Tag Archives: purple

California Here I Come … and here I go!

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Wednesday, April 30, 2025

I’m home again after a wonderful whirlwind trip to SanDiego to help my daughter out with the kiddo while she and her husband and partner are working around the world! Far from NYC they all are. I traveled by car, bus, plane and Lyft to SanDiego on Friday and did the reverse yesterday. But I’d do it again today if asked. What fun we had! Three days jam-packed with action and laughs.

Highlights were visiting with my middle child because she was on babysitting duty the week before I arrived and we got to overlap for an evening. The Farmers Market in SanDiego on Sunday was absolutely amazing. So much beautiful food for blocks! AND our trip to Disney Land in Anaheim on Monday was so much fun. My granddaughter didn’t know where we were going and we planned the day to her liking with breaks for her to run around and a long wait for the Dumbo ride (her request) and several waits for visits with different princesses. We managed to walk into two parades where she saw Mickey and Minnie and several other characters that she knows and the piece de resistance was a visit with one of her favorites from Encanto, Mirabel! (I wish I could show you the pictures of her face when she saw her! She got her little dress all bunched up in a knot in her hands with anticipation of her turn to talk to her! Kate and I were in tears! What a moment.)

red onion footsie by King Cole
a good place to rest
fanciest toilet ever!
along the highway …?
Disney Land!
Tuckered out but loving her princess sweatshirt and Mirabel doll

I loved SanDiego! The flora and fauna are so different from the east coast. We went on a flower hunt in the neighborhood, painted on the deck, read lots of books, had some naps, watched some movies and had a wonderful time at Sylvie’s “California house”. LOL. She’s coming back to New York with daddy this weekend and mama will come back the following week because her show, Regency Girls (at the Old Globe) was extended and, we hope, bound for Broadway!

I did finish two pairs of little socks for Sylvie before I got to California. One green pair and one purple pair and she was happy with them. The yarn is King Cole Footsie which is washable and dryable but I’m going to have to make more, bigger socks. Her little footsies are growing so fast!

I also started a cardigan for Sylvie for fall. I had real troubles figuring out what to bring for travel knitting but I knew I wanted to finish her socks. So that part was easy. I don’t think I took any finished photos. oops.

Knitting Pure and Simple #1607 Child’s Skirt and Cardigan Set in King Cole Simply Denim

I’m knitting the second size, a size 4 with a 24 inch chest measurement. I hope it’ll be big enough for fall and winter! BUT as you can see in the last photo of the group above, she has a new Disney princess sweatshirt that she wanted to wear in the car on the way home AND immediately upon waking up the next morning. So, the cardigan has some stiff competition! I brought three sets of buttons with me and she picked the ones she wants which I will reveal when it’s time for buttons. The kid knows what she wants! You’ve got to love that.

Yesterday I made my way back home with the reverse order, Lyft to plane to bus to car. My sweet hubby was waiting for me at the Portland, ME bus station and I was so happy to see him! It was a great trip and it’s always great to be home. Even if it’s only for 48 hours.

Adventure awaits! Gone knitting.

Hat for Haley … a Chemo Princess

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Princess Hat

Princess Hat

I had a message from a friend in Ohio requesting a chemo hat to be made for a friend’s three year old daughter who has cancer. As I’ve said before, maybe not here in the blog, the words cancer and child should never be seen in the same sentence.

When a special friend asks and because my three children are healthy, I agreed to put aside my personal knitting and make a gift for a little girl who faces some yucky days. I needed to know her name and her favorite color. I had some fun purple (Haley’s favorite color) yarn in my stash and I went over to Ravelry to look for patterns.

I was originally thinking about a striped hat that I’ve made before. It’s a great hat. I’ve made a couple of them to donate for fund-raisers or whatever. Although, this old girl forgot, it seems, to take any photographs of them. Oops!

Anyway, I was looking around and found a lot of cute hats … and then I found THE hat.

I knew it was perfect (and I had just put aside some sparkly gold specialty yarn that I have had for ages to see if someone in my knitting group wanted to use it.) So, I pulled out the gold yarn and my stashed purple Cascade 220 and I got started.

