Crawling back into the Blog

Me with Peggy wearing our Downton Hats

I haven't posted for over a month and I have come to the conclusion that working for a living is intrusive into my knitting and my blogging! I have a great job (which I started in December), but I am exhausted by the time I get home from work. In the last month, though, I got incredibly sick with some kind of virus and am still coughing up a storm.  And I have taken two vacations. One to see a long-lost found-again friend and the other to Albuquerque.

Ken and I went to the western slope (Colorado) a couple of weeks ago to visit my old friend Peggy. We figured out that we haven't seen each other for 30 years (yikes!). Peggy moved to southern Colorado and then to Alaska which is how we lost contact with each other. And then Facebook was invented! Peggy was able to track me down when she moved back to Colorado. We used to be single together as well as play softball. It is always great to get back in touch with old friends (Not that we are old, but our friendship is!) I gave her one of my Downton hats and I am wearing the other one. Seems appropriate.

I am not even knitting that much, however I have completed another Downton hat and a pair of socks. I have also started a sweater four times now, and I am going to rip it out and start it again. What a pain in the @$$! When in Albuquerque, I did buy some purple double knit, but I am going to try again. I'll post some updated knitting pictures soon.

Back to the needles.

OCD - Downton Style

I can't stop knitting Downton hats! I would say I need help, but I just don't want to. I am beginning to think that I have some sort of OCD when it come to knitting certain patterns. I find one I really enjoy making and I knit it over and over again. That is the case with this wonderful hat.

I saw this behavioral pattern emerging for the first time when I started making socks (see my posts beginning September 8, 2013). I spent about two months straight knitting socks. I made about 20 pairs before I was done. I have enough socks to last the rest of my life as well as enough sock yarn to make 20+ pairs in the future. I have an entire basket of sock yarn to prove it. Yet when I see another cute sock pattern, there I am downloading the page, checking my inventory to see if I have the right yarn to make that pair, and checking my bank account to see if I can buy another skein of sock yarn.

The Ravelry link is http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/downton

After a month or two of knitting socks, I will suddenly change to a specific scarf or cowl pattern and do the same thing. Right now, I am back to hats -- one specific hat. So far I have made three Downton hats -- and winter is almost over. The funny part is that I have a purple coat, so I will need to make another to match it. I am fighting the urge to run over to my local yarn store with my coat to match the color.  Or maybe I should just buy another coat. I bet they are on sale now. See my problem? I will probably solve my problem by buying both yarn and new coat.

The red hat is made with Cascade Yarns Eco Alpaca which is the same type of yarn as the gray and black one (Pattern link available on the February 11, 2014 post). This alpaca yarn is incredibly warm too, almost self-heating, so if you are suffering from a cold bitter winter, this might be the yarn for you. The blue one is made with yarn from Brooks Farm that I bought at a wool festival a few years ago. I think I had originally intended to make a shawl with this yarn, but I also have dozens of shawls as well (due to my knitting OCD), so I don't need another right now. But after finishing three hats, I am not done with this pattern. I need to make another.

Back to the needles.