A Unicorn hat, aka "the devil hat".

This is the unicorn hat I made for my niece who is really into My Little Ponies right now. It didn't turn out exactly like I wanted, but it was one of the longest projects I had. And let me just say for the record how much I hate fringe. If you have received a knitted gift from me, it most likely did not have fringe. I once heard that, "Fringe is a waste of yarn." Although I am inclined to agree, I more hate it b/c it is so difficult to work with (hello fun fur) and time consuming. Anyway, I hope she likes it.

The other project I finished this week was a drop stitch scarf in copper mohair. It is not the softest yarn ever, but it is so beautiful to look at!

The picture really does not do it justice. It has a shiny luster to it that does not come across on film that well. Six more days till Christmas!

Baby Sweater

Here is a crocheted baby sweater that I also started this summer and did the finishing work on tonight. It is for a co-worker. She has a thing for black and had a girl in October so I made it pink and black. Hopefully she likes it!

Ship Pillow

So this is a pillow I started in July 2009 and did the finishing work on last night. It is a present for the bookshop I go to, http://www.rediscoveredbookshop.com/. Mike helped me download their logo and convert to knitter's graph paper. The edges were really blurry so I had to make it up a bit as I went along, but it turned out really well. (This was the first project I did where I used a picture and converted it to a graph. Now I use the transparencies and Vis-a-vis markers-so much easier!)

You may recall the 1st pillow I did for them was in the same color motif. It matches the couch in the bookclub area (navy w/yellow pinstripes.)

The book we read for December is called Rosemary and

Rue by Seanan McGuire. It was excellent! I read it in three days (that may be a record.) It's an urban fantasy

where a half-blood fairy tries to straddle the human

world and the fairy world while solving crimes for both

sides. It is a quick read and I highly recommend it. (It must be good b/c I didn't knit for three days during the crunch time that is Christmas run!)

Birthday Post 2.0

Here is the other gift I made for last week. It is the drop stitch scarf from Vogue Knitting made with Caron's Simply Soft. I have also made this scarf with a mohair yarn and it turned out equally well. I may make some more of these. They knit up very quickly and I think they work well for both genders. It is rare for me to use the same pattern more than once (except for my beanies) so it is really saying something that I already have two down and am not sick of it yet.
Over the Thanksgiving weekend, my Stephanie Pearl-McPhee calendar had one of the "You Know You Knit Too Much When...." quotes that continued on as something like"there are only 25 days left of Christmas and instead of this fact striking fear into your heart, you cast on two more sweaters and three more scarves because you know you have time to finish them." That is so me. When I realized a few of the presents I had planned were not going to work out, I added five new projects to complete in addition to the two I had left for December. I now have a total of six projects to finish (and 3 that need adjusting or finishing up.) I can do it!
The annual Christmas card session is commencing this evening so I will be occupied for a while, but we did a bunch of prep work last night so hopefully it will be quick and I can get back to my knitting!

Birthday Post 1.0

Pictured at right is one of the birthday presents I made for November. It is a cabled wristwarmer pattern that was on the ballband for Caron's Simply Soft, which may be my favorite yarn since Red Heart Symphony was discontinued. I like these so much, I may make a pair in a different color (probably black) for myself.
I also have another picture of a drop stitch scarf I made (in a pattern I am loving from Vogue Knitting), but it is on my phone and I am technically challenged at the moment in downloading to the computer. I'm sure once I figure it out, it will seem oh so easy.
Tonight I started a lace scarf in a silk/bamboo yarn. It is only 102 yards. I got it for a Christmas project and then ended up finding something that worked better so now I have one of those stray one skein projects going. I may end up ripping it all out like I did with my chenille hat Saturday, but we'll see. I will try to post the other birthday project later this week.

