curled up like a cat on the couch

When I was a little girl, I could spend hours and hours reading. Now, I like to spend long chunks of my winter knitting with some reading mixed in. It's easy to give up my machine this time of year. My sewing room is on the front porch. It's enclosed but drafty... not for the fainthearted.

I get stuck on patterns like I get stuck on songs or albums. I've made six of these hats since right before Christmas, all as gifts. I love the pattern. It's from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson. (This is an aside, but Hoverson's book Last-Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts is wonderful, as well.) The pattern is called Kim's hats and there are several variations of it. These are the roll brim hat. I added a hat topper for the women's hats that isn't in the book. All of them are knit with Manos del Uruguay. I can't tell you how beautiful this yarn is. It's handspun, kettle died by a co-opertive which employs mostly women in Uruguay. The wool is not as soft as a merino, but nearly so. I could work with if for every hat I ever knit. Now I just need to knit one for myself.