Monday FO Post: One Gift Finished!

Hello and Happy Monday when the Philadelphia Phillies are the National League Champions!!!!! 

Yesterday, I was at work until 4 p.m., and the game had started shortly after 2:30 p.m., so I got to see a good bit of it, and most importantly - THE BEST PART! So exciting, especially since it's been a long time coming, and as usual, the Phillies were the underdogs. (The Tim: I'm so glad they won, but now that means you will have new obnoxious nicknames for the other team, after I just got used the ones you had for the Padres. [Yes, his life is so difficult.])

Anyway, GO PHILS!!!!

Now, to the real reason for this post. I finally have completed a knitting project to show you - plus, it's a Christmas gift, so I'm well ahead of time having it ready to go.

Project: Preller Needs a Musselburgh

Pattern: Musselburgh, by Ysolda Teague

Yarns: West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4 Ply in the colorway Hope (striped yarn); and, Loop Sprig in the colorway Admiral (navy)

Needles: US size 3

Modifications: None

Notes: You may recall that I made one of these hats last year for a Christmas gift for Greg, husband of my niece La Liz. When I was showing it to my niece Amanda and her husband Pat, he said, "That is so cool - I want one!" Well, at the time, it was about 2 weeks before Christmas, so there was no way that was happening for last year. But I stored away the request for this year. 

Since I have been trying really hard to knit from my stash, I started by looking to see what I already had that might work for at least part of the hat. I knew I wanted to make a half-and-half type, to make it a different hat, depending on how it is worn. I found about half of a skein of the West Yorkshire Spinners yarn that I had used for a pair of socks, but I couldn't find something I liked well enough to contrast with it.

So I took the leftover skein with me to work at Loop one day to find something that I liked as the second color, and decided on the navy blue because I liked the contrast of it.

I made the Adult Large size, and although the beginning is fiddly to cast on, once you get going, it's pretty mindless and goes quickly. It's a good project if you want to watch TV because once you get past the increases at the top, it's just a whole lot o' knitting until you are ready to do the decreases!

So yes, I did buy a new skein of yarn, but a) I used half of it already, b) it will be a good contrast color for lots of other projects, and c) I used my employee discount, so it wasn't as expensive as it could have been ... 😀

Anyway, I'm really pleased with how it turned out - I think I did an even better job on this one than the first one I made, which makes sense because like most things, the more you do it, the better the result. I would recommend this pattern because it's a lot of bang for your buck, as they say. Particularly when you use two different yarns, and as a result, have 4 different ways to wear one hat.

Plus, it's Koodle approved.

'Nuff said, right?