I seem to be knitting a bright pink slouchy hat.  It just kind of happened.

Classic Elite Yarns’s “Montera Slouchy Hat” pattern showed up in my email one day last week.  I thought:

Hmm.  How interesting.  I have a friend who was interested in knitting a hat like this.  I think I’ll send it along to her.  It is a good-looking hat.  Why, yes it really is a good-looking hat. And, wow, quick to knit with bulky yarn on size 11 needles.  Nice hat. 

Well, next thing you know I was printing it out for myself (I did send it along to my friend too!).  A pleasant little lace pattern.  And I have been wanting to try one of these “Portland tams” (my name for them – since they seem to epitomize the distinctive style of young urban Portlanders!).  It seemed like a perfect project for the Araucania alpaca yarn in my stash, too.  I had a choice of the pinks/purples mix or the sky blues/purples mix.  I chose pink – thinking it would look good in autumn as well as spring (the other sings “Spring!” to me too much for October wear).

Okay, I kinda blame the cold gray rainy weather.  I mean, who wouldn’t want a warm and cheery hat in this weather?!

I think the idea of “whipping something up” sounds appealing too, as I plod diligently along on the 1000-stitch rounds of seed stitch – the border of Owen’s “Yzma Blanket.”  My lace sharf is not exactly an “instant gratification” project either! 

And I get to use the exquisite Araucania alpaca yarn!  I call their yarns “puppy yarns” because each skein of a colorway is distinctive and you have to choose each one like you would a puppy.  I am using 3 skeins for this project (shades of light & dark pinks, violet, grape, even a soft warm brown) and discovered that one of them is more vibrant than the other two.  So, I decided to start with that for the brim and work to the top of the hat with the lighter skeins.

It is a whimsical project started on a whim – and it makes me happy!