Hats for the boys

Still got to fill you all in on the Christmas Knitting. I feel like I was fairly good this year about starting early. I started way back in September and still I was knitting right up until the end. Luckily everything made it on time. My grandmother had to wait one extra day to receive her scarf and there was one major freak out I had on the airplane when the last thumb on my sister's mitts just would not behave.

One of the big treats though with the Christmas knitting this year was that my sweet husband wanted to get involved as well. A few Christmas' ago he wanted to join in with the knitting of gifts because it made him uncomfortable that we were giving gifts from the both of us that only I had slaved over.

Gabriel has never been shy about what hobbies or tasks he takes on and is never afraid of what is usually classified as feminine work. I will never forget the time that we were in a parking lot one hot summer day and Gabriel was wearing a sarong around his waist and a car of teenage girls drove by and yelled "nice skirt" and giggled away.

When Gabriel was little his family spent a year living in Ireland. While there, with no television and with the long cold damp winter, all of the family picked up knitting, even the little ones. I don't think he has knit a stitch since he was 5 but the stigma of knitting was long gone and his brilliant Cade fearlessness at trying something new has turned him into a wonderful knitter.

For this year we picked out Brooklyntweed's Turn a Square Hat to work on together for a number of the men in our lives. Gabriel has always been really funny about Brooklyntweed, looking over my shoulder and saying "ohhh are you looking at that Brooklyntweed again?" as if I have some secret internet lover. What can I say, don't we all wish we had Jared Flood living in a room of our houses cranking out his gorgeous rumpelstiltskinian knits for only us? Or that he at least was documenting our own hobbies for us with his luscious photography?

So, anyway, the Turn a Square hat turned out to be a very perfect project for Gabriel. Great for his skill level and fun for him to work with self striping yarn which we all know as the thing that keeps us going as the mystery unfolds through endless stockinette stitches. In the end Gabe made three and I made three. Only five got gifted though because I just had to keep one of the ones that Gabe made. How could I pass up the opportunity that when anyone compliments me on my hat I get to say "my husband made it" while beaming with pride.

Pattern: Turn A Square Hat
Source: Brooklyntweed
Yarn: different shades of Noro Silk Garden for stripes. Different shades of Cascade 220, Patons Classic Wool, and Galway Highland Heather for the main colors.
Needles: size 6 circular needles for ribbing and size 7 circulars and dpns for body