A Cardinal Pincushion

This past October I paid a two-day visit to my friend Lindsie's house. A few days before I was due to hop the bus that would take me there, Lindsie messaged me asking if I could make her another pincushion. I had made a paper pieced pincushion for her back in 2017, and she said that it "was always in the wrong place" when she was sewing, and that she wanted a second one so she could keep one by her sewing machine and one on the ironing board for convenience's sake. I agreed to make her a second cushion, but said I didn't know when I would get around to it. Then, the morning I left for her place and was deciding which project to take along, I realized that my current knitting project involved too many annoying little bobbins of yarn to be portable.

I raced upstairs to my attic workroom and quickly picked out a few remnants that would be nice for the pincushion -- I used some of the fabric left over from making supersize Christmas stockings for my family in 2018. The red fabric and cardinal print wasn't too overtly Christmassy to be useable, and it was certainly a pretty combination.

When I was cutting the fabric pieces, I carefully centred each piece on cardinals and whatever those two little brown birds are. The result looks pretty and reasonably intentional.

I orginally didn't intend or expect to finish the pincushion during my visit to Lindsie's place. I had taken it because it made an easily packable project, and because I thought it might be interesting for Lindsie to see the manufacturing process. I therefore didn't think to take polyfil stuffing along with me. But then I did finish it, and when Lindsie had no stuffing on hand, and I said I would have to take it home to stuff it, and give it to her the next time I saw her, her facial expression was that of a child who'd been offered an ice cream cone, and had it held temptingly out to her... only to have the offer and the cone retracted until "next time". In other words, she was not letting that sucker go. She promptly dug up a little airline pillow she had from a recent trip and told me to use the stuffing from it. So I finished the pincushion and gave it to her on the spot, and she said she liked it even better than the first one I had made for her.

I'm not thrilled with my stitching on the project. The pieces can and should be sewn together so that the stitches don't show, and as you can see from the close up, they are embarrassingly apparent, not to mention uneven. It really is best not to rush when crafting.

The Chocolate Tart Pullover

If you're a regular reader of this blog, do you remember this brown wool hoodie project? For those who don't remember/don't want to be bothered clicking on the link, I'll just explain that back in the fall/early winter of 2017, I made myself a Celtic motif hoodie out of dark brown Merino Extrafine 120. Or, more accurately, mostly out of Merino Extrafine 120. I had 100 grams of brown DK in my stash that looked identical and I decided to save myself some money by using it to make one of the front side pieces out of it, and return the Merino Extrafine I saved thereby to the store. Great environmentally friendly and frugal idea, right? Or it would have been, had I checked the damn washing instructions on the other yarn, which I believe was Debbie Bliss Cashmerino. It turned out that the Cashmerino wasn't machine washable like the Extrafine was, and it also pilled much more. By the time the hoodie had been washed a few times, the one side was somewhat felted and shrunken, which ruined the sweater for me. After kicking myself multiple times, I decided I would take the sweater apart and make another sweater with the Merino Extrafine yarn. The Celtic Icon pattern I'd used was a real yarn soaker, so there would be plenty of yarn to make a pullover.

After some requisite (and exquisite) Ravelry browsing to find a suitable pattern for the replacement sweater, I chose the Raspberry Tart design you see depicted above, which by my calculations could easily be made with the reclaimed yarn from the brown hoodie, and was also suitable for an around home/running errands type sweater, which the brown hoodie was supposed to have been (and was, before it tragically partially felted).

I took apart the hoodie (which took many exasperating hours), wound the Merino Extrafine into balls, and threw the felted Cashmerino front pieces into one of my yarn stash boxes. Perhaps I may want them for material sometime.

Here's my finished version of the Raspberry Tart, which could probably be more accurately described as a Chocolate Tart. I had some issues with the pattern. The armholes seemed to be incredibly high cut, and the waist shaping when I initially did it according to the directions was above my bustline. I had to reknit the body to place the shaping correctly, and I also had to lengthen the pattern by quite a lot to make it the length it was supposed to be. I have a feeling those problems must be my mistake, but I checked and rechecked the pattern as I was working on this pattern and I can't see what I did wrong. Oh well, the sweater's completed and it fits well enough.

Out of the 650 grams of the Merino Extrafine that I reclaimed from the hoodie, this sweater took 490 grams. I have 160 grams of it left still, but I have plans for that too, as you will see.

