Cap it off

I just realized that I did it again. I completely missed my blogiversary. I've been keeping up what's turned into a personal crafts journal for eight years now! Every so often I go back and look at early posts and think about how my life has changed (for the better) and about how and when I blog and wonder why I still come back and chime in periodically.

It's kind of strange, to mark your life from the point when you learned to knit, rather than from any other more "important" event. But really, you could pick any point, or no point, start a journal, and then record the changes that happen.  I'm just glad I do, and will continue to do so until Blogger starts charging money or winks out altogether.

 

 

We had a snowy cold spell about two weeks ago, and I found myself wishing I'd already made this hat.  About two years ago, I made one that is similar -- the Icelandic Beret -- and it's nice and warm and looks really cute on.  However, these hats are finished with a single crochet edge, over an elastic cord, to keep them on your head.  This works beautifully, but it's itchy if you do it with Lopi as the pattern calls for.  Then, I got this job with a school whose mascot is a tiger, and I began collecting accessories in appropriate colors.  About a year ago, I accumulated enough Lopi in black, grey and yellow to make this, but it was the recent cold spell that convinced me I needed to get on the lickin' stick and make the hat.

Somewhere on that innocent looking crown lurks a time-space rift.  I cast on the precise number of stitches, followed the pattern exactly, but instead of ending up with eight points to the star, I have nine.  All I can do is shake my head.

But, doesn't it itch?  you ask.  No, it doesn't, because I made the crochet edge with a very fine merino/angora/polymide yarn held double.  It blends in beautifully, and the edge is soft on my skin.  So the next time I need to spend eight (yes, eight) hours shoveling snow so that I can get out of my driveway, I'll have this hat to cap things off while demonstrating my school spirit.

The knitting phase of the felted messenger bag is nearly finished.  Well, technically, it's finished because I've decided to crochet the strap, in hopes of making it thicker and less stretchy than it might be if I knitted it.  I'll take photos of this project before and after felting, just for fun.  As it is now, the bag is big enough that I can use it as a lap blanket!  When it's finished, it should be just big enough to hold a pad portfolio and a pencil pouch, and it will live in my office so that I can just grab it on my way out the door to speed to meetings across campus.