Sheep Shots

I issued a challenge to my friends at Native American Support back in May. Make 7 warm items, all the same type, and mail them to the "Rez" before December 1. It gets cold early in South Dakota (and stays cold a good long time). Today, while it's a chilly 62 in eastern Pennsylvania, it's 37 in Eagle Butte, and heading down to 28 tonight.

I'm pleased to report that to date, we've shipped 303 warm hats and scarves and pairs of mittens, socks, and slippers, with several more either on the needles, or waiting for a trip to the post office.

I made my 7 pairs of mittens, (and 5 pairs of slippers and a hat) and mailed them off a couple of weeks ago. Then, a member of the group (the same one that designed the sideways mittens) posted a pattern for a sideways, short-rowed cap that's made with double strands of yarn and size 11s and works up really fast! I decided that it would be a good thing to make a couple more hats to sweeten the pot. I made one of her design, then started "messin' around" and came up with my own quick and easy:



This one (note obligatory bathroom mirror shot) is two strands of worsted weight acrylic Cast on 56 stitches, holding two strands together, join and work about 3" in garter stitch (k 1 round, p 1 round). Switch to stockinette (k every round) for about 6", then decrease at 8 points every other round until 7 stitches remain. Thread through, draw up, fasten off. Weave in any ends, turn the garter stitch section up as a cuff. Thick and warm.



Here are the three hats I accomplished this weekend. Left to right: "my" version, adult size, a plain old beanie with a hem instead of ribbing, bigger child size, the sideways garter stitch beanie, toddler size. All three are knit in basic machine wash and dry yarns. The colors aren't even close to "true." My pattern is knit up in hunter green and light denim, the one in the middle is gray and navy, the little one is the light denim.

I have a "use or lose" day off tomorrow and will probably spend most of it cleaning this dump. I'm hoping to get in some serious knitting, but we'll see. I also need to finish tabulating United Way stuff and do some serious (as in I-am-paid-to-do-this) writing done. But I can do it all in my jammies, if I choose to.

The shawl is now at 20" and I've used 1/4 of my yarn. It seems that my calculations in that Virginia Beach yarn shop last April were correct and I will have enough yarn to finish this gift. Might even have a tiny bit left over, but I'm not holding my breath!
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