Adventures in Knitting

My first swatch

I decided to use this yarn to make a hat for a friend. 

I've always been pretty content to crochet and have made, in my opinion, some pretty nice scarves, but the hats I've made, well - they generally ended up either being too big or too small (See the Goldilocks connection...) and only one hat was "Just Right" and I measured the heck out of that guy's head because it was a cap for him to wear after chemo and I wanted to make sure it was perfect, and it was. 

K1 P1, K5 P1

But the person I was making this hat for was not available to have a head measurement, and I didn't have any idea what size hat he wore or anything. 

I remembered a hat that friend Yvonne had knitted for The Shepherd several years ago on his birthday.  It was stretchy and would fit what ever size head it was on.  Got me to thinking - "Hmmm - maybe friend Yvonne could teach me how to knit."  Now that is a GOOD friend - yes, she was available on a day I was, and after a quick trip into town to get knitting needles per her instructions, I was all set. And, so, as Shania Twain sang - "I gol' darn gone and done it"  I learned how to knit. 


She helped quite a bit to get me started, she did the cast on so it would be even, & etc. and I knitted my first swatch.  Envision, if you will, the little kid, working on the project, with the tongue stuck out of the corner of the mouth, concentrating...  That was how I looked, but it got easier when I switched to a different needle set where the needle part was white bamboo instead of brown - (see my problem here.  Or rather, I couldn't see - yarn was the same color as my needles - oops) - fixed that, and off I went, with a little help from one of the ladies at my spinner guild who saved my sorry backside with I dropped a bunch of stitches.  Crochet is SO SO much easier! 







But, I persevered, and here it is.  All done.  Washed it up and it has a pretty brown "alpaca halo" to it.  

Already making plans to make one for my friend Diane.  She tried it on today and liked it.  So, knitting hats may be my new super power - gotta do something to get rid of all that yarn..........