Lucky Me!

One of the benefits of a serious stash organization effort is that you find all kinds of stuff that you may have forgotten. One of the things I found the other day is the very beginning of a hat I started to make for the Drama Queen last fall. It was one of those things where I took a book out of the library and liked a bunch of stuff so I showed it to DQ and let her pick out something she liked. Big mistake! Naturally, she chose a hat that was way over my head (pun intended).

This is called the Triple Patterned Watch Hat (from a book I can’t recall) and, when I pulled it out on Monday night, I had only completed 2 rows beyond the cast on. That’s it! Looking at it reminded me of how I sat with that pattern forever and just couldn’t figure out how it worked. I read it forwards and backwards and it made no sense to me. Monday night, I pulled out one of the 2 rows I completed last fall and started knitting. After a few hours this is what I have. It’s Fair Isle and I usually stay away from that because of tension issues but so far I think this looks ok. If anything it may be a touch too loose but that's better than too tight - right? I took my copy of Vogue Knitting and read the tiny section on FI to get a little help on carrying the yarn properly. I’m still not sure I’m doing it right though.

Just like with Lily, this is making perfect sense now although I know it was totally confusing before. I didn’t realize that my understanding of knitting had changed so much. Maybe it’s just a case of fresh eyes seeing things differently. Whatever the reason, this hat is moving right along and actually stands a chance of being completed before the weather gets really cold. Imagine that! I may get a project finished just in time for it to be useful.

Aside from the huge progress that I’m making on all of these old UFO’s I had another reason to be super happy yesterday. Actually, I had two reasons – I won 2 contests. I rarely win anything and usually, when I do, it’s not something that I’d actually buy. You know what I mean? Sometimes you win something and it feels really good to win but the prize itself isn’t something super exciting – like a mug, or a logo t-shirt you’d never wear. Not this time! This time I won stuff that has me totally stoked! First, I won the contest that One Crazy Fiber Lady was having in honor of her 2000th comment. I can’t even imagine 2000 comments. That sounds huge. Anyway, if you look on the page there is beautiful pink and green yarn that’s coming my way. Woo hoo! Then, I found out that I won Susan’s contest over at I’m Knitting as Fast as I Can. She sent me a copy of her new pattern for the Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl. I was just talking about that pattern with a friend over the weekend and now I have a copy. Hooray!