There is a wonderful hidden gem on Green Street in Huntington, NY; The Knitting Garden. The shop has a carefully curated collection of exceptional yarns which project the same timeless elegance and radiant energy as the shop owner, JoAnn. By car, boat, or bike, it’s always worth the trip for me to visit when I am in NY. On my last trip right before the world closed I picked up some incredibly soft and quick to crochet Juniper Moon Fourteen in three shades – two blue, purple and grey to make hats for Christmas. Yes I do crochet and knit all year for the holidays because one never knows what life has in store and as we know, 2020 was quite the mess.

No one went anywhere for the holidays last year so I sent two on their merry way and kept one for myself, from across the miles in support of https://hatnothate.org which I wore all winter.

This week while preparing for the photo shoot for my book, I looked around for the hat and it was no where to be seen. After an extensive search it was found, sadly in the pocket of a winter coat where apparently it had endured a machine washing and trip in the dryer. The good news – Fourteen felts beautifully, fabulous stitch definition is retained, the pompom even felted into a perfect little ball. The bad news – it doesn’t fit me anymore and will live out its days reimagined as a felted pouch to hold clothes pins in the laundry room.

The moral of the story – always check the pockets before you wash your down coat and put it away. I’ll make another for myself at some point, first things first, there are a lot of heads to cover for Winter 2021 so please join in the fun and knit a few hats for charitable giving.