I found it!

Long before Jo taught me to purl, she was our number one hat supplier. And this is my favorite of all the hats she’s made me. Well, actually, she made this one for Bob and I stole it. I love the minimalist stitch pattern; it suits my head like no other hat does; and it’s the most awesome charcoal gray — with the exact dark sheen of graphite. For a long time, when I was commuting by ferry to San Francisco, I wore it every single day. One of the ferry crewmen actually mocked me for it each morning as I passed him, as if I didn’t need a hat around here in the middle of summer or something. And then somewhere along the line I lost it. And I cried. So I was thrilled when I found it yesterday, waiting patiently in the bottom of a tote I hadn’t used in a long time. Not only because I have it back! But because it’s one thing I’ve been dying to knit ever since learning how, but there was no photo, no record of it in Jo’s Ravelry, and I couldn’t describe the poor lost thing well enough for her to recall it. (This is a woman, after all, who knits a lot of hats. Hi, Jo!) And, to my great dismay, I have never run across the pattern in all my trolling. So I’ve got a Fringe project bag to send to the first person to correctly identify the hat pattern in the comments below. I’m counting on you!

UPDATE: Thanks to Meg for identifying it — it’s Bamboo Stalks by Mandy Funderburk.

.

Meanwhile, a few links:

— The funnest news in knitting this week is a months-long Project Runway-style competition for knitting designers, called The Fiber Factor and produced by Skacel (aka Addi). Given that we’ve had everything from food to Fine Art to sci-fi movie makeup submitted to this format, I think knitting may actually be the only creative exploit left unaddressed. And with good reason: You can’t exactly create knitwear on a TV production company’s schedule. So The Fiber Factor will allow for multiple weeks to finish challenges, and the whole thing will play out online. Cheers to Skacel for giving this a go! If you want to apply to be a contestant, the info is here.

— There’s a good interview on the Colette blog with Elizabeth Cline, author of “Overdressed: The Shockingly High Price of Cheap Fashion.” Everything being said about sewing in this regard is obviously also true of knitting. The book also factors into Amy Christoffers’ roundup of books on this subject.

— The Boston Globe finds that men are taking up cooking, reading “and even, yes, knitting.” (h/t Clara Parkes)

— It turns out I’m going to need to get my hands on a copy of The Gentlewoman, which everyone’s been raving about. I don’t want to miss the feature titled “Terribly nice jumpers with Yasmin Le Bon,” spied in this paean at Pugly Pixel.

— And this is too funny-cute for words.

Happy Friday!

.