Chick-a-dee potholder

 After listening to a chickadee in the tree outside my living room all week, I finally had to knit her into a potholder. Instead of black and white though, I used light blue and navy and really liked how it turned out. I did it in double knitting and cotton. Sing away little bird!

More scrubbies

 Yeah, I made more. Lots to sell at the Christmas craft fairs and gifts for family and friends.

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/garter-stitch-round-scrubby

Also making some face cloths

 While on my kick for quick and shorter projects in between my hats, I have also been make face cloths or dish cloth, depending on where you use them. This is my own pattern, but since it is similar to many other pattern, it is free. I change the colors of the yarns as the mood hits me, so have fun.

Using a cotton light yarn, cast on 40 stitches, place marker, cast on 1 stitch, place marker, cast on 40 stitches (81 stitches).

Row 1: K.

Row 2: K to marker. Slip marker (sm), purl 1, sm, k to end.

Row 3: k to 2 sts before marker. SSK, sm, k1, sm, k2tog, sm, k to end.

Row 4: K to marker. Slip marker (sm), purl 1, sm, k to end.

Repeat rows 3 and 4 until three sts are left. K 3tog. Cut yarn and pull through remaining st. Weave in ends.

Back to some scrubbies

 I needed some quick and colorful projects that I can complete in a day. I have been making lots of hats so I complete two or three a week but I wanted to do some more. So here are some scrubbies I have completed. I could make three in a day but I usually only do two at the most. The pattern is included below. It is fast with one color, variegated yarn, and two colors.

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/garter-stitch-round-scrubby

Hot Pink Hat!

Hot pink sock yarn in superwash. This color is ever brighter in real life. 

 

 

A Slight Break from Hats

 

I got back in touch with an old friend from my working days in law firms and we met for coffee. I remembered that she collected owls, so I took a break from my hats to make a gift for her. It is made with brown and cream cotton yarn in a double knitting pattern. It really turned out cute. She loved it!

A Purpose for the Mini Skeins I have been holding onto.

In my stash, I found a series of mini skeins that I probably bought several years ago. It was in shades of navy, purple, blue, lavender, and rose. I would not be surprised if I had that little packet for more than 10 years. They were probably fairly expensive. I was working at that time so I would have been a bit more likely to spend it.  The cool part is that by turning the hat inside out, I have two different hats.

 

A Bucket Hat to Honor my Wookie

The yarn I used for this bucket hat is the same colors as my sweet Wookie who crossed the Rainbow Bridge last August. I still miss her every day

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I may have OCD when it comes to my knitting

I have noticed that once I get into a 'groove,' I continue knitting those projects one after another until the next project starts. I have continued this pattern - so to speak -- with bags, booties, socks, potholders, dish clothes, etc. As I get older, I would rather just knit while watching TV or listening to a book on tape. 

Right now, I am on a kick for hats. Several are the popular Musselburgh hat, but some are my own design. I hesitate to post a pattern because I often use an existing pattern and modify it to my own liking. So anyway, I am going to start posting several of the hats have been making over that last six weeks. 

Stay tuned!

This hat is made with a wool superwash yarn in maroon with bits of blue intertwined. One of my friends got this one so give to her daughter.

 

Can't Forget a Musselburgh for my Hubby!

I actually made this Musselburg hat first but only posting about it now. It is made with a worsted yarn that I found in my stash, so I don't know when I got it or how long I have had it. It started me back a obsession of knitting it over and over, and fortunately, finding lots of yarn in my stash.

This is a variegated dark navy, dark green, and olive, so it is a perfect color for guy who mainly wears flannel shirts. We keep our house fairly cool since it is a solar house so it is common for us to wear hats in the house. He even wears hats to bed (remember the poem "mama in her kerchief and I in my hat, just settled down for a long winter's nap"?). 

 

Here is the link for the Musselburgh

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/musselburgh

A Musselburgh hat for my brother

I finally got to have lunch with my brother a week ago, so I gave him this Mussellburgh hat (https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/musselburgh). It is green, black, rust, and gold. He wears a hat every day because the warehouse works in is cold in the winter. He love the four-layer ear cover for that reason. Actually, he should retire but he likes working. How crazy is that? I have need retired since 2016.

