Duh

I have cast on for yet another hat out of some scrumptious yarn I found at Windsor Buttons in Boston. I read the pattern from the 101 Designer One-skein Wonders many times. I swatched. I cast on. the complicated part - the cable band went smoothly even though I knit it while on a play date with (I'm not exaggerating) six 5yo and two 2yo and their moms. I feel like I've had some sort of a breakthrough because I really had memorized the pattern after just a few repeats. (I still have to write down every row to know when to do the cross over for the cable).





Then I started the "easy" part - the crown of the hat. It would have been easy if I could actually follow directions. When a pattern says *k9, do some fancy stuffy, k9* repeat - it does NOT mean k9 do some fancy stuff, k9 do some fancy stuff, k 9, some fancy stuff.... That didn't dawn on me until I was at the end of a 100 stitch row and had three stitches too many (or six stitches too few). Thankfully, it didn't take me long to figure out what I'd done wrong, since I've done that wrong before. We're back in business.





The shiny yarn is Artful Yarns Heavenly -mohair, nylon, acrylic and metallic. It's essentially a strand of mohair plied with a ribbon yarn and a metallic string. The solid is Lamb's Pride worsted, wool and mohair in wild violet.

The book is one of those things that was on my Christmas list but didn't make its way under the tree. I sneaked out after the holidays and played Santa to myself. I'm glad I did. The book is great. There are a lot of fun patterns that are great as is or will serve as fantastic inspiration. The pattern I've chosen for the hat calls for a cotton wool blend. I think the substitution will work out, fingers crossed.

Tomorrow, dh leaves for South Africa to meet with doctors, patients and others involved with a massive HIV/AIDs project. He will be writing about it for Harvard's Website. Thankfully, just as I drop him off, I'm picking up mom (my calvery from Wisconsin) She will be helping me to keep track of all my kids. I'll be helping her finish her purple hat and casting on for a new project.