A Warm August

Hoo Wee! Remember all those days I have complained about how cold it is here in the Northwest? Well those days are long gone. We rarely have temps in the 90s and when we do “they” start talking about water rationing for lawns and washing cars … like I wash my car. We actually turned on the air conditioner once we found the manual and learned how to change from heat to cool. As you probably gathered from our needing the manual we don’t use the air conditioning very often. We’ve had 4 days in a row of over 90-degree temps. I now remember what true sweating is like. No complaints though.

On these hot days I hide out in the daylight basement office where I am usually building a fire … well, the fireplace in the office. Nowadays I come down here to work and play where it is cool.

I haven’t done a lot of stranded knitting but have always admired the look. Ravelry.com had some great tam patterns available (three tams) and I decided it was time to pull out the yarns and needles and give it a try. The patterns use over-dyed yarns instead of multiple colors to achieve the finished effect.

The pattern calls for 16″ circulars, 24″ circulars and double pointed needles to finish off the top. My 16″ circs were being used with another project so I choose to make the hat using Clovers 7″ double points.  I am normally a tight knitter and have had to loosen up a LOT with this project. It’s a great project for me as it makes me loosen up and read a graph.

These Pictures show the finished model I am working on and all three tam patterns. If hats are your thing you will love these sweet little things. Check them out on Ravelry.com. Search the Pattern section for “tams.”