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Anatomy of a hat project.

Materials: 1 skein Morehouse Merino Bulky (100% merino wool) in Soft White. Size 10.5 circular & DPNs.

Time: One weekend

Cost: $16

I'm really picky about the fit of my hats. I don't like the kind of cylindrical, tightly-knit variety that leaves a lot of poofy extra space above the head, but I need something warm that will cover my ears. Moreover, the last hat that I made for myself has mohair in it, which leads to me furiously scratching at my forehead after 5 minutes of wear. So, I cast about online looking for ideas that appealed to me. Enter the Filament Hat at Anthropologie.

I really like the roundy-ness of the edges afforded by the ribbing, and it's the prefect length to cover the tips of the ears. And $68? Even using high-quality yarn, I could do much, much better than that. The hat pictured looked like it was in a slightly thick-and-thin rustic bulky-weight with a strand of shiny stuff running through. I could do without the shiny stuff, and I'd need to go with some kind of very soft wool -- my normally beloved alpaca doesn't take to ribbing very well. So, I settled on some reasonably-priced and correctly-gauged Morehouse Farm Merino Bulky, which would be almost guaranteed not to itch my delicate forehead.

After a bit of experimentation and close observation of the original photo, I settled on a pattern that seemed to work for both the yarn and the size of my head: CO 66 sts, work for 16 rounds on size 10.5 circs in k1 p1 ribbing, then do one row of purl stitches. Place markers after every 6 stitches. Decrease after each marker, then work two rounds; repeat twice. Then repeat the decreases twice with one normal row in between, then decrease every round until you've no more stitches left.

The finished product fits really well: it's just snug enough, but doesn't completely smash down my hair (and if you've seen my hair after it's been smashed by a winter hat, you'd understand why this is important). It's also totally comfy. I'd call it a success. Step one in my plan for worldwide winter accessories domination has been completed.

Fishy socks.

Materials: 2 skeins Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock (80% Superwash Wool, 20% Nylon ) in (what else?) #92, River. Size 1 needles. Pattern: Knitty's Pomatomus.

Time: Eight months-ish

Cost: $18

So it turns out that Pomatomus is the exception to my I hate lace rule: as complicated as it may look, the pattern is really easy to follow, and it's simple to detect and correct any mistakes.

It took me forever to complete these, but mostly because I just didn't work on them all that often. And because I managed to misread my gauge swatch, and made it halfway through the first sock before I realized that I could barely squeeze it on over my heel. It's a good thing I've never managed to make that mistake before.

What remains to be seen is how often I wear them -- there's something about lace that bespeaks "fancy," which means that there's a tendency to reserve such garments for a special occasion. We'll see what happens when it gets really cold and I start running behind on laundry, though.

Considering that I've worn them just about every day for the past two winters, my Selbu Mittens are holding up remarkably well -- maybe it's the tight gauge, because I don't tend to think of the Lamb's Pride that I knit them in as being a particularly durable yarn, but they're still going strong. Unfortunately, they're just not quite warm enough to get me through the coldest days of the year, so I've been casting about for other handknit solutions.

I thought a bit about making some convertible mittens, but most of the reviews of the patterns I found online and in books said the same thing: not warm enough, don't stay closed properly, lumpy. Plus, I wouldn't be able to put a pattern or something in them, which is a bummer. So, this morning I've been surfing the web intermittently at work, thinking about buying some cheap-ish cashmere to make a liner for another pair of mittens from the Folk Mittens book that my current pair came from.

Imagine my delight when this post popped up my RSS reader. I have a weakness for traditional Scandinavian-style designs, but these...!