The daughter of a college friend loves Shrek.  She’s five and while her parents are slightly perplexed about it, she just really loves Shrek.  I searched on ravelry and found a pattern for an ogre hat (rav link).  It was easy and cute, and I was able to modify it for a five year old.  I added an i-cord tie to the back in case the hat was too big.  I have no idea how large (or small) the head of a five year old would be, and my friend said her daughter’s head was on the larger size.  If the tie isn’t needed, it is easily pulled out.

Then the question was whether or not to knit a hat for her brother. On the one hand, I believe that kids should get used to the fact that it’s okay for one sibling to get a gift when the other one doesn’t.  But on the other hand, it’s not like this is a birthday gift and he’s a cute kid too.  I didn’t want to knit another Shrek hat, so I decided to try my hand at a donkey hat.  There weren’t any patterns on ravelry for donkey hats.

The hat itself was easy enough.  It was the ears that were a super big challenge.  The first set I knit looked like bunny ears.  I cut them off and tried again, making them wider (I think they are 11 stitches across) and less pointy at the top.  I knit the front and the back and then stitched them closed.  There’s a little bit of stuffing in them so they aren’t so floppy.  Then I used some black yarn to make the little tuft of hair between donkey’s ears.  And I also did a tie in the back because the head of a two year old is just as perplexing to me as the head of a five year old.

All in all, I’m pretty happy with the result of the donkey hat.  I’m not sure you would look at it and automatically say, that’s a donkey hat, but hopefully it will be amusing enough to the kids.  It was a fun, and surprisingly challenging, project.

This is pretty much how we’ve been spending time lately.  Bill was home sick last Friday and slept almost all day.  On Thursday night, he thought he would be able to help me with a paint project I had on the to-do list for Friday.  I managed to do it by myself while he napped (for four hours).  The project was not exciting and easy enough.  I was repainting some trim on the patio.  It’s the set up and the taping that takes time but does make things easier.  The project was completed and I managed to do it without spilling that much paint this time.

The rest of the weekend was spent laying around and relaxing.  I finished reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo which I enjoyed.  We also watched lots of baseball and bike racing.  I would have finished knitting my Sagano Shawl (rav link) except that I ran out of yarn on my bind off row.  I am about 6 yards short.  I’m contacting people on ravelry to see if anyone has scraps they would be willing to part with.  This running out of yarn thing is getting quite frustrating.  It’s the second time it has happened in the last two months.  I’m weighing my yarn compulsively, reading other people’s experiences on ravelry.  By all accounts, I really should have had enough yarn for the shawl.   Yarn issues notwithstanding, it was a very pleasant knit and I enjoyed the daisy stitch.

On Sunday night, I started to feel under the weather.  I really thought I was in the clear as far as Bill’s cold was concerned, but yesterday and today I have been feeling quite crapsy.  Bill is doing better so hopefully I will be on the upswing tomorrow.  I did feel well enough to make some more zucchini bread.  Our zucchini plant is doing pretty well.  This is our third batch of bread, and we’ve used other zucchini in pasta, and we probably have enough left for a fourth batch of bread.  I have made some healthy substitutions in the recipe, using applesauce for half the oil and egg beaters for half the eggs, and 1 cup of whole wheat flour for regular flour.  Those are changes that, to me, don’t change the flavor or texture of the bread.  I tried to cut some of the sugar, but that was noticeable and not so good.  I am thinking of substituting some honey for some of the sugar, but that will require some experimentation and I wasn’t quite up to it on Sunday.

I hope that you enjoyed your weekend, and that you aren’t dealing with a cold.  It’s not fun.

Oy! I see the writing and it says No More Yarn! I don’t know what compelled me to start updating my yarn stash on my ravelry page, but that’s what I spent my morning doing. I felt like I was pulling yarn out of everywhere! And the yarn in the photo isn’t all the yarn I put into my stash. I only pulled out one skein of each yarn. It’s actually quite scary. But also fun to see the beautiful yarn I have and think about what it will be knit up into. That line of thinking prompted me to update my rav queue. There’s a lot of things I want to make. And sadly, it doesn’t use up that much of my stash.

Anyhoo, I MUST go on a yarn diet for the rest of the year. And probably next year and the year after. But realistically, let me start with the rest of this year.

I wonder how much of this yarn I can knit up between now and the end of the year? Any guesses?