Cruising Ravelry

For whatever reason, the queue on my Ravelry is a black hole for projects. I put something I really want to make there and it falls through. Even if it's something easy peasy to make, nope. Zip. It makes me depressed to look in there, and it make me wonder about patterns of mine that have wound up in queue. Are they dead in the water as well? Lately I've been keeping patterns on a project start basis, and so far pretty good. The odd few that had to be frogged (and haven't been restarted). Another is the favourite patterns. I get a little thrill everytime something I made was given another heart. I only just figured out how to view them (not that I'm nosey, which I am but that wasn't why I was curious) and couldnt be more pleased that I wound up with 2 full pages. Some, I'm sure have 30+ but you know what? I'm easy to please. The only other thing I'm curious about is the friending. Is it strange to friend someone you don't know, like an author or someone who's patterns you absolutely adore? And why don't more people rate the patterns and yarn choices? It makes for a better review in my opinion, I try to do it for every one I finish. My notes tend to be a tad too descriptive too..but then again, that is the point, yes?

Buttoned Baby Hat

Buttoned Baby Hat
Size 7 (4.5mm) circular and dpn
Lion Brand Wool-Ease (used Rose Heather, Woods Print, and other (now discontinued) colours with great success), Red Heart Soft was used for one as well. One ball should make 2 hats
5-7 small decorative buttons (optional)
Stitch marker
Darning needle or crochet hook for fastening off ends
Sewing needle
Thread to match hat and buttons
14 1/4" unstretched
Fits up to approx  17"
Unsure of just what age of a baby this would fit, seeing as I haven't had a baby to test it out on. If you have the chance, please let me know of what ages this fit. My daughter had a rather large head so she wasn't the best example. I used circular needles for this, although it does mean a bit of a stretch. You may wish to work entirely on dpn. My size 7's were too short and dropped stitches so I opted for the circ's.
Gage: 16sts = 4" on size 7's
If your looking to sub yarn, the ball band gage is 18sts/24 rows

Please excuse my "work table"

CO 60 sts. Pm, and knit 6 rnds
Button band:
Next rnd: P
Next 2 rnds: K
Next rnd: P
Continue knitting until hat measures 3" from beginning with edge unrolled
Dec (changing to dpn when needed if started on circular)
Rnd 1: K 8, k2tog; repeat to end of row -54 sts
Rnds 2 & 3: K
Rnd 4: K 7, k2tog; repeat to end of row -48 sts
Rnds 5 & 6: K
Rnd 7: K 6, k2tog; repeat to end of row -42 sts
Rnds 8 & 9: K
Rnd 10: K 5, k2tog; repeat to end of row -36 sts
Rnds 11, 13, 15, 17: K
Rnd 12: K 4, k2tog; repeat to end of row -30 sts
Rnd 14: K 3, k2tog; repeat to end of row - 24 sts
Rnd 16: K 2, k2tog; repeat to end of row - 18 sts
Rnd 18: K 1, k2tog; repeat to end of row -12 sts
Rnd 19: K2tog; repeat to end of row -6 sts

Red Heart Soft

Cut yarn, draw through remaining stitches and fasten off. Weave in ends. Sew buttons in between the purl ridges using coordinating thread.
If you aren't comfortable in sewing on buttons for such a small person, you can use a varigated yarn (which looks great on its own), or use a novelty yarn in place of the 2 purl rows.

Varigated yarn with no buttons

Beware The Children

Where I live, there are a lot of children. I mean loads, its a requirement to live here. Or you had kids and they grew up and moved out but your still here. Either way, oodles of underage children. Let's be honest with each other here, not all of them are little angels. Some are downright little punks and you want to boot them and the parent who raised them. We have a rather high percentage of those. They recently installed a large covered porch that will be included in a ramp. This is a kid magnet, and I don't want all these unknown children by my door. Before you think that I'm the crabbiest lady that you told your kids it was ok to egg my house come halloween (and even tossed a few yourself) consider this. Would you want them up on your porch when you didnt know who they were, where they lived, and breaking your outdoor decorations. Not to mention these children are rude, they curse, spit, and destroy anything possible. Swearing goes way beyond the occational "hell" and "damn". Racial slurs are common too. What really bothers me is the older kids. It makes me nervous to tell them to go away. The latest group of thugs in the making that was making its rounds, all it took was me looking out the window at them. I hate that it nerves me to do this but lets face it. They are at least as tall (and in a lot of cases taller than) as me. And I don't know whats going on in their heads. These children tend to be lumped together as the "bad kids" and while I know its an unfair stereotype, it's apt. These are the ones that are up till past midnight even during the school year, they smoke, they curse even worse than their parents, and they make you want to hold your purse a little tighter when you walk by. For all I know, they're honor roll. But that isn't what I'm seeing. What really irritates me is the parents of these kids. Someone came up with a "clever" saying: there are no bad kids, just bad parents. From what I've seen, it tends to be both. The parents don't deal with the attitudes early on and they walk all over them once they realize just how out of control their offspring really is. They can't really do anything with them so they ship them outside, just grateful for the slight peace in their own home. And I'm not making this up, this actually is the problem with one apt. Sometimes its just bad luck on both the parent(s) and the child(rens) part(s). Other times, it's sheer negligence. I worry about my daughter, growing up like that. Will she be one of those running rampant? I'd love to say absolutely not but I don't know for sure. All I can do is hope for the best, show her right and wrong, and love her.