Two old patterns... Two new caps!

Hurricane Hat
Pattern link can be found here:
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hurricane-hat
Yarn:  Berroco Comfort Worsted in "Maine Woods" (Link)

Lace Trim Chemo Cap in Fuchsia.  
Pattern link can be found here:
 http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/lace-trim-chemo-cap  or
http://www.knitmichigan.com/comfort2.html
Yarn:  Cool  Cotton (Link)

Fashionable Flapper Cap

Marilyn looking sylish in the "Fashionable Flapper Cap"

A crochet pattern called "Fashionable Flapper Cap".  Link may be found HERE.

I struggled with this pattern. The cap is rather snug and I made the medium size.  The flap is crocheted on  after the top of the hat is done.  The instructions confused me. I wish the pattern included the number of stitches in each row.  I brought the cap my Thursday knitting group to get the opinion of my knitting gal pals.  It looked so cute on Marilyn I gave it to her. She picked out the button.  I made the medium size and used the recommended hook size. Next time I need to make this larger.  I used Berroco Comfort yarn in worsted weight for this cap.  Will trying this pattern again!

Scalloped Edged Beanie Revisited

In my last post, I showed you a cap from a book called "60 Quick Knits"; the pattern is called "Scalloped- Edge Beanie".  I enjoyed making it so much, I made it again, but with a few modifications.



Cap #1 is on the left and has more lace rows. Cap #2 is on right. It has three rows of garter stitch before the lace portions starts (to keep the lace from rolling up).  I also completed fewer lace rows in cap #2.  Colors are a bit inaccurate in this photo. 



As you can tell, I really like this pattern!  There are a few other patterns in the "60 Quick Knits" that I find really appealing.  I am looking forward to trying them.

Back to Chemo Caps

 Scalloped Edge-Beanie in Berroco Comfort. Pattern link can be found HERE. 

I really like this pattern.

Vacation Knitting

A little break from my ongoing "travelogue" to show you what I've been knitting.  This is a knitting blog after all!  My goal for my recent trip out of town was to make as many stockings for Operation Holiday Stockings as possible. It made for simple packing of knitting supplies since I was essentially only bringing one project on which to work.  I did not finish as many stockings as I hoped; I guess that means I was too busy enjoying the sites in unfamiliar places. 


I made four of these stockings on our recent trip and only started the fifth one in the airport in New Orleans on the way home to Colorado.



I am calling this cap "Rain Forrest Ripple"

Same yarn as some of the stockings above (Berroco Comfort Worsted Weight Yarn...
(Ripple Eyelet Cap instructions to knit in the round can be found on Ravelry HERE).

I got in an organizing kind of mood yesterday.  I have a bad habit of printing off patterns, but have no organizational system to keep them straight.  The end result is that when I am looking for a pattern, I go back to the computer and printing off the pattern again.  A waste of paper and expensive ink!  I bit the bullet yesterday and started organizing.  I threw out lots of duplicates as well.  Now, if I can just get in the habit of putting new patterns in the binders when I print them off!

I used "Post-It" notes for labels.  Very simple and easy.

I also organized some of my kitchen cabinets yesterday.  I was on a roll.  I love days like that! 

Back from Vacation: Post #2

 CLICK on each photo for an enlarged view...

Whoops! Photo is sideways, but this way... you can read it just fine!



When we got our rental car near the New Orleans Airport, the lady helping us was very helpful and excited to tell us great things to see and do while we visited New Orleans.  She recommended places for Swamp Tours and also the National World War II Museum.  We checked out the museum on our second day in New Orleans after having beignets and coffee at the Cafe du Monde.  The museum was well worth the trip.  My husband is quite the WWII History buff.  He could walk up to pretty much each exhibit and give us a spiel about what everything was.  He was quite the tour guide. 

One day, we also ventured out of New Orleans and went for a swamp tour on a boat.  Getting there was quite an adventure.  We got horribly lost despite using my son's Blackberry Phone and Mapquest on the Internet.  The boat tour facility was about 30 minutes from our hotel... it took us nearly two hours to find the darn place.  The boat tour was GREAT!  They had smaller, fast speed boats, but we got boats on a larger, 16-passenger boat.  The fast boats were sold out.  The larger boat went plenty fast.  Besides that, the tour guide stopped frequently so we could watch the alligators and so he could tell us all about bayous, canals, brackish water, alligators, and his Cajun family history in New Orleans. 

