FO Post: Burgundy and Blue

Here's a project I finished not that long ago, but am just now getting around to posting about. 

Two things I hoped to do during 2025 were: 1) knit from my stash, especially using amounts that were relatively small, but still worth keeping, and 2) knit more things for charity. This project is part of both of those!

Project: Burgundy and Blue 

Pattern: A mishmash of several things

Yarn: Plymouth Encore Worsted in the Burgundy colorway (#999), and Baby Blue (I don't have the band, so don't know the colorway number)

Needles: US 8/5.0 mm

Notes: I had small amounts of these two yarns left (31 grams of the burgundy, and 44 grams of the blue), and thought it would be enough for a hat, as long as I inserted some color changes throughout. So I took a look at a couple of different worsted weight hat patterns I had, to see what needle size worked best, and how many stitches to cast on, etc. And then I just got started and hoped for the best!

I love the way to crown decreases worked up!

And here's the yarn I had left - 7 grams of the Burgundy and 3 grams of the blue! Not bad, I was happy that I had enough for the hat, and that how I decided to start worked out in the end.

While I had the hat on a medicine ball blocking a bit, The Tim said, "What a great-looking hat! That should look nice on you." I told him that I had actually made it for charity, and he said, "Well you should save that pattern, because I really like the design." Which was nice to hear ... except, well - I didn't write anything down, so although I have a decent idea of what I did, I don't have any specific instructions for myself or even for anyone else to duplicate it. 

I mean, I'll likely be able to figure it out if I try, but right now, it's just floating around in the universe somewhere, perhaps never to be found again ... 😀

But the best things are: 

1. It's finished and looks nice.

2. It will keep someone warm and cozy.

3. I used up most of two scraps that were leftover.

4. The yarn was from my stash.

Any of those would please me, but all of them together make me feel pretty good. 

Small victories, people. Small victories.

I've Made a One-Time Exception, For a Good Reason

If you know me, you know that I really really really really cannot stand the f-word.  I get so sick of hearing it all of the time, but realize that most people now use it regularly without even thinking.  I won't go into further detail here about my feelings, but I am writing to let you know that I have made a one-time exception.

Around the beginning of April, I saw that a company called Lipslut was planning to produce this lipstick.  I preordered six of them - one for me, one for a dear friend whose mother recently died from Covid-19, and one for each of my nearby nieces (geographically speaking).  They finally arrived earlier in the week, and I just returned from a trip to the post office to mail them.  Inside each package, I enclosed this note:

Dear _____:

I preordered these, and they were supposed to arrive in July, but like everything else, they were delayed due to the pandemic.

Unlike Trump, these lipsticks are:

• cruelty-free
• good for all skin tones
• proceeds go to Black Lives Matter

Wear with pride, and VOTE!!!

Love, Bridget

According to the person at the post office, they should all arrive on Monday - I'll be happy if they just arrive before the election!

But in any case, I am pleased to have purchased these and spread the word.  Sometimes an exception is worthwhile. 😊

Should you care to own one yourself, they are currently available here.  You can choose where you would like your donation to go, though the Black Lives Matter choice was only available during preorders.

For anyone who finds this offensive, I apologize for the [implied] language of the product, but not for the sentiment, as I find the man and his entire family and administration abhorrent.  So you may want to stop following the blog anyway.

******

In other news, they are currently digging up our street to resurface it.  On the one hand, this is good news (despite the NOISE), because it has been in really bad shape!  On the other hand, being in bad shape kept drivers from speeding through when using it for a shortcut.  We have lived in our house now for nearly 30 years (!) and they have never touched the street during that time.  I told The Tim that I think 2 things are happening: 1) the city has it on their schedule that every 50 years, they resurface our street, and 2) since our street is only one block long, they can do it in only a few days, and still mark it as a street that has been fixed for their statistics.  😏

I hope all of you have a good weekend.  I am going to try go get myself together a bit more - those couple of weekends when I didn't feel well threw me off entirely.  

See you next week.  Take care.

A Slow Start - But the Year Is Young

So January was not a great knitting month for me.  It was more of a "thinking about knitting month," and though that is fine, it doesn't necessarily translate into finished projects, right?

But the year is young - I mean, tomorrow is the last day of January, and there are 11 more months to go.  This is also a leap year, so we even have an extra day.  I know I'll make progress, even if I don't meet my nebulous knitting goals.

Fortunately, other people are *doing* knitting instead of only thinking about it.  And so here we are at the end of the month, and two things are already completed for Harry's Hundred!

I shared the link for the page on one of the Ravelry groups I read, where people knit from their stash.  There was a thread within that about knitting for charity, and fortunately, a couple of people were happy to let me know how they were going to participate.

The very first thing completed was by GringaTurista (Rav link):

She made these mittens to donate to the Warm Up Cleveland Project, which - as a librarian - makes me love them even more!  After seeing these, I checked out her project page, and decided I want to try this pattern at some point as well.

