just in time for spring!

pattern: Foliage, from Knitty
designer: Emilee Mooney
yarn: Pear Tree light worsted merino in Moss
needles: Bryspun US#8 circs (magic loop it, baby!) and Susan Bates US#6 for the bottom ribbing

When I saw Grace's version of this over at KathrynIvy, I knew I had to knit one for myself. She is so inspiring me lately with all of her lovely knits. Funny thing, I don't really remember this pattern from the Fall Knitty. I guess I must have just skimmed over it and not really paid attention. Well, I love it. It was a superfast knit; I was able to knit it in one day. More specifically, I knit the body Saturday night, but then I realized that I didn't really like the way my SK2Ps looked, perhaps because I knit continental. Yesterday, I frogged the whole thing and knit it over again, this time doing S2 from the front K1 and Pass 2 slipped stitches over so that I got these little ridges down the middle of each leaf pattern. I knit the second version of the hat, the lighter weight one. I made a few mods, including knitting it on size US#8 and US#6 needles, as opposed to the size US#7 and #5 the pattern called for, in order to make it fit right over my huge noggin. I also only did 2 1/2 pattern repeats instead of 3 and bound off using the kitchener bind off so that I would get that nice neat edge. I think I could have probably gotten a good fit using the size 7 needles as lace opens up and gets kind of stretchy. As it is right now, it fits a tiny bit loose at the crown, but I like the way it looks.

I can definitely see myself wearing this until the end of the chilly days here. My only problem is with the yarn I used, which I think will fuzz out terribly with wear. As I was knitting with it, the Pear Tree got super-pilly and fuzzy. I am afraid that in a year, this will look like some silly green clown afro wig instead of a lacy hat. Ehhhh, for now I will enjoy its squishy warmth and softness.

P.S. - It's funny how the color looks so much darker and richer in the top two photos. I think it's because of the lighting (or lack thereof). The color is actually much much closer to the other two duos of photos. It's not teal at all so much as a deep sea green. I've never seen moss that color so so much for the name on the yarn tag.