Let the bidding begin

Hello Friends,

I've finished the Foliage Hat for September's "Knitting for a Cause" auction on my blog. I'm so pleased with the results that I have started another Foliage hat with some more yarn from Don -- Jo Sharp's Silkroad Tweed (85% wool, 10% silk, 5% cashmere) in a really nice color called "Wintergreen." Anyway, I'm digressing here, so let's get back to the auction hat. Below is a view of the entire hat (laying flat) so you get an idea of how the stitch pattern looks. Yes, there are holes in it, but they aren't very big and I imagine it would be warm unless you're a person with no hair at all or you're standing outside in a stiff winter wind.

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Measurement flat is about 9.5" (so the hat is at least 19" around)

Here's what the hat looks like on me. Since I like a hat that covers ALL of my ears, I added one more pattern repeat than the pattern listed, so you can see that this hat comes down over my ears and forehead quite nicely. I have a medium sized head and I think this hat fits just fine! (BTW, my head got pretty warm during the 5 minutes or so while I was attempting this photo shoot in the bathroom mirror.)If you're interested in bidding on this hat to help Kristy deliver hand-knitted hats to orphans in the Ukraine, you can leave a bid in my comments section or if you're uncomfortable with that, send your bid to me in an e-mail (rjknits at msn dot com). I will leave the bidding open until next Wednesday (September 10th) at 8:00 PM (CDT). I would like to have the bidding start at $10 and see how things go from there. I'm going to be interested in seeing how this turns out and I hope to get bids from lots of folks--not just my regular commenters but also those people who regularly read my blog, but have never left a comment.......I know you're out there! I would love to send this hat to someone who will enjoy it for themself or give it as a gift to a loved one or special friend. Hat season is not that far away.......

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Since I was washing and blocking my Foliage hat, I decided to do the same for a couple other projects I've finished in the past couple weeks. Shown below is a neck warmer. This yarn is 100% alpaca and hand-dyed. I found it on sale at Ram Wools a couple months ago. They had all kinds of different colorways and I think I bought 9 or 10 different colors. They're 50 gram balls and it was just enough yardage for knitting this neckwarmer (they're nice for keeping your neck warm in the winter--especially if you don't want the bulk or long tails of a scarf around your neck).
I also had a red shawl to show you, but the pictures of it lying flat on the bed just didn't do it justice, so I'll have to enlist Mr. Johnson's assistance and try to get some photos of me modeling the shawl. I think you'll like that one and it would also be a good item to auction on my blog for an upcoming worthy cause.