Cat Blanket Mama

Ha ha! Mondays are my new blog day apparently. I have been successful three weeks in a row now in updating my blog. Awesome. Since I have still been mostly sick, I have been relegated to cat blankets. The Idaho Humane Society has to wash and dry them all before they get used, so I figured I could get my knitting fix in without making anyone else sick. (I even took my knitting to the New Moon midnight premier and worked on it while waiting for the show to start.) According to the doctor, I will be coughing for another week or two still. Ugh.
This week I have a few last minute things to finish up (read sewing the ends in and wrapping them) for various birthdays in November/December. I often forget about these until the last minute and it interferes with my Christmas schedule. I guess it's a good thing I am such a fast knitter. The good news is, I will finally have some pictures to post next week! Hooray! I will try to be good and remember to actually take the pictures before I wrap them and give them away this time. I swear.
My one new project that I have been working on is a felted hat. I could not find any merino wool at Joann's (blast!) so I have been wearing those one-size-fits-all midget gloves to knit. Otherwise my hands get all itchy and scratchy since I am allergic to the one yarn they had (Paton's) that fit my instructions. All I can say is, this project had better work out! It is knitting up pretty fast since I am using size 11 needles (my those dpn's were expensive for such short work. I hope I can use them on another project some day.) The part I am sketchy about is the actual felting. I have never done it before and I sure don't want to have wasted all that time knitting such a large item to have it not turn out in the end. I ought to be finished with it by next week so hopefully I will have something positive to report about the fo (finished object.) Until then....

Ta-da! Sort of.

Well, the good news is I am back on one week later. The bad news is I have been laid up with a lasting cough. I finished my wrist warmers, but that's it. There has been no knitting for four days and I am starting to freak out. But, I don't want to give my cough to any of my gift recipients. (Even if it's not possible germetically-speaking (yes, I made that up), that's just gross. "Here, I made you this, *hack, hack* but don't get sick! *hack, hack*") I have thoroughly warned my husband not to touch any of my sleeves, or pretty much anything in our room as I have been holed up there for 20+ hours/day. I guess now the computer is off limits too. Or maybe I will just spray it with some Lysol. Ugh, I am going to go lie down. I hope to have more good news to report next week!

Designing

Okay, so the weekly thing is not working out, but I am on again at least within the next month. Whew! Progress.
I am still working with the Caron Bamboo/Acrylic yarn, but on the last bit of the project. I am currently using a ripple pattern, and it has turned out just as beautifully as the star stitch and the bramble stitch. Excellent.
I have also started using a transparency to graph out designs (on knitter's graph paper, which is different than regular graph paper) to incorporate into a project, intarsia-style. Note to all readers, DO NOT use dry erase markers on transparencies. It does not come off! After a long hunt, I finally found Vis-a-vis markers (which I did not know are also called wet erase markers, eureka!) at Fred Meyer. I tell you, that store has everything. So I mapped out my first project, but have not been able to work in it with the yarn b/c my elusive needle has disappeared yet again. I suspect the cats. They have stolen it twice already, argh! I think I am just going to have to purchase a back up, although finding one will be the challenge. I may have to forgo the Clover and suck it up for an Addi.
I also found a delightful cabled wrist warmer pattern on a super sized skein of Caron's So Soft that knits up quite quickly. The Evil Empire has them: a 7 0z. skein for $5. Awesome! One caveat: they don't have the color (plum wine) that is depicted in the picture on the label. Still a fun project though. Until next time.

New idea

So, since I am terrible about updating my blog in a timely manner, I have decided to try updating weekly, regardless of whether or not I have pictures available to show. This week I finished a pink purse for my niece's birthday which was Friday. It was a rectangle that I sewed up the sides (tri-fold) and sewed a handle in. I also sewed on a button to keep the flap down. It was a pink plastic butterfly. Unfortunately, I did not take a picture before I wrapped it and gave it away.
October of course is in the middle of Christmas run, so I am still working on projects that I cannot talk about without giving them away. But I will say that I am currently working with a bamboo/acrylic yarn by Caron that is FANTASTIC! It is so soft, and I swear, it is the never ending yarn. I may buy some more if I can find a good T-shirt pattern. It is soft enough to sleep in. The only bad part is that it splits easily and I find myself having to be careful to make sure my loops are all going the correct direction. I am using a new pattern called star stitch which I am quite pleased with. Here are the instructions:

1- knit across
2- knit 4, p1, "star stitch-p3, leaving the stitches on the left needle, move the working yarn to the back and p3 again" to remaining 5 stitiches. p1, knit 4
3- knit across
4- knit 4, p3, star stitch to remaining 7 stiches, p3, knit 4
repeat

You may want to try a swatch of it before committing to a long term project, but I really enjoy unique stitches like the star stitch. Enjoy!

