Happiness is...

Today was one of those perfect days that we get here this time of year, when spring sneaks in a preview. I took full advantage it this afternoon (morning was spent with the neighborhood association cleaning up the common area planting beds and then giving the dog a much needed bath) and settled myself on the deck with the necessities. Please don't look too closely - I didn't bother to scrub the outside table yet of its winter layer of ick!

I started out noodling around on the current WIPs (entrelac bag destined for felting, socks) but picked up some new yarn from my LYS instead. It's the varigated green/blue/black stuff (Di.Ve Autumno) on the circ in the middle. Egg got a hat out of it yesterday, a top down variation on the Life O' Crime watch cap he got earlier but complained was too itchy. This was the manliest colorway of this yarn on stock, and it's soft soft soft, 100% merino. But what's in progress in the picture is mine mine mine.

I've loved traveling stitches from the first time I worked them and made the old classic "Celtic Cardigan" from Oat Couture several years ago mostly because the stitch patterns are all traveling stitches. This hat is made using the stitch pattern from the cardi's ribbing, worked in the round. For the crown decreases I wanted to maintain a semblance of the main pattern, so out came the graph paper, and I am really happy with the results! Yes, it looks like a mushroom on my improvised head model (a mixing bowl set upside down on a pillar candle), but just look past that.

And check out the close up of the crown!

The color of the yarn in the pictures is a bit off, though. It's actually a bit darker than shown, and what looks grayish is really a green and black melange. My mediocre photo skills notwithstanding, I'm so pleased with this little project. When the weather changes back to winter for a day on Tuesday (if the weather guys are right), I'll be able to wear it when I take the dog on his morning constitutional through the neighborhood.


P.S. I forgot to mention the one fly in the ointment with this: it took just a few yards more than one skein of the yarn. Doh! No big deal in this particular case because I had some left over from Egg's hat, but for it to be a true one skein wonder project, I suppose it would have made slightly smaller. (Sigh)