One of Those Days

     It's been a dizzying week.  One minute plans to move to be with my son in Maine (which would mean leaving my daughter whose a Senior in High School to finish her last year) and the next he's saying he'll come here to help take care of Dad and get a job.  My husband has been sick for months with something the doctors can't, as of yet diagnosis.  They've eliminated all the big things, no cancer, Parkinson's (which I thought it was) or MS.  I'm stalled in reading and knitting with my son's girlfriend saying work with your hands and it'll help you from thinking.  So here I am, I'll try.

     Today is a good day, my husband is out and about.  We got Medicaid to cover all of us, instead of just him.  And, in the works, our elderly landlord wants us back in his house looking after him (at a vastly reduced rent).  This tough old man whose nickname is "Bad Bob" just gave us $100 off the rent the last two months as a get-well card.

     So I'll get back to my cowl (I'm knitting a simple cowl for a pattern for an upcoming KAL for Cowls & Scarves for Asylum Seekers in Northeast Asylum Cities in Ravelry Resistance Knitters group on November 1st).  I'm trying to think good, happy yarny thoughts and dream of being back in the woods.  It's a cute house where we lived a few years ago.  A beautiful garden.  Lots of room and oddly, I know exactly where everything goes!

     I've been reading a freebie I got through The Fussy Librarian, a daily email I get for free books.  The Money Trail is good but it's the fifth book in the series and at times I hit details that I don't quite get.  At night I like a book on my kindle because I read in bed and my husband goes to bed ahead of me.  But I'm ready to return to a more languid work set in the past.  I got far enough into The Golden Hour to realize it'll be a great book.  And I'm ready for some escapism reading.

Come Join Us at Unraveled Wednesday

Creating a Cowl for a KAL and a New Book

     I love simplicity, and in knitting even more so.  Give me something that goes in circles on a small circular needle, like a hat and I'm in heaven.  Reading my book weighted down by a Vermont Store Leather Weight; tea by my side, a cat close at my feet.  Knitting nirvana, peace and sense of calm returns.  So I'm quite happy knitting hats for the Hats for Migrants KAL and I'll probably continue afterwards.

       In this vein I'm trying to create a sister pattern for my pattern The Simple Hat for a simple cowl.  Even simpler, there's no decreasing!  But I've been stalled this past week busy helping inventory at the artist Rockey's Print Studio and hopefully by next week I'll have a handle on what my pattern will be.  My first version was simple, but simply rolled too much!  I now know what I want to do, I just got to get that first one done, and cast on a new cowl!  This is all for another KAL I'm planning for November 1st in Ravelry Resistance Knitters group called Cowls and Scarves for Asylum Seekers!

     I finally finished my last Anna Pigeon book, "Ill Wind" by Nevada Barr, it was very very good!  I'm trying to hold off reading more of her mysteries for now.  I might not be successful, they are that good!  But I have a pile and half of my top bookshelf filled with BOTM selections.  So I put the most likely books to interest me into a pile and read the first page, or jacket cover.

     The winner is: "The Golden Hour" by Beatriz Williams.  Immediately the time period WWII grabs me.  As also the setting of the Caribbean. The words are descriptive and paint the scene in prose that's just right.  I could feel myself being reeled in.  A story of a journalist writing about the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.  Always an interesting story in itself, a man who gave up the throne for the love of a woman.  The pace of the book matches my mood and the oncoming Fall weather.

 Come Join Us at Unraveled Wednesday

One More Hat and an Early Anna Pigeon Mystery

   

The Simple Hat

     One more hat finished for the Hats for Migrants KAL.  I'm glad I have some very prolific hat makers in my Ravelry Resistance Knitters group.  I'm not a fast knitter but some people have produced almost 20 hats for Asylum Seekers in Northeast Asylum Cities.  Total we've almost approached 100 hats.  Every week I have had a contest on Fridays.  So come on by for a fabulous cause and join us!  We will be making hats till October 20th.

     I'm also working on developing a simple cowl pattern for another KAL I'm planning November 1st called "Cowls & Scarves for Asylum Seekers".  This KAL will run till December 7th.  My first cowl prototype might be destined for my neck, I'm not pleased with the roll of edges.  So I'll finish and start again.  I got another idea percolating.

     I'm back with an earlier Anna Pigeon mystery, Nevada Barr's 3rd book "Ill Wind'.  I do like her earlier books, they have a lot of descriptions of the actual National Park they take place in.  Barr is very good at capturing a sense of place and mood.  I've only read her book from last year and that was missing.  But hopefully, most of her books continue as she began.

Go World

     This time she's in Mesa Verda National Park and people are dying from something mysterious.  Is it of some ancient curse or human hand?

