I've been away...

I was away for a week; that is why there is a delay in hats and their stories. My cell phone will allow me to put photos in the "drop box" but not to move them from "drop box" to the blog photo album. Additionally, I simply could not write blog posts on an itty-bitty virtual keyboard which causes me to get every third letter wrong when I type even if I were able to put photos onto the blog photo album. My regular touch-typing at a good speed turns into "hunt, peck, and curse" typing (which I loathe).

So, I've been away but now I have a moment before kids come home from school. I can tell you a bit about three of the newest hats.

RIVA hat: E1, my sister, told me about the Hat Head design contest at Patternworks. She said, "Since you're making hats any way, maybe you can design a winner." I like contests. I even won one once. :-) I picked one of the yarns for the Patternworks contest and ordered one skein to see what it would be like. There was a little snafu with my order (my fault ... who knew that a "shop safe" credit card number can only be used by ONE vendor? I didn't!) Patternworks was great and they shipped the yarn at lightning speed once the credit card mystery was solved. The yarn arrived on the day before we left for our trip. So I took the Bretton yarn on the trip. I knit the Bretton purple hat on the ride south to our vacation destination. I started it in Rhode Island and finished it in Virginia. Hence the RIVA hat. I probably could have knit TWO hats in all those hours but hubby let me drive at least a little bit of the way. >;-)

The Wolle Baum hat (picture A, and picture B): This hat is a little visual pun, if you will. In German, the word for cotton is "baumwolle", or "wool from trees". I've always found that more than a little bit funny. Wool from trees! That's a better description of how Qiviut yarn is made than cotton! Nevertheless, you look at a multi-language label for cottons and you will see "baumwolle". While in Kitty Hawk, NC, I indulged myself in one of my favorite tricks ... Phone Google. I send a text to Google asking for all things yarn in Kitty Hawk, NC. I learned about a shop called 'Knitting Addiction' in Southern Shores, NC. I liked the name, for sure! So, when nothing else was pressing on the family agenda, I popped over to Southern Shores and had fun shopping in Knitting Addiction. There I fell hard for some Mission Falls wool in a tree green. With a pattern from a Barbara Walker book, I made a stand of droopy pine trees. So, they are Trees of Wool (Wolle Baum) instead of 'cotton' (baumwolle). Get it? A little pun.

At Knitting Addiction I also fell hard for Plymouth's Baby Alpaca Grande Paint yarn. Oh my! How yummy is THAT yarn? One skein. I only indulged in one skein. But gosh, that made a delightful hat!

For a while on vacation I thought I'd completely lost my knitting mojo. I ripped out at least two hats. So I'm glad that the three above suited me.

The William Hat and the Miracles Hat stories will have to wait. It's too hard to tell them so I'll have to postpone for a bit.

Thank you to Mrs. S of Kalamazoo who told me that there is quite a stir about the 310 Hats project in Kalamazoo! Also Thank You to Teri C of Kalamazoo whose lovely letter I received today. Thanks to Charlene A of Portage, MI who will be sending me a box of hats soon! WOW! Thank you to one and all who will warm beautiful heads of beautiful children at the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma Head Start program in Fall 2010!

E2