Today’s gray, rainy sky along with a temperature that topped out at 61ºF was the second day in what amounted to a preview of fall weather.

Spurred on by the inclement and chilly clime, I continued work on the newsboy hat I began work on yesterday with the handspun alpaca/merino yarn that arrived Thursday. By ten o’clock, I had gotten this far:

after which my progress slowed considerably.

Sometimes a project goes off without a hitch from start to finish, sometimes it proceeds in a straight forward manner with just a couple of glitches along the way that are quick and easy to resolve, and sometimes a project presents unexpected challenges along the way.

Today’s early crochet efforts definitely fell into the third category, and to add insult to injury, most of the difficulties were of my own making.

For much of the morning and into the early afternoon, I proceeded at a pace of two rounds forward, one-and-a-half rounds back, but despite the glacial pace, I finished the hat at around 2:30 and was able to wear it the rest of the day except for a short period of time when Hobbes, my youngest son’s stuffed tiger, served as hat model.

I love this hat for several reasons.

First, I really like the color.

Second, the 80% alpaca 20% merino wool blend of the yarn offers a lot of warmth for almost no itch. This is a big deal for someone who starts to scratch at the thought of wool and who is also nearly always cold.

Third, it is a treat to know the artisans who made this hat possible, including Eileen Tepper, hat designer extraordinaire (you can purchase the pattern I used to make this hat here), and Debbie Brandt, the woman whose creative journey has led her to spinning yarn and (in partnership with her husband) raising alpacas. (You can find her etsy offerings here).

This hat (in addition to keeping me warm) is a reminder to me that no woman is a creative island unto herself.

Behind every completed project is a supporting cast of characters; most often, we don’t get to meet or thank the people behind the products and inspiration we use in our projects, but every now and then we do, so thank you to both Eileen and Debbie for taking the time to make their work available so that I could make this awesome hat.