After I finished Chris' big blanket in December I wanted some to do some fast projects. I had made a couple of hats that I intended as chemo hats and decided to dig into the "hat yarn" box and make a few more. Today I'll be mailing off 13 of them! I finished one more Tuesday night after I had already taken this photo.
​I'm adding notes to these photos mostly for myself so I can find the patterns again.

This hat is made with Flecks yarn from Michaels. The pattern was from a website called crochethooksyou.com but that site no longer seems active. It's a simple top down beanie and once the increase rows are don the rest is done with back post double crochet. It makes a a very flattering hat to ear.
For this version I used a H hook, 8 rounds of increases, 14 rows of BPDC and 1 row of BPSC. Next time I'd use and I hook with this yarn and would probably only need 7 rounds of increases.

The yarn used in these had and the next hats is Wildstreak from Hobby Lobby. I got 3 skeins of each on clearance last summer and I used all of it. One hat in this image is the Divine Hat pattern. I love making this hat. Once you get the first round done it's super easy to keep track of your stitches. I used a J hook (H for the brim) and only 14 DC for the starting round. The pattern calls for 15 but that made the hat too big in this yarn.
The second hat is the same patter as the blue one above except that I used a J hook. I made 2 of these and gave one to Mom. It's a really flattering look.

This is also Wildstreak yarn. Lion Brand and Red heart also have very similar yarns to this one. I think it's called Unforgettable in one of the brands. I made these using a BagODay Beginner Beanie pattern. This yarn was so pretty and busy that I didn't want to waste effort on any sort of pattern. Simple stitches let the yarn shine. I used a J hook and did 6 rounds of increases. For one of the beanies I did 7 rounds of increases for a larger hat. I think 6 is optimal for this yarn.

These three Divine hats all use different yarn. The one in front is a pretty expensive Cloudborn cotton yarn. I bought it to try for another project and didn't like it. It's supersoft so I used it for a chemo hat. The middle one is Red Heart Roll With It. It was left over from a shawl and is soft enough for a hat. The last one is Loops and Threads Impeccable. It's pretty soft but I don't know if they will agree. I wouldn't pick this yarn again for chemo hats but it would be great for any other hat or scarf. I am using some Lion Brand Mandala Tweed now in a shawl and I think the leftovers of it would make nice chemo hats too.

So far my favorite yarn for chemo hats is Lion Brand Fells Like Butta. This stuff is so soft and it's really easy to work with. It's chain spun polyester so there's no splitting at all. One hat is  Divine hat and the other two are made using the Amazing Grace Hat Pattern. This hat is very easy and very fast to crochet. There's a pattern area in the middle that's food for color changes. I used a J hook for the body and an H hook for the brim. I did 4 rows of SC for the brim and didn't do any decreases. I let the hook size create the decrease. This hat actually looks really nice on.
I bought a few more skeins of the Feels Like Butta when it was on sale and I'm glad I did. I think it's going to be my go-to for chemo hats if they like these. I asked the coordinator at the office to give me some feedback so I'd know which kinds/sizes/colors/whatever that their patients like best.

If you have dealt with chemo and want to offer some advice for my hat-making I'd love to hear it.

I didn't get quite as much done yesterday as I wanted but it was a busy day with other stuff. We had our HVAC units serviced and I ran errands for the first time since last week's storm. I found some great new slip-on waterproof boots really cheap at a local outlet store. This week I learned that my 15 year old "basement boots" are split and they leak. I think I payed about $15 for them so I thanked them for their service and put my new $20 ones by the back door. I'm ready to stack more wood in preparation for the new storm coming this weekend. I also called to get the propane tank filled and maybe that will happen before the new storm too.
​The more fun event of the day was quilt club last night. It's always good to get together with the Country School Quilters.
​In between I got one major goal accomplished.

This is "Natalie's quilt". My friend made it for her step-daughter as a wedding gift. Isn't it spectacular? All I have to do is quilt it and I'm committed to doing that simply so that it doesn't take a year.

This is the backing. I'm not particularly fond of it but I am assured that Natalie will love it and that's what matters.

I got it loaded and basted yesterday. It's very flat so it was easy to load. I'm going to quilt it with a medium gray on top and light gray on the back. I don't really want the quilting to show much on this one because the graphic nature of the rings needs to be the main focus. On the back I didn't want the quilting to show at all. Light gray is perfect.

