Oh my hats!

Just as I was writing a title for this entry I realized that I made all four of the hats in these photos! That's funny. This first photo is just to mark the first snow of the year. We aren't talking light dusting, we're talking 6-8" today and up to five expected tonight. It has been beautiful today. Big fat flakes and everything all freshly white. Elinore is just getting over being sick, but she was so excited to get out in it. She grabbed her snow pants and all her warm gear and got herself dressed. In the background she is licking snow off of her mittens. Tobin likes it, too, and stayed cozy warm in the stroller. We were even so blessed that our neighbor girl shoveled our whole driveway today!! I'll have to bake her some cookies or something...maybe a cake...I'm into cakes right now...

Here is something funny that Elinore said last week. At the library, she was pretending to play on the computer while I looked for children's books:
E: Mama, I need you to laugh.
Me: Ha ha ha! (faking a laugh)
E: (huge grin and giggle) I have to put that on the blog.
With that she turns back to the computer and pretends to type some more. That is when you know that blogging is really a part of your life! I couldn't stop laughing, but I was hoping no one else heard her!

These are a couple hats that I finished a while ago and recently gave as gifts. Elinore was good enough to model them for me. The pink one is for my niece. It is a mixture of the little football hat and the inca snowflake hat from Itty Bitty hats. Then I added the stars for fun. I love this self-striping yarn. It comes out so beautifully. Elinore's hat is the same brand, but in the purple colorway. Hopefully it will keep Lydia nice and warm!
This is the stripey stocking cap. This one was a birthday present for my 7 year old nephew. What a fun, crazy hat for a boy! I love the yarn for this one: Manos del Uruguay. It is made by a womens' coalition (I think, anyway). It is all hand dyed in big kettles. That makes each skein and color unique. It feels so alive in my hands, like I can imagine the womens' hands that worked the yarn. It knits up beautifully. Love it.

It has been great to pick up my needles the last few months. I felt like it really took me a while to get back to it after Tobin's birth. He was just so needy for so long. This has been timely with birthdays and Christmas coming... I've done a bunch of newborn hats lately as gifts, but mostly patterns that I've done before. Hopefully I'll have some new projects coming soon...