My Poor Neglected Blog

I cannot believe that it has been 6 weeks already since I last blogged! There have been so many things that I have thought, "I should share this on my blog" and then life just kept up it's whirlwind pace and I didn't get to it. So I'm having a quiet day at home today and thought this would be a perfect opportunity to catch up a bit.

I had this great idea that I would knit a bunch of hats this past year, and then when we got together with our extended families for Christmas, I would have this wonderful assortment of items that our family members could choose from.  I didn't quite make it. I've shared some of the items over the year, and here of some more that I finished.  Maybe next Christmas this will work out!

The newest hats to the collection are....
Alpine Topper.  You've probably seen this in Interweave Knits in the Halcyon Yarns ad for the past few winters.  I love this design!  When I visited Halcyon Yarns this fall I just had to get the pattern and yarn to make it.  The green is Lamb's Pride Bulky in Turkish Green and the variegated is Malabrigo Rasta in Arco Iris.  I probably have enough of the Malabrigo left to make at least 2 more of these hats, maybe 3.  I think I need a blue one and either a Burgandy one or a grey.

This is Antler Hat.  I couldn't get one of the boys to model it for me to get a better picture but the hat itself is getting passed around among them quite a bit.  They love the deep ribbing that folds up so that it's doubled over their ears!  I used Madelinetosh Vintage in Weathered Frame.  I made the largest size and used all but 30 inches of the skein!

This is He Said She Said.  I used Berocco Blackstone Tweed Chunky for this hat.  It is super yummy yarn and I would love to have a sweater knit in this!

This is Twisted Rib Hat.  I made the child size for this so that I could use up some Dream in Color Classy I had leftover from a sweater I made for me niece.  Coincidentally I think this same niece is the only person that this hat will fit :-)

So that's it for the hats.  Some are being claimed by the kids, but hopefully some will hang around for gift giving.

We had a nice Christmas this year.  It was the first year without my mom but she still seemed to pop up everywhere.  There are the ornaments that she has picked out for me and for the boys every year that brought back so many memories and the occasional recycled box or gift bag that still had a tag on it in her handwriting.  I left her tags on everywhere I found them and we all laughed when we would see them.  My mom was famous for "Save the Box!"  It was a good memory :-)

It was nice to spend the day with my dad too :-)  Nothing like a selfie at the Christmas Dinner table!  We had a big crowd for dinner this year too!  15 in all. It was lots of fun and good food.

One more thing about Christmas.... My middle son went to the yarn store in his college town to get me sock yarn in his school colors.  May I present Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn in Crimson Pride! Roll Tide!  Have I trained that boy well, or what? He also got me a bottle of Peach flavored vodka to make me Peach Sangria :-)  He's a keeper!

In other family news, my youngest son was selected Captain of the Varsity Hockey team!  I'm very proud of him and happy for him! He's taking the responsibility very seriously and sends text reminders and updates the team Facebook page with important info.  I love watching my boys embrace what they love and do it with pride.

And so begins another quest for hats for the team....  Last year I knit 20 hats in 7 weeks.  This year I only need to make 10.  I'm well on my way already.

Plus I took a break from the boys' hats to make one for Chandler's good friend who plays on the girls team.  It's a cooperative team with the Catholic High School in the neighboring town as neither school had enough players to field a team alone.  They've combined the colors from both schools to come up with a fun jersey.  So I made Steph a hat to match.  I think I nailed it :-)

So that's all the highlights!  I really do plan to blog more regularly again as I do miss it.  For now I'm on a quest to get all the hockey hats done.  I'm thinking about joining the Ravellenic Games this year. I'm not sure yet what I want to knit or what team/s I want to join.  What about you?  Are you planning any knitting for watching the Olympics?