The Aspenglow Hat for the New Year

      

     Our local yarn store The Cashmere Goat was open on New Year's Day.  It's down by the wharf on a beautiful street in Camden.  I haven't explored the length of the street and I don't even know what the rest of that side of town looks like yet.  Covid makes exploring not so fun.  But I've visited the yarn shop since it reopened under a new owner since the summer.  Having such lovely yarn just literally down the road is a treat.  Especially one well-stocked with Malabrigo yarn!  I could stare at it forever.  So of course if I'm just buying something as an excuse to visit and to celebrate the New Year it has to be Malabrigo. 

Aspenglow Hat 

    Before I left home I had a new pattern downloaded Aspenglow Hat and a general idea of what I needed.  Of course, when I hit the yarn shop I am always overwhelmed with the choices and it took some help from the friendly owner to get what I came for.  I'm literally like a deer in headlights in that shop.  Most of my life I have shopped at Walmart or Joanns and Michaels over the years.  More recently KnitPicks made yarn affordable.  Buying expensive yarn (for me with 3 kids and husband) wasn't an option.  I always weighed things opposed to buying a gallon of milk.  The milk won out.  Later, as the kids have grown and left I realized one skein of sock yarn from Malabrigo could last me a month of joy creating a shawl.  Surely that's cheaper than going to the movies.  But times change and I can afford the luxury of buying good yarn now.  Especially if you're spending so much time on a project, it does seem worth it.  But I never will lose my appreciation for being able to stand in a yarn shop and make a choice.  That's why I stare.  Always like a kid in Candyland.

     Finally with Malabrigo Mecha in the color Candombe in hand I rush home and cast on.  I'm actually juggling several late Christmas gifts finishing up, a sweater for me and one Hoodie for my son, but this won out.  With visions of a warmer head, the hat has been finding it's way into my hands.  I'm so pleased with the results.  The colors in the yarn really are shown off in this pattern and the pattern so easy!  A simple alternating rows of knit and a slip-a-stitch purlwise, then a knit row.  You can get a rhythm to it and it grows fast.  Note I did cast on with a Long-tail cast on feeling the German cast on beyond my patience at the time, but it seems fine to me and plenty stretchy.  When done I hope to top it with a pom pom made of the rest of the yarn.

     Lately, I've been finishing the last books in the "Outlander" series.  My absolute favorite books.  I started reading them way back when the books came out.  Well, when the 8th book came out 4 years ago I made a promise to myself I wouldn't read it till I had gone over the whole series again.  I got the Audible "Outlander" and listened to that as I knitted one summer month years ago, but besides starting the second book I didn't keep on reading.  Then the TV show came out and over the years my husband and I watched that.  I started reading and listening to the 6th book - "An Echo in The Bone" because the show takes you up to the end of book 5 and the next book starts after the drowning of a pirate, and he is bobbing in the water.  Have I mentioned this is a very unusual series blending time travel, romance, adventure, history, and great characters?  I think reading the books really highlights the details Diana Gabaldon uses to write.  So I finished the 6th, 7th and now 8th book "Written In My Own Heart's Blood" and not wanting to leave her books I downloaded the 4th book "The Drums of Autumn" and maybe by the time I get through that and the 5th book: "The Fiery Cross" I might circle back to the original "Outlander" book.  Word through posts on FB and Diana Gabaldon's website is she has finished writing the 9th book (there are 10 books planned) and now the editing process will begin (which can take a long time, outlined on her site).  But there are sneak peeks of her new book "Go Tell the Bees that I Am Gone" at her website.

     Yesterday I also stacked up 5 books to go through and decide on which one to read.  I belong to The Book of The Month club and have a well-stocked bookshelf of new books (years ago I decided I wanted a bookshelf with books to read, not just books that have been read).  I love BOTM books because they usually stretch me to read really good literature, but often out of a genre I would think to choose.  I picked up the book "The Beauty in Breaking" by Michele Harper, a memoir and I haven't put it down yet.  It's a tough one but I think very appropriate for this year.  It is her experiences in her life and as a head ER doctor.  It seems a good read for a year of deep tragedy for many to read of beauty found in difficulties.  It is also a book of overcoming coming out of an abusive childhood; a divorce and being a black female doctor.  This one is going to be good.  The writing already has me.

Here's to your New Year

 and

 hope you all stay

 happy and safe!