This is a hat that I made awhile back. It has a cable whenever I felt like making a cable, and has the same kind of slouchiness in the back that Ysolda Teague uses in Ripley. It’s made out of Princess, by Classic Elite Yarns, which was not quite as soft as I hoped. Some of their yarns, like Fresco, are really much softer and fluffier when you knit them up.

I used the Italian tubular cast on, which makes a lovely professional looking edge, and knit for probably 1 1/2 inches-2 inches. Then I started doing cables whenever I felt like it and crossed them whenever I felt like it, incorporating that Ripley slouch, and BAM, there’s a hat.

I was on my way to the woods and realized I might not have packed warm enough things for sleeping outdoors at night, despite it being 91 degrees during the days…so I was rooting around my car and found this hat. The only thing to finish was weaving in the ends. I’m going to name it Grumpus, and maybe I’ll write up the pattern if there is any interest.  It might be difficult to see the cables in the black yarn.

Grumpus hat

I went camping for the first time in SEVEN years last weekend. My boyfriend wanted to do this for his birthday, so I obliged. Even when I had been camping, it was alway in conjunction with a float trip and near the cars without having to hike in to the woods. For this trip, we slept behind a lovely waterfall with NO TENT. That part was a little bit intimidating, but overall, it was a lovely experience.

We crossed a dirt road by my boyfriend’s friend’s house and were staring at the woods. I saw no trail. There was no trail. We dived right into the hot mess of trees. At first, I was freaking out a little, thinking of all the snakes and ticks and such, but Matt talked me down, and all was well.

We got to stop at a bunch of little creeks and waterfalls and those were gorgeously refreshing in the mid-day heat. I only really lost it once when I realized I had been walking through poison ivy in shorts and Chacos for awhile, but we got back to the creek and washed off and there were no bad repercussions.

I will go camping again, now that I’ve had such a wonderful experience. What I’m really ready for is a float trip, which also hasn’t happened in seven years. I was sooooo sore after this trip. The landscape was much more rough than Matt had experienced it before because in the last two years since he was visited that spot, there had been a couple of ice storms and lots of flooding. This is near the Buffalo River, but we didn’t actually make it to the river with all the boulders and fallen trees blocking the creek. It is an extremely lovely spot, though, and I can’t wait to go again.

Here are a few more pics of the lovely Arkansas outdoors:

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