A Lacklustre Birthday Gift

My grand-nephew Bug has just turned six, and this momentous occasion called for a sweater.

Months ago, I searched Ravelry for a suitable pattern. I had come across the one pictured above, which is Metamorphic, designed by Lisa K. Ross, several times before when searching for a pattern for Bug, and always liked it. I decided this year was its turn -- and that I may make him another when he's older, as the pattern runs from sizes 6 months to 3XL Adult. For yarn, I purchased 100 grams of Drops Karisma Uni Colour in Blanco, 50 grams of Sandnes Garn Perfect in grayish blue, and 100 grams of Sandnes Garn Perfect in charcoal during Romni Wool's July sale. There was a pearl gray Sandnes Garn Perfect that I would have liked to switch out for the white, but Romni only had one skein left and I needed two.

And here's the finished item. The pattern seemed fine as to accuracy and clarity in general. I did need to go back to Romni and get a third skein of the charcoal yarn, as I ran short by half a sleeve -- to my great relief, they had some left. I'm not thrilled with the result. The colourway looks a bit dull. I took longer than I should have to knit it because it was such a blah project to work on. I wish I'd put a contrast colour with a little more zip in it -- such as a bright blue or a red -- in the centre section. Oh well, what's knitted is knitted. I am sure Bug will think his sweater is fine and will be willing to wear it, and that in any case he will be much more taken up with the pirate kit, dinosaur activity kit, and Spiderman light he's getting with it.

Pointing Up Poppies

At some point last year I picked up a needlepoint kit at Value Village for $2.30. You can get needlework kits in thrift shops for very little sometimes. Usually they are decades old. This one had a date from 2000 written in ink on the package. I always wonder about the back story. Did someone intend to do it and never get around to it? Did they die with their needlework unfinished? This is a lesson to us all.

This kit was unusual in its technique, at least in my experience. Usually needlepoint involves a single diagonal stitch and fine mesh canvas. This one required a cross stitch technique and had a canvas that was more like a rug hooking canvas. The kit was easy enough to do and it certainly went fast: I finished in just a week.

The finished cushion. I made one change to the design, which was to replace the yarn provided for the floral designs you see in five places on the canvas: the two buds in the top right corner; the larger and smaller flower to the right of the poppies, and the flower at mid-left edge. The yarn provided for that was a hot pink. I gave it a chance, and worked all those areas in it, only to decide it was an abomination onto the eyesight. I bought a skein of tapestry yarn in a apricot or salmon shade to replace it, and though it was slightly smaller gauge than the yarn that came with the kit, it worked well enough.

This was an inexpensive project. When it came time to turn the canvas into a cushion, I found I had a suitable fabric remnant on hand (left over from making a handbag). I had a zipper of suitable size in my zipper box. I've used purchased pillow forms in the past when making a cushion, but this time after I priced pillow forms I decided making my own would be more cost-efficient, particularly given that I had some remnants of white linen on hand to use for ticking (left over from a jacket I had made). I did have to buy some stuffing for this project as I didn't have enough left in the bag of stuffing I had among my supplies, but then polyfil stuffing is one of those items I always keep in on hand.

The finished cushion in its natural habitat: the guest room. I considered putting it in the kitchen as it is to be poppy-themed, but a kitchen is not the best place for textiles.

Row on Row of Poppies

This project plan began to form when, in late 2018, I decided I wanted an afghan to go with my planned bedroom decoration, which is to have a poppy theme.

I searched Ravelry for an afghan pattern that would accord well with the poppy print linen fabric I'd bought for my new curtains and bedskirt, and eventually settled on Floret, by Norah Gaughan. Gaughan hasn't specified which species her floral motif is meant to resemble, but I think that even if it's not a poppy it bears a very passable resemblance to one. The pattern is for a lap-sized afghan, but of course given its paneled construction it would be dead easy to enlarge it to the size I wanted.

Next, I chose the worsted yarn. After much looking about, I decided on Cascade Yarns 220 Superwash, in Provence (shade 1975). I would have preferred a cotton yarn, or even a cotton blend, but there didn't seem to be a cotton worsted in the warm poppy red I wanted in existence. I also had some difficulty figuring out how much yarn I needed for my sized-up version of this pattern. I first bought 11 skeins, and then once I got some squares done and became alarmed by my calculations as to how much yarn I was going to go through, I went back to Romni Wools to get two more skeins. In the end I used just under 12 skeins (1200 grams), and will be returning the thirteenth skein I bought for store credit.

