The sun is out today and I’m typing on my favorite desk in my favorite office … my lap is my desk and the front porch is my office. We have a new family of ducks who have been coming by to visit … and get a little bit of bread from me! 🙂

Listening to President Obama’s speech at the University of Richmond while I blog. In the sun! Just having the sun out makes my attitude so much better. I’ve finished the two baby hats that I’ve been working on and they’re really cute. I wish I had a doll or a stuffed animal to put them on for photographs. Neither my hand nor my yarn spool makes a great baby face! Regardless, they’ve turned out well.

Hat #1 is the Aviatrix Hat from Justine Turner (and a free download on Ravelry.) I knit this hat in Plymouth Yarn’s Baby Alpaca DK (colorway 753) in a wonderful grey-blue color. I love it! There are two buttons on the hat so that when baby’s chinny-chin-chin gets all pudgy and kissable, mom can loosen the strap and it will still fit.

Hat #2 is Garnstudio’s Dropps Bonnet in Rib in Alpaca . It’s such a cute hat and I know it’s going to grow well with the baby as the 3×3 rib is really stretchy. The reason I really like this hat is that it goes over baby’s head like a hood – and they can’t pull it off! I knit this with Reynolds Revue 100% Merino wool in (color 1431) a raisin color – it’s a pretty brownish wine color (in these photos it looks way more pink than in real life!)  that I think will be very “in” this year since it’s an organic color and found in nature. The only “issue” I have with this hat is, I think, the nature of merino wool in that it shows all the increases around the bottom of the hat. Fortunately, it will be under the baby’s jacket but it’s still aggravating for me to be able to see the “irregularity” of the stitches.

I’m having a really proud moment, though, because I tried something that I’ve never done before. (Although, my knitting friend Bob in Ohio did it for me once several years ago.) Anyway, after reviewing several videos, I did a single crochet edging around the opening of the hat and it looks great! I wish I had a doll or a stuffed animal here that I could put the hat on to show it off better … hope my new mom will send me a photo of baby in the hat and for the meantime, my photos on my antique spool will have to do. That’s life!

I found a really quick baby mittens pattern to send along with the hats … without having to knit a thumb gusset, it’s a really quick knit and very quick, indeed!

I’ve been thinking that I need to design and knit up a case for my new computer … cabled? or patterned? lined? unlined? We’ll see what I come up with. I have some really cool yarn that I bought out in northern California in December that has some cat hair in it … and pretty sparkly blue, too. I think that will be my yarn choice! I also have the “Kate Middleton” shawl that I bought some new yarn for. I’ll let you know what I decide!

So, from my porch office with the breezes blowing gently … gone knitting!