Four Down, One to Go!

So here is all that is left after finally finishing EG's afghan. That's right, baby afghan #4 is completed, and all the ends are sewn in. (See? Here's what's left after an evening of sewing in all the ends.) I won't show finished pictures of this one yet because 1) right now I only have boring photos of the completed afghan, and 2) I know that EG reads my blog and I don't want her to know what it looks like until she sees it in person. So hang in there, E, I will wash it up tonight and take the good pictures, and then if all goes well I will mail it to you on Monday and you should have it shortly after Thanksgiving.

And for once I decided to knit something for myself, imagine that! This is leftover yarn from a hat I knit for myself last year. I didn't have a pattern in mind when I bought the yarn, so I bought 2 full skeins just to be safe. I had heard that their colors vary wildly from dye lot to dye lot and I didn't want to run out. Naturally I used less than half of the first skein, and so I had to find another project for it. I need to emphasize the wonderfulness of this yarn from my friends at Mal abrigo. This yarn is 100% merino, and unbelieveably soft. This is coming from a person who doesn't think that cashmere is really all that soft. In fact, I generally think cashmere is too scratchy for me to wear. But Mal abrigo's merino is just about the best yarn ever, astonishingly soft, and their colors are fantastic! This is "Violetas" that I'm using here.

Here's a look at the brim of the hat, which uses a contrast yarn, also wool. This one is pretty soft too, although not as soft as the Mal abrigo. I forget what it is; I'll post info when I finish the hat sometime next year. The brim flips up, so the contrast wool won't actually be touching my skin. There will still be plenty of both yarns left after this hat, so I will use the same stitch pattern for the brim as the two ends of a matching scarf. My sneaky plan is to knit two separate halves of the scarf and use the 3-needle bind-off as practice for when (if) I ever get around to knitting a sweater.

Next update will be after Thanksgiving when I'm back from London. Cheerio till then!