Another beach knit

After finishing my niece's hat, I had left overs of a scrumptious cotton yarn, momentum and motivation. A woman who was renting the cottage across the street from us was expecting her first baby in August and she was a knitter. I figured a knitter could appreciate being given a baby hat by someone who was practically a stranger since we had just met that week. By this time it was just two days before she was leaving. Being a journalist, I thrive on deadlines!

This is my go-to baby hat for girls based on a hat someone knit for me when I had my first baby. Basically, you cast on twice as many stitches as you need for the hat, knit one round and then knit two together all the way around. I add a row of eyelets about a half an inch from the bottom for a ribbon or cord. I usually crochet a cord rather than make an eye cord. It's thinner and much, much faster.

For this hat, I started in white, moved to the verigated and then switched back to the white at the very top.

I finished it in one day only by walking and knitting it the whole time. This, not surprisingly, opened me up to much ridicule from my family, but that's okay - it keeps them busy.

I'm adding a few pics just to show that the sun really does exist! We made this lovely lady for the sand castle "contest" - our team name was "Mer Fun" (get it?...more fun...okay, it's corny, we had just 30 seconds to come up with it!)

The little one is running to "win" a Water Olympics race. She doesn't quite understand the concept that everyone wins. The prize is always the same for everyone - two pieces of candy from a bucket.

There was some rain, but both of the big storms were followed by incredible full rainbows. It seems someone already found the pot of gold!