Chronic Negress

You may be wondering how these topics are related, but sometimes even a dedicated hockey fan has to take a break from her usual pursuits. When we are not drinking wine, we knit. We have a pair of Perpetual Sweaters we pick up and work on when we don’t have something fun to do. Where the National Finals Rodeo fits in is what we do when we’ve been seized with  enthusiasm for a new project that knocks the Perpetual Sweaters out of our hands. In short, we stay up late, ball yarn and watch cowboy butts get flung earthwards at high speed. This is the 50th anniversary of the NFR. For the first 10 days or so of December, various ESPNs rev up the rodeo action at midnight. The cowboys break legs, tear pectoral muscles, dislocate elbows and land with a thud with alarming regularity. They are also jut-jawed, mostly good-looking and black and brown on occasion. No matter who is president, these guys are not getting health insurance, dig?

Anyway, what started the latest knitting jag was a chance remark from the grandmother upstairs that her grandson needed a hat with earflaps. So we picked up “The Expectant Knitter” and knocked out the “Winter Wonderland Hat” in about 12 hours of total knitting time. Here’s the hat:

Winter Wonderland Hat

Cute, no?  The book is by Marie Connolly, owner of the StitchDC shops in Washington. If you’re not having a baby, you can skip the bits about your growing belly, taking your vitamins and other prenatal mishegas. There are some very cute patterns in here and most of them are easy to follow and open to modification by most intermediate and advanced knitters.

This is a three yarn ball book. On the Negress yarn ball rating scale, three means you’ll make at least three things in the book and you’ll share it eagerly with your  knitting pals. You can check out Potter Craft for more stuff and blogs and whatnot.