Monday, October 10, 2011

Mad as a...

As soon as fall peeks around the corner, the first thing I want to knit is a hat. A little hat, to ward off the gentle morning chill and keep my ears from getting cold (oh, how I hate it when my ears are cold). In the Phoenix area, this reflex is perhaps maladaptive: last week's flirtation with 70s has been shoved aside this week for what I hope is the area's last fling with triple digits.

But I am still in hat mode. I finished the Vega beret, but my initial attempt to block it tam-style turned out slightly wonky. Actually very wonky, and the wonkiness was only made apparent by the FO photo shoot images. So alack, everyone will have to wait for the next round of temperate weather to see the results of my attempt to Knit American.

The hat theme continues, however: Querido received for his birthday a Sun Devils Hat!

Specs! Pattern: Bonnet 20, available on Ravelry
Yarn: Cascade Eco Alpaca in light gray, Blue Sky Alpacas Melange in Currant and Saffron
Needles: size 3 and 4 dpns
Mods: at 48 sts, began decreasing for crown every row for a traditional beanie shape, rather than the design's intended point.

After a few false starts resulting from my Gauge Issues, this pattern knitted up wonderfully quickly, and the yarn is oh-so-ever-so soft. The idea is that my dear one, a hard core Sun Devils fan, can wear the hat to football games. You never know, there might be a freak snowstorm in Tempe one Saturday night. It would be irresponsible not to prepare for such a contingency. And as a backup plan, he can wear it out of town, and be wonderfully visible in a snowdrift...or at the center of a crowd of fans of some other PAC-12 team. Erm.

I would like to point out that this hat also used very little yarn, a smidge more than 110 yards, so I now have maroon and gold yarn in my stash. In other words, varsity colored yarn in my stash. Enough for at least two more hats. Such is the madness of knitters with romantic attachments.

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