Same Ol' Thang

Just to give you a quick update, I am still up to my same tricks. I have really been enjoying working on my cross-stitch and making a lot of progress. If I keep this up, I will be done by the end of the month! ......maybe. I took my wrap to knitting club tonight but I was all alone so I jetted early. I spent my time frogging last week's work and ended up being farther behind than I was last week! The good news is that I am finally getting a hang of the pattern which has been rather tricky. It is a lace pattern that uses yo's to create a heart shape (or a v) over a three row interval. Once I get further along (I am still on the first set so you can't see the pattern emerging yet) I will take a picture and show my progress. It probably won't be until next week though. I may have mentioned this before, but I will not be posting a picture of my cross-stitch any time soon b/c it is a gift for one of my readers and I don't want to spoil the surprise. (Think post-Christmas at the earliest.) Until then....

Ribbon top fiasco

Hello my lovely knitters! As you all know, I have been taking a break from knitting since last week's debaucle, but I am heading down to the club tonight to see if I can't get back into the swing of things.
In my down time (ha!), I have been working on a cross stitch that I started a couple of years ago. To make a long story short, unless you like bars A LOT, do not go to Denver on vacation in March b/c you will end up working on crafts in your hotel room all night b/c there is nothing else to do past 4pm. (At the time we went knitting needles and scissors were not allowed on the plane.) So every once in a while, I pull out the old cross stitch and plug away at it for a bit.
My second news-worthy item is that I wore my Mikado ribbon top that I redesigned this week! The bad news is that it feels a little short and the shoulders do not stay up (which was a problem since I was wearing it to work with a bra underneath instead of a tanktop/cami, not to mention we had a surprise visit from a higher up. Not even paperclips would hold that baby up!) So instead of a romantic, flirty top I am reliving Flashdance. I got tons of compliments on it though so now I am debating keeping what was supposed to be officewear as loungewear or yet again ripping out that SOB and cinching it up a bit. Comments would be welcome.
Until next time....

Hooray!

Good news boys and girls! I found my project last night. It was too late for knitting club, but at least I don't have to start over and purchase new yarn/needles. Guess where it was hiding! With the bread and brownies we brought home last weekend in the kitchen. Weird, huh? Anyway, I am looking forward to making some real progress this weekend. I'm not sure how long it is going to take all together, but hopefully not more than a month. Not that a shawl is super helpful with this insane heat we are having, but maybe for the meat locker otherwise known as my office? I'll keep you posted....

A depressing moment in a knitter's life:

Well my lovely readers, the most depressing thing that can happen to a knitter happened to me today. I was on my way out the door to my knitting club and I double checked my yarn bag to make sure I had everything to work on my project. But the project was not there! My husband and I searched and searched to no avail. I even called my aunt's house where we went last weekend to see if maybe we didn't pack it up with us, but I was sure I saw Mike carry it out. So much for making progress on my project. Now I am torn between turning to something else or starting in on another project (there are always several in line.) Also, I am bummed that I missed my knitting club. We had a fun little group last week and I was hoping to repeat the experience this week! I will keep you all posted as to where my path takes me....

My Hula-hoop pt. 2

So I finished up the remodel of the hula-hoop last night, and it was still a little too big. More importantly, it is still way too short! One of our guests asked if it was a swim suit. Ack! So I think I am going to change my project and make it into a shawl/stole. I'll have to look for a good lace pattern for that though, so in the meantime, I am starting my copycat shawl. A coworker commissioned me to make a new shawl in a 'non-itchy' yarn that is a copy of a shawl she has from the 50's. The original is a mint green acrylic with a matellic thread through it. I am using Caron's So Soft in Autumn Red to replace it. http://shopcaron.com/shop/cart.php?target=product&product_id=121 (For those of you familiar with Color Me Beautiful, my friend is a Winter.) I believe it is going to be knit up on 6's, but I need to test the gauge first to make sure (see yesterday's post for the reason gauge is important in knitting.) Until then....

My Hula-hoop

I finished my bustier today! Here's the bad news....I didn't have enough yarn to make a bustier so I was just going to make it into a girdle (like the pirate wenches wear.) So I bound off and got ready to try on my latest and greatest creation. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a gauge problem! My fitted girdle is the size of a hula-hoop. A pink and gold, glittery hula-hoop. Apparently I didn't measure as carefully as I thought I did before I started! Oh well, maybe now I will be able to make the full bustier after all....back to the drawing board.

5/21/07

So you can see, getting started isn't always the hardest part of things! I got this blog started and have busily been working away on projects without knowing how to add my pics to this thing! I think I got it now, so prepare to be updated at least weekly, ideally semi-weekly.

The first pic is of a grocery sack holder I knitted. (If anyone has a better term than 'grocery sack holder'-boy is that a mouthful!-feel free to chime in.) How did this project come about, you may ask? Well, this is what happens when you have skads of the same acrylic (Red Heart-everyone's favorite!) yarn and one skein of a somewhat nifty novelty yarn that you bought on a whim and have no idea what to do with. The acrylic can be used to make cat blankets for the Humane Society, but I'm sure those precious cats are just as sick of this blue yarn as I am. Also, I don't know about everyone else, but I despise the grocery store and only go as often as I have to. As a result, I have a fair amount of plastic sacks that just get tossed up on top of the old refrigerator until they pile over the edge and start dropping on your head when all you want is some milk for your cereal! Augh! (I'm sure I'm not the only one to have experienced this.) So, I thought, why not create something lovely with some spare bits of yarn to contain the unorganized mess on top of my fridge. Ta-da!

The second picture is a pair of fingerless gloves I knitted and crocheted from a book I got at the library called, what else? Knitting Loves Crochet. They are knitted from microfiber yarn that, while wonderfully soft, snags like no other. You will be cursing it just as I did, I promise you. It makes finishing a pain as well.

I also finished the lovely pink ribbon top that I redesigned from the horrid 80's decade it came from last night, but will be posting it later this week. Next up is another ribbon yarn from Keep me in Stitches in McCall. I will be knitting up a bustier on size 19 Addies. They are huge! (And they cost more than the bleeping yarn did!) Until then....