In search of the warmest hat

You may have noticed that over the last few months I have knit a LOT of hats. Not all of them were for me mind you. In fact hardly any were for me, but I do have quite a large selection of hats now. Unfortunately none of them seemed to be up to the job of keeping my head and ears warm whilst going out on my mobility scooter. The main problem seemed to be that when it is really cold I have a sort of rain cover "thingy" that covers the scooter and me. It isn't perfect in its design but it keeps me dry and quite a bit warmer because it keeps the wind out. The main problem with this cover is the fastening and the hood. When you turn your head to check out oncoming traffic before crossing the road, the hood pulls whatever hat you are wearing back or round on your head. Last week when I went out I was actually in pain because my ears were so cold and the rain was coming down in spades so I couldn't rearrange my hood/hat without getting soaked.

So I hatched a plan, a plan that involved a pattern from Simply Knitting Magazine, April 2009 and two skeins of Rowan Cocoon. The pattern I had selected had jumped out at me when I first saw it and it was in my box of ripped out magazine patterns. I originally bought some blue green Cocoon to make the hat but a few months ago someone contacted me and bought them because they needed the exact dye lot to finish a project. Always happy to help a fellow knitter in need I sent her the yarn. I decided to replace the blue green with a dark slate gray colour that matches my Winter Coat. Even though I knew what I was going to do with the yarn (make this hat) I hadn't got round to it because I have a lot of hats. Last week pushed me into reevaluating knitting up the pattern in to a matter of some urgency. Especially as I saw the weather forecast for the coming week - more snow!!!!!

The pattern is by Amanda Crawford and is called "Darling Buds". It has some lovely cabling and bobble detailing on the sides of the hat, that run down over the ear flaps. The ear flaps were what prompted my desire for urgent hat knitting. I thought even if the hat slid back, my ears would still have some coverage.

It is hard to see the stitch pattern as the light wasn't great yesterday - what with the snow and all.

When I tried the hat on, before the pom-pom and cords were attached, my other half stated that I had a bit of a "crazy frog" vibe going on. Thankfully the pom-pom and cords helped alleviate that "look" somewhat.

I'd just like to state for the record Cocoon makes great fluffy pom-poms but the yarn doesn't like being pulled firmly to hold it all together, in fact I had to tie the yarn twice as the first bit of yarn snapped in my hands. I held it double the second time.

I loved making the cords, as I've never had a reason to make them before. They look so sleek and professional looking. I replaced the small pom-poms on the ends of the cord for tassels as I couldn't be bothered to make another two of them. I know it's lazy but I was on a deadline! I needed my hat before I had to go out in the cold.

I feel my plan was a complete success. I don't think I will get cold ears in this hat, but I have yet to try it out with the scooter cover/rain/cold/hat combination. I'll let you know if the cords hold the hat in place, and if they don't whether the flaps still cover my ears. I think if this hat design doesn't work I'll just take to riding around in my sleeping bag, the hood for that is lovely and snug!

Endo Blip

Over the last few months I have been doing really well (well for me anyway, it's all relative). However over the last week I kind of hit a wall. When you are merrily moving along through life at a constant and predictable level of pain it always surprises you when you have a blip. I think it is sometimes harder to cope with pain when you haven't experienced that higher level in a while. When you let yourself relax and start to believe that what you are doing every week is going to be possible in the long term and start to make plans, it is harder to cope with when you are reminded that nothing can be taken for granted.

This week hit me very hard. The pain levels I have had this week are nowhere near what I have had to cope with in the past but I have found it much harder to cope because the pain levels had been so stable. I had several days when I couldn't face doing patchwork because that involved thinking and the pain was interfering with that. So to cope with the pain I dug out my long lost blanket. The blanket is made up of lots of squares, many of which are very simple to knit, and I can slip into the meditative state that knitting without thought induces in me.

This blanket has been ignored for far too long so I worked out what I needed to do in order to finish it. I have made a note of all the squares I need to produce in order to complete the blanket and it is not that many. I have made the decision to work only on the blanket squares when I am knitting in public. I will take the blanket squares as my outside the house knitting. The squares are portable, require not that much thought and quite often I can get a square done in a knitting group session.

By restricting my public knitting to this one project I hope to get the blanket finished before the end of the cold weather. I stopped knitting the blanket last year when it got too hot, so hopefully I can get it finished before that happens again.

In the meantime I will allow myself to knit what I like at home to keep me challenged. That is if there is time left over after I finish my patchwork homework each week. It seems to be taking up lots of my time.

Noro Multnomah

After my success with the Ishbel I think I was light headed with shawl loving glee. I decided to cast on almost immediately for another shawl. I love my comfort shawl and have worn it a great deal during the cold snap we have had this winter. It is snuggly and of course comforting. However, it is very heavy and hot. This is great for Winter, not so great when it becomes milder. This realisation of mine has lead to a plan, a plan for a lighter weight shawl.

I looked at lots of shawl patterns and chose one that was pretty straight forward. I didn't want a repeat of the Ishbel debacle so I wanted a shawl that didn't confuse my poor head. I settled on the Multnomah by Kate Flagg. The yarn I used is Noro Kureyon Sock yarn and I decided to use 2 skeins of it.

I love Noro yarn. I may have stated that just a few times before. I love the colours and the natural feel to the yarn. It feel "authentic" somehow and I just wish it didn't cost so darn much so I would use it all the time. Using Noro sock yarn is my way of circumnavigating the hideous cost of the yarn. At around £10 each skein the shawl becomes an affordable luxury, unlike making a full size garment.

Like the comfort shawl this pattern is based around the feather and fan stitch pattern, but starts with a garter stitch portion until the required stitch count is reached. I decided to make a large shawl, rather than a shawlette so I started with enough stitches for 10 pattern repeats on each side of the shawl.

I like the way the ends of the shawl curl around, so it sits on the shoulders more easily. One thing I don't like about the comfort shawl, if I want it wrapped tightly around my shoulders, I end up with a collar on my shawl.

I love the colours in this yarn. They are bright and zingy and are destined to cheer me up on a damp Spring or Autumn morning. They look like sherbet sweets to me and particularly remind me of "Striper" bars that I used to eat after swimming as a child.

I have managed 44 rows of the feather and fan pattern which means I have 13 pattern repeats on either side of the shawl. The pattern is getting a little bit more tricky and a couple of times I have almost resorted to a glass of wine to calm my tattered nerves. However despite a couple of wobbly moments it is progressing well.

Hopefully in a couple of weeks I will have more to show you.