Crocheted FO's: bad-haircut beanie and Marian's Hood

I gave my husband a bad haircut. Since he has very short hair, the badness of the haircut ceased to be apparent within about two days. But I'd already decided that I owed him a hat, so several weeks after the hair cut in question, I presented him with this:

(The trimming of the fine mustache and beard, happily, I have nothing to do with.)

I'm very pleased with the hat (so is he). I used a self-striping sock yarn - first time using one! The striping of the yarn made this otherwise boring pattern (made it up myself: it's just a slowly-increasing single crochet circle, worked even once it was wide enough to fit around the sides of his head) fun to work. The yarn is a bamboo-wool mix, making it bright & warm.

Then, I finished a project for myself. I have fairly thick hair, which I wear up most of the time, usually in pinned braids or some sort of chignon. This - along with the fact that I (don't laugh!) have a big head (no, literally!) - means that it's hard to find hats that fit. And, even if they fit, shoving them over my hair usually messes up whatever hairstyle I've got going. So when I saw this project in Interweave Crochet, I thought, ah-ha! a solution! (Forgive my sober expression - it's hard to take pictures of yourself!)

It's a crocheted hood, like the hood on a jacket, but just all by itself, and buttoned at the neck. It has fun cables down the side and I used a pretty green yarn made of wool and mohair. I really like how it turned out. And, yes, it fits over my hair without disarranging it too much. Yay!

(Look, see? This picture shows how I actually feel about how it turned out.)

It's so fun to work on projects like this. I'm having way too much fun with yarn these days. :D

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell