Wooly June

After several years of serious knitting, I think I finally understand something very important. You can't start mittens in January just because your hands are cold. Nor can you start a hat on, oh, December 22nd to give someone at Christmas, as if it won't take more than the two hours you might spend running to the store for a last-minute gift.


You have to have the foresight to start these projects early enough to allow for the relaxed, careful, and loving mindset with which they were meant to be made. So it's June, and it seems ever so wrong, but I've gotten out my wool blends and finished a couple of things with more time to spare than a half-day kindergartener.*


The mittens are for myself, to match my other winter warmies. The hat is for my dad. I was inspired on Father's Day to make it for him, which is just another indication that I tend to be a bit late to the party when it comes to having revelations.


Dad's been wearing the same stocking hat since sometime last century, but the real motivation was that he's so encouraging of my crafts. And not in a required-because-we're-family way. Sure, he's biased, but he's still sincere. So I made him a hat of mostly red, a color he looks smashing in, for the shoveling and car scraping and snowman making with the grandkids.


*I was going to go with a simile comparing my spare time with my grandmother sitting in a nursing home, but then thought that might be in poor taste.