And August is gone...

What happened?  Didn't I just get back from Sock Summit?  I feel like that was yesterday, but the calendar is telling me that it is already the end of August.  School starts on monday.  Incontrovertible evidence that fall is right around the corner is staring me in the face even thought it feels like summer is just kicking off.  I worked my last full-time day yesterday before switching over to my part-time "school schedule"--fall is here.  What better way to (grudgingly) welcome it than with an offering of wool?





That is my brother being blackmailed into modeling the Habitat by Jared Flood that I just finished.  If he looks a bit sweaty, that's because it's 88 degrees out and he's modeling a wool hat.

This pattern is one of those "looks-super-complex-but-really-just-takes-a-little-focus" types that makes you feel like you worked out something really clever when you're done.  It's for my dad's 60th birthday (which was the 11th...)  Really though, he only told me he wanted a hat on the 4th, so I think it's OK that it was finished a bit late.  Plus, it's still super hot in New Mexico where my parents live so it's not like he "needs" it right now.



The yarn is the handspun Corriedale that I made on my new Ashford Joy spinning wheel a few weeks ago.  The handspun nature of the yarn plus the heathered color means the cables are a bit subdued, but I think it gives the hat a well-worn rustic look that makes me think of those pictures of knitwear taken on a farm when it's drizzling out... you know the ones.



Extremely fun hat to knit.  I'm sure I will knit it again.  However, as much as I love buying things local it's over a dollar more to buy a paper copy from the LYS than to buy it online--since I prefer digital copies anyway, I don't think I'll be buying any more of Jared Flood's patterns as a paper version.  I'd be different if they were the same price, but one dollar added to a five dollar pattern is a 20% mark-up...  not cool.