Sometimes? Sometimes if you can't find just the right yarn you simply make it instead.⁠ I want the drape that you get with a skinny yarn, but the halo that you get from fuzzy yarn, and I think,if all goes according to plan, that these should be just about perfect together.⁠ The one on the bottom is Seven Sisters Art' Meridian in Quartzite, the one on the top is Shibui's Silk Cloud in Ash.⁠ ⁠ And together? Well together they glow!

Remember this nonsense from last year? How the sudden urge to swaddle perfectly innocent eggs in lacy underthings overtook me and I didn't even have the decency to fight it?⁠ I mean last March was grim. I wasn't going to fight much of anything that kept me home and brought a bit of joy. But really this was an impressive level of absurdity, even for me.⁠ This March feels a bit different. We've all seen the damage that selfish, hateful, willfully ignorant folks can do. And an awful lot of us have lost people, either because they died or because [...]

Ok, this was fun last time, let's do it again.⁠ One chilly Tuesday morning, a week before the pattern came out, I went off on a little field trip. I needed to a nearby town to pick something up. I needed to get hat pictures. And I very much wanted to get out of the house (we're still pretty locked down thank you very much and we are not letting up when the end is in sight). So I figured I could do all three things at once.⁠ The route between home and my destination is well supplied with lovely, [...]

You know that thing where something is absurdly easy but it looks impressive to folks who don't know the trick of it? Like how making caramel sauce or hot fudge sauce for ice cream is absolutely dead simple, but people lose their ever living minds if you stride calmly into the kitchen and just bang out a batch as you're getting ready to serve dessert? ⁠ Yeah, this hat is like that.⁠ It looks all fancy and impressive. It looks like you've done something tricky with a cable needle...maybe even employed a crochet hook for some nefarious purpose.⁠ But in [...]

This is Wucka. He'd be happy to come over and supervise you while you organize your stash. ⁠ He has excellent yarn manners (no chewing, very little claw involvement), but he may occasionally settle in for a little nap if your yarn is particularly appealing.⁠ These things happen.

Ok, we're juuuuuuuust about there. By which I mean it's at that point where I could stop if I wanted. It would look like a hat. You'd never know the difference just looking at the pictures.  But I know myself, and I know if I stop now it will be a hat that never gets worn.  Because a too short hat is a dreadful thing and not to be suffered through if at all avoidable. So we'll carry on for just a few more rows... As always (seriously, I feel like if you're here, you already know this, but if [...]

There...there's just not a ton to show you about this part of a hat. You get the pattern started, and then? Then you just sort of cruise. And don't get me wrong, it's very enjoyable to do. And it goes quickly because of the aforementioned super bulky yarn/relatively few stitches situation.  But it does not make for the most scintillating of blog fodder. But hold on, because I think it will make for an awfully lovely hat.

And now we shall blast through a hat in near record time... Fairly sure this will actually take a smidge of yarn from the second ball, but we'll start with just one (mad tosh's A.S.A.P. in No Farewell, just because someone out there is wondering). Casting on over two needles is absolutely and completely fine, see previous rant on this here or here or here...they're all basically the same. And this brim is lovely, but there is a limit to how much excitement one can wring out of an inch of plain ribbing. But never fear, actual things will start [...]

Ok, let's do the absurd behind the scenes thing. This is the destruction wrought upon my living room in the process of taking those ridiculous photos.⁠ That's my barrister bookcase, with the top lifted off and the glass door removed (you can see the door resting on the dining room chair I dragged in to hold something or other at some point in the process).⁠ Getting the door off requires emptying out the shelf so you can flip it over and take a screwdriver to it, hence the stacks of books and plants everywhere.⁠ Once you've got the door off, [...]