After the long time of not knitting. . . .

Since June, I have not done any real knitting. I say that I've lost my knitting mojo, and I haven't really touched the projects I have going since then. I think part of it is linked to depression. While I love New Orleans and I like living here, I am homesick for Boston (Narnia and the North!). I miss the fall colours, the brilliant oranges and reds of the sugar maples, and the cool sweater weather, which we don't really experience in Louisiana.

Last year, after I moved here, a friend asked me to knit him a hat. I have an ample stash, much of it dedicated to becoming hats eventually, so I agreed. Of course, he wanted a black hat, and I don't keep a lot of black yarn in my stash. I put the project aside, to address later. Last week, after not being able to get back into my complicated patterns already on the needles, nor being too interested in the projects for which I bought a lovely pattern (the yarn is from the stash), I just sat there, staring blankly at the tools of my craft. So I remembered he wanted a hat, and I thought that making something simple and not too challenging might be the way to ease back into doing what I love so much. I went to the Quarter Stitch and picked up some lovely Malabrigo Rios in Pearl Ten. Black with a silver sheen to it, the yarn looks like a black pearl. My friend gets his black hat, and I get to knit something other than jet black yarn.

I finished it last night. I'll give it to him sometime over the holiday weekend. It was not difficult to knit, I actually enjoyed it, and loved counting out the decreases when I reached those rows.

The next item on the list is a hat for a friend who has Crohn's Disease and has lost a lot of weight and who is always cold. He lives in New England, and it is cold up there right now, so I'll do four inches of ribbing so he can fold it over his ears to keep them warmer. I just have to wind the yarn, Malabrigo Rios, Bobby Blue, and I'll be on my way!