The hat is called “Princess Crown” and can be found, free, on Ravelry. It’s one of many adorable patterns in Allison Stewart-Guinee’s Fairytale Knits book. And it was just perfect. I knew it in my heart immediately. What little girl doesn’t love to wear a crown?

Purple is Haley's favorite color … and this is more like the actual color of her Princess Hat

Purple is Haley’s favorite color … and this is more like the actual color of her Princess Hat

The hat knitted up very easily and has just a touch of lacey-ness in the body of the hat which carries down the hat making it look as if it’s a real crown. The golden crown part is knit up separately on circular needles and then stitched together with the hat. Once together, the band is knit and it even has a pretty picot edge stitched right in.

Because the format on the Amazon site is supposed to be laid out as a book, it can be a little bit confusing to follow. Just beware! I did get lost at one point and had to frog and re-knit a couple of rows. If you can follow the format of the pattern, though, the pattern is clearly written and simple to knit. It looks like you’re an expert, too!

Wet blocking so the hat has some shape!

Wet blocking so the hat has some shape!

I have wet blocked the hat and used a large handful of plastic grocery bags as a form to have the purple “hat” part block out. I can’t wait for it to dry so I can get it into the mail! I hope Haley is going to love it and that it brings her smiles on the crummy days when she doesn’t feel well. There’s lots of love in that little hat and it’s all heading to Ohio and Haley!

Gone Knitting.

Clicking for Babies …

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My Purple Hat for Maine Babies

I’m clicking for babies today.

At my Wednesday night knitting group/class, Betty shared this community service project with us and I decided to participate because I can empathize with tired, stressed new parents who have a baby that won’t quit screaming!

I’ve often shared my story about one particular night when I was a new mother and my daughter woke up in the middle of the night (as newborns do!) and I changed her, nursed her, put her back to bed and she would not sleep. She just screamed. I tried everything that I knew to do – changed her again, nursed her again, rocked her … although by that time I was so stressed, I’m sure she sensed it in me. And then she pooped and it dripped out of her diaper, down my nightgown, down my leg, on the rocking chair cushion and onto the carpeted floor. Yup! I lost it … and thank God her father was snoring in the other room and I could yell for him and he came to take over so I could get cleaned up or I may have jettisoned her out the second story window like a football!

I was never told about a period of purple crying as a natural developmental stage of all infants. Here’s some information for new parents (or grandparents) that shares what this is all about …

Click here to watch a video by child crying expert, Dr. Ronald Barr.

So, today I’m knitting a purple hat. In Maine, as I understand it, the hats will be distributed to all parents of newborns in November (?) and will be accompanied by literature about babies’ purple crying (purple is an acronym and stands for something!)

Click on the link at the top of this post, share the site with knitting or crocheting friends and join me in clicking for babies! I’m even giving you my free pattern! There is another pattern (also free) on the clickforbabies.org website!

Gone knitting!

Finished! (I added an I chord "loop")

Purple for Crying Baby Hat

Size 6 and 8 knitting needles
1 stitch marker
purple yarn in a DK or light worsted weight
With smaller needles, cast on 61 stitches
K2, P2 across the first row ending with a K stitch
P1, and then K2, P2 to the end of row
Repeat these two rows for three inches
Change to larger needles and on wrong side, knit across the row
Continue in stockinette stitch (knit one row, purl one row) for three inches more (hat measures six inches from cast on edge… if you’d like to knit stripes, go wild! The only requirement is that the hat must be more than 50% purple.)
Begin decreases:
[K2tog, knit 11 stitches, sl1, K1, psso, place marker] 4 times, K1
next row – purl all stitches
[K2tog, knit to 2 sts before marker, sl1, K1, psso] 4 times, K1
purl 1 row
repeat the last two rows until there are 13 sts left on the needle
break a long piece of yarn, with a needle pull yarn through all stitches remaining and sew the seam – make sure to switch to the other side half way down the ribbed (cuff) section.
Weave in ends.