52 hats :: 30 - pointy hat (finally caught up!)

I've loved this type of hats since I first saw them online years ago. Elf hats, leprechaun hats, gnome hats, pointy hats. Love them all. I could have downloaded a pattern to make it easy on myself, but hey, where's the fun in that? So I just went ahead and tried to get a pointy top.
I think it worked out alright, though it didn't end up as pointy as I envisioned. Also, it was meant as a hat for a child, but it still fits my adult-sized model. Maybe I need to cast on fewer stitches next time (did 66 stitches on 5 mm needles). So, in conclusion: loved making this, but needs some tweaking.

Also: finished this hat (number 30) on Saturday, July 28th., which was the end of week 30. Finally caught up! (also posted two hats today, since I wanted to be back on track in August).
Trying to knit one hat a week for a while now and work on other projects too. Though the thought of keeping this flow of three hats a week up and finish early still appeals to me too. Hmn. We'll see.

linking up with Frontier Dreams' Crafting On

52 hats :: 29 - ribbed

So I actually think this is the best design I came up with so far. It's interesting to look at and fun to knit, though not too hard. I think I'm going to make it again and write a pattern for it. Would you like to knit this one?

52 hats :: 28 - slouchy again

So, after running out of yarn on the previous hat, I thought I might be able to finish all this blue yarn in a good slouchy one. But I had to decide to cast off before I reached the end of my yarn. I do think this is slouchy enough...

52 hats :: 27 - for bigger heads

This hat looked much better on my head (the model has a rather small head). I wanted it to be a really slouchy hat, but I ran out of yarn. It is big enough to stuff my hair in though. Even though the colors are a bit much for me, this is one of those 'might want to wear it' hats.

52 hats :: 26 - deep purple

Sometimes yarn doesn't need a fancy pattern. Like this one.  I love the color and it's incredibly soft. So wonderful to work with and comfortable to wear.
Too bad there wasn't enough of this (thrift shop find) to make a sweater. But I do have enough to make another hat. I'm actually looking forward to that ;-)

Posting in a weekend is not what I normally do, but I'm determined to catch up with the hat posting. Especially now that I finished hat no. 30. On Saturday, week 30. So my hat knitting can go back to one a week now and I thought it would be fun to get the hat posting to real time too.

52 hats :: 25 - simply blue

The only part that could be described as 'design' on this hat is the brim. I did a K3 P1 K1 P3 rib, to make it a little bit different. The rest of it is simple stockinette.
I found a lot of this yarn (that I also have in green and rainbow colors) at a thrift store a while back. It's nice and thick, so it knits up pretty fast. Perfect for catching up with the hat knitting ;-)

Three, random

1. I realized that for me it doesn't feel like a real summer when I haven't planted any red geraniums. So I took care of that yesterday. I can safely state these are my favorite flowers (followed closely by marigolds).

2. Summer fruits are special to me too. I used to buy (and eat) lots and lots of them when the girls were younger, so I thought it would be fun to revive that tradition and buy them for myself. My husband doesn't eat fruit.
And I shouldn't either. The sugars didn't do my body any good. Back to snacking on cucumbers and tomatoes, I guess. But it was great to taste these again after almost three years of not eating fruit.

3. You didn't think I'd left all those thrift shops I visited before finding my chair empty handed, didn't you? Of course not!
I did show remarkable restraint though. I have a weakness for vintage plates and bowls, but I left all of them behind. I didn't even look at the books (that's the only way to prevent myself from buying them). But I caved for this cute little WIP knitting basket and a bigger basket to store my yarn. I also bought some yarn. At least enough for five or six hats, I think!

Linking up with Carole Knits' Three on Thursday

I'll be right here *

*title of this post stolen from Soulemama

Yesterday I went on an epic thrift store search.
I was in need of a better chair. The one I had was fun to look at, but I got back aches from sitting in it too long. And since we've stored our desks and office chairs away while we're working on renovating and finishing that room, I do a lot of sitting in that chair in the living room.
I visited three stores in the morning, but came up with nothing. The chairs I found that didn't make my back hurt even more were either very ugly or too big. So after lunch, I went at it again. Visited three more stores. I hesitated about a darling little chair that was labeled 'granny's reading chair', but I knew I wouldn't be able to spend a day of work on it. So off I went, to the seventh store on my list.
And there it was. The chair of my dreams.
I've always loved rocking chairs, but the time was never right. I had small homes and very accident prone children.  In my (overactive, I have to admit) mind could see them tumbling over and breaking their necks while playing in my chair. Not that they would be allowed to, but hey, I do understand the attraction of it.
So I bought none of the rocking chairs I passed in thrift stores in those days. When Amanda found hers (oh my, how can that be almost ten years ago already?!?)  the dream became alive again and since my children were bigger by then, I started keeping an eye out for rocking chairs. But of course, in those days I never found an affordable rocking chair. That's how it goes.
But now? I'm in chair heaven. My back started singing when I sat down to test it in the store and it's even better with pillows. It's great for working on my laptop, for knitting, for reading, for talking. I love, love, love it.
I was still doubting whether or not to ship our belongings to Curaçao when we move there forever, but now I'm sure. There's no way I'll leave this chair behind. Nope, no matter where we'll live, I'll be here. In my rocking chair.

52 hats :: 24 - happy spiral

I like this one, though I'd never wear it myself, at least not in these colors. I did love knitting with those bright colors though. The spiral was fun to knit and I may do that again in a different color.

