Connecting with something warm

Several months ago I learned of a community charity project, "Connecting With Something Warm", which is a part of a gallery exhibit titled: Spoken Threads: The Art of Craftivism. Local installation artist Mary Giehl asked knitters and crocheters to make something warm - hats, mittens/gloves, scarves - that she will package in plastic bags and place around the area for people to find; drop-off locations will be in public areas, bus shelters, walkways and on park benches. Included with each item will be a stamped, addressed postcard that details information about the project and an invitation to meet the knitter or crocheter who made the item at the opening reception for the exhibition. The recipient is also asked to mail the postcard back to ArtRage Gallery as a record of the connection.

Ms. Giehl's goal was to collect 500 items. At this morning's meeting of Twisted Stitches of CNY knitting guild, she announced that she has met the goal and then some, not including the items that were collected at the meeting. Today's contributions included the hat that I made for the project.

I decided to make a man's hat; I had a conversation with Ms. Giehl through Facebook and learned that she was receiving more feminine items than masculine items. I chose the Turn a Square pattern by Jared Flood, which is a simple striped beanie but the style of decreases at the crown turns the stripes or "rings" into diminishing square shapes at the crown. The pattern recommends one self-striping yarn and one solid color yarn used in the alternating row pattern, but I went with two different colorways of self-striping yarns, just to see how the two randomly came together:

The yarn is Mochi Plus by Crystal Palace Yarns, and the colorways are Feldspar and Lake Trail. The fiber content is 80% Merino and 20% nylon, and is machine washable. While the yarn felt very soft and comfortable to me as I knitted it, my skin had a reaction to it that caused what looked like burns on my fingers. The patches did not hurt except that they were very dry and rough. I doubt that the fiber itself was the source of the irritation, but rather something in the dye that my hyper-sensitive skin did not tolerate.

Despite the temporary condition of my hands, I really like how the hat turned out:

It is warm and functional but also attractive and interesting. I hope to attend the opening reception for the Spoken Threads exhibition in November, and maybe I will see someone sporting my creation.