2016 seems to be the year of the hat for me.
Hats are straight forward. They are quick to make (relatively), they are very portable, and satisfying. They are great for single skeins of yarn (which we all have too many of) and can be very soothing.
The year of hats started with a hat to try out a new-to-me fiber: Mohair. Mohair takes dye very well, has a lot of shine and apparently wears like iron. I was tempted by a pretty skein at Wool Gathering and it grew into this hat, called Wurm. And the leftover yarn was completely exhausted by the epic pompom on the top!
Another single skein snuggled its way into a hat for the 25,000 Toques project: a drive to provide a new hat for every Syrian refugee that would be welcomed into Canada this year. This hat turned out too small for what I would consider an adult hat, so I tagged it as a older child hat and sent it off. Apparently, most of those admitted were families with children, so the child hat would definitely be used. I hope it’s keeping a new Canadian warm right now.
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| Modeled by a stuffed cow, because it looked ridiculous stretched over my head! |
Next, I killed a leftover partial skein improvising this little hat for my friend’s son. He has the most rich skin tone and sometimes the yarns just whisper to me, ‘Look at how lovely I’ll be next to Gabriel’s little cheeks…’ and then I have to knit another hat for the kiddo. We don’t get to see him that often, but hopefully, he’ll grow up knowing me as his knitting auntie.
A beautiful single skein from a gift swap had been begging to be knit into the Sitka Spruce hat for some time. I knit one of these previously and the twisted stitches wreaked havoc on my gauge; it was child sized and got donated, too! I couldn’t find any reason to put off this one any longer, so cast it on and finished it in a few days. This one will be all for me!
I bought this yarn without a reason. It was fun and pretty and I wanted it. After a few months of having it, though, I still had no good ideas of what to do with it. (Present Donita wants Future Donita to remember this is what comes of being impulsive at the LYS.) While cruising Ravelry one day, I saw a most beautiful Rikke hat that someone else was working on and immediately became convinced I *needed* to make one. And quickly realized it *needed* to be out of this yarn. It worked out. (Past Donita is feeling especially smug about this in retrospect…)
I love Alana Dakos’ patterns. They are so pretty and delicate and feminine without being fussy. And smart! I can’t resist them. And I love doing them in colors that resemble nature: browns, greens, reds. Unfortunately, I can’t always wear the yarn I fall in love with for a specific pattern. In that case, sometimes I buy it anyway and put it in the gift bin for later!
This was the case with Ferns and this lovely skein of MadTosh. I mean, really? Who can resist this?
The above scenario played out again with Forest Floor. But this hat already has a recipient lined up and ready to go.
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| Meet Rosalita – my new glass head, made in Spain |
Another hat, for the same gift, happened to come with matching mittens, which is my favorite kind of matchy-matchy.
The hubs liked this hat so much, he strongly implied he would like one, too. He might get one, eventually, and out of this yarn, after I noticed how nicely it looked next to his eyes.
This November has been trying, and after kicking around the idea of doing a very unorganized knit-along, some gals on Rav & I decided the aftermath of the U.S. Presidential election was the *perfect* time to have some soothing, meditative knitting. And the Sockhead Hat fills the bill every time. I’ve already knit a handful, but some of them were gifts and some of them were different colors, and you know what – don’t judge me.
So, this pretty skein of autumnal goodness is going to become another Sockhead hat.
Sorry, not sorry.
Donita Westman 