Not Full of Nothing

My Fortune Cookie told me: This report is filled with omissions. Get a cookie from Miss Fortune

It's Christmas Day, and I'm reading knitting blogs like this one and sipping hot cocoa before I get dressed and head out to visit some feline friends whose people are out of state for the holiday. Miss Fortune renews my belief that I'm also easily amused.

My gift knitting got done enough; there's a baby hat that didn't get done, but he's not due until February, so that's OK, especially since I didn't tell anyone I was knitting it! The sewing went fine as well, though the knitting needle roll for my newbie knitting friend is only 3/4 complete. I'd scheduled Sunday (the "free" day between my family's gathering and today) for sewing it and a couple of wool dog toys, but her invitation for homemade pizza, Rummikube, and ice cream cones prevailed. I gave her the WIP (sans instructions for finishing it herself, thank you), her lhasa/pekinese mix dog Mattie her wool toys (those got sewn first), and her handy husband his not-wool knit hat. Here's the hat:



The pattern is here, knit with Red Heart Soft Yarn in Cherry Red. It's very stretchy and a good pattern. Mine turned out with a cute peak (probably my fault, not the pattern's) if you don't pull it down firmly, so when I knit another one (for nephew #2), I made my own decrease pattern like this:



The yarn is Paton's Classic Wool in Deep Olive. At each of the 4 decrease points, I just knit or purled 2tog as seemed appropriate. Toward the center, I decreased every row to prevent the pointiness (that was probably my fault anyway). This one didn't need to be tugged down to fit smoothly, and I prefer it's simpler design.

When I got up the other morning, I saw this:



That's Pepper, who specializes in finding soft, cramped, defendable places to sleep. She's on the fabric for the second needle roll. I love her anyway.