And here's the finished afghan. It went together pretty quickly as I was able to knit a square a day. As you can see, I did not use the garter stitch border Gaughan's design calls for, but instead went with a seed stitch and eyelet border. I got the idea as well as some very helpful instructions from this project page after I spied the Ravelry user's lovely mulberry-coloured version in the list of projects for this pattern. I quite agree with her comment that the seed stitch echoes the seeds in the middle of the floral design, and it certainly is a much prettier edging than the original flat garter stitch border. When I blocked the afghan (on my guest room bed mattress, and I had to hope I wouldn't have any surprise guests for a few days!), I put a pin in the point of each scallop, allowing the edges in between to assume their natural curve.

My version has 15 floral squares in it, and since I made the border as wide as that twelfth skein would hold out for, the finished result is roughly 4' x 6', which is perfect. I make all my afghans 4' x 6' as, at that size, they are large enough to comfortably cover most adults and yet small enough not to be cumbersome.

I finished this project with just 10 grams of yarn to spare, which as this project involved new yarn bought specifically for this project, means a stash increase of 10 grams.

'Mo Mohair

This project began when I decided to take apart a sweater I'd made years ago out of 125 grams of Debbie Bliss Angel and never worn.

The original sweater was this one, made from the Lace Cardigan in Eyelet Pattern, designed by Margaret Stuart. It's undeniably a beautiful piece, but I never once wore it. At first I didn't have any clothing that looked right with it, a problem that I sometimes ran into back in the day before I began making it a rule to plan how to style an item when planning to make the item itself. Eventually I bought a lace camisole-type top to wear underneath it, and made a few coordinating skirts and trousers that should have made the cardigan wearable. But I still didn't wear it because I didn't like the way it looked on me. No matter how I styled it, it looked frumpy. In 2018, I decided to bite the bullet and rip it down and get some good out of the yarn.

I searched Ravelry for a suitable laceweight pullover pattern, and came up with the Shirley sweater, designed by Snowden Becker. It has such an elegantly casual look.

And here's the result. This sweater took me something in the neighbourhood of eight months of on-and-off effort to make this, unusual for me because I normally finish knitting projects within a month, or two at the outside. This was partly due to the fact that laceweight lacy knits are slow going, and partly because I wasted some time in trying to figure out what to do with the neckline. You'll notice that my version of the Shirley sweater doesn't have a scarf tie. I lengthened the sleeves because the three-quarter length isn't flattering on me, and then I had less than half the yarn I needed to make the scarf tie, and given that the yarn was bought over ten years ago, it was impossible to get more to match it. So I had to settle for a basic ribbed neckband. Such a shame, because omitting the scarf tie turns a distinctive design into a much more ordinary one, but sometimes one must knit one's sweater to suit one's yarn. It is still a very decent-looking piece, and I am looking forward to finally getting to wear it with the camisole and other pieces I made that will go with it. It may not have a scarf tie on it, but it will look pretty with a certain peridot and gold necklace that I own.

The remaining reason this project took so long was that the pattern has a number of errors and lacks clarity in places. There were so many errors and my efforts to figure them out were so fraught that I didn't document them, but I can tell you that for one thing I lost hours of work in the repeated attempts I made to get the lace pattern to work out around the bottom of the sweater, and that I eventually resolved the problem by adjusting my total number of stitches in the round so that there were no extra stitches and I could just repeat the lace pattern non-stop. I left a comment on the Ravelry pattern page circa December 2018 asking if there was errata available for the pattern, and received no response. I see that other Ravelry members who have made this pattern have complained on their project pages about the errors and confusing directions in the pattern, so this designer has been informed of these mistakes, and yet they remain in the pattern.

Please note that I'm not blaming this designer for having errors in their work. Mistakes happen, even in Vogue Knitting, where the patterns are checked by professional proofreaders. What I do blame this designer for is their lack of good faith response to complaints about the errors. If a knitting designer receives complaints about errors in a pattern, they owe it to their customers to make a reasonable effort to fix them. Not doing so shows a lack of respect for the time and effort that their present and future customers, who have paid money for the pattern, will waste trying to figure out how to make the pattern work. Regrettably, I won't be buying any more of Snowden Becker's designs in future, or recommending them on my blogs.

