with the best hat

My friends Sarah and Laura and I were asked by our LYS to decorate a hat to be auctioned off for a local theatre troupe. Their up coming show, Puttin' on the Ritz is being hosted by the hat ladies society are they are auctioning off hats to raise money. Knit was asked to decorate/design three of them, and as part of the Thursday night knit-night crew, we were asked to make one our own.

We started a few weeks ago with a white top hat, a bunch of our scrap yarn, a free Saturday and our imaginations - we ended up with our very own Puttin' on the Knits Hat!



On the front is a collection of flowers that have been crocheted and knit and sewn on the hat to a lattice work of fun-fur. On the sides are teeny-tiny little outfits knit up and then sewn on.







I just love it! The other ladies from the Saturday afternoon group and the owners did their own, which came out beautifully as well:

Here is the And They Called It Macaroni hat by the owners/employees (which is a bit big on my peanut size head):



but it comes complete with feather duster!



And the gorgeous Saturday Women hat:



Which has a felted butterfly on the side that I had a hard time getting a shot of:



There are more/better pictures here if you're a Raveler in the Knit forums. It was fun to make, and I'll be interested to see how the auction goes on opening night I think it is? All the "designers" are going to get all dolled up and go to see the show. It should be a good time.

petting pretty yarn

I entered a contest on yarnfloozy's blog a few days ago I mean... about a week ago really more like.. a couple of weeks ago (I've been lost in a small random time-suck - I have no idea where the time as gone) which was quite fun. I got to peruse all the lovely socks she had made and do a bit of investigative math, and low and behold ....I Actually Won!!! I never win anything and I won!! I was super excited - not only because I won (which made for a really nice day) but also because the prize was 200 grams of some beautiful Indigo Moon merino wool!!



It's so pretty and soft - the pictures don't do it justice. Now I just need to decide what I'm going to knit with it. I'm thinking socks because I also received a cute little sock bag and set of addi turbos that go perfectly with the yarn:



The card she sent was really sweet too!! It doesn't hurt that Mike and I are wanting to get a puppy and the mere words cause me to swoon like others do over babies. But now is not the time for either and so I just ooh and aah over the cute ones that are sent to me via cute little cards and such!

I'm also working on the Jacques Cousteau hat I had one started. Gay over at Knit helped me find another color that is working just wonderfully - the pattern I'm hoping will continue as smoothly considering I haven't picked it up in months. Here's my progress so far with the new yarn:



It's not perfect, but it's coming along. I taught one of Mike's classmates how to knit last weekend, and she picked it up really really quick! Then she went home and I think she figured out how to increase and decrease on her own. So, not only did she not give up once she gone home and, as she put it, "was no longer under my supervision" - she went and tried new things! I forget how much I enjoy teaching someone who wants to learn. I think she, and a few others are going to come over this weekend for some more Sn'B'ing which should be fun.

attending a city council meeting

This week I also went to my first City Council meeting ever. It was really ... entertaining and quite surprising. There were quite a few things brought up that I really didn't expect to be city council issues, but it was interesting to hear people say their piece. I was there to support Mike's school - the ACBA, in getting the vote for a loan from the city to support their growth and accreditation. We won the vote (7-3) YEAH, and will be getting the loan and Mike even got up and spoke to voice his support for the school. I did like hearing all the different perspectives and ideas from those both for and against the vote, but I don't know if it's something I'd attend without good cause.

Our next door neighbors are in transition - one has moved out and another is moving in. There was a package on their porch when Hanna was moving in, so we took it inside and left a note, not quite sure which neighbors it was for - the old ones or new ones. It was the old neighbors and we left it back next door for them to pick up. Then the other day this sampler was left on our doorstep:



once again, we're not sure which neighbor left it or who it belongs to. As we try to figure it out, it got me thinking - cross stitch was the first craft I remember doing, and although I still have all the supplies for it, I don't do it anymore. This brought back some fond memories and showed me that there are some really cute things that can be done with cross stitch.

Here is the sweater I finished for Crystal:



I think I'd really like to do a clasp closure on it, especially since I didn't make any button holes - but does it really need buttons or a clasp? What do you think?

high and dry

Yup - the "tropical storm" Hanna passed by with little damage, and only a bit of a storm here. Mike and I took advantage and went for a bit of walk in the rain, which was fun. I thought it'd be cold and rough, but it was pretty warm and mild. It's so weird to look outside and think the weather is one thing and then step outside to find it's another.

