitting with this yarn and knitting so tightly after the Elefante.  I'm really excited to get this hippo done but I've pushed back my deadline until Christmas.  That way I can actually enjoy the process instead of feeling pressured to give it to my niece soon.

I'm planning on starting a few new projects for Christmas presents so I really need to get moving on the ones I have in progress!