Pattern: Original
Yarn: Elann Peruvian Highland Wool, oddballs

• Cabled pompom hat: #3103 Allspice
• Purple and yellow ribbed hat: #2713 Aubergine and #7725 Freesia
• Orange and red striped hat: #1004 Pumpkin and #2055 Ruby
• Striped pompom hat: #7725 Freesia, #100 Natural, and #1004 Pumpkin

Needles: Addi Turbos, US 5 (3.75mm) and US 7 (4.5mm)

Here’s what became of the oddballs. Total oddball use: 186 grams, or about 370 yards. There was some referring to the Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns for measurements, but otherwise I mostly just winged it, weighing the yarn as I went to make sure I had enough to finish each hat.

The cabled hat is designed to go with the cable and rib hoodie. The purple and yellow hat is evidence that I am a bad Wisconsinite, otherwise I would have noticed much, much earlier that I was committing the cardinal sin of making an item in Minnesota Vikings colors.

Both the striped hats are hemmed hats. The orange and red one is about 16″ around, as are the two hats above. According to Ann Budd, that makes them fit for infants 0-6 months. The other one is about 18″ around and should fit babies 6-18 months.

I thought I had been knitting toddler-sized hats the whole time and it came as a great shock to me that these are infant…infant…sizes. It made me cross my legs and marvel that anybody actually tries to give birth. Anyways…

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It’s that point in the semester when workaholism is the only way to survive. Friday night was the first time in close to a week that I even touched needles and yarn, what with all the hours getting my new study up and running and all the studying for my systems neurobiology exam.

Systems neurobiology exam, eh? Didn’t I just have one of those, not that long ago? Yes, yes I did.

But even with all the work, my brain never strays that far from the land of knitting. Take this page from my class notes:

Do you see it? Buried amidst all the scribbles about cranial nerves and cervical ganglion, there is something to make a knitter smile.

See it yet? Let’s take a closer look:

Apparently your tear glands look like sheep!

Thanks for the nice comments on my last entry! I promise I will write more on learning theory as it applies to knitting at some point, maybe after I’m done squeezing every last drop of academic knowledge out of my brain in order to survive the rest of this semester.

I’m actually dying, DYING, I say! to run a study evaluating childhood knitting instruction on spatial skills, math skills, fine motor coordination, all that good stuff, and see if, like all knitters believe, it actually makes a difference. But that will have to wait for a day when I have my own lab and research funding, because I really don’t see getting that one past my dissertation committee.

But in the meantime, let’s talk oddballs.

Like anybody who’s been knitting for a while, I’ve accumulated quite an oddball stash. In fact, based on my updated yarn inventory, 4500 yards of my current stash are oddballs. That’s 2.5 miles of yarn, for people who are keeping track.

I’m probably luckier than most knitters, in that a significant chunk of my oddball stash comes in the form of three different yarns: 700 yards of Fortissima Socka, 600 yards of Elann Peruvian Highland Wool, and 950 yards of Cascade 220, leftover from many socks, the Ombre Blanket, and assorted felted items.

That said, the small and weird amounts left in sometimes-clashing colors still doesn’t make for easy re-combining of yarn to make a new project. Unless it’s a baby project. But who wants a baby item that’s 100% non-superwash wool?

Enter Afghans for Afghans.

Afghans for Afghans is conducting a special Mother’s Day drive, looking for baby and child garments made of 100% wool. Hence, the abundance of baby hats in my progress bars. So these:

…are going to stop uselessly taking up space in my stash, and go usefully off to make some nice Afghani child’s head nice and warm. It’s a good system, I think.