I'm almost finished with the 'Baby Raglan' sweater:



The green and orange look a little pumpkin-y, but then again, the baby is due in October! Yes, I do know one sleeve is longer than the other, I tried it with (as the pattern suggested) and without the ribbing, and I think I like it better without. I just finished the bottom tonight, but don't have the energy to take more pictures. Tomorrow I will rip out the little bit of ribbing on the left sleeve, cast off and seam it up. Can't believe I'm actually done with this one early!

Next on my list is the elephante pattern (ravelry link - it takes me a while to find the non-ravelry links sometimes. Which is one of the reasons I LOVE Ravelry!! Anytime I need a pattern, I can find it in 10 seconds on ravelry. Anytime I have a questions - bam! find it on Ravelry. Extra yarn - don't know what to do with it - see what everyone else is doing with it on.. ravelry. Going somewhere and want a knitting shop near my destination? - you guessed it, Ravelry. Bored? Radar or forums on ravelry! *sigh* it's a little bit of knitterly heaven.

guess you have to be a knitter/crocheter/fiber person to really understand - sorry about the rant ;)

watching the hurricanes...

It's my first time as a Charlestonite Charlestonian Charlestinninian .. living in Charleston during hurricane season and it's so hard to know when to take it seriously.

Hurricane Hannah is on her way tonight, and Mike and I are staying, and just sleeping with one eye open. All the 'natives' say it'll be a bad storm and blow over - although, driving into work this morning, I noticed quite a few shops were closed and traffic was waay lighter than usual.

I guess it's Ike we really have to worry about, but since he's a bit away, it's just wait and see time. Word is I may get out of work early today to head home early, and Mike's leaving his car at school because it's a bit more protected. Living on an actually island makes him worry. We're supposed to evacuate with any Level 1 hurricanes, so it'll be interesting to see how the weekend turns out.

On the knitting front, I'm almost done with another baby sweater - it's a special project for a friend who lost her mom while we were working together, and I have some of her mom's yarn that I'm making it out of. I don't think she reads my blog, but I'm going to wait to post pictures I think until I'm closer to done.

I had run out of the yarn for the project, and was finishing it with another similar color, and then realized I had made the Foliage hat from Knitty out of it! It hadn't quite turned out the way I wanted, so I'm frogging an old project to salvage the yarn to finish a new one. It makes sense to me - I think the yarn was destined to be for her baby's sweater, I just never knew it till now.

enjoying the beach

With the various jobs I've had in the past few years, it's been a really long time since I've had Labor Day as an honest-to-goodness-paid-holiday from work - and it was really really nice.

Friday I got to leave a bit early from work, and over the weekend Mike and I went to the beach. Now, we go almost every weekend we get a chance to at least spend a few hours doing nothing and laying in the sand - did I mention I love living here? Last weekend was no different, but when we got there it was low tide, and I mean Extremely Low Tide. There were a bunch of little sandbars scattered up and down the beach where the tide had gone out, but left small pools here and there.

Further out, there and off to the side there was another sand bar, and the depth of the water in between ran from our shins to up to our shoulders, so we decided to head out that way. As the water got deeper, it was harder and harder to keep our footing and it didn't hit me until I was digging into the sand with my feet and pushing against the water as if it was a strong gale of wind that this is what people mean when they talk about riptides and strong currents!

I had always heard the warnings and gotten a basic idea from my summers in Hilton Head, but this was the first time I really realized just how strong the tides and currents can be - especially so close to the shore and relatively shallow water! We had to swim the last few yards, and it took us quite a while because if you weren't swimming strong enough, you were push backwards and out towards the open water - it was kinda crazy - but fun, and a lot easier returning.

Now that the hurricanes are headed our way, I hear that's the best/most fun time to be at the beach - we'll have to see how close they actually get to see if we'll brave the beaches during a hurricane. I'll let you know if we have to evacuate.

We also went to a party thrown by one of Mike's classmates out at Folly Beach, which ended out in the ocean late-night. It brought back fond memories of the Tamburro vacations and shenanigans. There was even a Kirchdorfer-esq episode of missing shorts to make it even more entertaining. There definitely needs to be another Tamburro-style vacation planned in the near future - who's up for it?