More actual knitting!

I've made loads of things I haven't blogged about yet. Some I have even forgotten to take pictures of before giving them away. Bad blogger!

I made two Shedir hats (the PDF of the pattern is here), one for my cousin and one for a friend, both of whom lost their hair to chemo, and both of whom are doing much better now. I have no pictures, though, so I'm going to cheat and use a picture I have of another one I made:


This one was for Lisa, who is now also doing well. The two I don't have a picture of are a denim blue color.

A while back I took an evening and crocheted this water bottle holder:


This gets used often.

I used to crochet a fair amount. Usually I insist on using a pattern for something -- not so with this one. It seemed like more bother to use a pattern than it would be worth. I grabbed a hook and some cotton yarn and away I went. I take this to my exercise class, and it makes the bottle much easier to hang onto on the walk home, when I'm also wrangling the dog. Ginger has never met a smell she didn't like. I should make another, though -- DD swapped me her red water bottle for this blue one, and I'd rather have something that went with the bottle better.

OK, I realize that is getting really picky.



This one is still around, but in a completely different form! I wore it only once in this form, which is the Slouchy Copy Cat Hat. There's nothing wrong with the pattern, I think I chose the wrong yarn for the pattern. I didn't like the drape I was getting with this yarn (Plymouth Yarn Encore Worsted, an acrylic/wool blend) and thought it was most unflattering. There's nothing wrong with the yarn, either, it was just a mis-match. I re-knit the yarn into a Koolhaas Hat. Much better! I love this pattern, and at last count I think I have made 7 or 8 of them. DD stole this particular one. Here are four more:


Did I mention that I love this pattern?

I made a green one for Dad, a green one for Tim to replace the denim blue one that Ruth swiped (more on that later), a turquoise one for sister Laura, and denim blue ones for Tom and me.

I also love this one, but so far I have made only one:



This is the Grace Lace Beret in Jaeger Extra Fine Merino DK. I really like how this came out and want to knit one for myself. This one was a gift for Ruth. Ruth and Tim are friends of ours in England. We met them decades ago, when they were in our area on a one-year teacher exchange. We've stayed in touch ever since -- they've visited us here, and we've visited them there.

I saw them last summer when I took our Girl Scout Troop (yes, both girls and me -- that's our Troop!) as part of a larger group from the area to a huge Scout and Guide encampment in England. Here I am with Tim and Ruth:



I knit the Grace Lace Beret as a thank-you for Ruth, and a denim blue Koolhaas as a thank-you for Tim.

By the end of the day Ruth had stolen Tim's Koolhaas hat! It wasn't that she didn't like the beret -- she kept that one, too. So I knit him a new one and sent it over. I hope it has arrived all right. Oh, the joys of international shipping.

As for what I'm knitting now, I've got three projects going -- an Apres Surf Hoodie in a pale blue alpaca blend yarn, which will be for DD. This is yarn I got in one of our group yarn swaps. I seem to be the queen of getting free yarn at these things, because I always see possibilities in yarn that others don't want.

Either that or I'm nuts. The Apres Surf Hoodie is knit with fingering weight yarn on 2.75 mm needles. In a lace pattern. And this yarn is grabby -- frogging is difficult. I hate to think what the seaming is going to be like. On the other hand, it's gorgeous, if I do say so myself. I have done the body, now it needs to be blocked and seamed, and then the hood will need to be knit. This is a very long-term project -- I began it in the spring. (It's not the project that I've taken longest over, though -- at least not yet.)

I'm making some scarves for the Red Scarf Project. I'm making them in a color called Plum Heather. So sue me.

And of course, socks. Actually, I didn't make any socks for a while. Isn't that odd? It is for me. I guess I got a little burned out on them for a while. But now I want more hand-knit socks for myself, so I'm knitting more. Mom has also requested another pair. Red scarves first, though.

I made something else in red (free yarn, too!) and shipped that off to England just yesterday. It's lovely, if I do say so myself.

More on that later, though. Watch this space!