Knit-Nerd-Rant

This pattern is for a fun, festive hat made with a couple different types of yarn that create very different effects.  It's simple enough, though the changes between needle sizes and weights of yarn can be a bit of exercise for your fingers.  Depending on how Kaiser Wilhelm-y you want it to be, you can do the tassel or leave it off. So, my mother asked for a hat for Christmas and sent me the following picture as a guide for what I should make for her, but she wanted it in red: Essentially, this would mean felting using variegated yarn with an eyelash yarn around the brim that wouldn't felt and would provide a different kind of fluffy-ness. 2 difficulties with this: 1 - local yarn shop didn't have any eyelash yarn and no access to big box craft shops that would carry it, 2 - I've never intentionally felted anything and the whole process scares me more than it should scare any rational, experienced knitter. When I went to my LYS ( Looped ), I was able to find ...

So, since I finished the socks for the boyfriend, I've been having to figure out what I want to do next. The lambswool in the black bag above was reclaimed from a truly hideous GAP sweater found at a rummage sale and is just begging to be knit into a cozy, lovely sweater. The teal is smooth cotton/silk blent that seems perfect for a shirt, and the red and brown cotton/wool blend are going to be socks for me at some point with cheerful stripes. The next question came up when in my new office, the temperature outside plummeted and offices in DC generally don't just flip from AC to heat right away. Ours designates October 15th as the day to switch on the heat. All day on Monday, my co-workers and I were shivering trying to stay warm, wearing our coats around the office, and salivating over the idea of having some nice, hot tea (another thing we're still figuring out in the new space until we can get microwave/water heating system up...). I realized that one thing I re...