Learning to Perl

I learned how to knit when I was in grade school. Santa Claus left two giant yellow needles, a ball of fat white yarn and an instruction sheet in my stocking. Using the instructions, I quickly figured out the knit part, but the perl part baffled me.

I made matters worse by asking my Mom, who knits better than anyone else in the universe, to show me how to perl. The lesson is an unpleasant memory to this day. I never did get the hang of perl. In fact, for years I ran screaming from the room if I heard the word "perl."

But I decided it was about time. I had made my Cousin SuziTheFloozy a pair of earrings for Christmas only to discover her ears are not pierced. Oops. So I decided to knit her a scarf instead. She lives up in the frozen northern Midwest, she needs a scarf.

Bought some beautiful blue ombre yarn for the scarf, but I wanted to do something nicer than knit, knit, knit for the whole length of the scarf. So the yarn sat there waiting for me. Then Tuesday morning, I went to Tuesday Morning and bought some even more beautiful multicolor merino yarn. I stopped at the library on the way home and picked up "Knitting For Dummies."

I can now perl.

I think.

Unfortunately, the four skeins of yarn I bought at Tuesday Morning are not going to be enough to make a scarf. I scanned what I managed to get out of the first skein on my Epson flatbed. As you can see, it didn't get very far.

Sure is pretty though.
I started on the blue ombre yarn today. Now to figure out what to do with the short block I've already knitted out of the merino yarn. I'm thinking maybe a hat.

Anybody out there have any good hat patterns?