Hats ahoy!

I've been so busy recently I've just had no time to blog so I've had potential posts stacking up. One thing that I haven't written up properly is the pledge for all the mini-hats for Innocent!

My aim in setting up the pledge was to raise at least 40 hats - so £20 for Age Concern - by asking 35 people to knit at least 1 hat, if I knit 5.

Well, I'm happy to announce that we raised way more than 40 hats! For a start 39 people joined up, so we were 4 over target already. And it turned out that hat knitting is addictive, and many people knitted more than their suggested number of hats.

I made 10:



Some others sent me either their hats or their photos. One thing that came out from using the pledge was that people who had never heard of the hat drive got to know about it, and people who wouldn't normally have knit a hat decided to rise to the pledge challenge and get some done.

Here are Chris's hat - I love the hat stands!



Ann did 7 - each has a different little emblem on:



These are Celia's matching set (love the bobbles on these):



My friends R & Fizzysister invited me to their Innocent knit-in where they made some awesome rainbow coloured hats and one in the shape of an elephant, but sadly took no photos. I stole the idea for the ribbon-tied cloche hat (the third one along in my photo collage) from them.

Alaha made 5 - including an awesome one with horns! - Janette eventually made 22, Bod made at least 6, Adeline made at least 3, Ruth 2, Juliette made at least 3, and Fran referred to 'hats' so I shall assume there was more than one...

And then beating us all, Miss Shine & her knitting group managed to send off a whopping 63 hats! She has a photo on her blog of a selection of them.

So out of only 13 pledgers who let me know about their hats, we've produced well over 100 hats!

And then finally, today, Mr Bee & I found a Sainsbury's and found the results of all the at knitting! Hats in the wild! The hats go on Innocent smoothies sold in Sainsbury's in November, and 50p from every hatted-bottle sold goes to Age Concern. So it's important to close the loop. We're going away this week, and I can't wait to find more behatted bottles in the wild:

Hats at Midnight

My pledge has just closed! We have 39 signers, which means a minimum of 44 hats for Innocent! And since I've made 10 hats (I pledged 5) I hope there'll be a lot more to add to the hatometer!



(I hope the title of this post excuses the rubbishness of this photo!)

For anyone who has made a hat, you need to get it in the post ASAP so that it gets to Innocent by October 22nd. Write the number of hats on the outside of the envelope and send your hats to:

The Big Knit
innocent
3 The Goldhawk Estate
Brackenbury Road
London
W6 0BA

Other pledgers have sent me photos of their hats too, and I'll post those up on my blog soon to share the glory!

Tired now...

Crikey!

I haven't been blogging much this month, because I felt there 'wasn't much' for me to blog about. Of course, now I come to write a post I realise that there's loads and loads, and if I'm not super careful this will turn into one of my super boring posts with far too much text and not enough photos. I've been a bad blogger, I do apologise.

It also turns out - I've been tagged! It hasn't happened before, but I am going to try and combine an update with the tagging thing, and hope not to get too verbose ;)

I'm not going to tag anyone else, but if you want to do this, let me know in the comments!

I have been tagged by DarnCatCrochet.

So I'm it......

Here are the “official” rules:
1. Players must list one fact, word, or tidbit that is somehow relevant to their life for each letter of your first or middle name.

2. When you are tagged you need to write your own post containing your first or middle name game facts, word, or tidbit.

3. At the end of your post choose one person for each letter of your name to tag.

4. Don’t forget to leave a comment telling them ,they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

5. If I have tagged YOU, please join in on the fun! (Rules supplied by Hannah at bittersweet)

My middle name is MARY. My very Catholic grandmother was not overly impressed that I was named after a punk pop star (despite it being a biblical name!), so my parents opted for Mary as a consolation prize ;)

M - MONEY
Now, DarnCat (I love that film BTW, the Hayley Mills version) won't know this, but it is completely her fault that I've got my etsy obsession. Well, her fault via Harry Potter. See, I spent the week leading up to the last HP book reading all the previous ones, getting totally immersed in HP land (my 'tradition' is to read each one in a day leading up to the release of the next one). Then the following week we saw the fifth film. Then... I was having HP withdrawal symptoms!

So I started lurking on Craftster, because they often have threads about the costumes in the HP films (one thread had a link to a documentary all about costume in HP films; as an ex-wardrobe mistress I found it fascinating). Then I found a thread about a crocheted Harry Potter and Hedwig (I love Hedwig!) that were just fabulous. Utterly utterly amazing; the best knitted/crocheted toys I've ever seen. DarnCat was the designer, so I started stalking her blog, desperately waiting for her to release the pattern (can I crochet? Of course not ;) ). She also did a Hermione and a Ron, and now I reeeeeeeally need my crochet-ing friend to teach me (I think I can bribe her with goes on my spinning wheel).

Now, I was aware of etsy before, obviously. But having money in my paypal account mixed with Harry Potter withdrawal symptoms... Anyway, since my pattern purchase, I may well have bought stitch markers, bracelets and t-shirts. Not all HP related ;)

And the best part: it feels like it's all free! My 'rule' is that anything bought with money from paypal, has to be paid for with money already in my paypal account that I didn't put there. i.e., I have to sell some of my old crap on ebay, in order to fund my etsy habit. So I'm decluttering too ;)

A - ANTSY
Earlier in late Spring/Summer, I heard about 2 things. Ravelry, and Mystery Stole 3. I decided that I was both above taking part in things 'just because everyone else is', and - being aware of my injuries - better off not joining a website which would involve more typing, nor a KAL that would involve loads of knitting.

Doh!

