Books Read in 2017

65. Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker, Chiaverini, Jennifer
64. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Watson, Winifred (re-read)
63. *Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, McMaster Bujold, Lois
62. *Jackaby, Ritter, William
61. *Howl’s Moving Castle, Wynne Jones, Diana (re-read)
60. *Due Diligence, Lee, Sharon and Miller, Steve
59. *Flight of Magpies, Charles, K. J.
58. *A Case of Possession, Charles, K. J.
57. *The Magpie Lord, Charles, K. J.
56. A Conspiracy of Kings, Whalen Turner, Megan (re-read)
55. The King of Attolia, Whalen Turner, Megan (re-read)
54. The Queen of Attolia, Whalen Turner, Megan (re-read)
53. The Thief, Whalen Turner, Megan (re-read)
52. Thick as Thieves, Whalen Turner, Megan
51. Seven Wild Sisters, DeLint, Charles
50. *The Owl Service, Garner, Alan (re-read)
49. Stargate, Norton, Andre
48. *Swordspoint, Kushner, Ellen
47. *Privilege of the Sword, Kushner, Ellen
46. *The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, Chambers, Becky
45. Point of Honour, Robins, Madeleine E.
44. The Mark of the Horse Lord, Sutcliff, Rosemary
43. Where the Dead Lie, Harris, C. S.
42. Convergence, Cherryh, C. J.
41. Visitor, Cherryh, C. J. (reread)
40. Tracker, Cherryh, C. J. (re-reread)
39. When Falcons Fall, Harris, C. S. (reread)
38. Who Buries the Dead, Harris, C. S. (re-reread)
37. Why Kings Confess, Harris, C. S. (re-reread)
36. What Darkness Brings, Harris, C. S. (re-reread)
35. When Maidens Mourn, Harris, C. S. (re-reread)
34. Where Shadows Dance, Harris, C. S. (re-reread)
33. What Remains of Heaven, Harris, C. S. (re-reread)
32. Where Serpents Sleep, Harris, C. S. (re-reread)
31. Why Mermaids Sing, Harris, C. S. (re-reread)
30. When Gods Die, Harris, C. S. (re-reread)
29. What Angels Fear, Harris, C. S. (re-reread)
28. Alliance of Equals, Miller, Steve and Lee, Sharon (reread)
27. Trade Secrets, Miller, Steve and Lee, Sharon (re-reread)
26. Liaden Constellation, Vol. 2, Miller, Steve and Lee, Sharon (re-reread)
25. Liaden Constellation, Vol. 3, Miller, Steve and Lee, Sharon (re-reread)
24. Liaden Constellation, Vol. 1, Miller, Steve and Lee, Sharon (re-reread)
23. Dragon in Exile, Miller, Steve and Lee, Sharon (re-. . . reread)
22. Necessity’s Child, Miller, Steve and Lee, Sharon (re-. . . reread)
21. Mouse and Dragon, Miller, Steve and Lee, Sharon (re-. . . reread)
20. Scout’s Progress, Miller, Steve and Lee, Sharon (re-. . . reread)
19. I Dare, Miller, Steve and Lee, Sharon (re-. . . reread)
18. Plan B, Miller, Steve and Lee, Sharon (re-. . . reread)
17. Local Custom, Miller, Steve and Lee, Sharon (re-. . . reread)
16. Conflict of Honors, Miller, Steve and Lee, Sharon (re-. . . reread)
15. Carpe Diem, Miller, Steve and Lee, Sharon (re-. . . reread)
14. Agent of Change, Miller, Steve and Lee, Sharon (re-. . . reread)
13. The Gathering Edge, Miller, Steve and Lee, Sharon
12. Dragon Ship, Miller, Steve and Lee, Sharon (reread)
11. Ghost Ship, Miller, Steve and Lee, Sharon (reread)
10. Saltation, Miller, Steve and Lee, Sharon (reread)
9. *Fledgling, Miller, Steve and Lee, Sharon (reread)
8. *Passing Strange, Klages, Ellen
7. Balance of Trade, Miller, Steve and Lee, Sharon (reread)
6. Tripoint, Cherryh, C. J.
5. *Were-, Bray, Patricia and Palmatier, Joshua, ed.
4. *When Marnie Was Here, Robinson, Joan G.
3. Crystal Dragon, Miller, Steve and Lee, Sharon (reread)
2. Crystal Soldier, Miller, Steve and Lee, Sharon (reread)
1. A Conspiracy of Kings, Whalen Turner, Megan (reread)

* Ebook

We Can’t See The Last of Harvey Soon Enough

Again, please donate to the American Red Cross.  Every little bit helps.

