Moses in SassyStripes Hat

Look at that face! Look at that hat!
Well, SassyPat...do tell?
Is the mystery hat your creation? Circular needle or dpns?

Woman holding Moses is another Knitting FairyGrandmother named Candi.

March Madness

I have decided to leap into March.

See my St. Patrick's Day sock.

Knit with Felici

75% Superwash Merino, 25% Nylon

Aurora

218 yards to a skein

Gauge 7 to 8 stitches = 1" on #1 to 3 needles

My finest sock weight to date.

Think string.

My plan is to knit three pairs of socks.

This sock was knit on size 3 needles.

The next pair will be knit on size 2 needles.

Last but not least I'm going to go all out

and knit on size 1 needles.

I'm drawing the line at zero.

The yarn is machine washable and

tumble dry.

Knitting Nana is

not ready for tumble dry.

Kudos

Kudos to Jame.

She learned to knit on double pointed needles

and close the circle.

She'll knit a hat this time

and move on to socks.

Socks will be a breeze.

She already learned the tricky bit.

My star pupil left with a carry-on

filled with wool hat and socks to

face the winter storm.

She thought she might black market

her loot at the airport to all those folks

wearing summer fare.

Way to go girl.

Farewell... safe journey gang.

Pink Preemie Hat

There is a Red Hat Society.

It is group middle-aged and older 

women who band together with the

common goal of making life fun.

It is based on Jenny Joseph's poem.

WARNING

"When I am an old woman I shall wear purple

With a red hat that doesn't go and doesn't suit me

And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves

And satin sandals and say we've no money for butter...

So, I am wearing my favorite sweatshirt

and spending my pension on books and

cashmere yarn and saying we have no money

for bran...  making  pink baby hats 

to suit my fancy... and perhaps I will chew gum. 

Green Beret

Tonight I am taking a class:

"Writing for Artists."

I'm thinking green beret, easel,

paint brush... Salvatore Dali style.

Actually the green beret would be

overkill on a Florida evening 

that promises to be warm

Anyway I decided to forego the

comfort of my lair... "Kick it up

a notch," as  Emeril would say

and venture over to the

Ringling School of Art and Design

to imbibe the creativity that

inhabits the atmosphere there.

So I'll clutch my notepad, magic marker,

and the panic button attached to my

car key and venture into the unknown.

Perhaps I'll meet an artist,

even discover that I know her very well,

that she resembles me.

Pat and the Hat

 

My CT girls are in Florida for winter break.

The party is on.

Not quite the proverbial spring break

that Florida is known to host but

pretty great anyway.

The pictured hat was knit

with Plymouth "Boku."

K2, P2 ribbing on size # 8

needles... a breeze.

Make one a day.

Start a sweatshop.

Whatever floats your boat...

This creation goes to Jame.

The yarn was purchased at

the Sheep and Wool festival

in October.

Therefore, it is meant to commemorate

our mother/daughter adventure.

And it fits.

God is good!

God is great!

Join the party.

Tea With The Dawn

Macrina Wiederkehr wrote a lovely book,

_A Tree Full of Angels_.

A mystic. a seeker, she begins her day with prayer.

Wiederkehr calls her ritual "tea with the dawn."

My humble tea cup calls one to prayer.

Happy Valentine's Day

The ski headbands traveled to CT

to keep the grand girls warm

and the heart candies were meant

to create sweet memories.

_Three Cups of Tea_

 " Here (in Pakistan & Afghanistan), we drink three cups of tea

to do business; the first you are a stranger, the second you

become a friend, and the third, you join our family, and for our

family we will to do anything-- even die."

Haji Ali, Korphe Village Chief,

Karatoram Mountains, Pakistan

I am still knitting tea cups.

I have one cup completed.

It  lacks the handle.

And a saucer is in the works,

needle bound.

Put the kettle on,

bring the water to a boil.

We're family.

Feast of St. Brigid

A time to celebrate poetry in cyberspace.

My choice: " Digging" by Seamus Heaney

Between my finger and my thumb

The squat pen rests; as snug as a gun.

Under my window a clean rasping sound

When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:

My father, digging. I look down

Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds

Bends low, comes up twenty years away

Stooping in rhythm through potato drill

Where he was digging.

The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft

Against the inside knee was levered firmly.

Her rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep

To scatter new potatoes that we picked

Loving their cool hardness in our hands.

By God, the old man could handle a spade,

Just like his old man.

My grandfather could cut more turf in a day

Than any other man on Toner's bog.

Once I carried him milk in a bottle

Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up

To drink it, then fell to right away

Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods

Over his shoulder, digging down and down

For the good turf. Digging.

The cold smell of potato mold, the squelch and slap

Of soggy peak, the curt cuts of an edge

Through living roots awaken in my head.

But I've no spade to follow men like them.

Between my finger and my thumb

The squat pen rest.

I'll dig with it.

Tea Cups

Tea anyone?

I'm in tea party mode.

Knit a tea cup.

The impetus: Anne Modesitt's

"Fiesta Tea Set" pattern has been 

lurking in the wings just waiting 

for the right moment to tap my shoulder 

and say, "Now!"

So, today I took sunny yellow

Sugar 'n Creme cotton and

made a tea cup.

Now Modesitt used a similar

yarn and a needle size smaller 

than I did.

*I don't own a set of size 2

double pointed needles.

Consequently my cup is a 

half inch larger both in base 

and height.

She bound off with an I-cord

bind-off. Not for me. It is

right up there with playing

classical guitar as far as 

I am concerned...

not one of those skills I

ever plan to acquire.

At the moment my cup

doesn't much resemble

a cup.

But I'm hopeful

with a handle

and blocking 

it might shape up.

I plan to try again

scaling down the numbers

to attain the smaller size cup.

And for now I'm planning

to have a cup of tea.

Care to join me?

Un Chapeau

No, I never took French.

But my father always called 

his hat, his chapeau.

I have been in hat knitting mode.

Jenn (# 2 daughter) determined

that she needed a chapeau.

So, I found Judith Gibson's 

ribbed knit pattern online.

Used a size 8 needle and

old faithful worsted weight yarn:

"Simply Soft."

 

With a guess and a by- gosh

I generated a prototype and

knitted J her hat.

Choose the number of

stitches needed for head

circumference and subtract

ten stitches.

CO required # of stitches, join circle.

K2, P2 for 6 rows.

Increase: add ten stitches.

Row 1: k2, p2.

Row 2: k

Repeat pattern for 7.5 inches.

Decrease: k1, p2 together/repeat.

Knit 5 rows of pattern.

Decrease: k2 together, p1/repeat.

Knit 3 rows of pattern.

Decrease: k2 together, p2, together/repeat.

K around.

K2 together.

Cut 10 inch length of yarn.

draw yarn through the remaining stitches.

Finis! A chapeau.

Last winter I knitted a

a Sassy Stripes hat

for a friend.

Penny attributes magical power

to her chapeau.

It not only keeps her head

warm but changes her

mood, inspires her muse.

Produces "brain hugs."

I think I'll shorten the process.

Today I will knit hair bands 

Perhaps, they will create

mini hugs.

Hugs to ye all.