We are the Pussyhats, marching, marching!

  I meant to have this posted before we left for the cabin, but my computer was being strange and I was too worried with getting everything ready for the weekend.  There was a New Member Orientation at work and also a lot going on in DC.  The stuff in DC is why we went out of town.  True, we are far enough away that nothing would have bothered us, but it had also been a hectic few months and a it made for a good excuse to run off.

   This is both the first pink hat I made for the Woman's March on Washington DC and also the first to find a new home.  I heard that our temporary house-mate was going to march and asked if she wanted a hat.  She was drawn to this one the second she saw it.

   I had an idea in my head when I made it to make the head part of the hat look like a standard hat and to have the ears look differently.  It also helps them stand out from the rest of the hat.  It is really cute and I might make a similar hat for myself in another color.

   I'm not totally sure if I really like how this hat came out or not, but when I posted about it on FB before I bound off everyone liked it.  I have three versions of ribbing and I think the middle one was the problem one.  Since I didn't have to worry about how I felt about it, I left it as is.

  This hat I made based on a Disney Movie.  I was scrolling through the list of Recommended for You listings on Netflix and a movie popped up.  Bad Hair Day sounded exciting and I gave it a watch.  I really liked the cat ear hat that one of the leads wears through most of the movie.  There are a few things I might do slightly different if I made it again, but over all I am very happy with it.

  Andrea is very good at following directions and made her PussyHat using the pattern they listed on the webpage.  It was super soft and snuggly.  It was also nice to have a hat in the group that wasn't neon.

  My mom made this one.  She added some cute little hearts on the front (or back if you want) to add a bit of interest to it.

  The webpage mentioned that if you were mailing that you should try and get it in by the 14th.  Well, since I was running behind on everything (anyone surprised?) I drove it over on the 19th.  The nice lady thanked me and told me not to worry that they were there after the 14th.  That was just in case bad weather struck and delayed shipping.

  Since being back from the cabin and not having anything to do for work at that moment, I have started finishing those items that should have been done before the new year started.  Lots of pictures will be on their way!!

Where, what, huh?

  So I know December had just as many days as it has had in previous years, but I feel like it didn't.  New Year's Eve snuck up on me.  Bill told me that we were invited over to a friend's house to hang out.  I thought that sounded fun and powdered through some work so I wouldn't fall behind by taking the evening off.  It wasn't until I was filling out the payment paperwork and putting the date on the top that I realized that we had been invited over to celebrate the new year rolling in.  Bill hadn't realized it either, so that made me feel better.  It was probably a shock to anyone who has been around for a while (or read the old posts) that I didn't have my usual end of the year dash to get more items finished.  That's because I didn't see it coming.
  Last year was kind of pitiful on how few finished items I finished and donated.  I know, a few items is better than no items, but I like to get more than three done in a whole year.  Good news is that I have a bunch of mostly finished items laying around that will be quick to finish, so this year is already looking up.  I even have some pink hats from other people to show off!
  I also got picked to possibly serve jury duty and went in to be screened yesterday.  I think it is funny that the first time I get called in it was for a week long trial for first degree murder.  I'm glad, for a few reasons, to not get chosen for that jury.  It was just a little too intense for me.  Now I'm guaranteed to not get summoned again for three years.  Considering I have been eligible for over a decade and have never been called is funny.  Bill is a year older than me and has also never been called.  I am really curious how the trail ends though.

  It is really cold in here and I need to go make some lunch before I run off to work!  I'm glad the end is in sight from all the madness!

2016

Here is a quick list of everything I got done in the year of 2016

Crochet: 1
~Hats:

Wave Pattern Hat

Knit: 2
~Hats:

Foliage

~Neck Items:

Chocolate Strawberry Cowl

Pink Pussyhats!

  I was sent a link to The Pussyhat Project on Facebook.  I didn't look at it too closely at first, but now that I have, I think it is awesome.  The strangest thing is that it is all local to me.  The mailing address is less than 5 miles from my house and the march is just a short metro ride away.
  I posted about taking hats on the K&CC (Knitters and Crocheter's Care) message board saying that I can take and deliver any hats they make.  If any blog readers want to make any hats then they can either mail them to the address provided on the website or send them to me.  Either way, I would love to see some pictures!
  Sorry for the short post, but I'm supposed to be working now.  Don't tell on me!

I have a good reason!

  I was able to find the flyer for that music festival that was going on!  Here it is!  Does this mean that I can now say that I went to it, since I was right there and I could hear the music.

  There are a lot of names on there that I don't know, but there were a lot of people going in and out, so a bunch of them must be good.

  No, this is not another picture of the scarf I was working on while on the plane.  This is another one.  Also, no, the green one is not done.  The width of the green scarf was too short and I ran out of yarn during a Wed night and I had this blue in my bag.  I didn't like this blue with the green, so I started another scarf.

  This is a strange thing, I know.  I wanted to use the brown for the ends of the green scarf, but I also wanted to use it to make the strange thing you see in the picture.  Since I only need some for the ends, I knew I should work on that knitted ribbed part before I used the brown on the green scarf.
  So while that was a long story, now you can see why I didn't finish the green scarf before I moved on to two other projects.  Don't worry, what that thing is will be revealed.

  In other news, I am trying to get Tank to learn to wear a harness.  The reason I am torturing the cat in such a way is because he really wants to get outside and when he is out there he doesn't totally recognize us.  He got out once and when I found him and bent over to pick him up, he hissed at me.  Now when I actually picked him up he was fine with it.
  He was acting drunk for the first two days and now he is just sticking with the disabled angle.  When he thinks no one is watching, he walks just fine.  When someone is watching he slinks around and lays down every few steps.
  This morning he walked over to Bill, tried to crawl onto his leg, then fell over.  He didn't have his harness on at the time.  Since he isn't a small kitten, I know it will take time.

