Turbo Knitting

I found out only a week or so ago that my friend Betty wanted a matching hat for her future grandson like the one I made for her. So got my needles out and found some nice yarn...this is the Lion Brand Vanna yarn in a silvery blue. I think it turned out so nice! Above are some booties I decided needed to go along with the hat.
I got my tassel maker out and made, well, what else? Tassels that I added to each corner of the rectangular hat.
I hope the hat isn't too big for a baby's head! He may need to grow into it!

I love how the set turned out!! I hope Betty and her new grandson have fun with their matching hats! Oh, here is Betty with the hat I made for her:

Another Trip...

I went up to visit Frank again and had a busy weekend. We drove up to Kara in San Jose and together we saw the new Alice In Wonderland 3D movie, and went out for sushi. Then on Sunday, it was Kara's turn to drive to Seaside so that we could visit Carmel and Monterey Bay. Here we are at the beach in Carmel...beautiful! It was a dog friendly beach, so we had fun watching different breeds of dogs frolicking on the sand and testing out the water!! I wonder how our doggy Maggi would do?
We visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium again...never get tired of the place! We saw the baby otter and learned that it is being taken care of by a "foster" female otter; and we watched the penguins being fed.
Although it was overcast, it was beautiful outside!!
On our way back to the van, we noticed we had parked near a beach where all the seals hang out! It was incredible! There were so many of them!!
Such a beautiful area...I'm sure there are more trips in my future...

My New Hat!

Hard to take a picture of myself wearing my new hat, but it can be done!
I love how my hat turned out!! Nice and thick! I love the colors too!
The thickness with the K1B technique is really neat!! It's airy too and will be nice to wear when I take the dog for our walks.
Now on to the next project!!! What will it be??????????????

Rainy Days Making Blankets...

I had some more fleece panels on hand and had pinned them together weeks ago with their respective coordinating fleece backings, but needed a rainy day to sew them all up! So on Monday, I went crazy and did about five blankets! Above is the Degas dancers. I love the artwork fleece panels the best, but they are hard to come by. Below is a collector's item fleece panel with Obama...this one went to my girlfriend Sima who is crazy about Obama, so now she can be all wrapped up by him!
I made two of these Iris panel ones...I'll probably keep one for myself!! I'm sure to gift the other one...

And already a Christmas blanket with this reversible deer...I had two and decided to sew them together...
I'm not much of a seamstress, but I have fun making these blankets!!

Bunny Visitor!

We have a bunny visitor!! His name is Lincoln, and owner Joey is renting one of our rooms.
Isn't Lincoln cute? We often let Lincoln run around the house or in the back yard! Maggi the beagle doggy is having such fun with her little friend! They tease and chase each other! Maggi even protected Lincoln...for a little while, we had Lincoln's cage outside, but a big bad black cat came sniffing, and Maggi barked wildly looking outside from the kitchen at 2 am one fine morning! So Joey put Lincoln in our dining room since not planning any dinner parties at the moment...LOL.
Lincoln just loves parsley and baby carrots, and I've been spoiling him rotten! But he's such a sweet bunny and he cracks me up with his cute ears and nose...just ignore those devilish eyes!!

New Project

Last week, I became frustrated with a cute hat pattern I found on Ravelry...it used this new-to-me technique of knitting the stitch below or K1B that totally intrigued me, but after a few tries, I started searching for an easier pattern and found it.
I love the thick results of this knitted fabric...stretchy but scrunchy. Also love the Patons Decor yarn which is a worsted yet on the thick side sort of yarn. And the color is a combination of browns and blues called "Sand and Sea."
Here's an illustration of the technique...
It's suppose to rain tonight and tomorrow, so I hope to get some knitting in and get further along with the hat. There's also a scarf pattern with the same K1B stitch that I've suddenly become obsessed with...so neat!

Beautiful Valentine's Day

Instead of flowers, I asked Frank that I would rather go to Target and replace some of my geraniums which suffered badly in the cold weather. I also got some alysum since I think they are so pretty and add the finishing touch.
I got three types of geraniums...a pink peppermint colored, red, and a solid pink...the alysum is pure white.
I also replanted the small live Christmas tree that I had given to Peter's dorm originally...he brought it home for the winter break, so I took care of it, and it now has some new growth, so repotted it so that it could grow some more!
Also got some English lavender...I hope I don't kill this one this time!
I just love my geraniums, though, since I have a hard time killing those!!

And I'll keep tending my poor hydrangeas...sigh...they just don't grow for me...and I think the cold weather got to them too, but I do see new growth, so watered them and loosened the soil a bit for them.
So a very nice, sunny Valentine's day for us here in Moorpark, California...