a new project

I spent most of the weekend on a big, exhausting project that didn't involve touching anything fuzzy. I am now in very bitter fiber withdrawal. However, the antidote is coming soon: it's knitting night at Barnes & Noble!
I did take a few minutes off from the madness to start a hat.


It doesn't look very big in the picture, but those are #17 (12.75 mm) needles! I feel like a little kid knitting with these huge things, but it's fun. The yarn is Lion Brand Bolero in Amaretto. It's one of those yarns that attached itself to me and would not let me go home without it. It's really soft, I love the colors, and it was on clearance.
The yarn came with a hat pattern, but the pattern involves knitting a few extra rows, gathering the fabric and tying it with a string, and leaving the extra rows sticking out above the gathered part. So you have this weird tuft of extra fabric sticking out the top of your head--I don't think so. So I followed the directions for the first three rows (k2p2 rib), but I stopped paying attention and did an unauthorized fourth row of ribbing. Next is supposed to be a bunch of stockinette, which I will try. If I don't feel it shows off the madness of the yarn enough, I'm going to rip it out do garter instead. And then I'm going to wing the end based on a different pattern. Also, I forgot to do the gauge swatch--I was too excited about casting on for my first real project. (I don't count the scratchy yellow learn-to-knit thing, which is still not finished and even when finished will probably never be used for anything.) So I got carried away, cast on 42 stitches, and started ribbing away. Then I realized my gauge is probably way loose and the hat will be all wrong. Well, I threaded a piece of yarn through the stitches, took it off the needles, and wrapped it around my head, and so far it seems like it will be just right. Yay! Now, it is March in Alabama, so it will be about nine months before I see any weather remotely conducive to wearing this hat, but so what?
Speaking of spring, it was cloudy and a bit chilly this weekend, so it was the perfect time to give the newly completed shawl to its intended recipient.


She loved it. I dreamed up and made a beautiful thing, I gave it to a truly delightful person, and she adores it. This is life at its best.