two very different hats

I usually try to avoid grand, sweeping, generalizations. However, in this instance, I feel pretty safe in saying that for the continent of North America this winter has been one mean mother f*cker! Okay, okay... I actually have no idea what's going on in the Pacific Northwest, and I'm pretty sure California is making out okay... but for the rest of us this has been a brutal one! Usually February is the month that I try to coax my northern friends into visiting me, since they're typically just recovering from their third flu of the season, and our weather tends to be perfect for talking about every aspect of your life while sitting at an outdoor cafe. But this year, forget it! Ya'll just stay put! Don't let the sunshine, greenery, or my lipstick in these pictures fool you. It's cold!

Also... the heat in my apartment is broken.  This means that I've been spending every evening curled up into the same corner of the couch with a heating pad, Netflix, and something warm to put in my tummy (hot tea, curry... a stiff shot of whiskey... just kidding. I don't drink whiskey. It turns me into a weepy drunk.)  And if this nighttime ritual sounds familiar to you than perhaps you know what else these wintery evenings are perfect for...

Knitting. Yeah, I've been bit hard by the knitting bug! It's the perfect thing to do with your hands while you're listening to Game of Thrones on audio book! What? You don't do that? Well maybe you should try! 

To recap - my amazing, and knitting wiz of a sister taught me how to knit while I was home for the holidays this year.  I immediately started on this first hat - Wiksten's Jul Hat pattern, using the recommended Blue Sky Alpaca Suri Merino yarn in fog (a gift from my Mom and Pop - thanks guys!) It was a great pattern for an utter newbie like me. I found the directions easy enough to follow, I learned a lot while working on it, and I think it delivered a really spectacular finished product! I wear it alot. 

Right after finishing my Jul hat I swung into this Chunky Cable hat - a free pattern from the Purl Bee. I once again used the recommended yarn (I'm not nearly confident enough with this stuff to diverge from the directions) Purl Soho's Super Soft Merino in red zinnia.  I thought this would be a great project to teach myself how to do cables, and I'm pretty happy with the result! I mean, granted, it's kind of a crazy hat, so it doesn't get as much wear as my Jul hat, but it also makes me smile every time I don it.  It definitely turned out huge, despite the fact that I double checked my gauge, but I also think I might have a smaller-than-average-head.  If I were to knit this again I would maybe size down my needles to a size 11 (rather than the suggested 13 - which felt disconcertingly like knitting with baby carrots...) and I might use a smaller needle to knit the first couple rounds of the rib pattern, since it has a tendency to flare at the bottom after several wears.

Neither of these hats are perfect, but, honestly, I'm kind of stupidly proud of them! After these two hats I decided it was time to jump into the deep end, because... you know... sink or swim, right? And as of right now I'm about 6 inches into Brooklyn Tweed's Bedford sweater pattern.  So... at that rate... I should be finished by the time summer arrives, right?

How about you guys? Are you finding the cold weather conducive to knitting? Any big projects on your table?

xx