If it's December I must be making another Very Warm Hat
Yes, another Very Warm Hat.
And here is where it is now:
I will post a photo where there is a ruler for reference. (Well, I was about to take a photo when my husband appeared asking me where his- yes- Very Warm Hat was. He really loves it. Yay. After the hundreds of hats I knit him I finally hit on a success story. And off he goes into our first snow storm of the season, with a Very Warm head 👍)
In the interest of full disclosure, I actually started this one in November. The plan was to send it to my oldest son, in time for him to wear it in Alaska. (He rarely asks for things. He mentioned that "that hat you made for dad... and for Mark... sure would be useful." Siren call for a knitter!! Plus, seriously, woman, you haven't made one for him yet???). ** see very end for how this turned out...
We won't think about the fact that son #3 is currently living in the Boston area and could probably use one, also. Especially if I made it mildly supportive of the Yankees (which might cause my knitting needles, or at least my head, to explode. Sigh. The things we do as moms). He loves to flaunt his Yankee-fan-dom in the face of all those Red Sox fans. Whatever. Back to the present hat.
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| Not long after picking up stitches to knit the other direction |
What with some other very demanding and pushy things (including Thanksgiving for which I cooked almost non-stop for 5 days), I made slower progress than I hoped.
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| 9 December state of the hat |
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| With the present knitting shoved inside so you can see the first half of the hat. |
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| As you can see, this is one seriously long hat. It is modeled a bit more on Meg Swansen's Dubbelmossa because I decided a young man wandering around Fairbanks, Alaska for several years might appreciate some serious layers of wool and alpaca over his ears. |
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| Gratuitous picture of our dog, to whom all rakes are an abomination-to-be-attacked. This particular rake, as you see, has had it's actual rake tines surgically removed (by our dog, of course...) |
OK, so, specifics. I am using Karabella Aurora 8 in a cadet-blue color, and doubled alpaca from a tiny place somewhere in British Columbia (the tags fell out of the balls, so I am temporarily data-free. But I think the tag even has the names of the animals from which the alpaca came. Lovely yarn.)
The alpaca is fingering weight (I previously knit a shawl from the off white one).
I also held a strand of supposedly-mink-yarn (also fingering weight) with a strand of the brown alpaca for a bunch of the first half-- I thought Duncan might like that softness against his ears. After the mink brouhaha, I am not totally sure it really is mink, but whatever- it is warm and soft and nothing I can do now about its makeup... (Mink brouhaha, also see here and here and here... I do want to say, caveat emptor with regards to anything coming from China. Seriously. I am not saying, don't buy it, just saying, be aware and don't be too trusting.)
Whoops, short term almost-soap-box. Sorry.
Anyway, whatever is in the yarn, it is mighty soft so I am using some of it in this hat. Plus the paler brown softens the contrast between brown and off white, and I think looks good with the blue.
** You might be wondering about the get-this-hat-to-my-son push.
He is currently enroute to Alaska in his Subaru CrossTrek (which he apparently loves) -- via Colorado Springs to see his brother, and Montana where he got his car winterized, and Calgary where he's meeting up with a friend to caravan, and then... British Columbia and Yukon Territory, and on to Fairbanks, Alaska.
(In December.)
Since I have the unfinished hat in my hands it is clearly not on his head.
So I blew that.
I am hoping he will give me a mailing address pronto when he gets up there, so I can ship it to him.
Finally, and this is a real blessing, the weather for the next week or so, all along his driving route, is not forecast to be bitter cold. Yay!
His much-loved-by-his-mom head should be fine. And I am getting this thing Done and Mailed Pronto. :)
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