Enjoying the Tychus cap

I'm halfway though making another cap for the Ships Project. In a recent post to project volunteers, Ellen Harpin said that she won't be sending caps to the ground troops for a few months - no need for extra warmth in the Iraq desert these days - but the military serving on ships still have a need for warm hats, and they enjoy the brighter, more creative styles in their down-time. So I decided to use the Tychus pattern from Knitty. I've been admiring it for awhile, both for its attractive style and its use of short-row shaping. Here's how it looks so far:

I'm probably going to go in and do a little weaving on the inside of the cap - the turning spots on the short rows are creating some holes, but nothing that can't be easily fixed with a little surreptitious stitching. All in all, I really like this pattern. I'm aiming to get a few more done before the mailing dates in early May. I might adapt the row length to make it a little shorter, eliminating the need to turn up a cuff.

I used two strands of Caron Simply Soft (which seems to be my acrylic of choice these days) in gray and bright red. I've got some more dark blue to use up, too, so that will go into the next effort.

And of course, having four strands of yarn going at the same time is just too much for a little cat to resist. Turns out Abigail is much better at scrambling around with the web of yarn than she is at knitting - but if she had thumbs, I'm quite sure she'd give it a go...!