Scrappy Tam

Scrap Happy Train Tam by Cosette Cornelius-Bates

This hat arose from the scraps of a few projects with leftovers. The brown is from the leftover Beaverslide Organic wool I used to make the Drops Jacket, and the yellow and blue are Debbie Bliss Donegal Aran Tweed from some impromptu Irish Hiking Mitts. I was initially planning to make the mitts simply in yellow, but ran out of yarn halfway through the second mitt, so I ripped that out and made one yellow mitt and one blue. The scraps seemed to fit perfectly into this pattern with the Beaverslide. They're all really rustic and hearty wools and it coordinated with the pattern really well. I was, not only inspired by Cosy's pattern, but by her creative use of leftovers and great color combinations.

While I was making this hat, I was keeping in mind a group I joined in Ravelry called Color Coordinated which has got me thinking about my own use of color and questioning the colors I'm often drawn towards. It's so easy to pick out grays, blacks, browns, and I keep trying to break out and squish around the yellows, purples, and greens that I might overlook normally. A recent trip to the Cultured Purl (LYS here in Erie PA - see map behind my head, above!) and I came home with this little nugget:

This is some breakthrough yarn for me. First of all, it's purple. And I was drawn to it. Which has never really happened before. Second of all, it's sock yarn, and I've never knitted a sock before. And so, through my Ravelry addiction, I looked at a few patterns and found that this exact yarn and colorway was used to make the Froot Loop Socks from Knitty, and I immediately cast on. So I feel I've come a long way. And I'm actually having a blast knitting the pattern. It's quite easy to remember and the yarn is so awesome. It's Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Potluck and it's like butter. I think I'm a convert to sock knitting. We'll see where this leads...