The Elegance of the Yarn Along

Back for the Yarn Along again this week. I neither knit nor read fast enough to have something new on a weekly basis, so it's probably best I stick to fortnightly lest I get repetitive.

I bought this book a couple of months ago on a bit of whim, having just heard something good about it. And just the other day I noticed that it has been, for goodness knows how long, on the list I keep on my iPhone of books I notice in shops or read reviews of that I think I might enjoy - a very handy and useful list given I never look at it. Nonetheless, 'The Elegance of the Hedgehog' has made it off the list and it is, thus far, quite good.

Despite the photo, I'm not knitting black. It's a pair of navy blue hats for a pair of young ladies who have requested something wooly for their heads as they wait for the school bus of a morning. Of course, I have procrastinated long enough that they probably no longer need them, with spring fast approaching. I've used Amanda Soule's My Hat of Choice for one and I'm going freestyle on the other. The yarn is Cascade 220, one of my faves.

And perhaps most importantly, I have finally mastered the magic loop method. I thought I knew what it was, having stumbled across it by accident some time ago. But the magic loop method I thought I knew never worked with small projects and I was always having to turn to DPNs - as I did the first time I knitted this hat. Now I know where I went wrong - two loops, one on each side of the work. So simple. Quite miraculous.