First Hats

The other day I came across the first two hats that I ever knit, so I thought I would share them with you. I used patterns from the book "45 Fine & Fanciful Hats" by Anna Zilboorg.

This book is great! It features 9 different hat styles, each with several different designs. There are ... Angela Hats, Berets, Cones, Egyptian Hats, Onion Domes, Pentagons, Stacked Hats, Stars, and Toques.

The first hat I have to show you is Cone Hat #2 made with Lion Brand Chenille. I must admit this yarn was not the best choice to work with for my first hat and my first attempt at Fair-aisle knitting. It worms terribly!!! It was constantly kinking, and twisting up on itself. Some of the areas where the yarn did this eventually relaxed so there are little bits of yarn sticking out here and there. I really love the overall effect the yarn gives, though. I knit this hat probably about 10 years ago and it was my absolute favorite hat to wear for several years.

The second hat came out perfectly. It is Beret #2 knit with Lion Brand Wool-Ease. I'm really happy about how this hat came out but unfortunately, because of the partial wool content of the yarn, I'm unable to wear it. I'm thinking of making some more hats out of this book, possibly with a cotton-blend yarn. Hmmmm.....Time to cast on!!!

On Not Knitting

I haven't been knitting all that much lately! September and October were very busy for me. When school began, I started working days again as a babysitter and continued to work nights at the store. When not completely exhausted, I would knit just a few rows here and there. I did manage to finish the knitting on two sweaters (SWTC's Pulling My Chain and Zady's Scaredy Bat Sweater) but now that I've come to the point of finishing them, I'm procrastinating. I also knit up a new Frankenstein's Monster Washcloth for Zady in Peaches & Creme (olive green) and one for his friend Jaeden in Lion Brand Cotton-Ease (lime) just in time for Halloween. Around this time, I decided to splurge on myself and ordered some Cashmere yarn from Yarnzilla.com . I plan on knitting something for myself for a change and could not resist this scarf pattern made with Jojoland Cashmere. I also got a skein of Artyarn's 1-ply cashmere because it was half price! When you think about it, $30 is not bad for a cashmere scarf.


In November, I found myself with a lot of time on my hands but I just did not feel like knitting. A few weeks ago I had to have emergency surgery because of an ectopic pregancy. Everything happened very quickly and I didn't really have much time to process it at first. I've been recovering both physically and emotionally. Needless to say, I've been in a bit of a funk. I haven't felt like doing much of anything lately. I didn't knit at all for 2 weeks. Then I realized that if I was ever going to feel like myself again, I would have to start knitting. Knitting is such a big part of my daily life... at least it used to be. But I was uninspired. Rifling through my huge pile of unfinished projects didn't help, either. So I started off small, with cloths. Most of them are pretty easy, so they don't require much concentration, and they're quick - instant gratification. Just in the past week I've made 3 from the Monthly Dishcloths group (I'm terribly behind on my Kals) and then decided I could step it up a notch so now I'm making the Moss Grid Towel from Mason Dixon Knitting. I'm using Peaches & Creme for the towel because I have a lot of cotton to use up and I wasn't sure I was going to like the pattern enough to order specific yarn for it. (I'm thinking Knitpicks cotlin, if I decide to make more.) It took a bit of a push, but I do feel like I'm working my way back. I still find myself browsing baby patterns but only because I'm trying to stay positive and hopefull about the future. I've decided not to knit any holiday gifts this year because I'm running out of time and knitting gifts should not be stressful, it should be fun!