Hats off to Done Projects

     

    

    I've been trying to clear up my projects for some more important knits I want to focus on.  I'm pleased I finished two hats this week.  One really easy called The Perfect Hat.  It is.  A very simple Watch Cap with an optional lining of fleece.  I did this one up in a polyester wool blend in bulky called  Vintage Chunky by Berroco in pumpkin that matches the fingerless gloves I made for my daughter.  Being a teen I thought it was more durable and washable than plain wool and it's soft enough it doesn't need a lining.  I'd really like to do this up in a nice %100 wool and line it in the future.  The pattern is just right for pure wool.

      A note, I did loosely block it and I wish I didn't.  It was a perfect size and after blocking on a   smaller bowl than my daughter's head and then on an oatmeal box, with the hat band hanging loosely, it got looser and longer (gravity partially to blame).  Next time no blocking!  It's a frustration I find with wool, blocking for me stretches beyond what I want.  So I wet it again with a water filled spray bottle and have been drying it in front of the electric heater.  A mild blow of heat I'm hoping will restore it.

      My other hat was a Malabrigo splurge to celebrate the New Year's.  I wanted a fun, fast and easy pattern (but it doesn't look it).  I choose Aspenglow Hat and I did it up in a bulky Malabrigo Mecha in the lovely color of Candombe.  It went up fast and was compulsive knitting.  That's the knitting I wanted in my hands all the time.  Immediately I memorized the pattern; every other row knit then the other rows were a combination of slipped stitches purlwise and crossing your yarn in front and alternating with a knit stitch.  These rows alternated with starting with the slip or knit. It makes for a great pattern.  I did start the decreases an inch early than the pattern because I was playing yarn chicken, but I thought it long enough.

   

 

Original design

                                                                       © Lena Mathisson

   I'm really pleased my hat is done and thick and warm and soft.  The winters in Maine are cold (who could of guessed, right?) and when I can I like to walk up the hill when the sun is about to set, up two steep roads to the beginning of the trails for Mt. Battie (maybe I'll be able to do the mountain this summer). When I almost get to the top of the second step road I always turn around to see the horizon.  From one end of my vision to the other is the ocean.  Different blues of seas and sky with islands across the way.  The town looks like a basin that the water should just pour into.  The town of Camden is peaking out.  It always catches my breathe in awe.  And I'm always grateful we're here.

     I just started a Rom-Com I got through Book-of-the-Month club The Dating Plan.  These days Rom-Coms just feel right.  Something to spirit me away.  Only a few chapters in and I love the quirky main character, a geeky mathematic whiz who in the first chapter is at a Conferance and in a hallway is dealing with an aunt with a prospective suitor in tow coming towards her, and at the same time a former boyfriend and former boss (who had just finished a lip lock) trying to get her attention. She then bumps (literally) into another former boyfriend who didn't show up at the prom 10 years ago. To duck out of trouble the old boyfriend kisses her and she introduces him as her new fiancee.  The ploy works to get rid of everyone but obviously the fallout to this situation will be the plot.  The writing is funny and I'm entertained and intrigued and having fun.  Needed distraction after reading the news, which can be a bit overwhealming.

Come Join Us at Unraveled Wednesday

Last week below the Camden Amphitheater on a cold, but beautiful walk with my daughter.