Likely meandering thoughts

I am awake at an unseemly hour (at least for me). I was up at a little after 4 a.m. with a bad case of insomnia. I didn't go to bed until nearly 1, so I am working on approximately 3 hours of sleep (if you don't count the couple of times I woke up in the meantime. What this means, I'm not sure. But one thing is for sure, and that is that I will not have much power of concentration today.

Since I was up anyway, I decided to tackle the mountain of laundry in the laundry room. And I do mean mountain. I like to see instant results, so I put the big things like comforters and blankets and towels in first. Which is great because it does get the mountain shrunk faster. What's not so great about it is that the socks often get lost and don't get washed until I find the laundry room floor again. Then eventually, no one has socks, and I go to the store and buy some. Then I find the laundry room floor and I am overrun by socks. It's a vicious cycle.

And since I was already up, I felt like I should be working on my mom's crochet bag, but seriously, I am not sure I can concentrate enough to work on it. And I need to. Really. I missed a whole day of crocheting yesterday because I was doing major manual labor moving furniture and big time cleaning. In fact, I am paying the price today in my hips. Oh, they are sore. I should have medicated before going to bed. The pain probably contributed to the insomnia. But I love the new bedroom furniture very much and it will be so nice when the bedroom is actually finished. We sure aren't there yet.

And now, my toes are getting cold because the air conditioning vent is right behind my chair and the cold air is blowing under my chair and freezing my toes. Maybe I should turn the air conditioning back up a little. Or I could go find slippers. There is a whole box of my socks sitting right in front of me. Huh.

And now I think I need to post a picture, just because maybe I will feel better if I have something pretty on this page.

There we go. How about a Jamaican sunset? I could live there. Warm water, fresh pineapple, soft sand under my toes. ::Deep sigh::

Lots of hats for charity

I love to crochet. That is apparent even if you just glance casually through my blog. I also love Ravelry.com. It is one of the best finds ever. I have tried all kinds of new techniques, learned to knit, made new friends and had lots of fun in the process. What a great mix!

One of my favorite parts of Ravelry is the Harry Potter Knit/Crochet House Cup group. It really pushes me to finish projects I might not otherwise. It also offers lots of fun ideas for projects. And we get to play Quidditch. This most often involves creating things for charity, and this weekend was no exception. The great Quidditch coaches on HPKCHC put together a marvelous hat challenge and each team fielded four champions (one from each house). I represented the Third Year team for Hufflepuff. I knew that I would get far more hats made if I crocheted, and I have a great fall-back pattern that is just double crochet. So I challenged myself to make 10 hats today (since I did have to work after all). I exceeded my goal by finishing 12 hats! I am actually quite proud of myself. Here are all 12 hats:

I had a ton of fun making them, and now I will find a charity that can use them. They are all teen/adult size and machine wash and dry. And quite soft too. It was a fun day!

More projects finished (finally!)

I tried really hard in April to get some of my unfinished knit and crochet projects finished. I have quite a few, so it's helpful to wrap up anything I can. I didn't accomplish quite as much as I had hoped, but did get a couple of things that I really wanted finished done.

First was the Tropical Breeze Shawl. This was such a fun pattern and it really worked up quickly. I love, love, love the Ella Rae yarn. Smooshy, soft, no splits, fabulous. Easy to work with and beautiful worked up. Here's a photo:

I wore it Friday night when I went to the ballet in Lincoln. It was wonderful and I am so glad I got it done in time to wear. I wish I had remembered to take a picture of it when it was blocking. It was crazy. I think I used 150 pins at least!

I also finished this little doily. I love doilies. I don't know what to do with them after I make them, but I like to make them! Maybe I will make a bunch of them and frame them on black fabric. That would look pretty and I could hang them in the living room near the piano. I'll have to think about that. Here's the one I just finished:

And I have a friend who is having a baby soon (if she hasn't already) and I really wanted to make her some pretty bibs and cute little summer sun hats for her. I was so happy with how they turned out and will make more. Fast and easy and really cute. The perfect pattern in my book!

And I finally finished the shawl I have been working on as a sample for the shop. It took me a long time to make, longer than I thought it would actually. And this picture is before blocking. I took it in and blocked it today, but forgot to take my camera so I don't have a picture of it blocked yet. It nearly doubled in size! It is really a beautiful shawl. I will go in tomorrow to weave in the ends of it, and plan to take a picture of it then. As a relatively new knitter, this is a project I am quite proud of!