Brick Sidewalk Beanie from fibre space--Day 2

What’s better than a hand-knit hat?

I’ll tell you—it’s a hat knitting pattern that is clever enough to escape boredom, yet simple enough to allow easy memorization.

In this case, done and done. There’s enough basic stockinette to make this a thing of ease. Still, the line of “bricks” that adorn the brim and a “sidewalk” up the rest of the hat keep things from feeling monotonous. The brick motif is easily memorized. Especially for meeting or TV knitting, I love not having to whip out a pattern or fear annoying my companions with clicks of my row counter.

I wish the camera captured the color better...

And then there’s the fiber. This yarn from Neighborhood Fiber Co. is nothing short of splendid.  There’s something about a really good wool, isn’t there? Nothing else has the spring between your fingers, the clarity of stitches, or the ability to hold such lush colors. Even before this blog, I was—and am—a yarn snob. Whatever I work with has to feel luscious between my fingers. It’s too much a part of the process for me to slog through something that doesn’t offer the tactile pleasure I seem to need from knitting.  

I once met delightfully outrageous knit designer Steven Be at a yarn show in Chicago.  He was clad in a sweater famously knit from a Willie Nelson eight-track tape.  Fascinating, impressive even, but totally unappealing to me.  Plarn—yarn made from shreds of plastic bags—never calls to me, either. I understand the functionality, I support re-purposing, but those things are not why I knit. 

Well, I suppose it’s yarn functionality isn’t a value for me. Item functionality is another matter. I think mittens are functional and I enjoy knitting them. Granted shawls—my personal favorite—are mostly decorative, but when some restaurant’s air conditioning is making your teeth chatter, they feel mighty functional to me.

All this is to say that while I’m sure I (or someone I love) will use the hat, it’s most important to me that I’m enjoying knitting it. I enjoy knitting this, and for that I’m endlessly thankful to fibre space.