Definitely the Year of the Hat

I didn't really plan for 2021 to be Year of the Hat, but that is how it's shaping up so far. After finishing Daedalus, from Woolly Wormhead's Imperceptions collection, I rested my hands for 12 whole days. 

12 days of no knitting at all - it was so disconcerting!!! 

I decided it wasn't making my hands better, so I broke my fast by casting on another design in the series. Meet Circe:

I picked these colors from my sock yarn stash. They remind me of moss or lichen on rock, one of Mother Nature's perfect and beautiful combinations. The greenish-gold yarn is leftover from a pair of fingerless mitts, and I broke into an unused skein for the gray yarn.

This design was a little more complicated than Daedalus. First, note the braid between the ribbing and the main part of the hat. Also, the gorgeous labyrinthine design is achieved by moving the start-of-round on almost every round (just by one stitch). It's really ingenious and I love the result. Plus, I busted a bit more stash!

This kind of stranded colorwork REALLY benefits from a nice, long soak in wool wash. Here is the hat after finishing but before blocking - definitely lumpier and bumpier than the finished version:

Circe doesn't have a home yet. I'm sure its owner will reveal themself to me.

Partway through knitting Circe, I realized that I really wanted my ebook to be a physical book. The ebook collection contains a lot of reference material on techniques (like the lateral braid) that would be handy to have in print. I don't like swiping through a pdf on my tablet while knitting. I decided to have my campus shop print and bind the Imperceptions ebook along with another Woolly Wormhead collection called Elemental into one handy, spiral-bound book for personal use. The print shop did a great job. (Local folks, they take personal jobs and their work is great!) 

While I plan to return to the remaining designs in Imperceptions, I knew it was time to begin an Elemental hat. These are completely different. They are worked flat and knit side-to-side; there will be grafting in the end. The organic shapes are created with German short rows. The specified yarn is DK weight. DK is not a weight I typically buy, so I splurged a little and bought some Buoy DK on sale from Hipstrings in Pittsburgh. They are known for their interesting fiber blends - this wool blend is 37.5% Blue Faced Leicester, 37.5% Shetland, and 25% Manx Loaghtan. I'm making the Toph hat. Here's what it looks like after one pattern repeat:

You can see the provisional cast-on in blue yarn at the bottom. I will work this pattern eight times before grafting. The top of the hat is on the left, the brim is on the right. It's fun to make something so different. I will have enough red yarn left over to be the contrast color on another hat, and I have a full skein of a bluish-green to pair it with on another design in the book. Hats for 2021, who saw that coming?!??

I will leave you with something hat-adjacent that is making me very happy right now. I bought one of those shoe organizers that you hang on a closet door and put it inside the coat closet by the front door. This is where all our winter accessories now live - scarves, hats, mittens and gloves. I am so pleased by how easy it is to see everything and grab just the right piece. I can't believe it took over 20 years of living in this house to make this improvement.

I got an organizer made out of fabric rather than plastic, as plastic always get brittle and breaks, leaving sharp edges that would threaten our knitwear. I LOVE IT.

Tomorrow the calendar turns over to March, the month we all started staying home last year. I'm definitely feeling the encroaching anniversary. I'm happy to report that my parents have received both of their vaccination doses.