A cousin CP in Pearland got water in the ground floor of her home.  We haven’t heard from another cousin and family in Clute, which is in the path of the Columbia Lakes levee that was breached. (My mom is the youngest of 12, so I have cousins whom I reckon by the dozens . . . ) We finally heard from my cousin WM in Rosharon.  Her house and car have been spared, but her land is all flooded.  She says they’ve lost all the hay, and the cattle (and wild life) are having a hard time of it.  She can’t get to them, and there’s no way to evacuate them or a place to take them to if she could.  She says they’ve gotten almost 50 inches of rain.

Harvey is heading toward Louisiana now.  At the Beaumont/Port Arthur airport (roughly between Houston and the Louisiana border), they measured 26.03 inches (66.11 cm) on Tuesday — that’s a one-day total!  Smashed the previous record to smithereens.  They’ve been keeping data since 1901; the previous record was 12.76 inches (32.41 cm) on 19 May, 1923.  This brings their 5-day total rainfall from Harvey to a mind-blowing 47.98 inches (121.86 cm!)!

Port Arthur is the site of our country’s largest oil refinery, which was forced to shut down due to the floods. Our second-largest refinery, in Baytown, TX, was also forced to shut down yesterday, due to flooding-induced roof damage. In all, at least 12 refineries are currently offline due to Harvey, so gas prices are going to be going up.   Fortunately, I have a nearly full gas tank.

These are the unofficial 3.5-day totals for 27-29 August, 2017:
61.52” (156.26 cm)  Baytown, TX (Country Club Oaks) (over 5 FEET!)
53.64”  (136.24 cm) Baytown, TX (Eastpoint)
52.30”  (132.84 cm) League City, TX (South League City)
51.69”  (131.29 cm) La Porte, TX (Westend LaPorte/SJJC)
47.79”  (121.36 cm) Dayton, TX (Winter Valley)
45.16”  (114.70 cm) Dayton, TX (Brookstone)

The above is the three-day forecast of rainfall from yesterday (Wednesday) to Saturday.  Somebody else’s turn to get nearly drowned.

Volunteer rescue boats make their way into a flooded subdivision to rescue stranded residents as floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey rise Monday, Aug. 28, 2017, in Spring, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

That blue sign that says “45” is pointing to I-45 — That’s the Gulf Freeway!In the knitting news, I finished another Fabled Cable hat.  This is that Lion Brand Landscape yarn.  Rather colorful.  I’ve gone through the pattern again and made sure I’ve made all the corrections and it is now posted on my knitting blog.

Touching Bases

Please donate to the American Red Cross.  Even if it’s just $10-$15.  Every little bit helps.

My mom talked to my cousin WM in Rosharon yesterday.  She was beside herself as all her land where her cattle are is under water and it was nearing her home.  She thought she might have to leave in the night.  My cousin EJ in Pearland is safe but they cannot get out of their housing addition/estate due to high water.  The same applies to my cousin BJ who is home now but who badly needs to get out to see his doctor (who very likely couldn’t get to his office either).

I’ve heard from my blog friend as well this morning.  They’ve had 47 inches of rain where she is in League City.  The water is lapping at the front steps of her building, but she is on the third floor.  She lost power for a bit, but it is back on now.  Miss Dixie (at left) is taking things in her stride.  As they say, “Life is hard, then you nap.”

Johnson Space Center, mission control for the International Space Station is just across the lake from her.  Their total rainfall to date is 43 inches.  They are down to a skeleton crew of essential mission personnel only.  JSC also houses the huge thermal vacuum chamber where the James Webb Space Telescope is undergoing tests. The nearly $9 billion successor to the Hubble Space Telescope is to be launched in October 2018.  The telescope is safe at the moment, as are the personnel who have stayed to protect it, a spokeswoman said.

The space center covers 1,700 acres southeast of Houston, almost within sight of flood-prone Clear Lake and about 30 miles from Galveston Bay. It is on low ground — just 13 feet above sea level at its lowest point, 22 feet at its highest. And it’s only getting more vulnerable as a result of climate change.*

Just got word that the Columbia Lakes levee in Brazoria County just suffered a breach.  Residents in affected areas were told to “Get out now.”