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Hats for Migrants KAL and "Boar Island"

The Simple Hat

     Our Hats for Migrants KAL is in full swing in our group Ravelry Resistance Knitters.  Lots of hats are being produced and sent to the head of Suenos Sin Fronteras, who will distribute them to Asylum Seekers in Northeast Asylum Cities.  It's getting chilly up North and these hats will be very appreciated.  Our KAL goes to Oct. 20th, but you can knit a hat for a migrant at any time and connect with us in our group to get a private address to ship your knit creations to.  All winter accessories are welcome.  Any fiber art and any fiber.

 The Simple Hat

     I know, I know you're not supposed to read the Anna Pigeon series out of order.  But, I got "Boar Island" last month for $1.99 and I didn't have an opportunity to get out to a second-hand book shop that I know has at least two of her oldies (maybe tomorrow).  So I skipped ahead.  I had so much wanted to read this last year when my son graduated from College of The Atlantic, an Ecology College right next to Acadia National Park.  I couldn't find it then and with all the graduating Senior's activities, and a trip out in a schooner (a treat from my Dad) I never would have found time to read!  By the way, we are moving just south of Acadia next Spring to where my son and his lovely Mainer girlfriend lives in Belfast, ME!!!  I miss the ocean and my son and my oldest daughter (who's in Upstate New York with her fiance in their new Old house - 1830).  It's hard to leave the mountains of Colorado but I get an ocean and my two kids back!

   

Bass Head Lighthouse

     I'm over halfway through and I find I like half of the book, the parts about Anna Pigeon and her friends Heath and her teen daughter Elizabeth.  The other chapters are about evil twins that give you a bad case of the willies (I actually skim read some of these parts, I get it, they're BAD!).  So while I like the story unfolding around Anna Pigeon it's not exactly rosie either.  Elizabeth is a Senior in Colorado (just like I have a Senior in High School now in Colorado) and the fictional girl is being cyber stalked.  So not a pleasant subject but as a mother, I think it's a good subject to air out and discuss.  So is it worth reading?  Hum, I don't know.  I'll finish it but I'm more interested in getting back to her older books and I like the ones that get more into the details of the park itself.  This one has fewer descriptions of nature as I like.

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Hats, A Coffee Shop Wrap and Anna Pigeon

The Simple Hat

      The Hats for Migrants KAL is going well.  We have a strong group - RAVELRY RESISTANCE KNITTERS churning out hats.  They are being sent to the head of Suenos Sin Fronteras, an organization that works to help Asylum Seekers in Asylum Cities in the soon to be cold Northeast.  Come join us.  The KAL runs till October 20th, but the need for hats by asylum seekers won't disappear and I'll keep the contact information available also after the KAL for anyone who needs it.  Plus a few more areas' addresses receiving cold-weather gear for migrants.

The Simple Hat

© Nicole Sabo

Resistance Knitter's Hat:

 © Nicole Sabo

        I've been making my pattern The Simple Hat lately in Lions brand Heartland; a very soft acrylic.  What I love about it, besides that it's easy to work with and it's soft, is all colors are named after National Parks and the colors are so beautiful!.  I just got Olympic (deep blue) and Sequoia, a rich brown.  I already had a russet called Yosemite.  So I'm making hats and then with the rest of the skein working on a large wrap that caught my eye.  The Coffee Shop Wrap is supposed to be done up in a Lions Cotton (also beautiful colors) but I liked the Tea House Wrap also and that was done in the Heartland.  

 © Two of Wands

 Coffee Shop Wrap

     © Two of Wands

Grizzly Bear Glacier National Park (Time)

 backpacker.com

2018 Grizzly Bear Glacier National Park Montana House

mountainscenes.com

     I'm back with a great Nevada Barr book in the Anna Pigeon series.  In "Blood Lure" she is in Glacier National Park in Montana helping research Grizzly bears.  But soon she survives a very vivid encounter with a Grizzly Bear and one of their research team is missing.  A dead body is found and the mystery starts.  This one is intriguing, heart pounding at times and very interesting.  My faith in Nevada Barr's mystery series has returned. 

  

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Hats for Migrants KAL and "Well Met"

 
     September 1st our Hats for Migrants KAL started in Ravelry Resistance Knitters!  We will run the KAL from September 1st to Sunday, October 20th with lots of contests along the way.  We have lots of interest and if you come by to Ravelry Resistance Knitters and post on the KAL thread you will be in a contest for a project bag and stitch markers on Friday (please post by noon Friday, PDT).

