I had a great MLK weekend skiing near Lake Tahoe this weekend. I also had the chance to wear this cute hat I knitted over winter break. I used the Traveling Cables Hat pattern by Purl Soho. For the body of the hat, I used some extra Berroco Ultra Alpaca yarn (in Charcoal Mix) that I had in my stash. I wanted a really fuzzy pom-pom and brim, and I had one ball of this Lang Yarns Perla (discontinued!) that was another really great color of grey.

The hat is so warm and cozy! Cables are always pretty annoying to knit, in my opinion, but this pattern made them bearable, and it turns out looking really complex. I’ve gotten tons of compliments and surprise that I made it – it looks really store-bought!

For those of you who have never made a pom-pom, here’s a good tutorial. I usually like to use my phone (instead of the fork or cardboard) as the thing I wrap the yarn around, then I pull it off and tie it in the middle. I think the most important part is starting larger than you want your pom-pom to be and then trimming it down into a nice sphere.

Anyone else spend their MLK weekend making/wearing some yarn-crafted goods?