Happy New Year!
How was your holidays? We missed our extended family but made the most out of it, just the 5 of us. Lots of Facetime and Zoom calls, bingeing the Mandalorian which led to re-watching the entire Star Wars Movies, (still in progress) and playing board games. The best gift arrived a few days before Christmas. I became an auntie! My sister gave birth to a handsome baby boy, Nathan, whom I have yet to hold and cuddle!
I took a break from the big meal prep this year and ordered Filipino food for Christmas day. It’s always a treat for us since I only know how to cook a handful of Filipino dishes. I wish I had the chance to learn more from my mom when she was still around.
I scheduled to pick up the food on Christmas Eve and ended up making a full day out of it. We drove all over the city to stand on porches and wave hello to our family and friends. It took a good 4.5-5 hours in the car so I was so happy when Ryan offered to prepare our Christmas Eve dinner. A simple, family favorite – Caprese sandwiches 🙂
The holidays are usually crazy busy for us. Our routine for 2 decades now was always Christmas Eve dinner with Radley’s mom’s side of the family, followed by Christmas lunch with mine, then off to Radley’s dad’s side for Christmas dinner. We have a big family!
I cook a big feast for my side of the family and meal prep usually starts a few days before since we don’t get home until 1 am at the earliest on Christmas Eve.
Ooof, I’m exhausted just typing that out!
Since none of that was happening in 2020, I thought I finally have a chance to do a Christmas Eve cast-on!
I went stash diving and pulled out a skein of Fluff from Feisty Fibres that I’ve been admiring for some time now. I was excited when I saw an olive pom pom from Grocery Girls Knit and knew this skein was meant to be a hat!
If you can’t already tell, I’m crazy for olive! I kept a matching sheep project bag for myself to hold everything together 🙂
Fluff is a super bulky, single ply, superwash merino yarn.
It’s definitely a yarn baby – soft and squishy!
The colorway is called Riddler. A gorgeous variegation of shades of green and black. I feel like it was made for me.
I chose to knit the Forever October Slouch by Kelly Brooks. I like that the pattern highlights the beautiful colors in the yarn and I love the double brim detail.
The pattern calls for US 13″ and US 15″ knitting needles. I didn’t have these sizes in 16″ circulars but I did have them in 24″. I used the traveling loop method to knit the entire hat. Similar to magic loop, traveling loop is a great alternative to utilize needles in your stash if your cord isn’t long enough to have 2 loops on either side. Here’s a video demonstrating how it works.
I knit this hat in just 2 days! I’ve been on a chunky knit kick lately. Did you see the other ones I made for the kids on Instagram?
I took my new hat out for a hike nearby while Ryan took some photos for me. I love my YARNIVORE sweater from Stitchers Tees which was a gift from him for my birthday a few years back. It’s so soft and comfy and has become my go-to hoodie for some time now. It still looks and feels great against my skin after a couple of years!
// Pattern – Forever October Slouch by Kelly Brooks //
// Yarn – Feisty Fibres Fluff in Riddler //
// PomPom – Grocery Girls Knit in Olive //
// Sweater – Yarnivore – Stitchers Tees //
Oh and in case you were curious, we roasted some chestnuts, played mahjong (my dad brought us a set from Hong Kong a few years back but it was our first time trying it out) while we counted down 2020.
Can you guess who won? 🙂
