Mad for Plaid

I once had a co-worker who saw my plaid socks (very tame grey on black) and said, “Oh Jess, those socks are so Mod Squad.”
Taken aback, I admitted that Mod Squad was before my time and as such I wasn’t sure if that was a compliment or a critique. She just smiled. To be honest, I’m still not sure. But I’ll admit, I do like plaid.

After all, I was a teenager in the 90’s.

So when the Spring 2016 Knitscene Magazine came out with a plaid hat, well I needed to make it. I couldn’t make it the way it was written though, because I’ve got a hat knitting contest going on. I needed to make a baby sized version of the hat.

I cast on 63 stitches and otherwise followed the pattern as written for the stripes and the crochet slip stitch vertical strip. Then I promptly cast on a 2nd one with another slight modification or two. (Because why would I knit a pattern as written twice in a row? That’s just not me.)

For those of you who might be counting, I have 6 baby hats done for the contest. Lily has 1.5 done.

But Wait, There’s More….

I absolutely fell in love with a new pattern. It’s the Jijuka Cowl from Brooklyn Tweed. I’m going to start a Knit-a-long for anyone that wants to join me. We’ll start on March 20 and go until people are done. That’s it. No real rules, no end date, no pressure, just knitting. I picked March 20 because it is Palm Sunday, and there’s something very satisfying to me about knitting crosses during Holy Week. It’s also Spring Break for the wee ones and my available knitting time might be slightly more than average that week. At least I can hope, right?

My yarn for the pattern arrived yesterday and now I’m itching to cast on. It’s Brooklyn Tweed Loft, just grippy enough yarn to make color work really enjoyable – and in my favorite color!