It's Working!

36 days until Christmas and what am I working on? A beanie! But. Not a beanie I could whip up in a few days and say Boom! another gift down! No. Of course not. I'm adventuring into the realm of the unknown.

I don't know how this even happens to me (but it does). A few weeks ago. I borrowed New Vintage Lace from the library (I was actually looking for a shawl pattern) and apparently became "obsessed" with the idea of converting a doily pattern into a beanie.

It seemed easy enough. You would basically knit the doily/beanie from the top down, increasing until the amount of stitches was big enough to go around the head. Then you would stop increasing (like any other top-down beanie) and knit round and round in pattern (or not?) until the beanie was the length you wanted. Add an inch or two of ribbing and BAM! A doily beanie.

I found a really easy (or so I thought) swirled doily/dishcloth pattern in Promenade and Easy Doily & Dishcloth. Actually, let me clarify this a little. It IS an easy pattern in the way it is written. The problem I encountered is because I needed the doily to be written from the center out and this is written from the outside edge in.

I had to figure out how to convert the decreases to increases and well, basically wing it (and that doesn't always work out so well for me). But. I think it's working! Here's another shot of the progress.

You can sort of make out the swirl (even though the yarnovers don't stand out much yet). I'm really enjoying the process of this beanie. That's the point of knitting, isn't it? To enjoy the process (well, and HOPEFULLY turn out something lovely).

Luckily, I have a few last-minute quick to knit/crochet gift ideas up my sleeve that should bail me out of this jam I've gotten myself into!

Happy knitting!

Lori