It's a Wrap on Another January

January has always been my least-favorite month. It's always dark and cold and long, and there's not much to look forward to other than its being over. So I was happy to say good-bye to it over the weekend.

While this particular January was more eventful than most, in both good and bad ways, one thing I can say for it was that it was pretty productive for me. I finished my fifth scrappy charity hat on Sunday morning -- that's five hats knit from January 20-31!

I opted to keep this one with the stockinette side out because I was using a textured/slubby yarn (Fibernymph Dye Works Pouf) along with two smooth yarns (Knit Picks Stroll Tonal). I started off holding the Pouf along with the darker of the Stroll shades for the brim and then started alternating between the two shades every round until the darker shade ran out just before the last couple of decrease rounds in the crown. I used a total of 305 yards of yarn in this hat! I also used up two of the three scraps, which was more exciting to me. There was a tiny amount, maybe a yard or two, of the Pouf left, but it wasn't enough to actually do much of anything with, so I tossed it.

Here's an array of all the hats I knit in this brief period of productivity:

They officially complete my "knit five items for charity" on my 21 in 2021 list, but I highly doubt these will be the only items I knit this year, especially considering how much yarn is still left in the scrap bag. I've now got a nice pile of knits to donate, but before I drop them off, I want to add some labels and tie together the two pairs of socks and the mitten and hat set so that the components don't get separated from one another.

Yesterday I pulled out a WIP that's been ignored for a while, and I think I might give it some more attention now that it's February and, as my friend Bekah reminded me, February Is for Finishing.

This is the corner-to-corner (or C2C) crochet blanket that I started with a giant ball of big box store acrylic last summer. I don't even think I'm halfway through at this point; my plan is just to increase until I've used up about half the yarn and then start decreasing. I think getting this done this month might be a good goal, and I actually do want to get out some older WIPs and finish them up (that's another item on my 21 in 2021 list, after all!). This project is pretty mindless, but it's not one I can work on while reading because I still have to look while I crochet.

And that's a good segue to tell you to remember to stop by here tomorrow, when I'll review some other WIPs and update you on my reading!