More Knitting

I bribed James with a peanut butter sandwich to get him to model the hat I made to give as a gift to someone else. He didn't put down Heinlein's Starship Troopers, but he did get up, go outside and wear the hat. (Did you know Starship Troopers is on the reading list of all the U.S. military academies?)



This is the Ribbed Cap from One Skein Wonders, though it took a skein and a half of Lion Organic Cotton in the naturally occurring "bark" color. I'm having mixed feelings about the yarn. It was very, very splitty--possibly number two on the "Most Splitty Yarns I Have Ever Used" list. However it makes up for that by being very soft and full of organic goodness. A Ravelry-er who made a baby sweater with it said she hated the yarn because it didn't wash well and lost its shape. That makes me anxious, because no-one wants to give a self-destructing gift, and I bought more of this yarn with the intention of making other gifts. (I bought some of it during a "buy 2 get 1 free" sale--original price $6.99, then got more on clearance at about $3/skein.) The investment in yarn isn't insignificant, and if I spend the time to make a sweater out of it and looks like a dishrag after a couple of washings, I'll be very upset.


Audrey was wearing a store-bought knit headband, and saying she liked it very much and it kept her head warm, so I should make her some more. Here is my first one:



The yarn was one of the single skeins I got for $1 at the yarn yard sale. It is Rio De La Plata kettle-dyed handspun from Uruguay in "Gold Fusion." The original price was $13. The yarn behaved very well while I was knitting it, but it is the kind of itchy, itchy wool that gives wool a bad reputation. Audrey said it was very warm and only mildly annoying on the backs of her ears. One of her friends admired it and would like me to make her one, which I am happy to do with the other half-skein (though it's farther down my queue, because of the Christmas knitting.) I'm loving the way the color glows even in our gray late afternoon light. I didn't use a pattern, I just cast on 15 stitches, used a border of 4 garter stitches on both sides and stockinette in the middle, and made it the same length as the purchased band (about 20 inches.)

I should have taken some pictures of the trees around us yesterday or the day before. The colors have peaked, and there's more bare branches than there were at the beginning of the week. It's dark when I take Audrey to school at 7:40 (it's dark most of the year when I take James at 6:40,) the days are definitely getting shorter, and the rain is supposed to set in soon.