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WIP Wednesday: Hats, Hats, Hats!

My knitting has taken a little detour recently: I can't stop making hats! Just before I left for Minneapolis, I received the news that my aunt was diagnosed with cancer. It was a shock to the family, but the prognosis is very good. Hopefully it's not too much of an invasion of her privacy to say that the tumor itself was already successfully removed, but she does have to undergo chemo as a precautionary measure.

After getting over my initial surprise, my next thought was: she's going to need HATS. Lots of hats! Someone in my knitting group mentioned that people undergoing chemo have a tendency to get hot easily, which is something that hadn't occurred to me. But as I was digging through all of my finished hats which are looking for good homes, it seemed like most of them would be too warm, not only given the circumstances but also for the summer months ahead. Luckily, I have a ton of sock yarn in my stash and there is no shortage of great lightweight hat designs in fingering weight yarn!

I picked out one of my all-time hat patterns, the Topiary Beanie from Weekend Hats, to knit with two skeins of Canopy Fingering. This is among my favorite yarns from the Fibre Company, and I think it will be soft and comforting for my aunt to wear.
However, I needed a travel-friendly project and decided to cast on for a Rikke Hat, also in Canopy Fingering yarn, though I plan to do some purl round stripes with some Skein Merino Cashmere just to mix things up a bit (though the effect is a bit more subtle than I thought it would be).
I probably should just focus on these two hats (not to mention the sweater I have in progress, but I'm getting ahead of myself) - but then the new issue of Holla Knits came out on Monday and I had to start a Bowdoin Hat with some Sincere Sheep Tenacious Sock that has been lurking in my stash. I cannot emphasize had to enough in that previous sentence.
I would feel more guilty about my recent bout of startitis, but they are of course for a good cause, which is reason enough to cast on with reckless abandon. Also, I have made some pretty awesome progress on my Lake Michigan Tee, and I am quite confident that I'll be ready to start the body of the sweater by the end of the upcoming holiday weekend, which means it will be an idea project to take to TNNA at the end of this month.
That's it for WIPs this week, but don't wander too far away - tomorrow I'll be sharing a special post with another awesome yarn giveaway that you won't want to miss!


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