Knit One, Purl One, Repeat

The house smelled of holiday spices and pine as our family settled into the living room at Christmastime. In one of the many brightly wrapped packages under the tree, I received a book entitled Whimsical Hats to Knit, Wear, and Love. Inside it was filled with pictures and patterns of fun and cute hats for atop children’s heads. I imagined what perfect gifts they would be for my ever-growing number of nieces and nephews! I could already picture them snug and warm in the winter, cozy in the hat I would make them. Little did I realize that the sheer volume of projects was to be the beginning of many interesting, challenging, and frustrating hours of knitting for me. Oblivious, I could hardly wait to get started!

Towards the end of January, the first birthday was fast approaching. As it was time to start knitting, I settled on the couch with supplies and the pattern book on my lap. What was I going to make? Every hat was adorable, but none seemed to just be the right one for Justus, my ten-year-old nephew. The days before his birthday quickly slipped by until I only had five days left to create something for him. Finally, I found a pattern for a great winter cap, and then clack, clack, clack, went my knitting needles. My how I knitted! It ended up being finished in time, but I learned a lesson, start early next time.

It would seem that I was not destined to have an easy time creating hats for my dear little relatives. The next hat, I started on in plenty of time, but now horrors! It was going to be too small; I was sure. Mama assured me that it looked like it was going to be the perfect size, but I fretted about it the whole time. Guess who was right as always? Mama, of course. During all my time of knitting, Mama was a great encourager and helper. She helped me understand the patterns sometimes and encouraged me as I worked. I definitely could not have made it without her.

The “pattern” continued. . . On one hat, was I running late, and the next one gave me some technical difficulties.  It also got sort of monotonous knitting one, purling one, for what seemed like 987 rows!  I kind of fretted a little, thinking of how many nieces and nephews I have!  “Focus!  Only think about the hat I am working on!”  Those were the words I told myself frequently. 

So many hats were knitted during a movie, or I should say several movies. Sometimes, I listened to Spanish while I worked earflaps, other times I listened to audio books while I cabled a border. Jayla was kind enough to read Plymouth Adventure to me while I crafted a fox hat. I soon learned to balance a book and turn its pages while I worked. I read through a couple of G.A. Henty’s novels, turning a page here, while kitting a bumblebee, turning a page there, while creating an American flag! In short, I became very innovative.

My adventure of hats is now winding down as the year comes to a close.  I have only a few more hats to knit. To tell the truth, I’m two hats behind right now. Which reminds me, I had better get back to knitting again!  Just keep knitting!  Until next time, bye bye!

~Halayah