Finished object: turn-a-square hat

I finished knitting this men's hat just in time to mail it to California for my Dad's birthday later this week. I am very happy with my first Brooklyn Tweed pattern. I found it fast to knit. It only took a few days, and I am sure some could knit this in one sitting (such as Mama N!). Mr. T gave me an afternoon off last week and I knew just what I wanted to do with my free time. I jumped on the 1 train and went to The Point to knit the afternoon away (after stopping at Blue Ribbon for some toast). Mama V and Mama J (with a very well-behaved Master A) joined me mid-afternoon for a little knitting and chatting. Mama V has started her long-striped scarf, casting on 250 stitches, and Mama J picked out yarn for this hat pattern.

The hat was coming along marvelously when I got to the point where I needed to switch to double pointed needles. I was quite intimidated when I looked it up on knittinghelp and saw four needles being used at once to knit in a circle! At first I panicked. Then I got upset that Mama N wasn't living a few floors above me. I started to give up hope, and then I thought, what would Mama N do? I gathered my things, put Mr. T in charge of the house and went back up to The Point. Carly was working there that day. I asked if they made super small circular needles to finish the hat, but she assured me that it was good to learn how to work with double-pointed needles. I carefully ripped out a few rows of the hat and Carly sat with me to show me how to move the work onto three double-pointed needles, knitting with the fourth. Mama N would have gotten a good laugh as I did the math in my head very slowly. 18 stitches times 4 divided by 3.

In the end the double-pointed needles were easy to work with once I understood how to use them. I have found this to be true with each new skill I learn with knitting.

I am going to knit another hat with the striped pattern reversed to give to my yoga instructor J who is moving to Atlanta next month. But first I am knitting Easter eggs for Miss L's Easter basket.