chicago fall

The weather these last few days has been really wonderful - cool and sunny, one of my favorites. I've really enjoyed my short walks to and from school, even if I am spending most days cooped up in the library and evenings at home studying in my PJs. Only the most minimal amount of crafting has been taking place. I'm cranking out a few rounds a day on a Yulie hat - love those stitch patterns - in malabrigo and a lovely (but awfully shiny) silk yarn that a librarian knitter buddy at school was offering. I'm excited about being able to wear the hat. Last year, when I started wearing my hair curly more consistently (as opposed to its previous state of half curly half just fuzzy and awful) I declared it to be the winter of the slouchy hat. See, those slouchy hats are much nicer on my curls than tight beanie-style ones. The slouchy ones aren't as warm on my ears, but I'm tough so I deal with it until it gets to be snot-freezing cold. Then I just give all hopes of looking attractive. So this Iola was my main standby last winter. And I still like it, but you see, I'm doing a little teaching now and thus have to look more put-together at least a couple times a week. So I'm upgrading to berets. They look more neat and clean, in my opinion. My good old slouchy hat will still come out on the weekends though, I'm sure.

So besides rambling on about my current thoughts on hats and put-togetherness I have a minor housekeeping announcement to make. Adva (which I'm wearing in both pictures included with this post), which until this point has only be available for purchase through the Knit Picks website, is now available on ravelry as well. It's the same price and the same pattern, just more widely available. And all the monies go directly to me when you buy through either site. That's the beautiful thing about the Knit Picks IDP.