Christmas project, pt. 3

These are the only two Christmas projects I still have. Two beanies I made for my dad and his girlfriend. One is Red Heart Super Saver & Red Heart Symphony combined. The other is Red Heart Super Saver with a simple fair isle pattern I whipped up on the fly. They met on the same vacation to Peru so I thought the pattern fit well.

Christmas project, pt. 2

I found this pattern in Stitch N Bitch: the Happy Hooker. It is crocheted, rather than knitted. I used Peaches n Creme cotton yarn and just bought bamboo handles and a fake flower to pin on. Super cute!

Christmas project, pt. 1

As part of Christmas run, I created this stuffed penguin
called Pasha from knitty.com. I used Vanna's Choice yarn
which was a first. It was similar to Red Heart, but seemed
to split less which is always helpful. Sewing it together was the hard part, because the black on white didn't allow much room for error in seeing the stitches. Not sure if I did it right, but this is close as it was going to get. I thought it turned out pretty well, and the recipient loved it too, which is all that matters.

Rock Band upgrade

If you have ever played the XBOX or Wii game Rock Band, you know how loud those drum sets are! (Seriously, the designers/marketers of this game must have some major hearing loss if they couldn't figure this out during development.) The drummer for my band, The Plural Squirrels-look us up!, was using men's socks rubberbanded to the drum heads to drown out the sound. For months, I was trying to convince him that I could custom make him something that would look better than socks. Finally, I just had to do it and show him. Now we get compliments whereever we go. He is still trying to convince me to mass produce them, but it is just isn't profitable. Maybe as a side project or to buy my own XBOX 360. It is coming....

Craft Weekend 10/08

I couldn't decide what to make for Christmas run since I had done hats in previous years, but with the upcoming Hobblecreek Boutique, I committed to making beanies for sale so I could at least come up with some extra cash. Mostly I made loom knit BSU beanies. Sales were not as I as I'd hoped, but at least I have some inventory now that I can use for future bazaars.

The Next Beanie, 9/20/08

So after I finished the Ugly Beanie, I had a family friend ask me to make her a pink/black beanie. I, of course, started calling it the Raspberry Beret, but did not sing the song. (If you don't know who sings this, shame on you.) I totally scored at Joann's one night and found the yarn of my dreams that I had been searching for for years. I first found it at Wal-Mart, but they discontinued it. I found a couple skeins in with another yarn that was marked $5.99 so I snagged them and took them up to the counter. When I asked the sales rep for a price check, she told me they were $1.00 each.

*angels singing* My friend walked back with me and we pulled every single skein from the shelf and I went home with three garbage bags full of Redheart Symphony. It is 100% acryclic but designed to be a mohair style yarn. So soft! The Raspberry Beret is made with the Ugly Beanie pattern and is composed of Red Heart Symphony (which has been discontinued by Red Heart) in Lt. Rose and Red Heart Super Saver in Black.

The Ugly Beanie 09/08

I have a friend who is wild and crazy when it comes to fashion. He will wear just about anything, especially if it is loud. In fact, the louder the better. So with winter coming on, he asked me if I could make him a beanie. "Sure," I said, "I'm a regular Ian Johnson." He asked me to make it as ugly as possible and said he would pay me for it. Sweet! A commission with which to further my stash! So with what scraps I had and a non-American pattern, I began to make my first beanie. I have had many people tell me that it is in fact NOT an ugly beanie, and that I am far too OCD to be capable of making an ugly beanie. The sad part is, I still have my first beanie in my possession because I have not been able to get in contact with my friend. In the meantime, judge for yourself and feel free to leave comments on how ugly, and at the same time how successful, it is.

The Summer of '08

I had an extremely difficult time being motivated to knit, not to mention, blog over the summer. Yarn just did not entice me. Amazing! I'd heard of such things happening before, but was quite surprised when it actually happened to me. I had this sexy little number I'd knit up from Party Knits. It was a sleeveless shell with picot trim that laced up the back. Even my husband was excited for me to finish it. Alas, it is still in pieces in the bag. I guess you could say I needed a vacation before the pressure of "Christmas Run" started. However.....once September rolled around, the "Ugly Beanie" campaign began.