Bumps, Waves, a Marathon Shawl a New Hat

Life is a wave, which in no two consecutive moments of its existence is composed of the same particles. --John Tyndall

It's interesting how quickly life can change directions. One day, you're sailing along with a clearly charted course with an expected destination and arrival time, and the next moment you're swept way off course and you're busy spending each moment dealing with each wave as it comes. It's been that way this week for both my personal life and my craft life. I guess that's the stuff that makes you stronger and smarter and more flexible... yada yada yada. 

So anyway: the result is a new hat, totally not in my knitting plans, but here it's here nonetheless:

The pattern is a modified version of the Little Birds Hat by Gretchen Tracy made with thicker yarn and bigger needles. I made it purely for a way to demonstrate a knitting stitch to an acquaintance of mine, but I took the opportunity to get a grey hat out of it. I've been saying for years how much I would like a grey hat... how it would be nice to have a neutral accessory, how much it would match a lot of my stuff... and yet I kept churning out blue and green and purple and red hats. What's up with that? 

Anyway, I think I may have made it a touch too long, but for me, a good hat is a hat that covers my ears. Either my ears are too low or my head is too short, but it does sorta drop down over my eyes from time to time. Maybe I'm grinding my teeth or I'm taking so much that my temples are jogging the band down. Or maybe it's not as bad as I think it is:

But whatever it is, I still love the look of it and I was even more grateful to have stuffed it into my pocket today for a trip to Westholme Tea for their annual Seconds Sale for the ceramics that are made on site. It was my first time going to the sale, and while I knew how popular an event it was, I was surprised at the long line up outside on a chilly February afternoon. I got to wear my new hat AND get a new teacup. It's a good day indeed:

But really, the whole hat thing was a welcome change from my Papillon Shawl, which is turning out to be a bit of an endurance project. I've made plenty of shawls, knitting this one is like trying to string pearls while sitting on a rocky boat: so much to keep track of while knitting wave after wave of short rows. I am quickly getting tired of all of the counting involved in this project, but it is literally just today that I'm starting to like the way it looks. That bright green is totally changing my perspective on this thing, and I'm hoping it will be enough of a momentum boost to encourage me to continue:

Even Seymour is exhausted from all of the stitch counting:

Meanwhile, I have finally settled myself down enough times this week to get onto my spinning wheel. This is the current state of the bobbin as of today. I am gratified to see how quickly it is building up even though I've only been spinning for a maximum of ten minutes each session:

The thing is: I am feeling slightly guilty about abandoning my beloved drop spindles. It's taking me a good deal of willpower not to go digging one of my unfinished drop spindle projects out right now because all I need is another thing to push me off course again. Maybe I'll dig it out for this year's Tour De Fleece and get 'er done then. That would be a good challenge.

Or maybe I could just accept that life is full of bumps and waves and twists and turns and to stop trying to fight everything into order all of the time. Heh. Freakin' good luck with that one.

I'm off to go tame some chicken dinner. How much do you wanna bet there will be a picture of a drop spindle on my next post? Stay tuned, kids...

Have a great week!