Poor Jerry; he often tries to drop in an “I did not know that.” But his timing is always off. It’s really not funny when he says it, ever. I feel bad for him, especially because he feels like if he could just nail this one joke, he’d be the man of the hour.

The thing is, most of what Jerry says is funny. Not usually laugh out loud funny, but seriously, quietly funny. He’s been reading The Guinness Book of World Records. About once a day out of the blue, he’ll tell you the world record for something.  So funny. I wish he wasn’t so concerned about this one particular joke. He’s a funny, funny kid. I love him so much that it sounds silly just saying I love him.

For Christmas, I knew Jerry wanted to buy me yarn (he’s funny and smart). So I filled out the “wish list” cards they had at my LYS and sent Gerald off with the kids one Saturday. On Christmas morning, I got two gorgeous skeins of Cascade 220. One bright blue. One bright orange.  Beautiful. This weekend, I finally got around to making him a hat.

The pattern is Kirsten Kapur’s Wood Hollow Hat. I used a size 5 needle (instead of a 6) and made the ribbing a bit shorter than in the pattern. Jerry is 7, but he’s got quite a noggin. This fits him perfectly.

The yarn, of course, is Cascade 220. The color is…9457, one of The Heathers. It took less than a skein, even with the ginormous pompom.

Jerry doesn’t really want the pompom, so he requested it be made removeable. “Like with a tie-clip or something.”

I couldn’t help myself and had to make the pompom anyway, even though I knew he didn’t want it.

That last picture immediately reminded me of another back porch photo shoot we had nearly 3 years ago. My how time flies:

march 2007

He’s all big now.

And funny as hell.

Pattern: LAUREL by Jared Flood, in his new pattern book Made in Brooklyn.
Yarn: Ultra Alpaca, color 6275, 1 skein.
My project on Ravelry.

My mother-in-law, upon seeing me model it yesterday, said it is the best hat that was ever on my head. I agree.

The fit is perfect. In the book, the hat is modeled as a beret. Since I have a big head I decided to not block it over a plate and keep the beanie shape. The only modification I made was to knit the ribbing at the beginning for about 1.75″ instead of 1″ as it says in the pattern.

Jared (no, we are not on a first name basis, I just pretend that we are) is probably my favorite designer out there. The thing I love about his new book is that all his patterns are so knittable and wearable. With the exception of the large square lace shawl (I love it but probably would never knit it) I think I want to knit all the projects  in the book. Everything I have always loved about brooklyntweed all gathered up in a beautiful collection. I hope we see more pattern books from him!

Next? Matching mittens!

It’s a miracle, but this hat is making me feel stylish! I’ll be a ragamuffin no more!