My next hat is a tunisian in the round

 

I am using a double end "H" hook, a red colored yarn that is a normal 4 weight yarn and a black Yarn Bee yarn from Hobby Lobby that, as we all know is more like caron simply soft and not a "normal" 4 weight yarn.  It does, however, make a good yarn for a return stitch for tunisian crochet.

I am making this one with the thought of the boys shelter donation, so I made it 1 increase larger than the regular hats I make.  I started with 10 HDC and am using the extended simple stitch for this hat. 

Looking forward to finishing it!

A few more hats, but some with a twist

I put my addi away for a while and decided I was in the mood for simple old loom knitting. I used some recycled yarn from some hats from Mom that were too small and created these 2 hats.

sparkly red and forest green

green and a red/white/green Christmas colored yarn.

Then, finally taking the advice from a yarny friend, who hates seeing me frog the Mom hats, and says I should just add to them to make them bigger, I did just that.

For this first one I had actually had it started on the loom and decided I didn't want to make another loom hat  I frogged my loom progress and started using that yarn, with tunisian crochet, to build the body of the hat back.  It was actually big enough around.  Then I used part of a hat that was super skinny and pointy, kinda like a dunce cap, and added some more tunisian to the bottom of it. I do have another hat in the works using more of the yarn i added on the bottom.

The above one and the one below I used a hat I probably could have made longer, but I wasn't thinking.  These 2 were the first 2 I tried adding tunisian to the bottom of the hats.  

I finished off all 3 of these hats in just a few hours.  I think they all turned out pretty cool.  Took way less time to finish a hat since most of it was already done for me.  I will be making more hats like this for sure.  I don't know why I thought I had to totally re-do them.  One of my excuses was "I don't know what hook size or how mom is doing it". I tried but mine never looked as good.  I'm guessing it's partly because mom crochets looser than I do.

I am working on some hats to add to someone else's donation, to a local boys shelter.  I think the bottom 2 will be perfect for that donation.  I had hubby try them on and he said they fit pretty good, so I figured they would work great for a teenage boy head.  I am having to try very hard not to make all the hats for the donation.  I probably already have enough for all the boys. 😄  When the group mentioned a hat donation they were speaking my love language and I got into the mood. 

What have you been crocheting, knitting, cooking etc. lately?

 

First Finished Crochet Project of 2026

Happy New Year 2026

2026 started off with a crochet challenge with a local yarn friend.  We have chosen 26 different quick easy crochet projects to make together this year.  I made a video about that.  Go check it out if you are interested in seeing what all we have chosen.

Our first project that was chosen, via drawing out of a bucket, was the  Granny Square Bucket Hat . It's a free Ravelry pattern.  There is also a paid pattern option, but keep scrolling on the Ravelry page and you will see it towards the bottom.  This particular pattern also has a video tutorial with it.  

Our rules for this challenge were:

1. Must be scrap yarn, meaning you can't use a brand new skein.  

2. We can share progress pictures with each other.

3. We have until January 18th to finish it.

This is my finished hat.  It is sparkly red, silver, and orchid yarn.  We both enjoyed this project and decided to put the slip of paper back in the bucket so we can make another one again sometime this year.   

This hat will go into the donation bucket for a future donation.

I Made Another Hat Donation

A couple weeks back I contacted one of my cousins who teaches preschool in a nearby town and asked her if she would like hats for her students.  My mom made almost all the hats for the local preschool that I donate to so have a stash of hats that I’ve made.  Hopefully I can stay ahead of them in case mom slows down on making hats.  Anyway, my cousin was super excited.  She should get her package of hats today. 

The blue velvety hat, middle row on the right, is for her. The teacher always needs a hat. 😊  I am looking forward to hearing from her when she gets the hats.  This donation is more exciting for me than my usual donation. 

Chicken Haul

 We bought a bulk box of chicken quarters. I wasn’t sure what to expect but I think we got our moneys worth. We didn’t know how they would be packed. Im glad they didn’t come prepackaged so i could package them up myself. There was a total of 25 leg/thigh quarters. I packaged then in zipper bags. I got 6 bags of 4 quarts and an extra quarter.

I put 1 bag in the refrigerator freezer and 5 bags in the big freezer.

The odd quarter I put in the crockpot . It will make some delicious homemade chicken noodle soup for next week.

First Time Making Bread in Forever

 So the other night I decided to make some homemade bread. It has been forever since I’ve made bread and longer forever since I have made a successful loaf of bread. I used to make homemade bread all the time when my boys were young, but thats been several years back.

I don’t like the idea of the time and energy involved is making bread completely by hand, so I got out my trusty bread machine. I don’t like bread baked in the bread machine, because I have a vertical loaf pan. I bought my current machine second hand about 5 years ago and it has just been sitting collecting dust. Anyway, I used my machine to make my dough. It does excellent mixing and rising it.

I found a bread recipe in an old bread cookbook that called for shortening instead of butter for oil. I was excited about that for sure. I did my best to half the recipe because I didn’t want 2 loaves.

I have had my yeast stored in the freezer for about as long as I have let my bread machine collect dust, so wasn’t sure if it was still good.

I think the yeast is just fine. 😊

I didn’t bother forming my loaf roll i just pulled the dough out of the machine and plopped it in my bread pan and into the oven. 40 minutes later and this was my results

Nice and soft and almost the perfect loaf of homemade bread. It needs a bit more salt and sweet and it would be perfect.

I’m looking forward to making bread again very soon. This loaf won’t last long that’s for sure.

100 Hats For Preschool 2025

 I delivered the hats for a local preschool last week.  93 were made by my mom and I added 7 to make the 100. Here’s the video showing all 100 that I donated.