Tour de Baby Hat 2015

Last Saturday was a big day: the first day of this year's Tour de France, 3,360 KM of cycling during 21 days, with just two days of rest, and the 100th anniversary of my father. I have a tradition of making some crafty project during the long hours spent in front of the TV. It has been baby hats in 2012, and some baby blankets too, it has been Scandinavian Christmas quilt stitching in 2012 and 2013, last year probably sock knitting, and this year it will be baby hats again, like  during the Giro d'Italia earlier this Summer.

My last Giro hat, the red one in this group photo, ended up too large

so I un-knitted it and knitted the yarn again, with less stitches and using this cable pattern:

I also prepared for more busy days and knitted some hats during other spare moments, so here is a hat for day one

and day two

and day three, which was yesterday.

With the cable hat of the Giro group, they kind of spell my name:

Today's hat with the last bit of this red and the last bit of the Giro pink is on the needles and will be shown in my next post. Yesterday's big crash needed my attention more than the knitting. I hope today will be a better day for the cyclists and for my project.

Meanwhile I have been busy making more coasters for the Villa Cooper:

My Shadow Plaid quilt is coming together nicely, but I keep cutting more and more squares to make bias squares. Unlike Stephanie, who has her Supreme pattern testers (including yours truly), this author has obviously not had her pattern tested. The pattern tells me to cut 216 dark squares, 144 light ones and 72 medium ones to yield 432 bias squares, which sounds like an awful lot. But after I have made 12 blocks consisting of 4 nine-patches each, I have used 12 x 4 x 9  = 432 bias squares. The next step is to take the leftover bias squares (which I naturally did not have) and make two strips of 24 squares for the sides, and later I would need 96 bias squares more for a border, and 4 for the corners. 148 bias squares are missing from her list! I think that too is a lot. I don't know if her yardage estimates are accurate, because I have naturally used odd pieces of old shirts, and luckily I have lots and lots more of them. The book is called Mad about Plaid! and it is by Debbie Bacon.

The peonies are in bloom again, and so heavy with rain.