Oh, hats!

What a week! My poor Pipster has been home sick all week. The doc said she is contagious and he wasn't kidding. Within a few days, hubby was just as sick as she was. I felt sniffly all week, but managed not to get as sick as they have been (yay vitamin C!). But this morning, I woke up feeling yucky. I hope a weekend in bed will take care of that quickly. Let's hope so anyway, because finals start on Tuesday.

I realized over the last few weeks that my posts have been lacking in anything craft related. Before you think I forgot what yarn looks like, I wanted to show you the fruit of my commuting labors.

I wasn't kidding when I said that my yarn stash and I are getting re-acquainted on the bus. Over the last few weeks or so, things have been flying off the needles. Why can't I be this prolific all the time?

This hat will be going to my 16 y/o cousin Kara. I used 1 ball of Vanna's choice yarn and it was more than enough for the hat, with a little left over. This yarn makes a nice, soft squishy hat. You know I love me some squishy! The pattern, which you can find HERE, is an easy one for beginning cabelers.

Because I loved how squishy the blue hat turned out, I dived into my stash to find more Vanna's yarn. I found this lonely variegated ball and used the same pattern. It's definitely just as soft and squishy, but the yarn hides the cabling in the pattern. Oh well... live and learn! This hat will be going to my cousin Zach. He's Kara's brother. Not sure how much she'll appreciate having matching hats with her brother, haha.

This purple set is for my SIL, MaryJane. I found the scarf pattern HERE. I modified it by using only one strand of Wool Ease Chunky. I used about a skein and a half, so there was enough left over for a hat.

Small problem...my SIL doesn't wear hats because she has this super pretty, long hair that she wears in a ponytail when she works. She works outside, so I still wanted to give her something to keep her warm. So, I used the same scarf pattern and made it long enough to fit around my head. I bound off and sewed the ends together. Viola, instant headband! She can keep warm and not have to worry about her ponytail.

This black hat was made for hubby. He's been eyeing the hats flying off the needles and not-so-subtly let me know he needed a new hat. He picked THIS pattern and a lone skein of regular Wool Ease from my stash. Easy peasy!

A few weeks ago, I commented on Bezzie's blog, that I hadn't learned how to change colors in knitting yet. Have you noticed all my knitting has suspiciously been one skein or one color projects? Yeah, I'm a big baby and scared to try changing colors.

After I typed out my comment, I realized how stupid that sounded. It's just a color change! I headed over to knittinghelp.com (love this place, because she answers every knitting question I could ever have) and watched a video on changing colors.

From that, this hat was born. It'll be going to my cousin Ian for Christmas. When I saw him a few months ago, he was still shorter than me. Come Thanksgiving, the kid had sprouted and I had to crane my neck to look up at him.

The gray yarn is Bernat Satin (no ball band, so I think but am not 100% sure) and the black is scraps from a Caron pounder. I didn't use a pattern, just winged it from measurements I took from the other hats. An experienced knitter can figure it out by looking at it, but if any newbs (like me!) want me to write out how much I cast on and when I changed colors, let me know and I'll type it up this week. It was super simple and I should have never been afraid to change colors. What a wuss I've been, haha!

I'm happy to say that all of the yarn I used was in my stash. I didn't have to buy a single ball! Not that my stash looks any smaller...