And then my good friend Kim showed a scarf she had knit on her blog:

Talk about cozy-looking!  I can only imagine how smooshy and soft this feels around your neck, and how happy someone will be to have it for their very own.  

Thanks to both of these wonderful ladies for making someone happy and warm as part of this project, as well as getting things officially started!  

Goal = 100 items

Tally so far = 2 items

You know what they say - every journey begins with one step ... or in this case, two.  :-)

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and the rest of January!

Opinions Requested

Hello and Happy Saturday!  I wanted to share something with you that has been rattling around in my brain.  It's not completely thought out,  meaning details are not nailed down, but I wondered if you guys could tell me what you think of the idea, and also feel free to add your thoughts and ideas.

August 21, 2016 is the 100th anniversary of my father's birth.  He was not famous, or a world-renowned leader, but he was my dad so that makes him the most amazing man ever to me.  A 100th birthday - even though he is not here in person to celebrate - seems like something that requires special notice.

I will turn 60 years old in 2016, so it's a landmark birthday for me as well.  Assuming I make it to then (and I have every intention of doing so!), I will have lived seven years longer on earth than my father did.  I have been thinking, and have a nugget of an idea.

I want to try and get my knitting, crocheting, sewing, and other crafty friends to try during 2016 to make something for a man, young man, or young boy who is living in a shelter, a nursing home, the VA hospital, a regular hospital long-term - you get it, right?  And in theory, we could have a total of 100 items made by the end of the year and distributed in our own communities.  I would call it "Harry's Hundred" (my father's name was Harry), and it would be my gift to his memory.  Anyone who participated could do so in honor of him, or in honor of anyone else they chose.

My dad grew up poor, and he was a WWII Army veteran, and I think he would approve of any type of organization like the ones listed above (and others I've not added) being recipients of gifts from others' hearts.

I have nothing against donating to women's organizations/shelters/whatever, but this is for my dad, so I wanted it to be for the males of the species, who need help and some love as well.

As I said, I don't have details worked out, but I wanted to see if you thought this was something you might consider doing, and/or asking friends to join you in doing.  In any event, I plan to do what I can on my own, but my dad was a true extrovert, and I'm sure he would think the more, the merrier.

Thoughts?  Opinions?  Criticisms?  Ideas?  Please share in the comments.

And have a wonderful weekend.  :-)

 (a newspaper clipping photo of my dad from 1969, the year he died)

NaBloPoMo Day #21

Next on the List ...

I've been taking my time formulating my ideas for my goals and intentions for 2013.  Because, I finally realized that they are mine, and technically don't even need to be recorded for/reported to anyone else.  However, one of the main purposes I started this blog was to write for myself, and keeping track of goals and intentions is one way to check myself throughout the year without feeling like I may have forgotten something.

One of my intentions and goals has already been reached.  I was really itching to review my stash, and did so last weekend.  I try to do it at least twice a year, but I had decided that it was just time to say goodbye to yarns that, even if I loved them and they were beautiful, I was just not likely to ever use.  I decided I was going to be ruthless.  And though I could probably have been even more ruthless than I was, I had a lot of stuff to give away and/or sell.

First - the yarn, bags, needles to give to Interim House, here in Philadelphia.  They have a Knitting Club for their residents, and it is wildly popular.  As a result, they have a hard time keeping everyone in supplies!  (Last year, we collected for them at Christmastime at Rosie's, and it was a huge success.  This year, I didn't have my act together, so it was a no-go.)  Anyway, I decided that besides "lesser" yarns that I had, the knitters deserved some of the nicer stuff as well.  By the time I was finished, I had jam-packed two large boxes (the kind that bottles of wine are shipped in) with LOTS of goodies.

I always like knowing that I can find a new and good home for my yarn.  :-)

The yarn that I didn't send to Interim House, I was going to sell on Ravelry.  But then I realized that there was so much, by the time I photographed it, uploaded it, and described it, months might pass.  And the whole purpose of this exercise was to move things out of here NOW.  So, I've decided to so something a little bit different, and create "Mystery Boxes."  What are those?  Well, I'll take a few boxes, fill them with various yarns, and sell them for an all-inclusive price.  Any given box could contain laceweight yarn, sock yarn, a sweater's worth of yarn - you get the idea.  I queried a couple of Ravelry forums about this idea, and though some responses made it sound as if I were trying to send Komodo dragons in the mail they were so incensed at the idea, there were a lot of people who thought it sounded like fun.  I figure it's worth a try.  So stay tuned, 'cause I'll be posting the Mystery Boxes here for your perusal as well.

Reviewing my stash is such a good thing for me.  It reminds me of what I already have, what I can let go, and what things I am likely to actually use.  I am really going to try my best to knit from my stash as much as it's possible this year, and ideally, I would like to have made a reasonable dent in the remaining stash by the time I am ready to review it again.  Granted, some of the yarn is already designated for specific projects, but unless those projects actually get started or finished, the yarn isn't going anywhere, right?

Next up: trying to decide what to knit/who to knit for this year.  That's gonna take me a little bit longer to determine.  But I'm on my way!