I'm trying to come up with a simple quilt plan. I will do continuous curves in the rings and maybe a simple ruler work motif for the gray areas. I'm thinking something like this. But I'm open for ideas! I hope to get started quilting Thursday. It's a big quilt so it's going to take a while.

First, the news flash. We have power! I don't know how we got so luck to be one of the first today to get reconnected but we were. There are still 50,000+ people out in my electric service area but that's down 20,000 from yesterday so they are making good progress. The rural roads are still pretty hazardous with trees falling. Chris saw a guy at the grocery store that had a cracked windshield just from a heavy piece of ice falling in it while he was driving. 
Interesting times here in Virginia! But I did get Monday's orders in the mail. I had them packed up before the power went out Monday morning but there was no mail service and we couldn't get out until today. I will even get to do my fabric dyeing tomorrow, only 1 day late.

Today I'm sharing a project that was actually finished last week but I forgot to post about it. During my Christmas mini-cleanup I found this stamped piece of fabric in my postcard supplies. It's a gradient that I stamped and I used most of it in a project that I don't even remember anymore. I had a small chunk left and intended to make postcards with it. That never happened. The fabric is beautiful and kind of precious to me because it took a long time to make. It was time to do something with it.
I also happen to have a bin of dyed napkins. A friend used to do a lot of thrifting and she would periodically bring me bags of vintage linens that she would pick up for practically nothing. I keep them in the dye studio and use them as waste fabric in my gradient dyeing or use them to dump on leftover dye. I have 6 of these napkins (3 in each color) and they matched the leaf prints perfectly. I decided to make placemats with my special fabric.

There wasn't a lot of the leaf print but I was able to get 6 pieces this size. I use old flannel sheets for the batting and leftovers from a dyed quilt back for the backing.

I cut strips of waste fabrics and did a simple Courthouse Steps log cabin design and used some scraps of greens for the binding. I'm really pleased with how these turned out. I'm thinking that I will keep 2 of them and set aside 4 in the gift closet. I think they are pretty enough to be a nice gift.

Tomorrow I'll get back to regularly scheduled activities and posts. I admit that I have kind of enjoyed the past 2 days "off". It was nice to test out our emergency preparedness and, other than needing to stock up on 9v batteries, we did very well and could have easily gone 3 more days, maybe longer. The generator is great but the wood stove is the real hero of the event.

There's nothing more important than being prepared for all possible interruptions! Yesterday morning we woke to snow. We really didn't expect as much as we got but it was very beautiful until about 9:30 when the power went out. We are so glad that we got the generator installed last summer! 

By 4pm the skies started to clear and this was the view in the front yard. I can't complain about some amount of inconvenience (and later exorbitant expense to refill the propane) because we go this beautiful view of the front yard. This morning we went for a walk around the yard, down to the river, around the pond, up the hill and back across. There were lots of deer and rabbit tracks everywhere. It was absolutely beautiful.

You may have heard that Virginia is kind of a mess. Road are blocked everywhere and lots of people got stranded on Interstate 95 between DC and Richmond for over 12 hours. One was even one of our state senators. Our rural power company has 72,000 out of 170,000 customers without power and are saying that the earliest people will start getting power back is Wednesday. With the roads such a mess they probably can't even get out of state crews in to help. 

We planned for this and have lots of wood to keep the house warm and the generator for basic power needs. I'm not sewing because I will not turn on the iron so that means reading and lots of crocheting because we have to have our hobbies prepared for interruptions too. I can't work on one project continuously so it's been a good excuse to start a whole bunch of new projects. 

They will all eventually get done.

Fist up was to finally start the duster. I got the kit from Lion Brand but you can find just the pattern through a google search. This is my first garment that needs to fit so I started this one 4 times before I got the gauge right. This yarn is going to blind me from eye strain so this will be a slow project to be worked on only in bright light.

Last week I was organizing yarn and found this yarn that I bought in a kit from Herrschners. It was on a DEEP discount. The whole kit (7 jumbo skeins was something like $17). I got it out thinking that I wouldn't like is and I should donate i. But worked up a swatch and determined that I didn't mind working with it. On a M hook it will go pretty quickly. I did this little swatch using a new BagODay tutorial. I have 2 colors of this yarn so I thought it would make a nice textured stripe with the drop down stitches.