This project used up 125 grams of what was effectively stash yarn. I had just a few scraps of yarn left when done.

Olivia's New Spring Ensemble

My honorary niece Olivia has a third birthday coming up, and I felt such a special occasion required a dress and matching purse.

For a patter, I chose McCalls M7769, in the version on the left. It's a cute, light, wearable summer dress. I liked the idea of mixing cotton prints for it, but in the end decided to go with a single cotton print in a dragonfly pattern, as that was less expensive and less wasteful. This would be a good pattern to use up small amounts of coordinating cotton prints if you happen to have any on hand, though.

And here's the completed dress made in size 3, with a little purse I whipped up to go with it. The dress went together quite easily and I am very pleased with it. I had a small amount of green cotton on hand, so I used that for the exterior of the purse, lined it in the dragonfly print, and then used some grosgrain ribbon that I had on hand to make the drawstring and the rosette. A small green bead from my beading supplies added a nice finishing touch.

I am defintely looking forward to seeing Olivia open this gift. Though I suspect she'll be much more focused on the gift bag that this gift is to go in, since she is cat-obsessed and it has a photo of kittens on it, and the dollar store activity books and crayons that will also be in the bag, as she is about her new spring ensemble. Three-year-olds have their own priorities.

Making My Mark

Back in 2013 I wrote a post about selected stitch markers for my knitting blog The Knitting Needle and the Damage Done, and I remember how looking at all those cute options felt like stitch marker porn. At that time I was using a set of commercially made plastic stitch markers myself. I never liked those stitch markers because I considered them very ugly, but I disliked their brittleness even more. They were shaped like tiny locks, but they broke so easily that I avoided locking and unlocking them, and I'd often find one had snapped from nothing more than the light pressure of my hand as it held the the needle the marker was on. I never lost any stitch markers, but one by one they cracked and split until I was down to the last eight or nine out of what had initially been two dozen or so. Then it was time to think about picking out some new ones -- and I can't say I was sorry to have the excuse to replace the old set. Finally I was going to get some pretty stitch markers!

When I revisited that old KNDD post for ideas on what stitch markers to buy, I was reminded by my own research that I could make my own stitch markers. I do some beading and had the tools and findings already, and it was just a matter of finding some suitable beads.

For this project, I looked for medium-sized, smooth beads that wouldn't snag or catch on whatever yarn I used. I tried to keep the cost to a minimum, and it is indeed quite possible to do this simple project for very little if you've got basic beading tools on hand. I also knew I wanted different colour stitch markers that I could colour code as I marked different things (i.e., a single distinct marker for the start of a row, or a matched set for the sleeve parts of a "top down" sweater project).

When I bought the beads for my grandniece's tenth birthday necklace and earring set in January, I got the string of orange Czech glass beads you see above as my "free string" in a "buy 1 string of beads, get one free" sale at Michaels. I found the two red beads and the two dyed jasper beads you see above in my box of beading supplies -- they were the only ones I had left of their kind. The remaining string of ivory beads in the photo was a necklace I bought for $2 at Value Village using a "$2 off" coupon I got from them for filling out an online survey. I was feeling quite pleased with myself for getting the beads for this project together at essentially no cost... until I actually tried making the stitch markers and it turned out that the holes in the ivory beads were too large for this project. Sigh. I bagged up those ivory beads and tucked them away in my beading box for some as yet unknown future use. Then I bought another thrift shop necklace for $2.25, and this time I checked the holes before I bought the necklace to be sure the beads were suitable.

To make your own stitch markers you need head pins, leverback earrings, and a few basic beading tools: cutters, round nose pliers, and flat pliers or crimpers (not shown). Put the bead on your head pin, add the lever-back earring, then twist the top of the pin around the needlenose pliers until it's in a small circle. Cut off the excess length of headpin with the cutters, clamp the circle you've created closed with the flat pliers or crimpers, and... you're done.

These are the finished stitch markers. Given that twenty is a plentiful supply of stitch markers for me (I seldom work on more than one knitting project at a time), they are unlikely to break, and I'm not one to lose things, they should last me for quite some time. If they look just like earrings to you, it's because they essentially are, though I would put a little more effort into earring design than I have into these stitch markers, which I wished to keep simple in order to give my yarn as little as possible to wind itself around.