Mom and I have been trading off trying to keep in touch.  We are only calling periodically, as we have no way to tell who has power to keep their cell phone charged, and who doesn’t, and we don’t want to use up power that might be needed to call for help!

 

*The POTUS does not believe in climate change.  Fair enough.  I don’t believe in him either.

Water, Water Everywhere

Please donate to the American Red Cross even if it’s only $10-$15-$20.  Every little bit helps.  Over 3000 victims have been rescued from flooding so far, and thousands are in shelters.  If just 1000 people donated $10, that would be $10,000!

Parts of east Houston are under 9 feet (2.74 m) of water!  Parts of Houston and surrounding areas have gotten over 30 inches (76 cm) of rainfall already, and it’s not letting up.   Dayton, Texas, which is north east of Houston, has gotten nearly 40 inches (1.01 m) of rain in just 3 days.   I hear talk that the damage of this hurricane is going to rival that of Katrina in terms of cost.  We’re talking $billions.  Harvey has dumped 9 trillion gallons of water on southeast Texas.

There’s a massive 8-lane highway under there somewhere  . . .  We come in on 610 south to Highway 35 when we visit our relatives in Pearland.

The Brazos River is expected to crest at 59 feet (17.98 m).  My cousin WM lives by the red star, which is about 2 miles from the Brazos River.   The last time the Brazos flooded, it crested at 51 feet, and the water was up to, but not in her house.  I talked about her getting her cows out.  As problematic as that may be, equally problematic is where she can evacuate them to.

Here’s some drone footage of League City, where I have a blog friend.  I hope she and her cat are OK.  I haven’t heard from them yet.  This is pretty much what East Houston looks like too.

League City is southeast of Houston, and southeast of Pearland.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

After trashing the Rockport area, Hurricane Harvey has only just begun to wreak its havoc on the Texas Gulf Coast.  It’s already clear that the most widespread damage from Harvey is going to be the flooding — it’s scary when meteorologist start talking about rainfall in feet, and they are.  1-3 feet (that’s 30.48-91.44 cm of rainfall for the metric crowd).  Harvey’s one-two punch is not just the flooding caused by rain on the coast, but it’s bringing torrential rains hundreds of miles inland into east Texas, which is going to put an ungodly amount of water into the rivers in that area, so right about the time the rain flooding is subsiding, the rivers are going to flood.

Last I heard 300,000 people are without power.  Here are some of the rainfall totals (multiply these number by 2.5 for cm) measured between Thursday evening and 10 a.m. this (Sunday) morning.  (These are small towns in the Houston/Gulf Coast area)

SANTA FE  27.42
SOUTH HOUSTON 24.54
LEAGUE CITY 22.08
BACLIFF 21.62
PEARLAND  20.84
LA GRANGE 18.89
SUGAR LAND 17.97
CLEAR CREEK AT BAY AREA BLVD 17.84
MAGNOLIA 17.80
PASADENA 17.72
HOUSTON NE 17.22
CLEVELAND 16.43
NEW ULM  16.14
PECAN GROVE 15.80
SMITHVILLE 15.77
ALVIN 3 SW 15.16

I have relatives in Galveston, Pearland, Santa Fe, Alvin, and a blog friend in League City.

I’ve talked/texted with one cousin, EJ, in Pearland.  They were OK as of this afternoon, as are her son and his wife and baby in Galveston.  But her brother, my cousin BJ, is in the hospital with double pneumonia, and has been there for several weeks now, and the hospital he’s in is in that area.  Still no word about how my cousin WM (and her cows!) is doing.  My cousin DJ lives in Santa Fe, and as you can see, they’ve gotten 27+ inches of rain already.  No word from him yet either.

I’ve quit watching the news.  It’s breaking my heart.  I’ve done all I can do.  Donate to the American Red Cross, people.  Donate money.  Any amount. Whatever you can.  Even if it’s just $5.

Better Put Yer High-Water Pants* On, Texas

I made a comment in an earlier post about us getting some rain because of swirly storms horsing around in the Gulf (of Mexico).  Yep.  We’ve been getting a goodly bit of rain here lately, real gully-washers, and one of them swirly storms name of Harvey is slamming into the Texas coast as I type.  It was upgraded from a category 3 to a category 4 just as it started coming ashore at Port Lavaca  (slightly north and east of Corpus Christi), which is mostly evacuated by now according to one of the masochists on The Weather Channel .

