A BELATED XMAS PRESENT

After knitting on this day and night I finally got my son's hat done,

sadly,

3 days after Christmas.

So what to do for Xmas Day?

I wrapped it beautifully Christmas Eve with the knitting needles still in the rim.

When he opened the box Xmas morning his first reaction was what's this

because the springy needles popped right out of the box lid at him.

Hee hee 

But he was surprised and loved it!

Yay!!!

It also needed blocking and drying,

for another 3 days of work.

So off to the post office it will go on Monday morning to his home in the Valley,

just in time for his skiing adventure next weekend.

I received a really nice comment about the colors in this hat,

so I thought I'd show and talk about my process.

I first asked my son's wife what colors she thought he'd like. 

 She told me blue and some greens.

So I pulled this leftover multi blue-green ball from my stash.

Then I began looking deeply at it to see any other colors.

I noticed a rich dark brown, and those light shades of green.

And buried deeply was a tiny tad of burnt brick.

Do you see it in the photo above?

I also like to use different values when composing a project like this

 from a dark dark to a light light.

Then after I'm happy I take a pix

 and look at it in my gallery of photos on my phone.

That gives the illusion of depth as if I'm looking at the colors from far away.

I used to tell my students to squint at their color choices and designs

 from a distance.

It really helps to see balance, texture and value.

The pix above was actually the last one I shot.

There were 4 other color choices 

but seeing them all on my phone helped me to chose this one.

We continue to get more rain and snow

and the ground just keeps soaking it all up.

I believe we are officially out of our drought. 

Finally after so many years of water conservation.

Enjoy your new hat Zach,

hopefully for another 30 years.

And it's ok to ditch the old one.

LOL

DID I MENTION...

that I saw the perfect winter knit hat on the Knit Stars newsletter last week?

The pattern calls for using up your scrap yarns in a fingering weight,

holding them double with a slip stitch design to get a marled look.

How could I possible resist? 

Love using up leftovers from other projects.  

The pattern is from a new designer,

 Ross Taylor of Twisted Ambitions Yarn.

The sweet backstory is I knit the ugliest hat for my son 

out of nasty acrylic yarns when he was a young pup.

This was before I knew about the natural fiber world of knitting yarns.

Anyways,

my son Zach recently told me he still wears that hat

 when he goes to the mountains skiing with his wife and friends.

Oh nOOOOOOOOOOO.

I was so touched that he still even has it,

 let alone wears it as a 34 year old adult.

Ha ha

What a wonderful boy I have.

Anyways I was so embarrassed for him 

and I've been looking for the perfect pattern and found it.

Even got his wife's approval on pattern and colors.

Below is Ross Taylor in his hat and the colors he used.

Pretty cool, 

huh?

 

I've been knitting on it everyday at stop lights as I run all my Xmas errands,

while waiting in line at stores,

and while waiting on my husband at his doctor appts.

I'm also trying to work on my Advent Scarf at night,

so that the hat is my daytime project.

It calls for a 6" brim that folds over to 3".

Because he recommends a 1 by 1 Twisted Rib pattern 

it's taking me FOREVER to get to 6",

but hopefully once there it should be smooth sailing as it decreases in size.

Wish me luck!