Hat #1 is finished. I don’t know how many I will end up making in the next few weeks but we’ll see. I’ll cast on another tomorrow.

• Pattern is Cobblestones – found free on Ravelry
• Yarn is Cascade 220 Superwash
• Needle size is 7
• Cast on 88 and knit 1.5 inches for the brim.
• Decreases started per pattern after row 3 when hat was 6 inches.

This pattern calls for a cast on of 100 stitches or a multiple of 4. I find the 100 stitches hat too large. The hat has plenty of give and it fits me well but if you are making it for someone with a larger head or lots of hair you might want to go a little larger – maybe casting on 92 stitches or even the 100 called for in the pattern. One thing about donating hats – I always know that it will fit someone if I make one that is too small or too large for my intended recipient! Luckily, hats don’t take long to knit. I’m not sure if this one will be gifted or donated.

I wove in all the ends on this one tonight. Even though I catch the yarn ends when I’m crocheting, I like to go back and run the yarn in the opposite direction a bit to make sure it’s caught securely. This combination of stitch and yarn made a soft cozy blanket.

• Pattern – Blanket Stitch found free on Ravelry
• Hook size – H
• Yarn – LionBrand Mandala, colorway is Cupid – 3 cakes used
• Chained 150
• Blanket measures approximately 47 x 44

I only had 3 skeins of this yarn and it ended up a little wider than long but I like the stripes of colors going vertically as well as horizontally so I don’t think it matters. Typically, I prefer to have 4 skeins of this brand/type when I start a blanket and I’m not sure why I only had 3. I’m assuming that it’s because that’s all they had when I bought it but it’s been in stash for a little while and I don’t remember.

Tomorrow is the last day of Mom’s visit and we finished up our sewing today and I carted all the supplies, lights, and the machines back downstairs. Keith will fold up the tables tomorrow and then move his stuff up to his office and I’ll be back to working downstairs next week. My brother is going to meet me at the TN/VA state line on Sunday which is about half way between us and take Mom the rest of the way home. I wouldn’t mind if I had to drive the whole way myself but he’s saving me a day of travel (9 hours versus 17 or 18 hours) so I appreciate his help.

I started another blanket tonight. An easy one – no thinking required. One row repeated over and over. Does that sound boring to you? For me, it’s perfect for working on sitting downstairs late at night listening to my audiobook.

• Pattern – Blanket Stitch found free on Ravelry
• Hook size – H
• Yarn – LionBrand Mandala, colorway is Cupid
• Chained 150

Out of curiosity, I looked up a list of National Parks to see how many I’d visited. Not as many as I expected. Now if you added National Monuments, historical sites, and State Parks, my list would be much longer. When it becomes safer to travel longer distances again, there are definitely some on this list I want to visit.

The Linen Stitch blanket is done – I even wove all the ends in rather than setting it aside for later.

• Pattern – from a BluPrint kit purchase several years ago
• Hook size – I
• Yarn – Lionbrand Mandala Ombré, colorway Balance. Four balls were used.
• Chained 140, size is approximately 36 x 43

Although this pattern isn’t available anymore, you can find a similar one for free by clicking here.

I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of this combination of yarn and linen stitch pattern. And it’s such an easy stitch too. This will be the 5th one that I’ve made.

• Pattern – from a BluPrint kit purchase several years ago
• Hook size – I
• Yarn – Lionbrand Mandala Ombré, colorway Balance
• Chained 140

Although this pattern isn’t available anymore, you can find a similar one for free by clicking here.

The chevron blanket is finished. It’s smallish at 35 x 44 inches but a nice size for a baby or small child. It’s big enough to cover my lap sitting in the chair – funny how knit and crochet blankets seem bigger than quilts of the same size! I guess it’s the stretchiness.

• Pattern – Chevron blanket found free on Ravelry
• Hook size – J
• Yarn – Caron Big Cakes, colorway is Nightberry – 2 cakes used.
• I chained 152. Next time I’ll go a little bigger.

I’ve already pulled yarn for the next one. It will be another linen stitch blanket with the Lion’s Brand Mandala Ombré yarn … you can see I have a whole bin with this yarn. It’s a favorite of mine and I was happy to find it at Walmart last year for a good price and stocked up a bit. I’ve also bought it at Joann’s.

I started a new blanket tonight. After spending almost an hour looking online and at some of my books, I chose a single crochet ripple pattern. Something different but easy. By different I mean a new pattern because I’ve made a lot of ripple blankets.

• Pattern – Chevron blanket found free on Ravelry
• Hook size – J
• Yarn – Caron Big Cakes, colorway is Nightberry
• I chained 152 and my blanket is about 37 inches wide so it will be child size.

While I was choosing my yarn and finding my crochet hooks, I did find the scarves waiting for donation – the hats are still MIA – I really need to get these donated. There are 13 of them including the blue one in the back that I just finished. If I can’t donate them locally through the Big Canoe knitting club, I’m going to have to find a place I can mail them. They’re not doing anyone any good just sitting around here.

I worked well into the night and finished up the little corner to corner blanket. Hard to get a good photo of these especially late at night. It feels good having a bunch of finishes but the best part is that I get to start something new.

I’ve been working on my blue knit shawl and while it’s not finished, I decided to cast on a travel project to take with me to VA. I’m working on the ruffle in the shawl and the rows are really long right now.

• Pattern – Sandoval Hat – found free on Ravelry
• Yarn – Paintbox Simply Aryan
• Needle size 9
• Cast on 80

This is an easy K2P2 ribbed beanie so the pattern doesn’t need a lot of attention except for when it’s time to do the crown decreases but I haven’t mentioned Knit Companion in a while. It’s the iPad app that I use for my knitting patterns and I love it. So easy to keep track of what I’m doing.

Now that I’ve got this one started I’ll pack it away for the trip and get back to work on that ruffle! It’s a rainy day here at Big Canoe so in addition to laundry and packing, there’s some knitting and binding going on here.