This is not a hat for me. This is a hat for a dear friend. I cast on an extra repeat and worked in size 5 and 7 needles instead of the 4 and 6 that the pattern specified because I didn’t want it to be too snug. I knit the larger size (5 pattern repeats) as well. I love the modern, unisex pattern and I love the yarn.

Lorna’s Laces yarns makes a beautiful lofty fabric but I find this palette to be unattractive. This is a problem that generally plagues all variegated sock yarns. First, I don’t understand why any variegated sock yarn would have skinny one or two row bands of colors before switching to the next color which seems unfortunately de rigueur for all multicolored sock yarns. There’s no way any color would have enough of a presence if it’s only present in quarter inch increments. Second, I don’t see the wisdom in having a sock yarn with so many colors. This colorway has pink, purple, blue, green, and yellow. While each individual color is gorgeous and muted, put five of them together striping at such frequent intervals and it just looks barfy, especially since socks aren’t something viewed up close.

Anyway, these are around the house socks, and I also intend to wear them under galoshes. My feet overheat easily in shoes, so these are appropriate for shoes that don’t insulate, and to make me more comfortable in my apartment this winter. They were knit toe up with a short row toe and a short row heel. I cast on 8 fewer stitches than in the pattern because I have slender feet. I do love this yarn for tactile reasons. And that is all I have to say about socks.

I hold grudges and I don’t believe in second chances. At the end of 2006 my brother wanted a red hat with a pom pom so I knit him one and he lost it before it even became like 2007. He also acted like it was his right to lose it and kept asking for another one for years even though his attitude about the first one felt very, “whatever, you shouldn’t have knit me a hat in the first place if you didn’t want me to lose it.” Also, he has a habit of losing or getting mugged of all the gifts I have showered him with. Then I spoke to my dad on the phone a month ago and he confided in me that my brother was actually very upset about losing the original hat and I felt so sad because my brother is like my project and I always want to take care of him! So I went against my beliefs and knit my brother ANOTHER RED POM POM HAT even though he is not learning a lesson here! This hat is knit in red Donegal tweed that I got at a yard sale. You can barely see the tweed character in this photo because red is hard to photograph AND Portland only gets like 15 minutes of unpredictable sunlight per day. So I AM SORRY that this photo looks the way it does because I had to make it work in Photoshop and it’s very easy to not be subtle with that program.