a hat for mother's day

Oh my word, what a quick and satisfying project this turned out to be and now it's confirmed, I am an avid hat knitter. By no means speedy, I still had this done in a couple of days .. much, much less would have been possible, had nothing else in the house needed doing. Ha! I also think the needles were going faster than usual as I had an important postal deadline to meet. My mother has needed a hat for some time and what better occasion than Mother's Day, thought I.

It was a tricky job finding a suitable yarn for this project and my desperate attempts to avoid the greys didn't help. However, I met up with Melissa from Oh Hello Rabbit the other day, who took me to a new yarn shop. Melissa sews and sells the cutest outfits for little girls and is also partial to a spot of dressmaking and knitting so we got on like a house on fire. Just as well, given the time it took me to make a decision.  But after much dithering and discussion of yarn choices for my hat, we suddenly spied the most adorable little sample top made out of Koigu hand painted merino. (I hadn't realised that Koigu is a Canadian brand until I started writing this post.) Normally variegated yarns would have me crossing the aisles but I may be about to change my mind, for those hand painted skeins looked so pleasing, all enticingly arranged in their rows of coordinating colours. I instantly knew a deep blue variant was the one and bought a couple of skeins with a view to holding the yarn double.

Chelsea Market Hat. Of course, having recently left London I was drawn to the name but, in truth, I think it was the single row of cabling down one side that made me plump for this pattern. It really adds a big dose of interest which doesn't get lost in the variegation. (Of course, once I had got quite far into the cabling I realised a small mistake but by then didn't have the time to unpick. Hey ho, wouldn't want anyone thinking I'd bought the thing, would I?!!) So full marks to the Canadian postal service for getting this across the pond and bang on delivery target, love from 'Impressed of Vancouver'. The hat fits and hopefully my mother's head will be snug for the remainder of the season! As ever, there are more details and pics on my Ravelry page.

So that's me for today. Wishing all mothers a happy day today and I hope that everyone has a lovely week, whatever you are up to?

Happy Mother's Day Mum, love you xx