More Hats and Nature Pictures

Pattern: Dreamy Josephine by Tracy Pipinich - Yarn: Lion Brand Jiffy in Mulberry 190 and 307 Denver - Needle: US 8 and US 10

  We got a slightly later start than we had planned, but that seems to be fairly regular for us.  This mostly meant that Zack had to cook his hamburgers in the dark since he wanted to grill them.  It also made setting up his telescope trickier.  After dinner Bill made a fire and we sipped on some things and a few of us made s'mores.

  The day started overcast but that also meant that it wasn't going to be too hot, at least I hoped.  The guys built the new table while I slept in some, so I was the last to get my biscuits and gravy.  Most of the guys spend most of the early day shooting at the metal targets we have while Steven and I sat on the porch.  He was playing Pokémon and I was knitting.  Once they switched to the watermelons, we moved closer to watch.

  After a quick lunch of hotdogs and watermelon, not the same ones from before, we went for a short hike.  We went our usual route and looked at the old foundation.  Jim found another bottle, but this time I made Bill carry it down.  On the way back I ate a wild blackberry.  We were feeling a bit lazy, so Zach got out his drone and took some fun pictures.

  Steven and I saw a hummingbird while we waited for the others to get done what they were doing.  I’m thinking we might need to put a feeder out and possibly attract more.

Pattern: Dreamy Josephine by Tracy Pipinich - Yarn: Lion Brand Jiffy in Mulberry 190 and 337 Springfield - Needle: US 8 and US 10

  It decided to rain while we were playing board games and eating chili for dinner.  Between games I finished the hat.  I wasn't sure that I was going to, but I won yarn chicken with only about 3" left.

  The rain let up for us to get one more fire in before the end of the trip.  It was pretty relaxing, and Bill had fun setting some cardboard on fire.  At some point during the campfire, fog had rolled in and stayed through the morning.  Zach made breakfast sandwiches while the rest of us discussed how we slept.

Pattern: Side to Side Ribbed Hat by Sally L.M. - Yarn: Lion Brand Jiffy in Mulberry 190 and 307 Denver - Hook: 6.5mm

  We got to Smiley's Ice Cream early and ended up having to wait half an hour for them to open.  Always worth it.  I was the first to order for the day and decided to get the half banana split this time, though they ended up making it wrong.  They put chocolate syrup on instead of whipped cream.  They remade it and were nice enough to let us keep the first one.  She asked if anyone would eat it, and Zach was a few people back in line, so I just said "Hey, wanna eat this?" and we made the people in line laugh.  They didn't know that we knew each other so it made it even funnier.

  The long worm on the bottom is a test for something I have planned for closer to Christmas.  I know it's a bit early to be planning for that, but it's been on my mind a lot recently and I'll still need to do a few more tests to be sure it's ready.  I like it with the 46 chains, two for the extra on the tail, and how the ears are on the outside of the eye double crochets.

I Mean, It Is July

  With how many Worry Worms I've made so far, it's hard for me to believe that I didn't even know they existed until fairly recently.  If I hadn't spontaneously joined the Facebook group Random Acts of Crochet Kindness in late September 2021 then there is a chance that I still wouldn't know about them.  The long color change on the bottom ones using Retro Stripe is a really fun effect.  I'm going to be looking into more yarns with long color changes in the future.

Pattern: Side to Side Ribbed Hat by Sally - Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver in 304 Aurora Print - Hook: 5.5 mm

  Since there are so many people in my charity group, I decided to see if there was a place I could donate some of my items to closer to the cabin.  They may have less people who would make things to donate.  I may have found a place.  I had sent a few messages to some of the churches local to the area.  There were a whole bunch to choose from.  Only one got back to me and they are pretty interesting.  They have never done a collection of items, but they do help out at a soup kitchen every few months and are willing to take some things.  They also run the church out of their house and have a Bed & Breakfast attached as well.

Pattern: Hurricane Hat by Andrea Guldin - Yarn: Caron Simply Soft in Tapestry Ombre 2744 - Needle: US 8

  I've still been feeling like I'm stuck on a pattern rut, so I decided to do something pretty radical.  I looked at my Ravelry queue.  It has somehow gotten to be over 200 items.  While I don't know how many of the sweaters I will be making, I think I'm going to work through some of that list.

  The yarn had a knot in it, changing the color from a solid blue to a solid red.  At first I was annoyed, but then I figured I'd see how that sudden change affected the pooling.  I like how the color swirl changed directions, it's not something I would have expected.

Pattern: Slippy Hat by Cristina F - Yarn: Caron Simply Soft in Golden Days Ombre 2709 - Needle: US 8

  I apparently had a lot of patriotic yarn.  I have been trying to go through some of the older yarn I have and the two patriotic ones are Caron Simply Soft, but seem to only have about half as much as the ones you can find in stores right now.

  June may have passed, but I still would like to make some rainbow hats.  I just also would like to get my yarn stash a but more under control before I go out and buy a bunch of yarn.  I know I would be buying the yarn for a project, but if I'm working on that project it means the rest of the yarn will just still be sitting there.  I would also like to be able to get back into making costumes for anime conventions, which means I'll have to clear off the space in the middle of my craft room, which means I will have to work through enough of the overflow that everything will fit on the shelves I have available in there.  It's good that I can knit and crochet in the car, because that means I get some good working time on the way to and from the cabin.