hat shoppes and knitting

after I fiddled with the layout of the Hoffman piece, I decided that I would stick with a small sign that could be seen through the "window" instead of trying to put the letters right on the "glass"

so I set up the sewing machine and whipped up this little sign

I originally was going to call it "Run for the Roses Hat Shoppe", but I like this better

the big hat is coming along nicely -- after figuring out how to make a firmly corded edge around the brim (I enclosed some very firm linen cord inside a very narrow bias)
knitting on the hat is moving right along

the band is a strip of ribbing that goes around the head, which is a bit different from the usual up and down ribbing

the yarn I used for this is alpaca hand spun that I got last year at the Alpaca Roundup

when the spinner did the plying she used one ply that is the sort of beige tone that is natural to alpaca and one ply which is the darker alpaca color that she over dyed with Koolaid -- one of my favorite dye stuffs!

the band looks really good -- next step is to pick up 80 stitches around one long edge and do the crown
and another pair of mittnz is complete

these are sort of bland in comparison to some of the brighter colored pairs I've been making

they have a certain classy look to them

so I have 2 more pair to do for this year's goal


yesterday I took the DH to the surgeon for his one month check and he is now allowed to be out of his sling when he's around the house -- the therapist gave him one additional exercise to do and he goes back in another month -- slow but steady progress!