Hat Madness!

I think that 2014 is the year of hats and washcloths. So, first off I'll show a small smattering of the hats that I made this year. Why not show all of them? I don't have the pics all in one place and couldn't find them. This year I supported 2 charities, Knots of Love (the charity my work knitting group supports) and Halos of Hope (the charity a LOT of podcasters did a contest for). I like Halos of Hope a lot because they are not as picky with their yarn requirements, which means that I can go to the Yarn Swap at Purlescence (Sunnyvale, CA LYS) and just take balls of people's leftovers that I like which can be worked into hats as decoration. Here are some of the hats I made for the 2 charities and I think a couple that went to my mom's church auction.

I think the stats worked out like this:

Knots of Love - 20?

Halos of Hope - 7?

Church/co-workers - 10?

I like this set, it was all based off one main big ball of grey that I got at a swap. Then I was able to take scraps obtained at previous swaps of marigold and magenta, as well as some left over green from my stash, and improvise.

These two were a ball of brick red striped with the leftover blue from the other hat. The blue hat has stripes of purple and the same marigold from above (hard to see, sorry)

I took three balls of similar weight that went really good together and came in the same bag in the swap - light green, yellow, and salmon, and made a couple hats with variations on stripes. One was 2 rounds of stripes in orer, the other was a mix of 1-3 rounds per stripe.

And this cute set is in acrylic that I purchased about 4 years ago specifically for the little girl when she was a baby. I turned out not to think of anything to make her out of it until this year (I made her other items but couldn't decide with this stuff). Oh, and it's acrylic because she is little, allergic to wool, and the colors appealed to me. 

And that's it for now. Next post: washcloths!

The Imaginary Blog

While I know that I haven't updated this blog in roughly a million years (that's the scientific term), I feel like I'm always blogging. I think about this a lot - I mean sometimes as often as daily. It's the same with my limping along podcast of 5 years.....I think about it, and that somewhat scratches the itch. Then I end up making my plan for the update, and it ends up not happening. But somewhere, the part of my brain that bookmarks that this task must get done records this as complete, and then the cycle repeats. 

Now, granted, there are some other factors at work here. One is that my phone is always with me, and far easier and immediate than my camera. Anyone who has read this blog will know by now that I am not a very good photographer. It's just not something I've invested my time in (one of the few) and, as a result, I've never been very good at it, even when I have tried. I don't have a quick and easy way to move the photos from my phone that fits into my normal life rhythm, so I don't have those pics to add to here, which is challenging because this is a primarily photo blog. 

Another is that my job prides itself on just getting harder every year. People actually smile at the challenge and say "It's not like we only work 40 hours" Har Har Har. And I know I'm lucky to have a good job, with people I really like, at a company I respect, where I get to feel like I really make a difference. But that does not solve for everything - it will never give me more time for my crafting or more time with my family. That brings me to my biggest time-sink.....

The Tiny Overlord

I the crap out of this little sleep-thief and agent of chaos. He's amazing, but he is a handful and only stops running around when he's sleeping. And there's really nothing I'd rather do than find new ways to make him laugh and smile or chase him around the park, or help him learn. So, other parts of my life have had to shrink to accommodate him. That's ok, but it makes for some rather boring blogging- as you'll see in my next post, when you'll either see some of the multitude of boring hats I've been making or the endless amount of washcloths.

- Miss K