moonfrog

We headed to the Bay Area on Thursday for medical appointments, right into a record-setting heat wave. It hasn’t hit 97 degrees since October of 1993 in San Francisco. Back home, our family was overheating, with temperatures that were 30 degrees above normal. Yikes!

Fortunately, we knew it would be hot and took our vehicle that has air conditioning, even though it is not as economical to drive. Between the heat and lots of rushing around to appointments, which included some minor surgery (I’m sure the recipient of the surgery would not consider it minor since it did involve another kind of stitches!) and another biopsy, I didn’t manage a stitch of knitting. Very unusual, especially with an overnight stay. I even packed extra projects so I’d have a choice to suit my mood. All I did was read some magazines about weaving as I waited and then drove the poor patient home, getting back around midnight. Today is for rest and recovery.

My recent projects have been hats. All hats. In fact, the projects I took along (and didn’t knit) were all hats. There are socks on the needles, but their only real attention has been some math to figure the next phase. So, hats it is!

On the Caps for a Cure group on Ravelry, Debi is hosting a monthly knitalong contest. Each month there will be some featured hat patterns that members can knit and donate to enter the contest. I started out with the Garter Rib-versible Hat pattern by Rebecca Cohen. I left off the middle ribbing and cast on with 52 stitches to make it a child’s size. I used a recently discontinued yarn, Rowan Cotton Rope. The yarn is really soft and worked up quickly since it is a heavy worsted.

The next two hats were made for a friend who went through radiation treatments recently and needs to cover some thin spots. The first hat is the Muse Hat by Sharon Shazzas. She designed this crochet look-alike in knit since she doesn’t crochet. The pattern is clear and enjoyable to knit. I used Debbie Bliss Cotton DK for this one.

Being an original crochet fan, my first thought was that I’d really rather do this in crochet, since that what it is intended to look like. After all, crochet is easier for me. Surprisingly, I enjoyed the knitting and had a harder time with the next hat which was done in crochet.

I started out trying to make a Basic V-Stitch Hat. For some reason, I just couldn’t get this one to work out, so I switched to Janelle Schlossman’s V-St Skull Cap. I made this one a lot longer than the example in the pattern. It’s not really a skull cap, but goes down over the ears. It is done in Classic Elite’s Four Seasons yarn, which is a cotton and wool blend. All the hats were made with stash yarn, which makes me feel just a tiny bit better about the latest addition to the ever-growing stash.

Drops Design has a sweater that I’ve put on my things-to-knit list, but the yarn was not available and I felt unsure about subbing something else. It’s hard to tell what weight a yarn really is unless I have the chance to see it in person. (Who said “swatch”?? I heard that!!)

What should I stumble across in my browsing? Nordic Mart, an outlet for Drops yarns, which are quite reasonably priced. I tried to choose a color that is not fully represented in my wardrobe or my stash. I like the turqoise and green mix and hope it looks as nice as the example sweater. I even bought enough to make some socks if the pattern doesn’t take extra skeins.

I’m feeling torn about what to knit now. The list is never-ending and my attention is pulled from one new idea to the next. I think my current job should be making a prioritized list of projects. Of course, that doesn’t mean I’d have to stick to it!

Where has the time gone?! Things have been too busy around here, but I finally had a day to myself. So I used the time to felt my finished clogs. Yep! They’re done. Mom and I got together and almost completed the knitting. As she worked on the final bit alone, she ripped one out — then the other! They just didn’t seem right to her.

In the meantime, I finished my knitting and ignored all my chores to felt mine yesterday morning. Here they are looking like clown shoes. Mom and I both used Cascade 220 for these, but would use a heavier yarn if we make them again. They did not turn out quite as big as expected, which means they couldn’t felt too far without becoming too small.

The felting went well, I shaped the clogs and stuffed them with plastic grocery bags. I even liked them after they were felted; they didn’t look so dowdy to me. I thought about Mom’s clogs and wished hers were done so I could blog about them together for Mother’s Day. I felt a little guilty having mine done when last I heard she was ripping hers out. I decided to wait for hers and spent some time taking photos of hats I’d made recently, preparing to share those instead.

A couple hours later, guess who showed up for an unexpected visit? Mom! And she had her clogs with her, ready to felt! I do all her felting since she has a front-loading washing machine. I measured her foot and set to work. It’s really nerve-wracking felting for someone else. What if they get too small? After all that work?! Mom told me it’s no problem, she’ll just find someone else who can wear them. But all went well. Her clogs are a lovely lavender with fuschia trim. The picture doesn’t show the color right.

And here they are all done — Mother and Daughter Clogs! It was sweet to have a time to do this with my mom. She seemed to really enjoy it, too. We started in November, on her birthday, so it has taken us a long time to finish these up. I hope we can do something like this again, though. I consider myself a lucky daughter to have my mom near and  to share a common interest with her. We don’t go shopping together or have lunches or belong to the same social groups, but we love to spend time with family, cooking and sharing our knitting woes and triumphs. We learn a lot from each other.

I want to show you one last picture. My mom took this one. It’s a baby blanket and two baby sweaters that she made recently. She makes lots of these for relatives and friends and even for friends’ relatives. I’m always amazed at how quickly she whips them up. She’s been a wonderful example to me of what it means to knit and create things for others. I’m lucky to have a mom like her.

And to all you moms out there — I wish you a Happy Mother’s Day!