Hats!

My apologies to DQ for using such unflattering pictures.

I comitted myself to making a bunch of hats this year so it's a good thing that there is no shortage of cool hat patterns. I saw Foliage in the recent Knitty and I knew I'd be making a few of these. It's such an easy pattern that barely into the first repeat on hat one I was able to put away the pattern and fly through it. These hats are cute too.

This is the first version of Foliage that I knit. The yarn I used was Scoubi Du which is a cotton with a nice cozy feel. It will be a gift for someone with serious wool allergies. As cotton's go, this one wasn't bad and I think that it makes a nice, soft, squishy hat. I hope that she'll like it.

This is the second version that I knit. For this one I used Classic Elite Beatrice in a color called Zinnia Bouquet. This is also a gift and it's on it's way to it's new home as I write this. I wish that I had taken a better picture of it because the yarn was nifty. It's a three ply with ochre, orange and a rust tone. This yarn is really sproingy and goes well with the pattern which, being lacy, has a lot of give.

I can see the leaves and calling this pattern Foliage makes sense but it reminds me a lot of a pineapple. This is especially true when the hat is unblocked and the leaves pucker a little. One thing that concerned me a bit was the open-ness of the hat. I wonder how warm it will be. It seems like this would be more of an issue with the second version which uses bigger needles for the thicker yarn. I think that this hat could be really cool if I knit it with a lining in a contrasting color. I'll have to try that.

Hanukkah starts tonight so this would be a good time to address The List. I'm referring, of course, to the overly ambitious list of holiday knitting that I posted a while ago. I'm knitting the items listed on it at a fairly quick rate but, I have to admit that I don't feel the usual sense of urgency. Full disclosure time - I bought gifts for most of the people on my list and delivered them to the recipients during our trip to NY. Thr trip just seemed like such a great opportunity to avoid the wicked shipping charges and the mad rush at the last minute that I did a whirlwind shopping day the week before we went to NY and finished it all. I'm actually happier than usual with what I got everyone and I can't wait to hear how everyone likes what we got them.

I still want to send hand knits to many of my friends and family but now they're special little extras rather than the only gift so I can knit with less pressure. I can't tell you how happy that makes me.