Hats for Sick People and Yarn Harlot Books

Soon after I started the scarf, Son 1, commented how much he liked the way it looked. I think he helped pick out this yarn while in BC. And then he said he could really use a good hat. I could have pounded my head on the floor, because this was a scarf and I was really enjoying it. I was determined to make him a hat out of something else, and yet...

This morning, I began doing this from the other end of the yarns. I have no idea what size his head is. I don't think you can take his guitar player fingers and hands to use as a measure of his head (Yarn Harlot's Knitting Rules for hat size). But the hat begins. I'm feeling just a wee bit sorry for him. His place in the world right now sucks, so it just seems right to use something he liked to make him a little something to make at least one moment of his day better. Poor baby.

(And yes even when they are 27, they are still your babies)

With luck, there will be enough for a shorter version of the scarf, more of a coat length, something that tucks around his neck, and the hat. If not, I'll start the scarf a little thinner and introduce another skein of something worked alternately to make one nice comfortable length scarf. Maybe green.

Knitting Rules. I love this book. I don't think I could review it with a neutral eye. I was given the book as a gift, by my non yarny daughter in law. She picked well.

Like all of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's books (I've two others since), it's a wonderful read. Homey, warm, and funny. Funny not in the big star way, not in the famous way, but funny in the silly things people do that you talk about sitting round your kitchen table sort of way. Her writing is infused with her warmth and her observations about human nature and knitting nature are on the money. I was not a knitter when I first read this book, but I was surely charmed into knitting by it. (Clued in is more apt).

What strikes me most about this book and why it is the book I most often carry, is her philosophy of knitting simple things, simply. Her basic sock pattern in the book is, well, basic. Her hat basics, scarf basics disscuss the projects for what they are, simple things we use every day. She makes you believe you can do these things all on your own. She makes you know that you can function without a pattern for these simple little things (Not that there is anything wrong with patterns). Its the sort of knitting thinking your grandmother would have given you if your grandmother knitted (or crocheted). Stephanie is part of the chain of knitters with their hands on our shoulders, passing on the wisdom of the ages, the best kind of wisdom which is fun too.

Knitting Rules is a Double Treble, just go get it, and while your at it get these too.

Brand spanking new on the Amazon lists!

Things I Learned From Knitting (Whether I Wanted To Or Not)

And for 2009, her calendar - Never Not Knitting

2009 should be far away, but time flies when you wait for good things.