  I revealed a pattern I worked on for the KAL - The Simple Hat.  But you can use any hat pattern or any fiber art (including crochet) to produce a warm hat for Asylum seekers in the Northeast Asylum Cities.  We have the private address of a member who is the head of Suenos Sin Fronteras and by going to Ravelry Resistance Knitters you can find out how to get it.  All hats will be personally delivered to migrants.

     I just started "Well Met" and it's a delight!  "All's faire in love and war for two sworn enemies who indulge in a harmless flirtation in a laugh-out-loud rom-com from debut author Jen DeLuca." (Amazon).

Come Join Us at Unraveled Wednesday

The Simple Hat

The Simple Hat

Created to Inspire knitting for the Homeless or Migrants or those that need warm heads!

Design Inspired by 

Choose Your Own Adventure - Hat KAL

Supplies:

     Worsted Wt. Yarn Wool or Acrylic, about 160 yds.

     (See Note below pattern for wool yarn suggestions).

     Size # 7 Circular Needles (Size 16") (Knit Picks has excellent affordable needles)

     Size #7 Double Pointed needles (wooden would be less slippery)

     (Optional) Size #6 Circular Needles for a tighter brim if wanted

Cast on: 
90 (100, 110, 120)
    S (M, L, XL) 

18/20" (22/23",  24",  24/25") on

 Circular needles #7 (Opt. #6 Circ. Needles for very tight brim)

(Please note any size can be made to fit more snug by knitting the brim in #6 needles, but for me, this was too tight.)

Place a marker at the beginning

When casting on I use the Long-tail method. And I add 1 stitch to each count above at the end, switch it to the beginning cast on stitch and knit those two stitches together (a little tricky, but worth it). This eliminates the little jog in the brim edge. More detailed instructions and diagrams found on TinCanKnits

BRIM:

     Knit brim on Circular Needles #7 (unless you want a tighter brim then do #6).

     Knit 1, Purl 1

     Till 2.25" then change to stockinette

BODY:

     Knit in Circular Needles #7 in stockinette, all KNIT for 3" measuring from the end of the brim (5.25" from the starting edge).

     [If you want a slouch hat knit 2" or more inches depending on your slouchy preference]

The Top:

     Divide your knitting into 10 stitches, putting a marker after each 10th stitch.

Row 1: Knit 8, then Knit two together, Marker, proceed around once.

Row 2: Knit

REPEAT ROUNDS Row 1 and 2. (With stitches knit between stitch markers decreasing by one each other row.)

CHANGE to double pointed needles (size #7) when knitting gets too tight for circulars.

Do this till you have 18 (20, 22, 24) sts left on needles.

Row 3: Knit 2 tog. around till you have 9 (10, 11, 12) stitches left.

Cut yarn with a long tail, pull tight, weave through.

Wash & Blocking: This is optional. Sometimes I don't like how blocking I find it stretches out wool, but if your wool is scratchy I have a great technique to soften it. Wash hat in Woolite (really softens wool), then you can also soak it in a little hair conditioner (I use an organic conditioner with mint scent) in water for a bit, rinse, wrap in towel to squeeze out excess water (I stand on it!), then block. I block by using a bowl upside down, make sure the bowl is not bigger, close to size. VERY important! Have the brim hang down below your bowl as it dries. You don't want the brim to be stretched out. 

If Acrylic yarn I wouldn't wash it.

Wool Yarn Suggestions:  A really good source that's affordable is KnitPicks for a large variety of colors of wool yarns. Their Wool of The Andes is scratchy but see above Blocking/Wash instructions and that can help, The Wool of the Andes Superwash is softer. Both color selection is out of this world!  Swish Super Wash is really soft and pretty colors.

Ravelry Link - The Simple Hat

     To become part of Hats for Homeless KAL please come by and join Ravelry Resistance Knitters.

     ***We also have a FB group you can join focused on methods of Peaceful Resistance and knitting for personal Peace and as an act of Resistance. Search on Facebook the group: "Resistance Knitters Persist", we are a secret group but because the membership has become mostly inactive during the past 4 years we're trying to get more active members. ***

This hat design started years ago when I followed a KAL put out by Webs.  This pattern by Webs was my inspiration to create the simplest pattern I could for a hat for Migrants.  I made adjustments for what I found to make an even better hat.  If you need tutorials or you want a different design or add a Fair Isle design please refer to the original pattern for inspiration and instruction.  It's really awesome!

Choose Your Own Adventure KAL (2016)Ravelry: Choose Your Own Adventure - Hat KAL

If you want to do a fancier design, Fair Isle, or a different style, or knit, or finish of your hat differently please check out the Webs pattern my friend Maureen and I did a few years ago.  Great designs.

Choose Your Own Adventure KAL (2016)

© mojorao

photos above © mojorao