This year the winter solstice arrived to rather sultry temperatures where I live, and it felt a bit as if I were working in opposition to the weather as I continued crocheting a scrap-busters hat to coordinate with my best hoodie ever.

There was no sense, as the temperature climbed above 70º F on the first day of winter, that I would ever need the hat I was working on, but I knew from looking at the weather report that by Tuesday, when I prepare to step outside with my dog for his morning walk, I will be able to put the hat to good use.

But for most of the weekend, the hat was a work in progress.

Here is how far I had gotten with it by late afternoon yesterday:

And here is how it looked in the early afternoon light of the second day of winter with all of the crochet work done and the ends woven in and trimmed:

All that was left to do was to thread the strands of yarn to be braided through the six stitches of the last round:

and then attempt to bring order to the riot of colors by braiding them into a neat and tidy braid:

It would have made for a tidier braid, I suppose, had I been able to channel my maternal grandmother’s talent to plait tight, headache inducing braids that never seemed to loosen, but the next thing beckoned, and I was onto the next crochet adventure.