Phew.

This is kind of a big deal. Since I got ill, I’ve not really been able to have any long term goals. I am very proud of myself for being able to manage it, especially as I’ve been a being of very little patience up until now.

These are my last hats, and I’ll be sending them off as part of the final batch of 44 tiny hats. The Innocent hat-o-meter is already up to 315,000; nice work, general public!

And now to decide what to do with the rest of my life, which will in fact not be the same from this moment on.

I plan to throw myself wholeheartedly into starting this housing co-operative here in Swansea with my friends, and I’ll be putting in 16 hours per week for social change to become a member of Radical Routes. We’ve found a house we love, and we’re in need of investment, so if you’d like to get some money back with interest in a few years please check out this page.

I plan to grow lots of food, knit lots of beautiful things and commit some random acts of kindness. [blog]

And, more than anything, I plan to get better from CFS and be able to do things again. I want to walk from Swansea to Leicester to see my mum, even though I know it’ll take a few weeks. I want to have a job one day that makes me happy and helps me to feel like part of things. And, obviously, I want to learn how to do Daft Hands.

Thank you to Fran and Kirsty for their encouragement and guest blog posts when things got slow, and thank you to everyone who donated yarn, especially Gina for the epic box of yarn! (The remaining yarn is being used in free knitting classes I’m giving.)

x

Beautiful day, innit tho?

Four hats to go, and three days. I can do this.

RAWR!

Sorry!

The photo is bad, and for this I apologise. On the downside, it’s been a busy day, but on the upside it’s meant I’ve got lots of hats done…

Hence gosh. I’m doing much better than I expected. If I carry on like this I’ll get them done before the deadline, and then I can carry on with my life!

:O, y’know?

PS: 7 hats to go, and 4 days. Wow.

Kind of?

Check it out, that middle one. It looks kind of like a nipple, no? No?? Well, perhaps it’s just me.

12 hats to go, and 6 days. Two hats per day. This is turning into a bit of a mad race. I’m really glad I got more than expected done today. Tomorrow I’m going to a lunch thing and a meeting-someone-for-coffee, so I hope to get more done again.

ETA: Ahhhhhh, totally got your attention with that title, didn’t I? A sudden jump in stats. My excuse? It’s late and I’m sleepy, and maybe my mind is always in the gutter but my sleepiness lowers my inhibitions. Possibly.

They do to me.

They *do* look like ice creams! They do! Don’t they?

On the other hand, 15 hats to knit in 6 days. That’s 2.5 hats per day. AAaaaaAAAaaaahhhh.

Can you work out what flavour smoothies these contain? (Answer: Wool-flavoured)

I think the rest of my hats are going to be spirally hats now! Or some variation thereof. It has never, ever occurred to be to do lacey hats. Crazy, huh? Now they remind me of ice cream cones. (Click here for the pattern.)

19 hats to go, and 8 days. That’s 2.4 hats per day. *sigh*

PS: Hello to whoever found my blog by searching for “cat face radical din 324″…!

*proud*

Check it out, I have found a new favourite hat pattern! It is the spiral. Here it is for your knitting pleasure. The observant among you will notice that I have 8 days to knit 21 hats. My shoulder is still very painful. I may cry.

Spiral Hat

Note: yo = yarnover. k2tog = knit two stitches together. ssk = slip one, knit one, pass slipped stitch over and off needle. (It’s like a decrease slanting to the left.)

Cast on 28 stitches. K 3 rows.

Row 4: K3, yo, ssk. Repeat until the end of the round.

Row 5: P.

Row 6: K1, [yo, ssk, k3] 6 times, k3.

Row 7: P.

Keep doing this. You should have 28 stitches on every row throughout. Each knit row, knit the stitch above the hole/yarnover, then do a yarnover, then ssk.

When you’ve done 14 rows of lace, k2tog on each knit row until you’ve got 7 stitches, and then thread the tail through the remaining stitches and use it to sew up the side of the hat. Done!

This is how my shoulder feels. Spikey and inconvenient.

It’s not looking good.

A week ago, I made this onbag and the next day my shoulder was painful like never before. I thought it might be RSI from knitting, but I’d been sewing the day before so it didn’t make a lot of sense. Whatever it was, I thought it’d be gone in a day or two, and if I rested the shoulder for a whole week it would be back to normal and ready to take on all kinds of knitting stuff. I’ve got lots to knit for other people, and an important project or two on hold, and that’s not even mentioning any of the Christmas knits that I haven’t started yet.

One week later, I’ve carried some light things around a couple of times and I’ve knitted about 6 rows of a hat. And my shoulder feels pretty much exactly the same as it did on day one. I’m starting to worry, because I just don’t know what I’ve done to make it feel like this. I don’t understand why it’s not getting better. And there’s 11 days to go, and 23 hats to make. It is not looking good.

See the detached straps? Genius.

I’ve been getting a bit behind with hats, and killing my shoulders, because I’ve been making an Onbag. Here is a post on my creative blog about why they’re great.