I will admit that I am not at all sorry to see 2014 go. Enough said about that.
Piper, Jace, and Mallory got hats for Christmas this year. I had a great time knitting them and the hats arrived at Grandma Sharon's on Christmas Eve.
I will say that I am very relieved that all of the hats fit and that the kids liked them. Piper's hat with the hearts was a modification of a pattern from Siouxie Stitches. I used Willow yarns and was really happy with the project. Mallory and Jace's hats were both done from the Simply Cotton Beanie pattern. That is an excellent top down pattern that I know I will use again and again. It is another example of genius, yet simple design. This pattern comes in a wide range of sizes that will make it a go to pattern. It will be, I think, excellent for using up leftovers. I would like to knit charity hats with project leftovers instead of tucking the leftovers into bags. I am a firm believer in not wasting. More and more though, I don't want to hang on to things just because I might need them someday. My thought is that if I knit up the leftovers and donate the hats, I can avoid waste and do some good. It will also be nice for those mindless knitting moments......of which I am having many.
My friend Jackie is about to have her first baby. She is going to go the cloth diaper route and will be using soakers. I had half a memory of my mother mentioning my aunt knitting a pair when my oldest brother was born. I won't go into detail, but that would have been a looooooooooooooong time ago. Soakers are back in use. There were a lot of patterns available and I found one that I liked. I made a couple pairs from odd skeins of Raggi. I am hoping that the soakers work well for the new baby. I have included a picture of one so you can get the general idea. It is, I think, an interesting concept. I hope it works as well in reality!
I have been feeling a little bit overwhelmed by the sheer amount of yarn in my possession. This will, truly, be the year of the great stash knit down. As one of the locations has to be relocated shortly...goodness knows where...there is a huge incentive to pare down. Some of the yarn will be given away; some will be knit up quickly; some will be relocated to an as yet undetermined location: it is one more thing to do and one more reason to use what I have as much as I can. Lightening the load and making things for others will be a good multi-tasking project this year.
Let us hope for a happy and health year to come.