Another other thing...how is it December already?  I'm not ready for this! I am not ready at all.  I hope everyone else out there is.

One Big Hop and Then Back Again.

  Everything happened so fast I didn't get to tell you all about it!

  First I was on a plane headed out to LA.  Bill was on another plane headed my way, but his was supposed to get in 1.5 hours after mine.  Mine had a strong tail wind and got in 53 mins early.  I was going to try and wait for him before I got dinner, but I was way too hungry.  I figured this out on the wrong side of the security check.
  A lot of walking later and I found out that International departure has a coffee shop and terminal 6 arrival also has one.  So I walked 2/3 of the outside of the airport and back since Bill's luggage was going to be at the same place mine had come in.

  The next morning we hoped into the car to drive 4 hours to a wedding.  On the way I got to see a ton of palm trees and I got to try In-N-Out for the first time.  I love it!
  You might have thought that with a 4 hour trip I would have had time to get more crochet done, but the area was just so pretty that I couldn't stop looking at it.

  The wedding was amazing and they kissed at sunset.  Her dress was so pretty!  This was at the second location that had some food and plenty of desserts.

  The next morning a few of us met for a wine tasting and then we headed to lunch.  Lunch was good and we all took over one room of the small tavern.
  Then some of us went to go taste some beer while the others went to go spend the day doing whatever fancied them.  It got to be pretty late by the time we headed back to where we started from and Bill's brother was flying in, so we didn't have a lot of extra time in the day.  His flight ended up being delayed by 2 hours, so I went to bed while Bill stayed up.

  On Saturday there was a memorial for Bill's Grandpa.  He was the one I knit a scarf for not too long ago.  It was very nice, though it was in a part of the military cemetery that they had not finished yet, so he still only had the temporary marker and no grass had been laid down yet.
  There were a lot of wonderful stories and a lot of tears before we all piled back in cars and headed to get some food after and to look at some pictures and other things he had left behind that were pretty awesome.
  Later that night the boys went off to the bachelor party.  No, not for someone else, the same guy who's wedding we went to on Thursday.  They went to a nice dinner, did an escape room, and then played some board games.

  They had so much fun that Bill didn't get brought to the hotel that night.  I had driven myself and his brother back to the hotel, so I didn't mind.  They were having too much fun doing guy things.  His brother also had an early flight out in the morning.
  The next morning around 1:40am (also when I was told that Bill was going to stay the night) I felt really sick.  I slept and sweated and worried that I would be no fun on Sunday.  I got up enough to help Bill's brother to the hotel shuttle that was complimentary.  I was back in bed some more.
  Bill didn't get dropped off until about 11am or so.  I thought one of his cheeks looked puffy, but I thought maybe it was an odd angle or that maybe he had slept on it funny.  Later he told me that he thought he might have fractured a tooth.
  After he slept for a few hours I convinced him that even though we were leaving the next day, we should probably have someone look at it so we might be able to help it not get worse.  He also couldn't open his mouth fully.  The doctor at the Urgent Care we found said that it looked like about a third of his tooth was missing.
  I got to take my first Uber to the wedding reception that happened later that day.  The doctor told Bill that he shouldn't drive after he got some strong pain meds, and I didn't want to have to worry if I had a bit too much to drink.  Turns out that was an awesome idea.  There was also a music festival going on right next to the museum we were headed to.

  These little guys were Fruitadens and they were my favorite.  I want one as a pet that I can carry around like some people carry around small dogs.
  This get together was the big one.  There were supposed to be over 200 people there.  The food was good, the drinks were fancy, and there was some great dancing.

This morning the whole airport thing was super crazy.  Our terminal was having construction, so after we were checked in and gave them our checked luggage we got to wait in line and then walk over to another terminal.  This took a lot longer than we thought and I didn't get to try the food place I was hoping for.

  I was able to find this bLAt (get it? We're in LA!) that was really good.  It had avocado and garlic aioli on it as well as what you would normally expect.  The flight had the kind of seats with the TVs in the back, so I didn't get a lot of crochet done there either.  The guy next to me did work for Panasonic (the ones who make those) before transferring to United.  He got called on to help fix one of them a few isles up.

  Tank is glad that we are back and I think it is time for bed!

Hello, I remember you!

  I was trying to catch up reading The Yarn Harlot's blog when I thought to myself "Maybe I should update my own blog!"
  There have been many things working against me getting anything done to show off here.  Working two jobs is high on that list because both become busy at the same time.  The craft store becomes crazy because first you have Halloween, then Thanksgiving, followed by many winter holidays.  My other job gets busy because we have to put together all the packets for the members and also process renewals.  I thought it would be wise to pull back on one of them.
  Another problem I have is that I have two scarves on the needles now.  They take a while to get anywhere with since one has a lot of short rows, and the other is double-knit color work.  For some reason I have been itching to work on a shawl.  I know it would be another large project, but I feel like being able to work on a nice and long row that I can get lost in would be nice.

Since I am just getting past all the fall colors I was going to take a picture of it with some orange and red leaves.  Mother Nature decided to try and start raining whenever I tried to do this, so here it is on a chair.
  As I have been working on it, people have been asking me how long I plan to make it.  I'm not sure.  I do know that it is too short right now since you can't really wrap it around and have much hanging.  I don't know if I will try and use up all of the border color or not.  I figure I will just keep making little triangles and see when it feels right to stop.

For now, however, I am off to go string some beads on some crochet cotton.  I have been invited to a wedding in about a week and I have some presents to make!