As my regular blog readers might remember, I have maternal relatives in the Houston-Galveston area.  They are not in any immediate danger from the hurricane, thankfully, but Jiminy Christmas, they’re talking 2 FEET (60.69 cm) of rainfall along the coast, including the Greater Houston Metropolitan Area between now and Tuesday, maybe as much as 30 inches. (76.2 cm).  Never mind your umbrella; better take your flippers and a snorkel.

And roll an eyeball over the rainfall prediction for the next 7 days.

Where I am is in the blue bit in the extreme upper left-hand corner.  But the worst part of all this hurricane business is that they think Harvey is not going to start dissipating when it makes landfall like most hurricanes do.  He seems to want to wander around a bit and may have a little sit-down first, so there could be widespread and severe flooding.  I hope my cousin WM can get her cows — and herself! — to high ground.  She lives at the edge of the flood plain of the Brazos River west of Houston.  My cousin EJ’s boy and his wife and little daughter Raelyn Rose (Little Raelyn is the one I made all those baby clothes for about two years ago.)  live in Galveston — in a brick 2-storey house, but only miles from the beach.  They don’t expect much in the way of storm surge, but they’re in that 2 feet of rain area. That whole end of Texas is going to be soggy and squishy for months.

Well, after Napster/Rhapsody did me dirty, I decided to finally bite the bullet.  Consumer Cellular was having a really good sale on its Samsung Galaxy J3(6) phones.  I have been saving up for one for months now, foregoing junk food, cakes, cookies, ice cream and candy, and putting aside the money I would have spent on them.  It came Wednesday.  I ordered a little wallet for it from Amazon, and it came this morning — in the pouring rain, no less.  Changing to a smart phone is only going to up my bill about $3-$5 a month, depending on how much data I use.   I just texted my cousin EJ a while ago — now that I can! — to let her know I was thinking about her.   Napster has an Android app, and I can download music through it over WiFi, which doesn’t use up my data, and then play it through my phone, again without using data.  The phone only has 16GB of memory, but I have my eye on a 64GB memory chip that is around $20.  My mom is not going to be happy with me for getting yet another gadget, but there it is.

In the knitting news, I’m doing a toboggan out of some camouflage patterned yarn KC donated to my chemo hat efforts. (Chemo camo!)  It’s a regular knitting worsted weight (Medium:4) yarn, which I have not used for toboggans yet.  I’ve only used the Red Heart Unforgettable yarn, which is actually about halfway between a Medium:4 weight and a Light:3 weight. I think it’s going to take the lion’s share of the skein of yarn to make it, though.  I thought this style hat in a camo yarn was bound to go over big with guys undergoing chemo and needing hats.  Apparently in this part of the world, something that might be considered wimpy/sissy becomes automatically “manly” if it’s in camo.

I need to get all the donated Dazzle yarn knitted up so I can wash it. The yarn has been in storage for probably 30 years, and needs the dust washed out, for one thing, and it’s easier to wash after it has been knitted up.  I’ll set my washing machine on delicate and pour in hair (shampoo) conditioner at the point in the cycle where you are supposed to add fabric softener.  That is supposed to soften the yarn right up.  We’ll see.

Well, it’s after midnight now, so I’ll say goodnight, Gracie.

*high-water pants

Art, Both High and Domestic

The lovely little piece to the right is “The Madonna of the Yarnwinder” — It’s called that because “The Madonna of the Niddy Noddy” doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.  That little dohicky the Christ Child is holding is called a niddy noddy.  They’re used by people who spin yarn to wind their yarn into skeins, and measure the length of yarn in the skein, typically 80 yards.  It’s a very low-tech little gizmo — I’ve seen them made from PVC pipe.   The high-tech version is called a “spinner’s weasel” — The wheel is 2 yards in circumference, and 40 turns of the wheel equals an 80 yard skein.  Where the “tech” comes in is that some of them have a little clockwork mechanism with gears that turn a counter which will then make a clicking or popping noise when the wheel has turned 40 times.  — Yep.  You got it.  Pop goes the weasel.

