Hello!

 Well. That was a long break! I unexpectedly started working full time in October. It was only supposed to be 5 days. Then 10 more days. Then a few weeks. Then a month...another month....another month...At the start of May I was told it would definitely go until the end of June. So, needless to say, I haven't been knitting much. Another factor was that in December we switched cable providers, and I lost everything I had saved on the PVR. When I tried to figure out the new cable service, it was confusing, and I just never got back into watching TV. I'm doing a lot of drawing if I have spare time. Right now it's summer break, so a perfect time to get caught up here. 

Last summer Lucy and her boyfriend were visiting Kingston, and I heard that Topsy Farms was having a pop up yard sale in Kingston. I told her, jokingly, that she should go and buy me some yarn. They did! They came back with two skeins of cream, and one of a brown marl. The boyfriend, Liam, was hoping for a pair of mitts.

The brown marl was a little thinner than the cream. When I finally got to this in mid December, I thought the Newfie mitt style would be a good fit (bottom swatch).

However, Lucy didn't really like that. I tried out some brioche variations. It worked best with the cream as the main yarn, though I was skeptical about functionality as these were going to be worn during field study classes, out in the forest. I went ahead anyway, and made them flip top so they'd be usuable during note taking outside.

I felt they kind of looked a little funny, the way the top part is bigger than where it joins. I figured once a pair of man hands were inside, they'd look fine. 

He says they're very warm and practical for out in the forest. This guy is awesome.

I had some left, so I thought I should do a simple hat. Liam has very long hair and wears it in a bun, and he thought something that could accomodate that would be fantastic.

My first attempts were a little too pouffy at the top. I'm so glad I ripped it back.

Such nice smooth decreases. It’s really worth it to rip back and retry something if you’re not happy. 

 Most hats for ponytails/buns just leave the top open, but I knew that wouldn't work, so I started the hat in the round and separated at the slit and knit flat. I also switched it to the opposite of the mittens, with the brown as the main colour.

Liam is very happy with the hat! It's also reversible, which is pretty cool. I'm so glad to be done these though LOL. 

The hat weighed 170gr and I don't have a weight for the mittens. The yarn was 450gr total, and I have some left, so I'm going to just put this down as 350gr for the set. 

I have received a bit of yarn when we cleaned out a kindergarten room, but I'm not going to include that.

Yarn In:  0g
Yarn Out: 350gr
Balance: 350gr more OUT than in
Costs: $0