nineteen

I'll be on a plane to California in exactly seven days.

And I will get to see my mother for the first time in five months.

This is some serious excitement, friends.

Among all this anticipation, I still managed to finish the Antelope Hat... and start and finish another hat as well. We'll get there, though. So, the Antelope Hat was really fun, and the pattern was well-written and straight forward. The only slightly fiddly part was the crown decreases at the end. I learned something new with this pattern... I learned that I'm not a fan of working yarn overs on double pointed needles. At least I know now. In any event, it's done and I blocked it over a balloon to let the eyelet pattern open up and guarantee sufficient slouchy-ness. I also used waste yarn (basted in a running stitch, and then cinched) along the ribbing to keep it nice and stretchy. I found this little tip in the finishing notes of the Brambles pattern I knit a while back. It really helped! Details are here on Ravelry.

Since I decided it'd be nice to finish more than one item this week, I knit another hat. This hat, named for a fabulous Broadway tune, is called For Good. If you haven't heard the song, go here immediately before reading the rest of this post. The pattern was designed by Megan Williams, one half of the hosts of a super fun knitting videocast, the Stockinette Zombies. Megan and Amy are a straight out of an owl's beak (A HOOT), check it out! Back to the hat... the pattern was designed in remembrance of Megan's sister Melissa, who passed away in 2007. All proceeds from the sale of this pattern are donated to the National Women's Health Network, in Melissa's name. It's great cause to support, and you get a fabulous pattern to knit as well.

I used Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Tweed in Prussian Heather, and it's definitely one of my favorite (super-affordable) yarns. PS - Does "Prussian Heather" remind you of "Prussian Blue" and then remind you of Bob Ross? That's what my little brain did just now. It's a nice, rich blue with some lovely flecks of black and white. Sadly (kinda), I don't have anymore of this yarn in my stash. Looks like some more tweed might be in my future...

I really loved knitting this pattern. It's not complicated, but the finished product is quite impressive. The fit is great, probably since I knit the large, and I will be wearing this tonight. Even if I'm just on my couch. Now, I didn't really care for the crown decreases of the Antelope Hat, but this hat was the exact opposite. The crown decreases (pictured below) were my favorite part of this hat. Kudos to Megan, because this pattern stays interesting until the end, and (in my humble-ish... okay, maybe not that humble... opinion, ahem) looks great! This will definitely be knit again, because it'll make a great gift. And I'm keeping this one. And I'm telling you... It's not going... anywhere. Raveled here.

Oh yes, if you're keeping track, my yarn stash is down to 14 yarns. OKAY?! I'm pretty excited about that.

Also, I started a shawl yesterday, but we'll talk more about that next time.