Knitting. I may be grumpy about it at times, but there is no denying that I love it. This year I have been participating in the 10 Shawls in 2010 group on Ravelry (though I have not been social at all) and I'm currently knitting my tenth shawl. It has been a blast and also incredibly self-indulgent: I love knitting lace, I love knitting shawls and nowadays I really have very little knitting time left for personal projects so these shawls have all felt very special. I was pondering what I could do in 2011? I want to do something which feels just as good as these shawls and which can be spaced out throughout 2011. I hit upon my idea when I read Ms Mooncalf's post about hats. For a knitter, I have very few hats. This is strange because I love wearing hats. I love matching them with my outfits, love having warm ears and love using up random odd balls of wool.

2011 will be my Year of The Hat.

It's official. I'll knit eleven hats and my head will never be cold ever again.

Now to a bit about Recent Stash Enhancement of the Scandinavian kind. My purchases run completely counter to my Year of the Hat because, well, I am helpless in the face of North-Atlantic laceweight. Quite apart from the sweater's worth of bulky pure wool which I found in my gran's supermarket, I succumbed to a slew of gorgeous laceweights from an assortment of places: the Faroe Islands, Iceland and, well, Sweden. I also found some cheap preyarn/unspun yarn which I'm looking forward to trying as well as some double-knitting yarn in a very pretty green/teal combo.

Two other delightful things happened whilst I was in Copenhagen:

Firstly, my Bestest Friend Ever decided to give crocheting a go. Now she is on Ravelry and is talking about needing more yarn. I cannot be held responsible for this (cough) but it makes me very happy to see her employ all her cunning and skill in a crafty manner. She could rule the world if she put her mind to it. Next we'll be exchanging placemat sets and toilet roll covers. Just wait and see.

Secondly, I was taught how to use a lucet as previously mentioned. A friend sent me a peculiarly looking instrument this spring and I had no idea what it was, what it did or why she had sent it to me. I had some inkling it might have to do with textile history as I'm a big geek and, well, she is into historical re-enactment (and thus costume history). She brought a friend along for afternoon tea and this person taught me how to use my strange little gadget. It makes me very happy to know people who just happen to know what a lucet is and how to use one. It is so freaking cool.

So, anyway, yes: tell me about the hats you like, the hats you have queued, and the hats of your dreams. I need to plan my hat extravaganza a bit but going through 81 pages of hat patterns on Rav is a bit daunting.