In the knitting news, I’ve already finished a Simple Pleasures Hat with a ribbed brim out of the donated Dazzle yarn. Instead of just joining on a different color and carrying on knitting to make the stripes, I used a mosaic knitting technique of k1, sl1 (knit one, slip one).  If you pay attention to whether you k1 or sl1 as the first stitch when you start the stripe, and do the opposite when you join the background color after finishing the stripe, you get this zig-zag effect which I quite like.  I got almost 2 skeins of the pale orange, two skeins of the dark brown, and a skein plus a little golf ball size ball of the dark orange, as well as a skein of dark blue and four or five skeins of white as my cut of the donated yarn.  I don’t think I’ll be using the white for hats.  Maybe I’ll make another baby afghan for KC’s church group.

I’ve started another Simple Pleasures hat out of the dark brown and need to get the brim hemmed before I go to bed.  We’re having the eclipse tomorrow and I’m going to my mom’s to watch the important bits of it, and I can sit and knit while we visit.  Tomorrow would have been my dad’s 95th birthday.  Today when I shopped groceries, I got a big piece of carrot cake which i’ll bring to split with my mom.

I’m pretty put out with Napster/Rhapsody.  You can’t download music to your PC or to an MP3 player any more.  They say it’s because Microsoft removed the support for WMDRM tracks and offline playback.  I can still stream to my PC and to my Kindle and tablet.  I may need to check my internet radios to see if I can still use the Napster app on them.

I thought my $150 plus electric bill was higher than giraffe’s ears last month.  Guess what.  It was even higher this month.  Almost $170.  The thermostat is going back up to 80 F (16.6 C) and I’ll just sit around in my unmentionables with fans on.  I’ve been in these digs a year now.  I might can check with the electric company to see if I can go on average billing. (They total your usage for the past year and divide it by 11, and you pay that amount January through November.  In December, you make up the difference.)  I gotta do something.  It’s shooting my book budget in the foot.

Thor’s Day Afternoon

The French, who were up to their ears in Romans a lot longer than England was, call it “Jeudi” — the day of the Roman god Jupiter.  But because England was all over Angles, and Saxons, and Norse (oh, my!), the English name for the day hearkens back to the Germanic/Norse god Thor.  So today is Thor’s day, rather than Thursday, because Thor and Chris Hemsworth, (not to mention Tom Hiddleston, who is, very . . .), and it’s nice to have a change once in a while.

We had two noteworthy things happen in knitting group, Tuesday.  One, we were saddened to learn that A’s son had passed away unexpectedly.  He was only 53,  and although he did have COPD, it was not that bad.  He lived alone, and a relative found him dead.  A has had a lung transplant, so she has had a number of vicissitudes in her life already.  I think she only had the son and the daughter. VS told us about it.  She is A’s across-the-street neighbor and frequently brings A to knitting group.  Very, very sad.

We were processing this news when a woman walked in and asked if we would be interested in some yarn and knitting needles, which is rather like asking sheep if they would be interested in a pasture of nice thick green grass . . .  “Some” turned out to be two big boxes of yarn and a box of assorted knitting needles. It seems she had been clearing out her late mother’s house, and her mother was a knitter/crocheter (many knitters are ambicraftous and also crochet.  Me, for one.).  This was after KC had “busted” her stash and had brought me a big bag of yarn suitable for hats (which must be done in hypoallergenic acrylic or nylon yarn that has a very soft hand) in trade for five or six sets of circular bamboo needles, and here was a bunch more.  I got some double pointed needles out of the box of assorted knitting needles — several 4-and one 5- needle sets.  (Of course, the minimum needle requirement for knitting is two.)  Our group leader’s church is doing prayer shawls, so they made out like bandits with a large box of perfectly free “save me from this” yarn.

There were six 1.75 oz skeins of lavender “Natura Burlee” yarn which they probably haven’t made in 20 years.  And I rewrote the baby afghan pattern “Sweet Sherbet” for it. I may not have enough of it to complete the project and I may have to find an interposable color to finish it.  We’ll see.  I’ve got a yellow that might work.  KC’s church has a baby afghan project I might donate it to. I’m calling the new pattern “Sherbet Parfait” — seemed reasonable.  Made a nice change from hats.

In the plastic bag that had the lavender yarn was a thin plastic 7-inch ruler which says “St. Labre Indian School, Ashland, Montana.”  The lady did not say where her mother was from.  There’s no telling how the ruler got in the bag.  Or when.