Of course, I loooooooooooooooove MS3. If I'm honest, I've loved it ever since I first saw the first clue (yet I *still* didn't join, even though there were a few days left). I've been stalking Melanie's blog, desperately waiting for the pattern to be released. And today it has been! Hoorah!

So now I'm super antsy, waiting for my download email to arrive!

As for Ravelry, I've signed up, but I think there are still a couple of million people in front of me in the queue. I've realised that I don't *have* to actively type loads, but can use it as a resource. Same with every other Mystery project! Just because I'm getting the clues doesn't mean I HAVE to knit them! So I've now signed up for the Secret of the Stole and Secret of Chrysopolis as well, so I don't miss out again! However, I think MS3 is going to be my priority, once the download email finally arrives!!!

R - REALLY TINY HATS
My pledge has succeeded! Hoorah! It's still open until the middle of October, though, so you can still sign up if you want :)

I haven't started my mini-hats yet, but I have been unravelling crappy old acrylic WIPs that I'm going to use the yarn for hats instead. I've pledged to make a minimum of 5 hats, but I'm hoping that I get to use up all my old acrylic instead! (I have nothing against acrylic - the emphasis here is on old!).

My friends are holding a Knit-In to make hats, so I'll probably start when we do that. Or I'll start this weekend - who knows ;)

Y - YARN TO BE
I'm thinking for MS3 that I'll just go with Jaggerspun Zephyr, since that's the yarn used in the sample, and I can get that over here. I'm thinking maybe the darkest grey that I can get, and using lighter silver beads (I have no idea where to buy decent beads in the city I live now!).

There's a new Knitty, and I love Cherie Amour. I was looking at yarns to sub, but then realised that since it has a pretty short yardage, I could spin for it!

I've decided to get some dyed Corriedale combed tops, and make a 2-ply bulky yarn. My plan is to have one ply being all one colour, but to make the other ply multi-coloured (ie., spin a tuft of colour A, then B, then C, then back to A, etc). The two strands will barber-pole, but the knitting should appear to be striped, as the multi-coloured strand should stand out more. (Clear as mud, right?)

I'm thinking of using the following colours:
Plum Duff
Raspberry
Jelly Bean
Grape Jelly

They are all shown next to each other on this site:

http://www.pmwoolcraft.co.uk/html/view_product.php?ProdID=1092&CatID=&start=18

Bu obviously the colours in the photo might be off! I think they're actually darker in real life, especially the grape jelly, as this site has the same fibre with different photos, and there are slight differences.

So! The million dollar questions! Do you think I'm bonkers? Do the colours go well together, or should I rethink? Which colour should I pick to be the single-colour ply? I'm thinking Jelly Bean or Plum Duff (but that might have to depend on me sampling once I've bought the fibre).

I'd really appreciate any input, because Mr Bee is a) not really interested b) complaining I have too much fibre already, and why don't I use that instead (answer: I don't have enough of any one fibre!).

My MS3 pattern just arrived - hoorah!

(oh, and I failed on the 'not being too verbose' front: I'll do photos soon :) )

Guard Knitter in the Knitting Mobile

I've had a really busy, and sadly knit-free, few days!

Tuesday was a big knitting day though. A friend of a friend was moving house, into a flat on a really busy high street, and was worried that people would steal from her van while she was carrying things in. I offered my services as a carrier, but what with my reputation as a bit of a cripple I was enlisted as Van Guarder instead. They were very worried that I'd get bored, just stood by a van for hours.

How can a knitter who is not currently in the throes of RSI get bored while standing around for hours?!

So I got to spend lots of Tuesday lounging against a van, knitting. I decided not to take the shawl because I'd been a bit cocky the night before ("OMG I'm such a great lace knitter, I have this pattern completely memorised, I can totally watch TV at the same time... huh? Why I am missing a stitch?"), made a mistake, and realised that I do need to concentrate for shawl knitting! Likewise mini-hats would have been too awkward - I'm planning to knit those on looooooooooooooong metal straights held under the armpit, and thought that might attract undue attention from any passing police officer.

So cardigan it was. I got heaps knitted on the body (I think standing up was really good for my arms - must keep me in good posture!), and now I'm trawling ebay for suitable colours to do the colourwork in.

Sadly I just haven't had a chance to knit since then, but the weekend is a-coming :)

My pledge is going well! Innocent even mentioned it both on their knitter-natter page, and on their main blog too! I'm really hopeful that it will succeed, and maybe others will set up pledges too. More hats for Innocent!

Remember, if you're planning to knit a mini-hat, you can sign the pledge too :)

I'll knit hats, but I'd like you to knit some too!

So, since 2003 Innocent Smoothies have been selling drinks wearing knitted hats during November, in order to raise money for Age Concern (50p from every hat-wearing bottle sold goes to Age Concern). Last year some of my friends knit up loads and loads of hats, but it was during a severe-RSI period for me, and sadly all I could do was watch.

This year I have happier joints, and want to join in with The Big Knit!

There's a website called PledgeBank, of which the general gist is “I’ll do it, but only if you’ll help me”, and I've always thought it would be a great way to motivate charity knitting.

So I've set up a pledge too - "I will knit at least 5 hats for Innocent Smoothies' The Big Knit but only if 35 other people will knit at least 1 hat too."

If you want to get involved please sign up! I'd love to have my pledge succeed :)

Innocent Smoothies make yummy drinks here in the UK (I think they may have spread across Europe a little too), and in November they sell their smoothies with little hats on the bottles and donate 50p to Age Concern's fund to help older people through the winter. All the hats are donated by the public, and this year they want to collect 400,000 hats in order to raise £200,000!

If my pledge succeeds then that means we'll be donating a minimum of 40 hats to the cause, but it would be great if we could send in more.