Life in Hats: March 2016

I didn't not like this book. It was a quick and enjoyable read. The book is written by the creator of a minimalist blog. I'm not sure what I was expecting from this book, but it didn't seem overly helpful. It made the idea of minimalism seem nice, but since I have already been wanting to get rid of my extra stuff that wasn't a high bar to reach.

I think the problem with this book is that it isn't a book about how to be a minimalist; it is an autobiography about a man who became a minimalist. In his book he shares his personal stories and other stories he has come across, but there is very little practical advice. One chapter about halfway through the book gave a starting suggestion about getting rid of some of your stuff.

Another book about minimalism I read recently was The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. Her book also shared many of her personal stories, but she also had a lot of actual advice. I didn't agree with it all, but it was at least there. The more of less doesn't have that, and I think without more actual methods or practical advice it isn't very useful of a book.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

My latest project is not a hat, but it is a way to enable me to make more hats. One of my knitting needles sets is HiyaHiya. I like the needles a lot, and they are the ones I always use for hats. The case they come is is pretty, but useless.

Here are two pictures of it from the internet. I was too lazy to take my own. But these even have the same print.

I originally liked the case, because it was pretty and not bulky. After using it for awhile I have noticed it isn't very good at the one thing a case should be good at: holding my knitting needles. The little flap goes over the needles, then the top section comes down, then the needles fall out the side. One time I lost one in a book for about a month. I have managed to not permanently lose any, but still not good.

I wanted a case that looked like this case but had an all around zipper. As well as two pockets for the stuff that goes in the two pockets of the original case. I decided to make one. After searching the internet for patterns I found one I could modify in a book I already owned. Mostly I needed directions on how to do the all around zipper part.

If I am being a perfectionist there are things to complain about. But, I'm still new to sewing and my case works for what it needs to and manages to look like the original as much as I think it could.

I started by making the needle pockets. This was mostly a figure it out as I went. I made one big pocket and sewed lines to make smaller pockets. I got them the right size by drawing lines with fabric chalk and then sewing on them. It seemed to work out ok.

The top I tried to mimic the design of the HiyaHiya case. My embroidery machine wouldn't let me easily squish my font, but I think it was close enough. I pieced together the front mostly by sewing scraps of fabric at the angle I thought matched and then trimming to size.

The outside came together pretty easily despite by having almost no pattern. When I tried to sew it all together and add the all around zipper, things stopped being quite so easy. I think that is something that will get easier once I've been sewing longer.

Here are the pictures of the finished project.