I was talking to some men not of my generation a few days ago when one of them mentioned that I have a knitting blog. This gentleman looked at me and said something along the lines of, "what’s it about?"
"Knitting," I replied.
Clearly, this was not the answer he was looking for. I don’t think he could imagine what someone could write about knitting that would hold anyone’s attention. So I explained that I showed pictures of my finished projects. That seemed to make more sense.
So I give you an actual. real. finished project. Whoo hoo! Strike up the band because I actually finished something that I can show on the blog. Secret Squirrel projects are nice for the pocketbook, but rough on the blog.
It’s a hat made out of stash yarn. It’s a wool yarn, but the type is a mystery as the ball band was lost. I think I bought the yarn on super discount a while back because I wanted to break out of my blue rut – what I didn’t realize, was that I was only getting into a green yarn rut. The project I bought this for never really peaked my interest and the yarn just sat in my basement. I finally got it out for a little boy’s birthday hat. Now I realize that it’s kind of strange to give a little boy a wool hat in June, even in Northern Wisconsin it’s not that cold. However, I decided that this little boy’s brother got a hat last year for his birthday (his birthday is in November) and it just wasn’t fair if the one child got a hat and the other one didn’t.
The hat is loosely based on Jared Flood’s Turn a Square Hat. It’s my favorite hat pattern as it seems to flatter everyone. I found a gauge that was good for this yarn and just guestimated how many stitches to cast on. I knit purl 2 knit 2 ribbing for about an inch and then changed to stockinette. When it got to be time to decrease, I divided the stitches by 4 and put markers at those four points. Easy peasy. It’s a simple hat that takes very little time to knit (that is, as long as you don’t let it sit for a month before doing the decreases).
By the way, have you heard that the Knitmore Girls podcast is doing a preemie hat design contest? The rules are here. You use leftover sock yarn to knit hats for preemies. The deadline is August 31, so you have plenty of time.
Knitting Up North 