The purple fuzzy hat is in the decreases now to close the top, and I’m going to finish it tonight if it harelips the governor.  No, the purple fuzzy hat is done!

 

Extreme Knitting

AKA “Aerobic Knitting.”  Because why not?

Thanks to Nothing But Knits for this one.

The Grass Is Always Greener In The Flower Beds

I really need to call the little Hispanic man and his wife to come fork and weed the flower bed, and ask him if he has a chainsaw. I’d rather pay him to do it and trickle down a little cash into the economy than try to tackle it myself. In the first place, I’d have to buy a garden fork because I don’t have one any more. (I sold all my yard tools when I moved into the apartment.)  In the second place, it’s too durn hot. (I can’t take the heat anymore like I used to could.)

Now, something like resetting the edging bricks, or laying down some pavers by the faucet, yes, that’s not out of reason, or planting some bedding plants, or even laying a bunch of mulch in the bed, which I may do if budgetary constraints allow — it would take about five or six bags to mulch that bed properly. Yeah, I could spread a thin layer over the surface and the weeds would be popping right back up to give me the raspberry. If you’re going to mulch properly for weed control, you need at least an inch.

I do have a volunteer rose bush. (How did the world know I like 3 of things better than I like 2 of things?)  Tea roses are very often grafted onto a root stock that is one of several varieties of very hardy climbing rose.  Typically what happens is the graft dies and it grows back out from the root stock.  That’s what’s happened to the red rose.  The “volunteer” rose bush is either the root stock off a bush whose graft died back to the ground, or else it’s a runner from the one next to it, but hey, roses is roses.

We did get a trickle or two of rain overnight.  I have a feeling we’re going to be getting more if some of those swirly storms get to horsing around in the Gulf (of Mexico).

It was sunny, and sparkly with dew/rain this morning when I went out to take the above pix.  The fat(cat)boy, who has been clingy since I took him to the vet for his shots was nervous because I wouldn’t let him out on the porch with me.  (He is strictly an indoor cat.  He never goes out of doors unless he’s in a carrier.) He is not taking to his diet well.  He whinges and whines when his bowl gets empty long about 3 o’clock, but he doesn’t get fed again until 6 pm.  I have been tossing him a pair of treats (Greenies, 1 cal. apiece) but I make him chase the first one all the way down the hallway into my bedroom, and just when he’s eaten that one, I get his attention and lay a second one at my feet so he has to run all the way back.

In the knitting news, I have four hats on the needles at the moment:  This one is a Fabled Cable hat — still working on the proportions of the ribbed bit, the cable bit and the top bit, so I haven’t posted the pattern yet. This one is using the Lion Brand Landscape yarn, in the color “Apple Orchard.”  I will say this for the Landscape self striping yarn:  The colors are very bright and have a high contrast value.   A bit garish for my tastes, but then, that’s what makes horse races.  Then I’ve got a Simple Pleasures hat going in the Red Heart Unforgettable in the color “Pearly” — which I’m not sure I have enough of to finish the hat.  I need to root around in my yarn box to see if I have any more of that color.  If not, I will use some of the delicious green shown, which is called “Meadow.”  The color palette of the Unforgettable yarn is much richer and more subtle than that of the Landscape.  Chacun, as they say . . .

Another Coriolis hat, with a leftward twist, because I like doing ssk’s better than I like doing k2tog’s.  Again, this is the Red Heart Unforgettable yarn, in the color “Dragonfly” which I like a lot.  The color choices in this blend remind me of the James Taylor song, “Sweet Baby James.”  Won’t you let me go down in my dreams . . .

Still working on this version of the Simple Pleasures hat in the Moda Dea Dream yarn.  I’ve got about another 1-1/2 inch to go before I start the decreases.

This is typical of me.  I work on one a while and get bored with it, and set it aside and work on another one.  The Simple Pleasures hats are stockinette once you’ve gotten the brim (either ribbed or hemmed) done, so they require no thought.  You have to pay attention to the other two, particularly the Fabled Cable to get your cable crosses right.

I’ve been listening to Kit Watkins all morning.  Very restful “floaty” music that is tranquil, melodic and somewhat minimalist.  Just right.  If you like his music, there’s a bunch that’s free for the downloading on the Internet Archive, which is where I got it.  You can find all kinds of stuff on the Internet Archive.  Give it a browse sometime when you’ve got an afternoon to kill.