In flight caps

After arriving home from my trip to Kansas, I spent just a couple of days at home before I took off again on another trip. This time, I was headed to Michigan, which involved both airport and flight time, which is perfect for crocheting! I have just returned home from that trip, it was a wonderful time away but I am glad to report that I was able to finish 4 caps total while I was on the plane both going and returning. So these are extra special caps, since they were made on a S80 airplane somewhere over Arkansas, Oklahoma, Michigan, Missouri and Illinois.

Kansas caps

Melissa Isaacson, Salina, KS

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been traveling this summer, including a trip to a few cities in Kansas. For this trip, I was driving so I didn't get any made during the actual travel time. Once I arrived, I spent most of the time enjoying my family and running around Kansas, but there was a little down time that I took advantage of and completed one cap. My cousin also brought along some yarn which she donated and I have added to my yarn stash, so there will be more caps from this visit as well.

Donation stop

I'm late posting this, but as summer started, I've been traveling a bit and my first trip was to visit family in the Kansas City and then Salina areas of Kansas. As you know, I make donations to the Cancer Center in Salina and this trip was no exception. I think I had taken pictures of these caps as I made them, however I went ahead and got a picture with my "co-delivery" helper :) That's my cousin Shelly and she works at the center and takes care of getting the caps to the people at the clinic in Salina.

One year anniversary

One year ago today was the day that Eriq lost his battle with cancer and that means that it's been a while year without him here with me. Knowing today, the anniversary, was coming has been a challenge mentally. However, I made a plan and that helped me get through it. I went to the cemetery and placed a new flower arrangement I made this week and then I put on one movie after another and crocheted nearly the whole time. I tried to find a balance between fairly easy patterns to be able to finish as many as possible without taxing my brain but also a little bit of something different and interesting for each one. I wanted to make sure it was interesting to me while I was crocheting all day and also in making each one of the finished products unique. That being said, I stuck with some yarn types I've used often, rather than some of my fun newer yarn, simply for speed and to keep the focus on my part at a lower level. I knew if I had to think too much about it, I could get easily frustrated today and so I did come up with 7 different caps but there are only slight variations to each one from the others.

From top to bottom, left to right: Green cap is done in front/back post double crochet (Red Heart super saver), Multicolor with purple stripe is done in all double crochet (Caron Simply Soft), Multicolor with ribbon is all double crochet except for ribbon row (Joann Sensations), Blue/Yellow variegated is double crochet with single crochet edge (Red Heart Classic), Purple/multicolor is double crochet followed by half double crochet (Caron Simply Soft), Yellow is all double crochet except for chain ribbons (Red Heart super saver), and the Multicolor with green is double crochet and half double crochet on the brim (Red Heart - new multicolor)

Yarn package

Gary Cunningham, Finland

As promised in yesterday's post, I finished up the cap I was working on and have a picture of it here. It is a basic cap pattern and then I alternated front post double crochet with back post double crochet to give the appearance of rows. One of my favorite (easy) things to do to fancy something up a bit. But, better yet, I just went out to get the mail and I had a package from Finland, and it has yarn. That in itself is exciting, but better yet, it's an awesome variegated dyed yarn. It's called "Sweet William" and if you want to see more of their yarns, you can check out the website (http://www.easyknits.co.uk). Special thanks for this beautiful yarn Gary! I'm invigorated to get going again and I had hit a lull in my creativity, making the shown cap here to try and get myself rolling agin. Now I have some additional motivation :)

New donation

The last month has been very busy with several events, including the the end of school, which is an extremely overwhelming time every year. From time to time this month I have been able to do some crochet but I've been working on some personal projects. It seems to be the season for birthdays and baby showers, so those have been my main focus of late. However, about a week ago, I received a donation in the mail from a recipient of one of the caps and as I finished up school a couple of days ago, I was able to go pick up some things. I found a great deal on some yarn and a knit and weave loom kit that will give me some more options on making a variety of caps. I haven't pulled out the patterns for the kit yet but I hope to get to do that at some point this week. I have started another cap with some of my pink and purple variegated Sensations yarn that I will post when it's finished.

Scraps

Often when I finish a cap, there's just enough yarn left for something...but what? Not another cap, but maybe the finishing edge, perhaps a bow or flower or other decoration, there are options. When I have a bit leftover, I roll it into a small ball and add it to a box of leftovers. I sometimes look through and make a few decorative items or see if one of them match some yarn I have to use as a single row. They give me a little motivation to start something. What I hadn't ever done is use them together and that seemed like a fun idea, so I started with one of the scrap colors and just tied on a new one as each one ended and came up with this scrap cap. It's a fun, festive cap I hope someone will fall in love with.
On a side notes, my cats always enjoy helping me make caps. Sometimes they will bat at the yarn, sometimes they bring yarn downstairs for me to use and sometimes...