Mom's Hat: UPDATE

Everybody is getting hats these days!

Here's mom in the hat I posted about making for her. I think she likes it!

Mom's Owl Hat

 Last October (I know, I can be a terrible procrastinator), my mom impulse bought some Llama yarn from Swiss Kid Llamas (http://www.safarmersmarket.com/Vendors/watts.htm, http://www.etsy.com/shop/swisskiddesigns) at our Farmer's Market. The farmer's market is great, and I've really missed it this winter. I probably wouldn't be super enthusiastic about walking down there in the cold, but I sure do miss the fresh produce. 

Anyway, back to the yarn. My mom has these beautiful blue eyes and silver hair, so naturally everything I make for her is blue. She picked out some yarn, and wanted me to make her a hat with owls, like the sweater I'd made for myself.

Now, I love that sweater. No buts, I adore it. You can buy the pattern here: (http://katedaviesdesigns.com/designs/o-w-l-s/) and if you are into that sort of thing, there's a version for the kiddos. It's made from super heavy yarn and knitted up rather quickly. That big yarn though, is HUGE  in comparison to the "DK" weight of the llama yarn, that in many places is much smaller- so I hope my mother is expecting tiny adorable owls, as that's what she's getting.

Here are a few pictures of the first few chaotic rows. In the second picture here you can see the 2X2 ribbing starting to emerge.

Here you can see the bottoms of the owls forming

As an aside, I'd like to say that point protectors should more correctly be called sanity protectors (I know, not a nice ring), because had I not discovered these amazing knitpicks.com point protectors in my little bag of tricks, I would have ripped my hair out by now. As it is, I've lost and saved countless stitches off the ends of my new sock needles.

In these pictures, you can see the owls fully formed. I have a few more rows to finish the hat- but the owls are snug there around the rim. 

Here you can see the teeny tiny buttons I sewed on as eyes to three lucky owls in the front. I thought it would be too much to give all of the owls eyes, but the three that have them will bring attention to the others, too. 

Too much? Too little?

I was a bit worried that the hat would be too small- I even knitted a gauge swatch before hand, which I don't like doing. I think it worked out though- I wore it for a few minutes and it didn't make my head hurt- so anyone else on the planet should be able to wear it just fine. I know my mom likes long hats- but any longer and this one would get in the way of seeing clearly, so I think we're good there.

I really like the loose look to the top here. It isn't the only way obviously, and for more stylized hats neater is nicer, but this looks so comfortable.

Night Skating

So yesterday I worked. While I was standing behind the tiled counter, not making espresso beverages or facilitating the general public's love of croissants filled with deliciousness, my phone rang. I answered it, because I'm a questionable employee. Shhh.

Here is where the interesting part of living in such a small town comes in. The voice on the other end belonged to a woman. She is the mother of a girl I went to elementary school with. She used to live on the island, didn't, and then did, and I'm pretty sure she lives in long beach now. She worked with my mother for a while doing massages, and most importantly, she joined the Long Beach Roller Derby people sometime last year (Also, her arms are covered in tattoos of bugs, just fyi).

Anaya: Hello

K: Do you want to go skating?

Anaya: Sure.

~Now, what I was thinking was, "Yeah, but where? All the streets are either steep or heavily trafficked, and smoth flat surfaces are surprisingly hard to find in this town."~

K: Okay. I get off work at seven.

So, I finished my shift, went home, played sims and then threw on a dress (without a bra! I'm not sure why I felt I needed to share that with you) and dashed down the hill to meet my mom at the Villa (AWESOME) Portifino at 5:30. If course, she wanders in at 5:50, and I kicked myself for rushing. I could have played ten more minutes of sims!

Whatever, that isn't the point. We had a very nice dinner, then went home to wait for K to call. I texted her a few times, and was messing around with this blog thing, and at 8:30 she finally calls.

I am skeptical of this plan. This "skate around avalon at night" business but I'm willing to try it, because I've been a slacker recently and was sick and had bad headaches, and anyway, I haven't skated in "I'm not telling you how long." I met her by this weird fountain/planter in the middle of the road, suited up, and started skating.

(When I'm going to go skating, but not practice, I never know how many of the numerous and rather expensive pieces of protective gear I own I should wear. I worry about it much more than I do getting dressed for nice dinners. The only commonality appears to be, wear your knee pads but not your helmet. So, if i'm going to wear my knee pads, I might as well wear knee gaskets. Might as well. Wrist guards are a must, but what about elbow pads? It is a dilemma. Then there are the ankle braces. I should probably wear them, but they take forever to get on, and looks like I'm expecting to get hurt, at which point I should just wear my helmet. The one thing that is never a question for me is the mouth guard. Breaking out two teeth makes the mild embarrassment of a mouth full of green plastic negligible.)

We skated to the casino (on the pedestrian walkway), scaring the crap out of the pedestrians, who though that the little walkway was just for them, suckers! then back down the road (not much better on my ankles, actually) past the skate shop, up metropole, through the alley (nice concrete, for future reference), through the other alley, on front street (yes, I know, I know. The doesn't actually say no rollerskates, but it is implied) and out to the mole- where we skated around benches and the roundish ticket window building (this entertained us for a surprisingly long time). Then back into town, stopped at the plaza (there was a very smooth roundish area where the busses park) made half-assed plans to meet again (didn't happen, but at 6:45 this morning, man was I glad). Here comes the fun part.

So I called Mom, who had dropped me off, and asked for a ride up the hill. She said yes. I skated to where she dropped me off, and got tired of waiting. So I started up whittley. I didn't get very far before each push just didn't get me anywhere, and I walked the rest of the way on my toe stops to avoid sliding all the way down the hill. When I got the the east whittley juncture, I thought about waiting, but got bored again, and kept walking. Up east whittley. I was 3/4 of the way home before my mother ever left.