My latest obsession is knitting...

Obsessions come and go for me.  But my rediscovered love of knitting seems to be here to stay.  I have found that knitting is the perfect way to relax in the evenings while listening to music or watching tv.  I not only feel productive, but I find the smooth repetitive motion and the gentle click of the needles very soothing.

I learned to knit as a Junior Girl Scout in elementary school.  My first project was a scarf for my brother, Andrew, in the colors of the Cleveland Browns.  Brown and Orange.   I was proud of that scarf and my brother actually wore it.

After college I discovered quilting and knitting was pretty much forgotten.  So forgotten that when I moved to Fort Worth in 2005, I decided to take a beginning knitting class.  Although I remembered how to knit and purl, I had forgotten how to cast on and how to finish a project.  I knitted a few scarves, including this one, made from wool I bought during a visit to Annapolis, Maryland:

In fact, this particular scarf sat unfinished in a bag next to my sofa for several years.  I felt a bit guilty every time I saw it (although luckily it was tucked away and mostly out of sight).  But one day last fall, I spied it, picked it up and finally finished it.  And my interest in knitting was reawakened.

Since then, I've been on a tear.  I produced several cowls.  This is the Red Rasta Cowl by EweKnit Toronto knit in Malabrigo Rasta yarn.

Here are two seed stitch infinity scarves.  I didn't use a pattern, but they are very like the GAP-tastic Cowl by Jen Geigley:

I used bulky yarn for both of these.  The gray scarf is knit in Lion Brand Chunky Wool-Ease.  The green scarf is knit with a bulky yarn that I had stashed away.  I have no idea what it is, but I love the color.  

Then I was cruising the web and found some really really big needles.  Size 50, in fact.  Of course, I needed them.  They were so very absurd:

And I used them to knit the Return to Inverness Cowl from the book Highland Knits: Knitwear Inspired by the Outlander Series.  In fact, I made three of them, all with Lions Brand Wool-Ease Thick and Quick yarn.  These are a really quick knit, if you can get over the feeling that you are knitting with tree trunks:

I decided that it was time to move on from scarves.  All of the women on my Christmas list got an infinity scarf or a cowl this year.  And I live in Texas, where the use of scarves is fairly limited.  So my pal Wendy and I signed up for a cabled hat class at our local yarn star, West Seventh Wool.  It was   great!  The instructor was Jenn Nevitt, a fellow quilter and a extraordinarily productive knitter:

And I came home with a hat in progress.  The pattern is Jason's Cashmere Hat by Melissa Thomson and I am knitting it in Queensland Collection Kathmandu Aran 100 yarn:

 Next on the agenda:  socks.   There is a class in February.