NYC Stamp of Approval

Anything handknit, handmade, or odd is always suspect when sent to friends and family in NY. The hat I made for Preston fits that description, but tonight I heard that there were compliments galore when he and my daughter, Amanda, went to the opening of Race by David Mamet. They were lucky enough to get tickets from a friend, got all gussied up and saw lots of stars: Woody Allen, Joan Rivers, Al Sharpton, etc. But I digress. The play and the Hat were a hit.

And when Preston walked in front of one of the paparazzi, he was photographed. But that photo won't make any papers, he assures me. Ahhhh. Fame is nice, but fleeting.

2 projects: one skein of yarn

Tis the season.....for one skein knits. When Amanda arrived from New York, she came bearing a gift. It was a skein of Schoppel wolle Pur, in shades of black, blue and green, purchased at Annie's which is just around the corner from my brother's apartment on the upper East side.. It is interesting because it is a single ply, slightly felted, and the ombre colors do not repeat in any way.

And then she reminded me that I had promised to make a hat for Preston, her main squeeze, so the gift had a preplanned destiny.

I looked for patterns and decided on the Irish Hiking Hat (bulky)

and began knitting it up. I forgot how fast hats develop, so in a couple of days, it was done, blocked and ready to return to the Big Apple. The finished hat looks different from each angle because of the way the colors knit up.

I added the beanie top and knit more rows before starting the decreases, since several comments mentioned that the hat was not deep enough. What do you think?

With the rest of the skein, I am making a cowl with a very simple pattern: on a multiple of 10:

row 1: knit 5, purl 5

row 2: knit 1, purl 1.

I learned this at Knit Night the other night and will keep knitting until the yarn runs out.