I did hold back two of the orange Czech beads with the idea of possibly making them into earrings for me at some point... lest I be otherwise tempted to borrow two of my stitch markers for some special occasion involving an orange outfit.

The Ivory Cotton Pullover is Dead; Long Live the Ivory Cotton Pullover!

This project plan began when it became necessary to replace a wardrobe staple. Late last summer the v-necked ivory cotton Reitmans pullover I had owned since 2007, and worn countless times as it went with most of my summer skirts, trousers, shorts, and jeans, died a grisly death when it acquired some sort of stain on the front that I could not remove, try as I would. It was time for a new one.

I searched Ravelry for a suitable fingering-weight pullover pattern. I wanted something simple with a bit of interesting detail that would go with everything. In the end, I selected Elizabeth the First (shown above), designed by Alice Starmore, as published in her book, The Tudor Roses. I'd treated myself to a copy of that (gorgeous!) book for a birthday present several years back, so I had the pattern in my library. For yarn, I selected Premier Cotton Fair, a fingering weight cotton acrylic blend, in Cream, which I purchased at Michaels one skein at a time using their "40% to 50% off one item" coupons, so it was pretty cost effective. It seems to be a very decent quality yarn and was pleasant to work with. Ravelry has it listed as a sport weight, but I definitely consider it a fingering weight.

And here's the finished sweater. The lines of the sweater as designed are almost costumey -- understandably, given that it was a design inspired by a queen known for her incredibly elaborate attire. The pattern calls for a 10" decrease through the waist, and flared cuffs on the sleeves. I'm a big proponent of waist shaping in knitwear, but my body doesn't even have that much waist definition, and I can never tolerate extra fabric flapping around my wrists. I altered the pattern so that there was only 4" of waist shaping, knitted the sleeves in a standard tapered shape, and also raised the armholes by two inches. I kept the neckline, the yoke and hem detailing, and the curved hem exactly as they were, so the design does present very much as intended. I'm quite pleased with the result. And now I hope to get years of wear out of it, as I did out of its predecessor.

This project was supposed to take 400 grams, but I used a cotton instead of the wool called for, and cotton tends to run short because it's heavier. This sweater took 410 grams of yarn, leaving me with a 90 gram stash increase.

Clipping Along

This project plan began to evolve when I wanted to replace my functional but ugly fridge magnet clips and couldn't find any decent non-tacky, non-cheesy fridge magnets for sale anywhere. Then I happened to see some DIY glass marble magnets tutorials on Pinterest, but while I thought they were very pretty I've never found that the kind of fridge magnet that's intended to be placed over, or partially over, an item has much holding power; I wanted good strong clip magnets. But then I realized there was a way to combine the strength of the clips with the attractiveness of the marble magnets, and got so fired up with enthusiasm for my idea that I purchased nine new magnet clips with the idea that I would make a set not only for me but also two additional sets for my mother and sister as stocking stuffers for Christmas 2019.

These were the original four clips I've been using on my fridge for years. The metal had gone dark and spotted over the years and needed sprucing up. After a failed attempt to paint them with some metallic craft paint, I painted them with some "hammered bronze" Tremclad I had on hand. I bought a bag of dollar store marbles and stuck four of them on a scrap of rose print wrapping paper with Modge Podge, and once it had dried, cut away the excess paper. Then I glued the marble onto the magnet clip with all-purpose white glue. This is the set for my mother. She's an avid gardener so floral images were a good choice for her.

This is my sister's set. I left her clips unpainted as I thought the existing metal tone went better with the images I used, which were cut from an old calendar. Her kitchen has some blue and yellow in it, though it's mostly white, so these clips should go well with her decor.

This is my set. I've been using them for over a week as of this writing, and they seem perfectly functional. I was afraid the marbles wouldn't stay put, but I've got ten months to test their staying power before I give away the other two sets, and so far they've remained securely in place. I could have left these clips unpainted since they were new, but after some internal debate I decided the bronze tone was a better fit with the images I'd chosen and with my kitchen. The images in the marbles are cut from an old Mucha calendar I had on hand. This set of clips will go well with my planned poppy-themed kitchen reno. Can't wait until the entirety of my ugly old kitchen is on par with these clips!

