Helping The Ships Project

Some of you may know that I knit hats for our troops overseas through a group called The Ships Project. When I started knitting for them, I had no idea how many devoted and talented knitters were busy knitting hats, slippers, scarves, gaiters, etc. for these young men and women. The mods shell out hundreds of dollars a month in postage to send everything. I've been donating monthly, then it occurred to me that knitter want to make hats for this and other charity- or non- projects. I started designing simple hats that knit up quickly in worsted/Aran weight yarn to raise funds for The Ships Project. I'll try to put a new hat or other item a month up on the nav bar at left. Patterns are $3.25, payable using Paypal. Right now you e-mail me and I invoice you, then send you the pdf file. Help is always an e-mail away. I'm trying to chart and write text for patterns, and any corrections from knitting readers will be welcome.
First up is the Anchors Aweigh hat. I have the Trees hat pattern done, and the Sand Rib Mystery hat nearly done (it's still a mystery to me how I'll tackle the dec rows). I have at least 4 more patterns floating around in my head.

A Rogue Post and a (Nearly) Reversible Guernsey Hat

Now I have nothing aqainst Gitta Schrade; she does marvelous designs, and DD#1 did say she yearned for a long cabled sweater with a belt, so way back when (April? May?), I started such a thing out of seafoam SheepsWool. And wasn't liking it, it was not a fun knit, easy but not fun. Then DD#1 flipped through the 25th anniversary VK Fall 2007 that just came, and sighed after the lacey hoodie. She is addicted to hoodies. I can't break her of it. Lace is not her thing or style (good, I don't want to knit a cardi from side to side; did one for her when she was young and the cardi was small). She did mention liking the Celtic cables on Rogue though. So I join the ranks of countless knitters who have made the Rogue sweater (get it here). And fortunately, I have amassed a little stash of Rowan Magpie (heh, heh), including 2 shades of green, one of which is sure to please DD#1. Indeed, DD#1 has been deciding on which green (Morning Dew or a blue-green that's not quite teal, nor turquoise) since Sunday. And yes, a pullover style will suit her, so no "cardiganizing." Whew.
Speaking of my small stash of Magpie, scroll down to my destashing post, which I've been updating. I have 20, yes, 20 skeins of Magpie available. 10 are Rose, a lovely color but no one else in the famiglia wants to wear it (OK, I do, but I already made myself something out of Rose Magpie). 10 are a light pearl grey. I would love to trade for Magpie in other colors like Ruby, Moss, Lagoon. E-mail me (button at left) and we can discuss.
Update: DD decided to go with the Morning Dew (it was tough, took her over 3 days to decide!).

As promised,a peek at the Guernsey hat featuring Channel Island cast-on that I modified:

The tree motif is mine, the cable is a 3-st mock cable, and the diagnoals are the familiar motif known as "marriage lines." This is the way I'm knitting it; Guernsey patterns being traditionally on a purl background. But just look at the reverse side: I like it better; certainly the marriage lines show up crisper. Dang! if I hadn't done a cable but stuck to a traditional ribbing pattern, I could finish this hat to the reverse-side out. I like the Channel island cast-on this way too, 'course if someone were to turn the brim up, this side would not show. Remember folks, this cast-on does look a bit different from either side. I recall EZ wrote an article on it for VK, and she said she couldn't decide which way she like it better (I think I recall that, or maybe Meg Swansen wrote it). I agree, both sides are too pretty to ignore. So what do you think? Which side looks better to you? I'd be interested to hear your opinions.

**Sigh** That Skye is definitely the problem child Dog in this household. See what he did? He flipped his dog bed onto Rocky- and is lying down on Rocky (Rocky is busy chewing a Nylabone toy). We have no idea what possessed Skye.....

I'll be offline until Sunday, Saturday being the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur); spent in synagogue in fasting, prayer, and repentance. To everyone fasting, have an easy fast, and for everyone, may you be sealed in the Book of Good Life for the coming year.