The Hollyhock Blog

I’ve been in ‘finish up’ mode of late.

Darryl sent both baby hats home with the new dad for a ‘fitting’.   And to my surprise, the smaller hat was chosen for the baby. 

And since I seemed to be on a roll, I made a couple more baby hats.  I had started the pink one a while ago, so I finished that one up.  I knit most of the yellow in the passenger seat on a drive to visit my aunt last weekend.  I finished that one during a little TV watching.   I knit the mittens on my machine a few weeks ago and had only the seams left – and I finally finished them up, too.   I can only stand to do so much seam-sewing at one time, so there was a big sigh of relief when those seams were done.  

(And for the ‘inquiring minds’:  yes, that is a hand knit afghan.   I started it when I was 18 years old and finished it about 10 years later, or maybe it was 20 years later.  I don’t remember now.  I know it spent many years packed away, stashed away, lost, or hiding!)

I also got the ear-flaps knit onto this hat – so it is DONE!  Ready for the sales shelves.  Yippy! 

Now, don’t be thinking that I’ve nothing ‘on the needles’!   Let’s see…  there’s a scarf and a shawl that come to mind immediately.  And still in my mind are more mittens to be felted, and some fingerless gloves, and a short shawl that I’m calling a bed-wrap, and …  and … 

My friend Kristi has 3 boys and she gave me the following formula by the experts:

“Head circumference – the distance around the baby’s head (normally about one-half the baby’s body length plus 10 cm)”

And she added this:

My babies were around 8 pounds and their body lengths were 20-21 inches. You get to do the math (1″ = 2.54 cm)    

So, being more inventive than smart, I found a ruler that was marked in centimeters and took a ruler marked in inches and measured out 10 cm on the centimeter ruler.  Strangely, I could not find a ruler with both measurements marked on it.  The answer – 10 cm is about 4 inches. 

The baby was 8 lb, 3 oz and 22 inches long.   So half of 22 is 11 plus 4 equals 15 inches around the head of this little guy on Feb 4, his birthday!

The hat did seem pretty little as I was working on it, so I started another – a little bigger.   They are both done now:

Made of 100% alpaca, Baby Twist yarn in color 1005.  The pattern is a combination of several hat patterns.  The one on the right was the first I did.   It is about 12 inches around.  The larger is about 14 inches.  Darryl took both to work to give the new father, who is a co-worker, the choice of which hat.  According to the above formula, even the larger may be too small, but the measurements are un-stretched and the hat is stretchy. 

I’ll let you know which hat is chosen.  The other will go on the sales shelf here!  I’ve no doubt there will be another little boy coming into the world who will need a warm little hat!

 And speaking of warm —-  it was only 8 degrees below zero this morning.  So is minus 8 only half as cold as minus 16?  I think temperatures that cold affect my wee little brain.  The good news is this morning was the last forecast of below zero temps.  May even get to the thawing point this weekend.  Woo Whooo! 

I don’t generally think of myself as an extreme optimist, but today I surprised myself.

 The weather forecast has us in a wind chill advisory – from last evening until around noon today.   So I was majorly dreading doing chores this morning.  I hid under the covers way longer than required for sleep.  I dawdled around the house, gathering trash to take to the road, making the bed, checking email, anything to delay the inevitable — the alpacas must be fed, and the longer I wait the bigger mess in the barn to clean up. 

I checked the outside temp.  Minus 16 degrees.   That calls for serious preparation.  So I loaded up my mittens with these great little disposable heaters.  They are air activated, about 2 inches square, and last 10 hrs.   I have hand-knit alpaca mittens inside unlined leather mittens, but at this temp – even alpaca cannot keep out the cold when I’m gripping a cold shovel handle for an extended time period.  I also wear a balaclava – on days this cold only my eyes are uncovered.   Then a head band and coat with hood.  Jeans over long johns are the norm all winter, as are my snowmobile boots.

And off I go.   I notice there is little wind – and one brave (or maybe hungry) alpaca is outside eating hay from their tub.  It takes me about 45 minutes to do chores most mornings.  After only a few minutes I can tell my eyelashes have frost on them that melts on my face when I blink.  That is the downside of the balaclava – my breath has to go somewhere – so frost builds up on the outside of the balaclava, on the hood of my coat above my forehead and on my eyelashes.  I just try to blink gently! 

I’m happy to see the alpacas are oblivious to the temperature.  Without wind, they are content to eat hay outside, so they get their outside tubs filled with hay.  And eventually I get done with chores.   Molly, our CMO (Chief Mousing Officer), had decided it was too cold for breakfast, so she didn’t even make an appearance this morning.  Last on my agenda is to pull the trash barrel to the road for pick up.  By this time I can feel my legs are stinging from the cold.   As I’m walking east, the sun has risen and is shining in my eyes causing me to squint.   And that is when I see all these shiny stars and rainbows caused by the little icicles on my eyelashes.   It was beautiful!  It made me feel kinda warm inside.  Life is good! 

But don’t get me wrong — I was still happy to get back to the house and peel off all those extra layers and dry off my eyelashes! 

I must share.   Aren’t they pretty?   Even prettier than the picture and they smell nice too.  

 I’m a lucky gal.  Darryl had them delivered on Wed, since I was not going to be home yesterday.   A good thing, too.   It was very cold outside and the vase was really cold inside the box, but somehow the flowers were not frost bitten at all.  What a great guy, no?

Question for you – what is the diameter of the head of an 8 pound new-born human baby?   We don’t have kids.  But I’m knitting a little hat for such a baby.  Born a couple weeks ago.   Can I google ‘babies head sizes’?  I’ll have the hat done soon, so the little head shouldn’t grow much, and he only has a couple more months of winter, so it must fit now and not 3 months from how. 

This past weekend, my spinning guild, the Mississippi River Spinning guild, took a serious step back in time.   We went on retreat to Linden Hill Event Center in Little Falls, MN.  As we sat in a big circle in the ‘music’ room of a mansion built around 1903 with 8 spinning wheels whirring and a fire in the fireplace, it was easy to forget it is 2008.  This is a wonderful place for a retreat.  By Sat, we were already planning to return.  

And we spun and spun.  A few gals took a break and knit a bit or  learned to weave on small triangle looms.  We had a few firsts:

Julie with her first ball of spun and plied yarn, which she then used to weave on a tri-loom:

Kathe finished her first pair of socks:

and her first ball of spun and yarn:

Who else was there?   Karen and the Wool Princess (check out more pictures on their blogs) and Barb, Anne, Linda and me.   A wonderful, relaxing and productive time was had by all.