Two Friends are Better Than One

One of my most awesome work friends (hi Kate!) is super fun and crazy and always makes me laugh.  She isn't a fiber-crafty lady, but she good-naturedly puts up with my own craft insanity.  Recently she pointed me toward a cool crafty blog by another friend of hers from BC, Fig Cottage.  Turns out the lovely lady who writes this blog recently posted her first published pattern, a cute little toque called Kitimat.  I decided it might be a neat idea for me to knit one for myself (newbie knitwear designers gotta look out for each other, after all) but then I had an even more brilliant idea: why not knit one for Kate, then it's like a crazy mashup of two of her fibery friends, one who designed it and one who knit it.

I used Patons Classic Wool - when I saw this fantastic greeny yellow colour (called Lemongrass) I couldn't say no to it, and I thought it looked pretty awesome (dare I say "modern"?) with the dark grey mix.  Of course a huge pom pom is a must.

What matters most is that Kate loved it.

Urban Hat

There is a famous pullover pattern by Patons, the Urban Aran pullover: Jared took it viral several years ago by altering it into a cardigan. Funny thing is that there is a hat in that booklet that goes with that pullover (it's in the photo, if you look.) It isn't even on Ravelry, so if anyone bothered to knit it, they haven't been bragging about it.

What can I say: I am a wimp, in wintertime.
I spend six months of the year shivering, with chattering teeth, bundled up under layers of woolens. Even though it hasn't gotten terribly cold, yet, I have felt the impending winter. Wind has been squeaking past my legion of hats, to chill my ears. I decided to do something about it, and I remembered this Urban hat. I had a couple of skeins of Berocco's worsted weight alpaca in my stash, and thought that surely a double layer of ribbing made of alpaca, knit at a nice tight gauge, would be sure to keep out the wind.

Mmmm nice and snug.