A Day of Blocking

I've been knitting like a fiend since last Sunday's SnB. Maybe because of all the baseball on tv. Or perhaps because the urgency of the chillier weather. Or, most likely, because I'm putting off other things I should be doing instead.

Today I'm blocking three projects: my brother's Christmas socks, my stranded herringbone socks (finished at last), and a winter hat for David.

I'll post before-and-after shots in the next few days. In the meantime, here are some pictures of the hat. It's the Botanic Hat pattern, an ingenious, fun, and fairly quick pattern to knit. It gets a little dicey at the crown, as most hats do when you're doing the final decreases and have only a few stitches on each needle. Look at this crazy jumble of dpns, stitch markers, and yarns:


And voila. Including a side that's ribbed, for her pleasure:


And a smooth side:


Best of all, I was able to use up more of my stash. The light gray is some lambswool I had left over from, appropriately enough, a sweater I knit for David a few years ago. The contrasting color is Bartlett. It has flecks of their other colorways in it, making it a fairly complex and interesting yarn with blips of blues and reds and teals. (Click on the photo to see it in better detail):


Now, to go fetch the Eucalan and get blocking!