Linking up with Frontier Dreams' Crafting On

52 hats :: 23 - scrap busting

Not very creative, just working my way through scraps (leftovers from the mystery shawl).

Thanks for sticking with me and my boring posts while I try to catch up with the 52 hat challenge. I'm still behind on both posting and knitting, so I have at least a week of these to go. But I will try to mix in some other posts too. ;-)

52 hats :: 22 - giving up on cables

I guess the title says it all. I was going to do cables, but we were on Curaçao when I was knitting this one and the acrylic yarn was no fun in the heat. So I decided to give up on the cables and finish in stockinette. I was also a bit too eager to wrap this up, so it ended up being just a small beanie. I do sort of like it though...

Three things I'm working on right now

1. Cleaning and organizing. After all the traveling and the scary times in between, I'm finally trying to get a grip on my household tasks. Ahem... I had things under control back in October, but fell off the bandwagon during the holidays in December and never really got back to it. Add trying to finish renovations in every room in the house to that and you can imagine I've just been doing damage control these past few months.
Today I started on my kitchen cupboards. Deep cleaning and organizing. Oh my...  The hard part is letting go of stuff.

Hmnn, this is an 'after picture', but there's still too much stuffed in there, don't you think? I''d better sort through it again...

2. Knitting! A few weeks ago I felt I lost my knitting mojo. I just didn't feel like picking up my needles. I even considered giving up on the 52 hats challenge. But I'm back at it. Still a little behind, but I'm getting there.

3. Writing. I'm *this* close to finishing my next novel (it's been a while since the last one was published, but this will my eleventh). Just waiting for the final scenes to play out in my mind. And then I need to find time to write it down, of course.

Linking up with Carole Knits' Three on Thursday

52 hats :: 21 - hospital green

I started this hat in the waiting room when my husband was going through some examinations for his heart, back in May. It's just a simple 2x2 rib with a stockinette top, but that was all I could handle at that point.

Life has been scary and unclear for a while (since the end of April, actually). It seemed T. was having minor heart attacks, but all his tests were negative or didn't work out. He had a scan to look at his coronary arteries last week and we were going to hear the results of that yesterday. But last Sunday he got even more severe chest pains than before and we found his heart rate was up to over 200 bpm. He was rushed off to the hospital by ambulance and there they found out he was born with a deficit that causes arrhythmias.
Yesterday we heard his arteries are fine, but he has to have an operation to fix the deficit. It's a relatively small, simple and routine operation. We will have to postpone our move to Curaçao until next year though because there are waiting lists, but we both feel that's worth it.
This operation will fix the problem for once and for all, so once it's done we can finally look at the future again. Without fear and doubts about the decisions we were about to make. Without worrying about the lack of good hospitals on Curaçao (they do have hospitals, but for only 150.000 inhabitants they can't afford AMC standards), without working out a plan for me if/when I would want to move back to Holland as a widow soon.
Also (on a lighter note): now I can finish my 52 hat project without having to worry about moving them all with me to Curaçao and then to have to ship them some place where people actually wear warm hats ;-)

52 hats :: 20 - Soulemama's favorite (again)

I've said it before, I really, really like this pattern. Every time I'm really out of ideas about what type of hat to knit, I'm tempted to cast on one of these. I'm trying to keep myself back a bit, but two out of twenty is not too much, I think.

Linking up with Frontier Dreams' Crafting on

52 hats :: 19 - more stripes in pastel

I'm starting to think that knitting these was a lot more fun than blogging about them... Anyway. More stripes. A really slouchy slouch this time, since I was still trying to finish my scraps ;-)

52 hats :: 18 - A ribbed top

I do like stripes, but sometimes you have to shake things up a bit, don't you think? This one was really fun to make. And I think it looks good too.

Curaçao :: More buildings

I know I did this before, but oh, Curaçao is full of beautiful old (and new) buildings and I love to take pictures of them.
I actually planned to go on a bit of a photo walk and take pictures of some old homes we drive by a lot on our way to the beach, but that never happened (it's on the list for the next time we're there). But I did manage to take pictures of these three. The blue one is my favorite.

Joining Carole Knits' Three on Thursday

52 hats :: 17 - more stripes

Working through my scraps, so stripes is pretty much all I can do. But I don't mind. I like stripes ;-)

Oh, no!

I never meant to stop blogging, but somehow it happened.

These past two months were kind of weird. My husband had some health issues again, so we went through a lot of doctor visits and examinations. The last one was yesterday and we hope to hear next week whether or not he has a heart condition.
We did make our planned trip to Curaçao in June, but we weren't sure about going (because of this possible heart condition) until a few days before we went. But it was a good decision. He recovered quite well and is feeling a lot better than before we left. Our plan to move permanently to the island is stronger than ever and we picked up working on getting the house ready to sell where we left off in April.

I didn't knit much. In our last minute decision making I tossed some acrylic yarn in my suitcase, but that felt way too scratchy in the heat. So instead of knitting up a storm (as I hoped I would) in June, I fell behind in the one-hat-a-week thing. I also noticed I fell even further behind in posting the hats I did make. What can I say, except what I already said: weird months.

Anyway, I'm trying to catch up again. I prepared hat posts and will be posting them in the days (weeks) to come, but I will also try to blog about other things.
I have to admit though I once again feel like I've lost my blogging voice, so please bear with me while I try to find it ;-)