Fun Weekend

Luckily both my husband and I were mostly over our sickness before the weekend festivities. We went with a fun group in a limo down to Stone Brewery for one of our friend's birthday (it was a surprise from his wife). We had a great time overall with the whole trip and it was a blast to see the brewery. And they are even building a beer hotel across the street from their brewery as well!! As much as I enjoy wine, I really like brewing beer and the very good varieties from microbreweries. Speaking of which, I don't know if I posted or not, but we have a Belgium ale in the carboy right now. We brewed two weeks ago, so we should be testing it this week (but I doubt it will be ready to bottle). We actually used a kit for this one, but it should be good. Our last one, a triple IPA (my recipe!) is bottle ready and is really good. And we're looking at doing a spiced wheat beer next. Not sure yet, but my husband wants to try some spices so we are looking into what we want to do.

On a creative note, I finished the chemo hat for my friend today. I usually make them for people just for the cost of the yarn, but they discontinued the yarn I've been using. So I really need to find a replacement. This one is really soft, which is nice for someone going through chemo. I need to find something soft and washable. I will have to look into it carefully. As for the other hat (my pattern), I finished one for the same friend who has another friend going through some kind of medical problem. They don't know what it is, but she's not doing well and losing her hair and very self conscious about it. So, I thought the nice slouchy hat would be nice for her. And this weekend (during the Superbowl), I plan to start on the slouchy hat for myself (in a lovely green -  not bright, just pretty).

I'll have to post more later. The baby is asleep and everyone is heading to bed. It's only 8pm!! I'll go upstairs and read. . .or knit. . .or watch some bad television. I'll decide when my husband finishes mixing my drink to take upstairs (It's martini night - I ran 7.5 miles today so I earned it!).

Another Hat

I finished another hat while watching football this weekend (yeah 49ers!!). This one is for a friend of mine. Well, it's actually for someone she knows. For a few years now I've offered to make people chemo hats if they buy the yarn, and I've done quite a few. But this friend of mine knows someone who isn't going through chemo, but she's sick and the doctors can't figure out what's wrong. And part of the symptoms is that she is losing her hair. So for her, instead of a soft, tighter fitting chemo hat, I made a pretty slouchy hat. I just love this pattern and this is the third one I've made. Next weekend I will be working on another hat just like it during the play-off games (go 49ers), but this one will be for me! I don't wear hats very much, but I just love them so I keep making them!

Knitting pictures

Okay, I found a couple of pictures of items I knitted for Payten. First is a sweater I did in a teal blue. Yes, I know she's a girl, but the color is just wonderful!

And here is my daughter (Payten's Mom, Dee) holding the tree of life blanket I made for her as well.

The picture is kind of dark. So I will just have to get better with my photography! But, the blanket is a scaled down version of the tree of life pattern. It was a lot of fun to make, but probably not as useful as some of the other larger blankets that were made for her!

I just finished a quick crocheted case for my Kindle Fire (the purple case I really want is on back order) that I'll post up next week, and I'm working on an afghan right now as well. My next big project will be a sweater since my good friend gave me a gift certificate to our local yarn store! Yeah!!