Hat frenzy

I usually pick up my knitting about one week in 20. That I am still going strong, 3 weeks in, is simply amazing. But I'm in hat-mode this week, and I still haven't touched those socks.

Sarah requested a dark purple hat this week. I pulled out the plum-colored yarn but she insisted it was missing something. Digging through my stash, she claimed the teal yarn. Plum and Teal. I tried to talk her out of it, but she insisted it was what she wanted. The child has amazing taste. I can't believe what she is able to see in her mind's eye long before it takes shape.

She picked "grape" and "celery" last year and, again, I tried to talk her out of it, not realizing that she knew what she was talking about. I need to have this child choose my wardrobe. She has the knack for it.

The Projects

I've been on a knitting frenzy this week. The kids and I have been snuggling on the couch, listening to a lecture by The Teaching Company, called Reason and Faith: Philosophy in the Middle Ages, which I was thrilled to discover in our library. It's been way over the girls' heads, but they've enjoyed coloring while the boys enjoyed listening.

While listening, I've also been knitting and finishing projects. I apparently really like to start projects, but not so much with the finishing. I hadn't touched my yarn since we went on vacation this summer. When I pulled it back out, I realized I hadn't finished the last five minutes of a sock. Once that was finished, I hunted up more yarn and discovered other socks that hadn't been finished. Once these were complete, I realized the job still wasn't done because out of all of those socks, only one actually had a match that had ever been knitted. 

In case you are interested in trying socks, this book helped me make my first sock. After it, I found a tutorial online at KnitPicks.com. Kelly's free sock class is incredible. It takes you step by step with videos so you can watch each step instead of trying to interpret written instructions. Here are the socks I finished up (and a mitten.)

I decided to save the project of knitting matching socks for another day and pulled out unfinished hats. I have no idea why I never finished them because hats are so easy to whip up. I didn't think so until I found this book and now I LOVE them. They are easy to bring together in a day. This book says it is for baby hats, but it shares sizes for bigger kids and is easy to transfer, even to adult cast-ons. CUTE stuff and so easy to follow! Here is a post about the first hats I knitted, using this book. And here is one of the hats I finished yesterday. There was one more, but I gave it away last night before I remembered to take a picture.




And here is my latest project. This one is a hat for Ethan. It is the silkiest yarn ever. It is the first stuff I've bought from Knitpicks and I love it.

We're taking a trip this weekend, so I should have hours in the car to get in some more knitting before I forget it for another 3 months.