The Trouble with Tribbles

Or perhaps a Flurry of Fleece?

Over the Thanksgiving holidays I fell prey to the wondrous advertising magic of 50% off (and sometimes even better pricing) on fleece (as low as $2.99/yard) and ordered 30 yards of fleece - envisioning fleece blankets for all!  Cue Hoarder theme music...  Some was ordered as backing for fleece panels we already have, and some was used on patterned fleece I ended up picking up locally when the online source sold out early - suffice it to say A LOT of fleece entered my house!  A few yards left in a timely manner, fashioned into blankets. And a few more was cut up for other projects... but there is still A LOT of fleece in my house.

In a flurry of activity, I started "finishing" projects in order to move this stuff OUT.

Scarves for the Hockey Moms - cut and pinned at Boy Scout meetings (gotta use time - and tables - wisely), and then sewn together before the MLK Weekend Tournament was finally trimmed into fluffy scarves and distributed at the St. Patrick's Day tournament.  Poor timing on my part as only 6 of us diehard Moms were there in the stands. I was prepared for a dozen or more, so I'm ready for next season.

And the big hit - HATS.  The pattern I used is a 10 minute (ha) hat, with one seam. I modified it a bit, and added a seam to anchor the brow a bit.  When asked how long it took the answer was 15 hats in 2 hours... however, the first four hats that I made before Christmas also took 2 hours.

For both of the hats and the scarves, I found it much easier to use my rotary cutter to make the fringe versus using scissors.  The Spring Loaded scissors do reduce hand fatigue, but finding a comfortable position to cut while sitting in the car was not a success.  On the other hand, standing and cutting (for most of the scarves, I was able to use the counter at Gus's Boy Scout meeting) leads to back pain. In both cases, I recommend taking a break and walking around.

I'm happy to say that both the hats and scarves were a hit with the team.

And even better - I'm happy to say that the PeeWee Sharks WON the tournament!

This is Gus, all the way to the left.