Aran Hat and Clapotis

Ok - my KAL buddies have encouraged me to go on with the aran hat. :) I am pretty sure I will like it when I get more of the cabling done. I guess I just had to put the project aside for awhile so that I could get rid of my doubt. After all - it won't hurt to continue with it - it's only a hat for goodness sake. I definitely like the color and agree with Mary Beth that it is very difficult to capture in a photograph. Especially using a flash! The hat is for my step-dad and I know he will love it. It will make him think of our wonderful trip to Yorkshire where we walked on the moors in a light English rain and were followed by a band of strange black faced sheep. We visited the Bronte Parsonage Museum and ate tons of strawberries and clotted cream. We are always talking about going back together and I am sure that when we do the aran hat will go along with us! When I start knitting on it again I am abandoning the cable needle though. I had been using this:



It's a great needle as far as cable needles go but I think I dislike the fiddliness of using a third needle. I'd much rather proceed with method and definitely try method too. I'm sure it will be a much faster that way in the end. I also will NOT knit (on this project at least) while waiting for my daughter to finish tap class. The sheer noise and chaos level of that experience wasn't pretty. There is not enough room for all of the parent and siblings (most in strollers), not enough seats and nowhere to go to escape from hoards of little girls in tap shoes thundering up and down the aisles. Don't get me wrong - I adore my daughter and love to watch her dance and tap away with such joy - but......there is not enough Tylenol in the world to keep the tap class headache at bay!

Right now I am cranking away on the Clapotis. Using my lovely new citrus stitch markers and soft soft Malabrigo. You couldn't find two yarns that are more different than the Black Water Abbey and the Malabrigo. It's fun to switch back and forth between them - keeps it interesting. :)

Progress on the Clapotis - I've turned the first corner! This is my second time around with this pattern so it is going pretty quickly and is luckily still interesting to knit. Just the right mix of "mindless automatic" & "pay attention to what you are doing" knitting.



My yummy citrus stitchmarkers. I love the yellow against the green.



These are the stitchmarkers I was using on the Clapotis. Nothing wrong with them - but the color was so close to the yarn color it gave me an excuse to buy the citrus markers. :)