The Dark Ages of My Hat Knitting...

I wasn't always in love with the idea of knitting in the round. It confounded me. It made me nervous. I decided I wasn't good enough to give it a shot, so I shied away from it. I could just sew the darn things up the back, right? (Yes, I know I've stated many times that I am a seaming delinquent, but I needed to be able to make excuses, okay?) So my hats looked like little Frankensteins, a jagged seam running up the back. I shudder looking at them now, the poor little things. (Yup, the blue, white and yellow ones below are examples of my earlier work.)

What changed my mind? Preemie caps. I'd been dying to do something for charity (we knitters are a charitable bunch - check some of them out at http://www.dailyknitter.com/charity.html), and thought it would be great to do preemie caps for little premature babies. The problem? Can't have seams. They hurt the babies' little heads. Well, that just made me get all teary-eyed (you know anything with kids does that to me) at the thought of my Frankenstein-esque creations hurting a preemie, so I knuckled down and busted out my copy of SnB. I went to Rag Shop, bought a pair of 16" circulars, and went to work.

This white hat is the first hat I made for a preemie, on circular needles. The only problem is, the yarn gauge is a little too big - it won't fit a preemie. I hadn't figured out how to do smaller work, switching to double-pointed needles once even the circulars are too long. I've figured that out, too - that's where the umbilical cord hats came in.

Believe me, knitting on double pointed needles (dpns) is not as scary as it looks. It definitely takes some fooling around with, and some dexterity, but it's so much fun - and it's totally worth all the crazy looks you get from people who try to figure out what the hell you're doing.

Knitting has kept me sane in the months where I felt like I was worthless. Learning new things in knitting has made me stop feeling so worthless and useless. It really is as good as yoga.