Hand Embroidery

I've always enjoyed hand embroidery but I've only used a handful of stitches in the past. I've decided that this year I'm going to learn as many new stitches as I can. While watching tutorials on YouTube I came across Namaste Embroidery. There are tons of stitch videos but most of them have music playing and no actual talking. I prefer to have someone explain the stitches to me and chat with me so it feels like I'm sitting right next to them stitching along. I know. I'm weird. Jessica also has a website where she sells a variety of embroidery designs. I also found these free designs. Both where on the same printout so I went ahead and stitched each of them. The one on the right is her original design and the heart on the left is her updated version with a few different stitches added. These are meant to be hung right in the hoops you use to stitch them but I think I might make them into a little wall hanging so they can both be together since they're basically the same design.

Charity Hat Knitting

I have more yarn than I feel comfortable having in my stash. It's only about four cloth shopping tote bags but for me that's too much. I don't like having yarn or fabric just sitting in my stash and not being used. I know. I'm weird. Anyways...There are many generous people collecting hats for kids, cancer patients, homeless, and so many other people in need. I've made hats for a few of these collections but I never really felt drawn to them. Clare, from The Big Family Homestead  is collecting hats for Vets in her area of Wisconsin. I felt drawn to this hat collection so I'm going through my stash and knitting some hats.

My go to hat pattern is the Bankhead . It was originally and adult hat but the designer has updated it so it fits baby to XL adult heads. I like that it has a little ribbing so it does have some stretch but mostly it's just a fun knit. Because I don't knit steadily on these hats it takes me about a week or two to make one hat. Depending on how much time and motivation I have for these hats. 

I've gone ahead and cast on my second hat using the discontinued Bernat Mosaics yarn. I really enjoy knitting with this yarn but this is my last skein. I'm going to have to mix it up a bit and alternate some plain hats with the fun to knit colorful hats. Otherwise I may never make any simple one color hats. 

Do you do any charity knitting?

TTMT #54 Miss Whiskers Cameo

TTMT #50 Happy Fourth of July!!!!