Yarn and Kids

A couple weeks ago, Keenan spent the weekend at our house. He arrived sporting a scarf he had finger knit for himself.

When the girls saw it, they were impressed, and he offered to teach them how to make their own. Lucky for them, I have a lot of yarn laying around.

Here's Keenan giving a demonstration.

And here's Dana working on hers.

Nora thought it was the perfect time to get out her knitting needles and work on her scarf.

This was a happy night for me, watching the three kids so quietly and intently working on projects.

Yes, Another Hat

It's safe to say I have been a little hat crazy lately. I have knit at least eight hats this winter, with yarn for two more at home. The joys of knitting a hat are so many! I have tried new techniques, like lace, on something small and manageable. And hats knit up so quickly, so it is pretty close to instant gratification. And most hats (at least, the ones I've been making) use a single skein of yarn, so I can try fancier yarns without going broke. Plus, in this frozen tundra I live in, my family and friends are always happy for a stylish new toque. After all, we require hats 13 months out of the year.

My aunt emailed me right before Christmas and said that her and my mom's cousin was diagnosed with colon cancer and is going through chemotherapy. She knows I have made some chemo caps, so she asked if I might make one for him. And so I did. I used my favorite yarn of late: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran. I may have mentioned this yarn before as I have used it for several projects. It is as soft as a cloud and completely itch free, though it is 55% merino wool. I didn't have enough of any one color in my stash, and I have trouble finding this yarn locally, so I thought it was a great opportunity to work with stripes. Not that stripes are new to me, but I have been trying new techniques with striping.

I mailed this soft, stretchy hat off today. I hope it makes this time a little more bearable for him. I am so glad my aunt asked me to knit this!

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!