This was my first stranded knitting project, which I neared with this hat kit at (my first) class at The Cat and Crow. When I stopped in the shop for the first time last summer, they showed me this hat from a previous class they had taught, and they assured me that they’d teach it again. When they did offer the class again, I signed up immediately! A few weeks later, my mom and step dad decided to visit that weekend, but I told her I really didn’t want to cancel this class, so they graciously agreed to mosey around Mt. Horeb with my boyfriend during my 3 hour class on that Saturday morning. Thank goodness!

Knitting with my left hand felt super weird at first, but it was kind of cool because everyone in the class had to learn how to knit with their opposite hand: the English knitters had to learn to knit Continental, and the Continental knitters had to learn to knit English style. After a while it started to feel more normal, and now I actually prefer to knit with my left hand a lot of the time (although I still don’t know how to purl with that hand). I think it’s much faster, and I knit a ton of the body of my second sweater this way (where I was thankful for the speed because I ended up knitting that body twice).

When I finished this wonderful hat, I went back to The Cat and Crow, and they showed me how to make a very full pom pom with the Clover pom pom maker (which I promptly bought once they had them restocked). I also loved their suggestion to use all three colors in the pom pom!

A month or so later, I decided to purchase another one of their Baable Hat Kits, but this time make it into a headband! Here is my sister modeling it before I wrapped it up and put it under the Christmas tree for Grammy:

Both of these were knit with:

• The Baa-ble Hat pattern by Donna Smith
• Cascade Yarns® Alpaca Lana D’Oro from The Cat and Crow
• Size US 7 needles