Three hats done, one almost done and four five more to go. The second Monarch hat went very quickly, I had originally wanted to make two, one with the hand dyed and the other with the Cascade. Both are made with Cascade, just different sized needles. The second, smaller one is knit on 4’s and the larger one is on 5’s. I think I have finally gotten to the point where my stranded knitting is at a good gauge. I started with the larger needle size because my tension is often tight with two yarn patterns. The larger hat is wearable, just a bit “slouchy”, the smaller hat is snug, but it doesn’t pop off ones head due to non-stretchy-ness (its a thing). While looking for my Knit Picks yarn delivery date, I found a bunch of hat patterns I had downloaded from them. They are PDF’s named with numbers, so they don’t jump out and say “knit me” when I am looking for a pattern on my computer. I will remedy that today. I need to go through all my PDF knitting patterns, and see just what is there.

The Tree quilt is together and awaiting borders. I realized that I didn’t have a backing for it, and just ordered a few swatches from BackSide fabrics. This barn red and olive green is a bit different from my usual choices, just a bit more gray. I do have some tan sateen that may work, the gray/silver snowflake I have isn’t a good match. The original quilt kit came with a matching backing, but four years later, that fabric line isn’t available. I got the three Thomas the Tank Engine quilts quilted, bound and photographed. The weather has been very cloudy and rainy this past week, so photo sessions are done when the sun peeks out. Speaking of the cheeky little engine, I ordered a boxed kit for one more quilt. It’s the one I was looking at, with the pieced train engine on the bottom. I also got enough fabric to make another one, as I am trying to use up the rest of the fat quarter bundle and yardage I originally bought.

I ordered a bunch of bowl cozy batting pieces. I decided that they will be my gift to the barn ladies this year. I think I need to make thirteen of them. I have some Laurel Birch Horse fabric yardage, just looking for a use. I think I can make one side with the horses and the other with left over backing scraps. Good for the stash reduction and not too draining on the pocket money.

I am slowly realizing that I am not really into Christmas gifting this year. If I hear about Black Friday one more time, it may push me over the edge. I usually send out bakery gifts, or candy, one year I did pretzels, to extended family. I am just not “feeling it” this year. I can’t not do it, because everyone else sends stuff, and I will feel bad. Maybe I’ll do fruit and nuts, and hats, lots of hats.

Recently while shopping on Etsy, an ad for an unfinished Alaska rainbow quilt top caught my eye. I went to the shop and looked, it was 44.95, just the pieced top. On further perusal, I noticed that all this shop sells are unfinished tops. In the two and a half years they have been an Etsy seller they have sold almost 2500 quilt tops, at 44.95. How can this be? Is it a sweat shop? The tops look okay, in the photos, a few puckers and weird print choices. The shop says they are in the US, but there is no way this would be sustainable. They have lots of 5 star reviews, and offer free shipping. I am very skeptical, it reminds me of the crooks who make digital printed “blankets” of famous designers quilts. Consumer be wary.

Be Kind.