Winter Wonderland

Yesterday, upon waking up, I saw a sight outside my window that, let's face it, should not have been as surprising as it was.

Here is a Haiku I wrote describing why I shouldn't be surprised:

Snow Falls In Winter

Wisconsin Has Lots of Snow

It Is Still Winter

However, I was surprised enough that I grabbed my camera and shot a few pictures on my way to breakfast (making sure I didn't have an audience.  Let's face it, it's acceptable for a Texan to take pictures of the first snowfall of the season as it may be the first snow they ever see.  It is a bit odd for a Minnesotan to take pictures of snow in the middle of February because every sane-minded Minnesotan should be sick of snow at this point).  I was actually very excited about the snow and the fact that the temperature has dropped again because I was starting to worry that the winter knits I currently have in progress were going to be deemed useless by the time I get them finished.  This snowfall gives me hope.

As promised, here are some photos of the project I finished while on my way to Chicago last weekend:

Pattern: Porom by Jared Flood (rav link)

Yarn: Jamieson's Double Knitting in Bracken, 1.2 skeins

Needles: US 6 and 8

Time: 2 days

I was desperate for a project I could take on my trip with me that would be easy enough to work on without really paying attention and it just so happened that I had this yarn on hand.  This hat knit up so much faster than I expected it to!

I broke into the second skein to finish the last 10 rows of decreases at the top, which means I still have, well, almost a  full skein of yarn left (with no idea of what do with it).  For now it will go in my random used balls drawer.

I didn't know what I was going to do with the FO once it was done, but I was on Skype with a friend in Georgia while I was knitting it and she saw the pattern and said she would love to have it, so I'm going to ship it off to her very shortly.  Don't you love it when friends are willing to take your projects off your hands?

I really enjoyed this yarn.  After knitting with Malabrigo for so long, I almost forgot what it felt like to knit with really rustic wool.  I loved that crunchy sound it makes when you squeeze it and the way it feels like it could stand up to anything.

I blocked this hat twice: once over a balloon to open up the lace pattern (I didn't want to have a crease from laying it flat), and then I blocked it again, this time only getting the bottom ribbing wet because it was a bit stretched out by the balloon.  I'm very happy with the way this hat turned out.