#50

We now have a web site Hats for Sailors.  It is still under development, but that will be the new place to go for information and news in addition to our Facebook and Ravelry pages.

We have a great KAL on our Ravelry site.  Each month we will knit a different hat pattern. We are still looking for volunteers to lead KAL's throughout the year.  No experience necessary.  Just pick a pattern and invite our members to knit along with you.  Easy Peasy!!!  Check Ravelry to sign up.

I have passed the midway point in my quest to knit 100 different hats from 100 different patterns.  The month of December was chaotic and hectic and I was not sure I was going to make it.  Somehow my knitting brain (that thinks I can do amazing things in no time at all) seeped into the rest of my life!  I planned and hosted a Christmas at home in California and then flew to London with my husband and sons to meet my daughter for another Christmas.  No problem, I can pull off two Christmas's in two countries.  And all that extra time to knit on the airplanes, I can make even more gifts than I had planned!  I had to finally admit that my plans were too ambitious and I needed to scale back.

It is funny that even though I scaled other things back, I was able to meet all my knitting goals (sometimes only by minutes)!  Maybe being confined on airplanes for long periods of time with nothing to do helped.

My hat goal was to finish #50 before the end of the year.  I had posted a picture last month of #50.  That hat still isn't finished, but two other hats skipped in front of it.  They are both watch cap patterns and very similar, so it was interesting to knit one right after the other.

Both are great patterns and easy to knit.  The length was determined more by the amount of yarn and time I had than exactly what the pattern called for.  In both cases, I was sure that they were long enough and tested them others to be sure.  I would happily knit either pattern again and they will be my "go-to" patterns for watch caps.  I used the same yarn for both hats, Cascade 220 superwash.  Lorne's Hat was knit on size 4 needles and Sandoval Hat was on size 6 needles.  Lorne's hat was tighter, more dense and probably a little warmer.  Sandoval Hat was wonderfully squishy, stretchy and soft.

One pattern was Sandoval Hat by Robyn Devine (#50)

The other pattern is Lorne's Hat by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee #51

After all the chaos, I came down with a horrible case of the stomach flu right after I returned home.  I am so lucky that I could recuperate at home in my own bed!  But now I'm a little behind on my 2014 hat knitting.

#50 On The Needles

#50 of 100 is on the needles (barely).  My goal is to complete the 100 different hats from 100 different patterns in two years.  That means that I need to finish the 50th by the end of this month to stay on track.  It is on the needles but my hat knitting has come to a grinding halt as I frantically try to finish my Christmas knitting in time.  It is a plain, simple pattern with a cascade 220 superwash brim and a liberty wool body to the hat.  That should be fast?

But, I have a chronic problem when it comes to knitting.  I always think that I can knit much faster than I actually can and that I have a lot more time in my life to devote to knitting than I do.  It happens every single time and yet I never learn!  You would think that I would at least have a second of hesitation, but I don't.  I am so deep in denial this Christmas, that I won't even take stock of what is left to knit because the answer scares me.  So, we'll see if #50 actually gets finished in time because it is at the bottom of the priority list and that list is long…too long.

My holidays have been turned upside down by family changing plans.  It is all for the better and will be a lot of fun.  Everything is crammed into a smaller time line, with more people and more locations.    It makes panic bubble up inside me periodically.  I keep trying to remind myself that the very best thing I can do is spend time with people I love and all of the rest really doesn't matter.  If I keep that attitude (and I hope I do), I'm afraid #50 may have to wait until 2014.

2013 Picture of 528 Hats

Announcing the Ships for This Year

This message from Lynne…

Great news ... with Shanti's assistance, we have selected two frigates that are currently deployed. The USS Rentz is off the coast of South America and the USS De Wert is in the 5th and 6th fleet areas of responsibility (Middle East and Mediterranean). Both ships have 220 - 240 sailors on board and are very excited about being our ships of choice for 2013. These numbers mean that we have just about the right number of hats available this year. 

Great job everyone. You are going to make a lot of sailors happy this year.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

They are arriving every day!  These are the hats that have arrived over the last week or so.  Aren't they beautiful!

Do you know Lynne?

November Deadline
First things first, don't forget our deadline is fast approaching.  Hats need to be mailed to me, Sandra, on or before November 11th.  If you do not have my address, please email us at hatsforsailors@gmail.com.

Do you know Lynne?
There are so many amazing and wonderful aspects of being involved with Hats for Sailors.  One of the best is getting to know so many of you.  We all have many facets to our lives, including Lynne.  Most of you know her as Shanti's mommy.  If you haven't read it before, Signature Needle Arts profiled her on their blog awhile ago but it is worth mentioning again for any of you that don't know her.  Here is the link.

It is good to look back at how we started and the two amazing women who had this idea and made it happen.

Stalled at #41

I think I have always had this problem.  I'm not sure if it is because I have a short attention span or that I am a procrastinator.  Either way, it has negatively impacted my hat knitting over the past couple of weeks.  As you already know, I am trying to knit 100 different hats from 100 different patterns.  I plan on achieving this in 2 years, which is basically a hat a week.  In order to stay on track, I need to have completed at least 50 hats by the end of the year.  I was on #41.

I also seem to have great difficulty limiting the number of projects I have on my needles.  I spend a lot of time knitting and I rotate through my projects, spending a little bit of time on each.  Eventually I finish most of them.  Sometimes projects have sat around long enough that it is like discovering it all over again and it motivates me to finish.

I seem to be having problems sticking to my point (which is part of my problem)!

I started a new hat from a great pattern that is perfect for when I need mindless knitting.  I also chose a wonderful, plain yarn.  The problem is that I had a mindless knitting pattern with mindless yarn and no time that required mindless knitting.  To add to that, all of my other projects seemed to be at that same mindless stage.  As a result, that hat just sat in the pile and I couldn't bring myself to work on it.  Even worse, I started looking around for something interesting to do.  It was like I moved into a place of magical thinking. " Oh, look at that beautiful sweater, I am sure I can whip out a tunic length cabled sweater in a week or two just working on it part-time!"  (I couldn't finish a hat and I thought I could knit a sweater?)  I spent a lot of time flirting with other patterns and yarn and feeling guilty for not paying attention to that hat.

Finally, I forced myself to work on THAT hat, even if it was just a few rows at a time.  It started to grow much faster than a sweater would have.  Once it got to the point that I could put it on my head to check the sizing, I realized that it is a great hat and my motivation came back.  It was quickly finished.  It IS a great hat.  Now I am on to the next one.  This new one has cables.

I am trying very hard to stay focused on our November 11th deadline!  But, do I hear Christmas knitting calling?