80 !!!

Need I say more? Over the weekend I completed the last of the 80 kippot and immediately sent it off to New York to be labeled. Yay! I was doing happy dances all over the place. I was just so relieved to have completed on time.

It feels a little weird to have lost my constant companion. Since last May (the 28th to be exact) this side pocket of my Haiku bag has been the home of the kippah in progress and the ball of yarn that it was born of. Now it's empty. Empty!

Later today I suspect that I'll fill it with the current sock in progress but it won't be quite the same. It seems like everywhere I went over the past few months I would take out a kippah and add a few stitches. It'll be interesting to see the reaction of the people I see daily on my commute. They're so used to following the progress and many ask me how it's going.

Here are the last 6 displayed on my kitchen floor.

I'm happy I did this and I have to say that I learned quite a bit during the course of it. First I learned to crochet a bit. My deepest thanks go to Linda Hurt who was a huge help in figuring out my grandmother's pattern. When I started I had no idea how to read a crochet pattern at all. Now my skills have grown to where I can see myself tackling other bits of crochet but on a limited basis.

Along the way I adjusted the way I worked and modified the pattern on occasion. IAbout a quarter of the way through I discovered that a short length of a drinking straw was very helpful in starting the inner ring of crochet and then later I had a duh moment when I realized that pulling the end of the cast on yarn (that had been crocheted into the inner ring) would help close up the center hole. Some of the kippot needed to be bigger than most and others had beads or lace added.

On the whole it was a great learning experience and I'm sure that knowing how to crochet will help to make my knitting more interesting. I'm very happt that I did this and thankful that I don't have to do it again for 3 years.