There’s lots of knitting going on here, but unfortunately not a lot of pictures to prove it. Blogs are better with pictures, so I’ll try to keep this short.

My good friend Hoang is moving from Los Angeles to Denver this week, so he had a going-away party on Saturday night. He’s been asking me to make him a beanie for what seems like years now, and I’ve been a total slacker about it. But when he told me he was moving to Denver, I knew I had to get him that beanie ASAP!

I used the extra Berkshire Bulky (ravelry) I had leftover from Starksy, and cast on three stitches and knit it from the crown down. I wasn’t sure what I was doing, so this thing was completely ad-libbed. I started knitting the 1×1 rib as I increased on the crown, and immediately wondered if I was making a big, boring mistake. I actually knit the hat with earflaps first, and even cast off, and then I realized it was both too small and looked kinda silly.

So, I ripped out the bottom and frogged back to just after I finished the increases. I then worked it in a 1×1 rib even for about an inch, then made a sort of chevron pattern by doing a twisted stitch to the right for six rows, then twisted back to the left for six. I then finished the rim by knitting straight in 1×1 rib for a few rows.

I then realized I had the dreaded nipple at the crown of the hat. So, taking a nod from Tech Knitting, I picked out the cast-on stitches and fixed the protrusion.

And it turned out pefectly. He loved it so much he wore the hat all night! (Even in 70 degree Los Angeles weather, so that’s saying a lot!)

I’ll miss Hoang, but I know I’ll see him (and the beanie) a lot in the future, so it’s not a sad goodbye.

In the meantime, I’ve said hello to this:

It doesn’t look like much right now, but it’s going to be a baby sweater. I’m using that beautiful Filatura Zara (ravelry) I picked up last week. I’m also planning on writing out the pattern and publishing it on this site and Ravelry, so keep an eye out!