The Inauguration Hat

I have spent a lot of time knitting things for people. And every time I pick up the needles, the girls ask what I am knitting and who it is for. And they inevitable ask why I am not knitting something for them. Ah, the guilt! Since I have knit not one but two hats for Dana this winter, it was Nora's turn.

I showed her some patterns on Ravelry, and she chose this one, titled "Lace-Edged Women's Hat." Next, we looked through yarn colors. Nora was adamant that she wanted a blue hat. I, being ever cautious, showed her many options in pink and purple. She reminded me again and again that she wanted blue and finally settled on this color, called Ballad Blue. It isn't that I love pink and purple ( I am so very tired of these colors). It's just that they have been Nora's favorite colors forever, and I want to make sure she loves the hat and wants to wear it.

I had some, um, problems making this hat. I won't bore you with the details. I will just tell you that I learned two frustrating lessons: 1) ALWAYS DO A GAUGE SWATCH, and 2) When knitting a delicate lace pattern, make sure you are wide awake and not distracted by a lovely 3 year-old who desperately wants to grab your needles while you are counting stitches. I ripped this hat out five times. It got old much sooner than that.

I finally successfully cast on last night. I focused hard on the lace pattern, actually saying the name of each stitch out loud as I worked: "Knit one, yarn over, slip one, knit two together, pass, yarn over, knit two." It took a while as I was very deliberate with my work, for good reason. And this morning, while I watched the inauguration, I knit the rest of the hat, meaning MOST of the hat. So I have coined it the Inauguration Hat. I know that I will always remember this as the hat I knit while I watched the festivities. Plus it's blue. And when Nora got home from school, she tried it on and thought it was beautiful. And not itchy!