In the brackish water...

Big 'gator in the canal...

A canopy of Spanish Moss over the bayou...

A small alligator sunning on a discarded plank of wood...

A quick video to show you what the Swamp Boat tour was like.

I think our tour guide, Ernie, had these alligators rather conditioned.  As we rode down one canal, the alligators started to swim up to the boat and Ernie brought out his big bag of marshmallows! The alligators loved them it seemed.  Ernie said the alligators could not really taste them, but the alligators could easily see them due to the contrast between the dark water and light colored treat.
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I was inspired to try some new dishes in my kitchen after returning from vacation.  Check it out HERE on my cooking blog.

Back from Vacation: Post #1

Could you guess from the previous post where we've been?

New Orleans, Louisiana! 

That was the first leg of our trip. 

I've got so much to share,

I've decided to stretch this out over a few posts.

While in New Orleans, I knew the one place we had to go was The Cafe Du Monde for beignets and hot coffee.  Yep, it's pretty much fried dough with a pile of powdered sugar on top.  It's a mess to eat as you can tell from the photo. 

 This park was not too far from the Cafe Du Monde... beautiful cathedral in the French Quarter.

 Another beautiful building in the French Quarter.

 In the evening, we enjoyed walking up and down the streets in the French Quarter.  I loved the architecture.  The balconies with beautiful flowers, the old brick structures with the wodden shutters...  I found it all quite appealing. 

We passed by this one home quite a few times.  Can you believe all the flowers on this balcony?  Gorgeous!

The Riverboat Natchez on the Mississippi River.  It's a real steam powered riverboat. 

We took a ride on this boat on our vacation.  More about that in a separate post.

We stayed at the J.W. Marriot right on Canal Street.  A nice place to rest after all of our touring about.

You just walk across Canal Street and you are in the French Quarter from this hotel.

We stayed on the 17th floor and had a great view of Canal Street.  Like I said, the French Quarter is just across the street.

Another view from the hotel, looking down into the French Quarter.

In the French Quarter one evening, I did stumble across a yarn shop!  Unfortunately, it was closed, but I did peek in the window for awhile. I had hoped to make it back to the shop before we left New Orleans, but never did.  We just had too many other things to see and do.

Back from vacation... there's no place like home!

We've been out of town and on vacation the past 10 or so days. It's so good to be home and I have so much to share!  We just got home at 9:00 pm tonight.  Here's a teaser... the photo above is a clue as to where we spent part of our vacation.  Any guesses where we went??? 

Stockings, Stockings, Stockings...

Do you recognize the yarn?  Bernat Camouflage Yarn.  I love working with this stuff. This is the last of it, but I like how these stockings turned out.

This week's knitting has pretty much been dedicated to making stockings for Operation Holiday Stockings.  I've been having fun and I love the sense of accomplishment from finishing a project nearly every day.  I think I made five more stockings this week.  My good friend "K2" commented about my stockings last week (apparently she has the perfect yarn in her stash for some Christmas stockings) and asked that I write up the pattern.  If I can direct your attention to the upper right hand side of your screen, you'll see a new area called "Pages" and there you'll find an item listed  as "FREE:  Operation Holiday Stockings Pattern".  This is the pattern I've been tweaking since last year and it pretty much sums up how I now make these stockings. I've tried the short row heel method, but for now I am still using the method with heel flap, heel turn and gusset, as I am finding this method to be more consistent for me. Some day I'll master the short row heel.

Whatever the case may be, I invite you to check out this pattern if you'd like.  Seriously, I KNOW it's just JUNE, but Christmas will be here before you know it.  If you give this pattern a try and like it, I'd love to hear about it.  If you try it and my instructions confuse the heck out of you, well... I'd like to hear about that just the same.  I welcome feedback of any sort.   Maybe if I come up with another pattern someday, I can have a whole gob of free patterns listed here.  That would be pretty cool, dontcha think!?