Tag: 52 hats

52 hats :: 41 – 47 ~ I give up

~ Maggie ~ 1 Comment

I know, I know. I’m so close… But 5 hats in 4 days… Well, it is possible, if I could spend all my time knitting. And that’s the problem. There’s so much else I need to do.
So I decided to officially declare this challenge failed. It was fun, but I don’t think I’ll ever do something like this again. If there’s one thing I learned this year it’s that setting big goals like these for a whole year is just not realistic. I had all these ideas about getting creative, writing and selling patterns, setting up an Etsy shop and growing my knitting blog. But life got in the way in every way it could. This was an extremely ridiculous year of course, but I don’t think life will get any calmers soon, so no more challenges for me next year.

I think setting (and sharing) monthly goals could be fun, but I’m not even sure I’ll be able to do that. Not in January, that’s for sure. We’ll (probably – still no real dates set) be emptying out the house in the few days we’ve got left before we leave to Curaçao again. I also promised my parents to handle the catering for my father’s birthday on the 5th., meaning I’ll be cooking and baking for 25 people a few days before we leave (I know, bad timing, but this was one of those things that I couldn’t say no to). And then, once we’re back on the island, we’ll continue our search for that beautiful affordable home of our dreams and hopefully be moving into it.

So I think for 2019 I’ll just be choosing a simple bigger project like a shawl, a cowl or a scarf (or maybe even a blanket?) that I can pick up when I feel like knitting and put everything else on the back burner for a while.

So what does a pile of 45 hats (I gave 2 away for Christmas) look like?

And spread out:

I think I’ll bring them to that birthday for my family to chose the ones they like. The rest of them will be sent off to charity.

52 hats :: 40 – a simple beanie

~ Maggie ~ Leave a comment

So, last night I finished my first hat in two months. It felt good. Like I found back a part of myself that I lost along the way. I’m not sure if this means I’m back to it, but I’m extremely happy about this simple little beanie.

Things are still unclear here. We’re back in Holland now and I have mixed feelings about that. Glad to see the girls and my parents again, not feeling at home in my own house.
The house is still for sale, but there is a chance that a contract will be signed this week. Finally. The buyers want to be sure they can buy an adjoining piece of land, but that’s something we can’t control, so it’s been a waiting game for six weeks now.
We’ve been trying to buy a house on Curaçao, but none of the houses we liked worked out, so when we return in January, we’ll still be renting the tiny apartment. We are determined to find a real home soon though.

T.’s health is not too bad, though the cold and wet weather here are already wearing him out. I can’t stop worrying about him, but part of that is my problem (anxiety), not his. Well, I hope it is.

Anyway, I cast on another hat and will be knitting to soothe my nerves. And maybe to finish the challenge. Who knows?

52 hats :: 34 – this yarn

~ Maggie ~ Leave a comment

Oh, I love this yarn so much! This shade of blue is my favorite (like the sky on Curaçao) and combined with that greyish brown… oh my. Yes, I love it. I figured it just needed to shine on its own, so I made a very simple hat, that I love just as much as the yarn itself. I may have found myself a new keeper…

52 hats :: 33 – it really is my favorite pattern

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Yes, it’s that pattern again. I’m not going to apologize for it, I just like knitting it. It’s like talking to an old friend or something like that.

I did something funny a few weeks ago. I have this beautiful notebook that the girls gave me for Sinterklaas years ago. I started using it as a knitting notebook after months of not knowing what to do with (didn’t want to ruin it, but most of my notebooks end up like a mess, tearing out sheets etc.). The first year of notes is 2015 and I sort of kept it up through the last years. But I thought it was a shame that the years before that were missing.
So one lazy Sunday I browsed through my blog archives and took notes of every knitting project I posted. Starting with the red cardigan and working my way through 12 years of blogging. Oh my.
I know there are some projects missing from the blog (like the hats I made for a friend and her family and my first shalom cardigan), but at least now I have a bit of an overview.
And at least now I was able to count how often I actually made this hat.
This is number 25.  Ahem. No wonder I can knit this without thinking about the pattern too much…

52 hats :: 30 – pointy hat (finally caught up!)

~ Maggie ~ Leave a comment

I’ve loved this type of hats since I first saw them online years ago. Elf hats, leprechaun hats, gnome hats, pointy hats. Love them all. I could have downloaded a pattern to make it easy on myself, but hey, where’s the fun in that? So I just went ahead and tried to get a pointy top.
I think it worked out alright, though it didn’t end up as pointy as I envisioned. Also, it was meant as a hat for a child, but it still fits my adult-sized model. Maybe I need to cast on fewer stitches next time (did 66 stitches on 5 mm needles). So, in conclusion: loved making this, but needs some tweaking.

Also: finished this hat (number 30) on Saturday, July 28th., which was the end of week 30. Finally caught up! (also posted two hats today, since I wanted to be back on track in August).
Trying to knit one hat a week for a while now and work on other projects too. Though the thought of keeping this flow of three hats a week up and finish early still appeals to me too. Hmn. We’ll see.

linking up with Frontier Dreams’ Crafting On

52 hats :: 29 – ribbed

~ Maggie ~ Leave a comment

So I actually think this is the best design I came up with so far. It’s interesting to look at and fun to knit, though not too hard. I think I’m going to make it again and write a pattern for it. Would you like to knit this one?

52 hats :: 27 – for bigger heads

~ Maggie ~ Leave a comment

This hat looked much better on my head (the model has a rather small head). I wanted it to be a really slouchy hat, but I ran out of yarn. It is big enough to stuff my hair in though. Even though the colors are a bit much for me, this is one of those ‘might want to wear it’ hats.

52 hats :: 26 – deep purple

~ Maggie ~ Leave a comment

Sometimes yarn doesn’t need a fancy pattern. Like this one.  I love the color and it’s incredibly soft. So wonderful to work with and comfortable to wear.
Too bad there wasn’t enough of this (thrift shop find) to make a sweater. But I do have enough to make another hat. I’m actually looking forward to that 😉

Posting in a weekend is not what I normally do, but I’m determined to catch up with the hat posting. Especially now that I finished hat no. 30. On Saturday, week 30. So my hat knitting can go back to one a week now and I thought it would be fun to get the hat posting to real time too.