I made this much progress during Monday Night Football. A local charity has put out a call for large blankets so I'll donate this as soon as it's done.

Last week I decided on yet another new project! I generally don't like make-along projects but a crochet along project came up in my blog reader and I thought it might be a good use for some yarn that I bought for a failed project. Do you remember this failed flower hexagon project from September? Well, I bough a lot of Lion Brand Pound of Love for that project. By a lot, I mean 6 or 7 1-pound balls! Plus I had 2 balls of Navy from another bad idea. After my wash test I realized that I do not love that yarn but I can always make a donation blanket with it. 

During the last week of December a CAL project popped up from Moogly. She apparently hosts these every year and I looked over previous years and decided that this would be a good project that I can approach like a class. There are lots of techniques that are new to me. New blocks come out every 2 weeks. I tested it out with the block above. It was the 1st block from 2021. I don't' love it for an afghan but I did learn a lot doing it. I'm going to give this a try. The first block comes out January 6. If/when I finish the blanket I will donate it to one of my local charities and this yarn will get used. Everyone wins!

I have 5 colors and the balls are huge so I made a giant project bag for it. I even added interior pockets. One is big enough for a plastic folder to store the patterns and the other is a zipper pocket for my tools.

We don't expect to get power back before Thursday or Friday so I'm likely to start another donation shawl with this yarn and I'll also get back to making some dialysis sleeves on the loom. I'm listening to a good book and a couple of good podcast series so we are just treating this like a vacation.

​I'll check back in tomorrow or Thursday.

I'm not much for New Year resolutions. I set daily tasks, weekly goals and monthly goals and then I have lists of things I want to accomplish at some point. I'm an accountant and I love accounting so I like to keep lists of accomplishments. As far as personal resolutions I tend to have those throughout the year. Maybe after a doctor visit I resolve to change eating or exercise habits but that happens that the time of the event, not on January 1. When my closets need to be purged, they get purged. I just can't deal with making proclamations or resolutions on a specific day. But I do reset my "accounts" to zero and start new tallies. I'll get to the annual totals in a bit but I'll review December first.

What a great month I had in December! I don't know how I did so much except that several of these things were well underway in November.
I finished 2 doll outfits,
quilted and bound 3 veterans quilts,
finished one big crochet blanket and a shawl,
made 8 pet beds for donation and 
made about 88 postcards!

​I've got no complaints about all that.

Two insignificant things that I started accounting for this weekend was empty yarn wrappers and spools. I accidentally started saving yarn wrappers in August and just kept doing it. Just since August I used 54 skeins of yarn! That was shocking to me. Some were small but some were quite big (over 300 yards). I also saved my empty cones of thread and I emptied 4. I don't really buy thread anymore because I have sooooooo much but I have replaced a couple of colors that I use on the veterans quilts. I'll continue to track both of these things.

It's impossible for me to track fabric in and out because most of my fabric comes out of the dye studio from leftover dye applied to bolt ends or the waste fabrics. It would be way to hard to track that. I buy very little commercial fabric but when I do it's for a special project. 

Yarn is another story. I've bought a LOT of yarn this year and all of it was on clearance or a very good sale. Still, as it is, I'm pretty well set for a year or so. I'm going to track the empty wrappers so I can see how much I use in a year and maybe I can use that information to help meter my purchases.

My ending statistics for the year are. All of the photos of the projects are on my 2021 Gallery page.
Other major projects (the floor cloths) - 1
Veterans quilts made - 9
Veterans quilts quilted - 51
Fabric Postcards - 107
Pet Beds - 18
​​Quilted for others - 2
​Crochet blankets - 9
​Crochet shawls - 3
​Crochet/loom knit hats and scarves - 31
Doll outfits - 9
Placemats - 12
​Pillows - 2
​Donated items - 35
​Bags and totes - 25

Total number of items is a shocking 314! That doesn't really mean anything because the epic projects like the floor cloths or Finally! quilt count as one and the simple postcards count as 107. But still. I'm happy because about 150 of the total were donated items. If I have a goal for 2022 it would be to keep that ratio of donated items.

That's enough looking back. It's time to think about January. My first 2 goals are carryovers from December:
- add borders to the vulture quilt
- quilt Anne's double wedding ring (just wait until you see this spectacular quilt
- start THREE crochet projects. Yes, I really am starting 3 of them