Cauliflower's Cardigan

My grandniece Cauliflower is due to turn 10 in August of this year. She got a dress for her ninth birthday, which meant that this year she gets a sweater. When I searched Ravelry for a suitable pattern in DK, I found Pixie Dust, a cute little cardigan that I thought Cauliflower would like, since she seems to prefer plain-ish clothes. Then I bought 300 grams of Sandnes Garn Sisu Solids in turquoise to make it with, since Cauliflower's favourite colours are blue and turquoise.

Here's the finished sweater, which I knit in a size 10. In this pattern, which is knitted seamlessly from the top down, the designer has cleverly hidden the increases in the eyelets. It's a pretty well-written pattern on the whole, though I did have to make the buttonholes on the opposite side to what the pattern calls for in order to place them on the "girl's/women's side". It was also a very quick knit. I was done in just nine evenings, and even at that I lost one evening's work due to my misunderstanding the pattern. I'm pleased with the result, and it goes well with the necklace and earrings I also made for Cauliflower's birthday.

I had just 5 grams of yarn left after making this item, which as it was new yarn, is a stash increase of 5 grams.

Tween Style Jewelry

My grandniece Cauliflower is due to turn 10 in August 2019. I made her a dress for her ninth birthday last year, which meant she gets a sweater this year, and as I was working on that it occurred to me that it would be nice to make her a necklace and earrings set to go with it, given that she's going to be a tween now, and just got her ears pierced. I made a number of trips to Michaels with my "40% off one item" coupons in hand, and tried to pick out beads and come up with an overall concept that would be suitable for a ten-year-old but not be too twee for her several years down the road -- I wanted her to be able to wear and enjoy this set for a good five years. In the end I bought some floral silver-tone metal beads and some assorted glass Czech beads, and from my existing supplies drew some silver-tone spacer beads, wire, a silver-tone magnetic clasp, lever-back earrings, and headpins. Cauliflower's current favourite colours are blue and turquoise, and they certainly suit her. She has fair skin, blue eyes, and hair that is light brown in winter and blond in summer. I'm pretty sure that (according to seasonal colour theory) she's a summer, and she seems to look best in light, fresh, cool colours. These colours also go well with the cardigan I made for her.

The earrings. I took care to keep them fairly small and light.

The necklace and earrings. The necklace is 17.5" long, which shouldn't be too long on Cauliflower now and won't be too short on her when she's full-grown. I'm pretty well satisfied with how these pieces turned out and am confident that Cauliflower will be too. The effect is young and cute but not so little-girlish that Cauliflower won't be able to wear them until she's 15 or even a little longer, provided she doesn't turn goth in the meantime.

The New Snow Hat & Scarf

At some point last year I realized that though I have a number of hat and scarf sets that I love (i.e., this plum set, this peacock feather hat, this teal hat, this variegated set, this old rose set, plus a few more commercially made thrift shop hats and scarves), they were all in such an array of vivid colours and patterns that sometimes I could not find one in my hat and scarf basket that would go with an outfit that had decided colours or patterns of its own. I decided I ought to have a neutral hat and scarf set that would go with all my coats and all my outfits and then I'd be sure to always have a hat and scarf set to wear.

For this project (My very first of 2019! It's like walking in new snow!), I was very practical. Some of my hats are in fingering weight and/or lacy, which may be aesthetically pleasing but is not all that well suited to a Toronto winter. For this project I determined I would use a pattern that was solidly knit and called for worsted wool. I searched Ravelry for a suitable pattern. In the end I settled on one I had used before, when I made this coral hat and scarf set for my sister, the Day's Eye Hat. As for the yarn, I selected Berroco Ultra Wool in a cream shade.

And here's the finished project. It worked up pretty quickly. I began the project on December 31st and finished on January 11th. My only mod was to add five extra rows to the first cable motif for extra drape, as the pattern itself suggests. There's no scarf pattern, but I adapted the motif from the hat, knitted it to the required length on straight needles, and then edged the resulting piece with a twisted ribbing, just as I had done the previous time I used the Day's Eye pattern. The Ultra Wool held out MUCH better than the yarn I used for the coral hat. I had 300 grams of it and was only able to make the hat and a 4' scarf. This time I made the hat and a 5'6" scarf out of 270 grams of yarn.

And now I am sure to have a hat that'll go with any outfit I cobble together, and I'll never have to head out the door looking, as my mother would put it, "like a bald buzzard".

I had 30 grams of the cream yarn left. It was new yarn, so that's a stash increase of 30 grams.