Brian and I are only 11 months apart and have been close forever. When I was 19, I went to a psychic. She told me that he and I were tied throughout time and have been reincarnated together many times. The time before this was during the Bore Wars of 1899 and 1900. We were related there as well, but not necessary brother and sister. It might have been parent and child, husband and wife, or even grandparent and grandchild. Apparently, we were tortured and killed in that war, and we were sent to this life together to 'heal.' Now I don't know how true all this is, but I always loved the story. And I have to admit that Brian and I have had relatively easy lives. We grew up on a farm in South Dakota with good parents. We had two older brothers but it was us who were close. My mom said that we even had a language of our own when we were young. We never fought and always had each other's back. In some ways, we even married people who are similar to each other. Brian went into the service and I moved to Colorado as young adults. Mom was disappointed because she wanted Brian to move back to South Dakota, but instead, he moved to Colorado to be close to me. He even lived with for a year before finding his own place.

We are both now in our 70's and we are all that is left of our immediate family, with both our parents and our two old brothers gone. We still have our spouses, and we both had two sons who are about the same ages, and are good friends. Maybe that physic knew something after all.

More MIT Hats!

I had to bring my kitty Omi into this tread, but she doesn't seem to be that happy with it. But she was a good sport anyway. This was actually a baby hat for a friend.

I made one for a friend of mine who lives in Washington State. Since she is not here in Colorado, and my son is visiting for the weekend, I made him model it.

This Might Be My New Favorite Hat!

 

I love how this hat turned out. I purchased this yarn from a sale table in my local yarn store just because I loved the marbled purples (my favorite color) and white colors. It is a wool DK made on size 6 needles. I started at the top and increased until I had 128 stitches. I worked in stockinette for 9 inches. Then I worked 1x1 ribbing until I ran out of yarn. It turned out perfect!

I am back in a hat-making kick and am making MTI hats for friends as well as just lots and lots of hats. Back to the needles.

My Bad Hair Hat

 This double thick hat turned out so well. It is a modification of the Musselburgh hat (link below) using a couple of yarns from my stash. It is a little bigger than it should have been, but it worked out perfectly because it covers my hair when I just don't want to wash or fix it. Plus it is very warm. 

The Musselburgh hat is a a double hat so the brim is actually four layers. Great for very cold days we sometimes have here in Colorado. Not this year. We have had the warmest winter ever. I miss the snow!

Here is the link for the Musselburgh hat. It is a paid pattern but it has several sizes and is worth every penny. 

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/musselburgh

Of course I did! the Melt-the-ICE hat

I usually keep my politics off my knitting blog, and for the most part, I will continue to do so. But I had to make this hat for a friend of mine. I had a couple of more orders for them so I am getting my needles going. Yes, I am a rabid liberal who knits, so just extrapolate from there.

There are several patterns on Ravelry, both paid and free. I made this one up on my own as I went along.

And now hats!

Ken's favorite new hat

And now I am back to knitting hats. I have been enjoying knitting the Musselburgh Hat by Ysolda Teague.  If you are on Ravelry at all, you already know about this pattern. It is a paid pattern but worth every dollar. The link is https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/musselburgh.

I have finished four so far, and I have three (yes, three!) more on needles. Once the cast on and increased are done, it is just knit, knit, knit. With the cold weather, we are staying in, which is one of the benefits of retirement. So I am just watching TV with my kitty in my lap and knitting my hats. Life is good.

Looking good!

My new favorite!

Relaxing knitting. Free pattern!

 I have been doing what I call "relaxing knitting." I'm not trying to produce, catch up, get things done, all the things that the holidays make you do. I am just knitting. 

I first did a bunch of face towels. I could just combine colors or make a face cloth in one color. What I love about doing these is that it is a set amount of stitches and I don't have to think, count, or measure. 

I am using size 4 needles and Bernat Cotton Terry. Gauge doesn't matter. 

Cast on 65 stitches. 

Foundation row: K 32, place marker, k1, place maker, k 32.

Row 1: Knit to the marker, slip marker (sm), P1, sm, K to end.

Row 2: Knit to two stiches before marker, k2tog, sm, k1, sm, ssk, K to end. (2 sts deceased). 

Repeat these two rows until there are three sts left.

Remove markers. k3tog. Fasten off and weave in end.

You can make them bigger or smaller by casting on more or less stitches as long as you have an odd number of stitches. You can easily add stripes by just adding another color on Row 2. 

Just have fun!