Not a Cold Head in the House!

So, I've gotten really into knitting hats. I've found that thin stripes are a great way to break up a plain stockinette beanie, and a nice way to use up the last of a yarn. I think my friends/family members have begun to suspect my gifts in advance, I've either got to get new friends or start knitting new things!

Here are a few of my favorite hats that have come off my needles since my last posting:

This is a bulky-weight yarn on about size 10.5 needles, the idea was to make it warm and quick! It's a basic 1x1 rib with a stockinette body.
I gave this one to my brother Esteban for his birthday on the 9th of September. His response was something along the lines of: "Thanks, I'll add it to the other hats you gave me."

This one is a sport weight hat, the purple-ish color is wool (Knit Picks Stroll Sport in Clematis Heather) and the blue is a cotton blend (Knit Picks' unbelievably soft Comfy Sport in Planetarium). I used size 5 needles and the stranded color technique, which happens to the only one I have really mastered. I wanted to use up the rest of the Clematis from my Hermione Hearts Ron hat, and I had a relatively limited option of sport yarns to go along with, as you can tell I ran out of purple towards the top and finished it off with the blue. I rather wish now I had given it a blue base with purple stripes, especially considering how soft the Comfy Sport is, but you live and learn!

This one is made of a yarn I got last Halloween from my friend Zach. He used it as "hair" in his Blake Henderson from Workaholics costume, and I noticed he had quite a bit left; I kindly offered to take it off of his hands, and he obliged. It is acrylic, Red Heart yarn (in Cafe Latte and Dark Brown) and was knitted with US8 circular needles. The great thing about acrylic is that it is very durable, cheap, warm, and washes well; the bad thing about acrylic is that it is rough on the hands when knitting. While as a finished piece it isn't intolerably rough, rubbing the yarn across the fingers repeatedly can verily cause some sort of sore (mine is always on the top knuckle of my right ring finger, because of the way I wrap the yarn). 

I gave this hat to my friend Richard for his birthday, on the 30th of August. It was his first hat from me and he seemed very excited. In fact, in spite of the sauna-like temperature of his house filled with party people, he wore it around for a good ten minutes before I convinced him to save it for the fall! 

I'm in the middle of knitting up another version of this hat, with even tan and brown stripes, and plan to give it to Zach as a thank you for the donation to the Carmen's-Yarn-Stock Fund. I should start making cards of some sort to further encourage this behavior. Hopefully he'll spread the word and before I know it I will be bathing in yarn!! Really, these things should be tax-deductible.