Lots of Knitting, Very Little Blogging

Yup, I did it again - over three weeks since the last post - but I'll try to make it up with lots of photos. I mentioned last time that I'd been concentrating on making fancier than usual items for our Xmas Craft Show at the Sr. Center (proceeds will go to buying machine washable yarns for our K4 group's charity knitting). These also qualify for the Winter Warmies KAL over on the Knitting Purls group on Ravelry.

First of all, three hats all basically the same design with rolled brims & a purl row before flat decreasing the crown by working the decreases every row. The red & green ones are adult size while the purple one is for a child as there wasn't enough of the ribbon yarn.



Knit with a strand of bright red sayelle and one of ribbon yarn to add some sparkle.



Again a strand of mossy green sayelle combined with a double strand of variegated green mohair.



A ball of striped blue & purple ribbon yarn combined with the purple sayelle.

I'm awfully glad that Zarzuela started the cowl craze over on Plurk - I've been making them for our Xmas Craft Show at the Sr. Center and have already sold a couple to staff members who saw them (no photos of those, sorry). Here are the latest ones - and the biggest reason why I haven't been blogging:













Two of them are the Birthday Cowl from Nova Made, one is a 12 stitch Feather & Fan repeat, two are plain because the yarn is so pretty in person and the last, the rust ribbed one, doesn't look like much laying on the floor, but it's cute under a denim jacket.



Yes, more cowls - this one of light blue mohair with a simple YO, SSK pattern every other row and garter stitch top & bottom to keep it from rolling.



These last four cowls are worked in simple stockinette with garter borders as the yarns carry the design without adding lace or cables (which would probably have been lost anyway). This one is solid black with red threads.



A pink mohair yarn carried with a variegated slubbed in pink, grey & purple created this look.



A grey feathered yarn carried with a strand of black sayelle makes for a chenille look.



My personal favorite - the fancy yarn was sport weight with large unspun slubs of color that I worked with a black sayelle to add warmth.

These have been so much fun to make and there will be more coming as the craft show doesn't start until the first week in December. Back to my needles!

A Contest At Knitnana

My very good friend, Sallee, has a new contest over on her blog Knitnana. This last weekend, she added a new goodie to her line of Nana Sadie Rose bags & needle holders. Gladys is designed to hold interchangeable needle sets like KnitPicks Options or the Boye NeedleMaster sets. What's the contest, you ask? It's voting on which type of closing you think the needle case should have - a ribbon tie, a button tab, or an elastic loop and button. A little over a month ago (see the Feb 7th post) I received my Grand Mera & Posy bags, and an Oressa double pointed needle holder. I love them!! And I can testify to the meticulous workmanship of Sallee's masterpieces. So click on the link up there and voice your opinion. The contest's prize is a Gladys all your own. Be sure to look at all the other bags she sells while you're there.

In other news, we are in the middle of the move to the new house. It's going slowly as there's no rush, but cats, computers, cookware, yarn, needles & books are over here now and as we discover that we're missing something, we drive the two blocks to the old house and grab it. I'm in the middle of deciding how to use all my new cupboard & pantry space. The spices were moved yesterday - yes, I have lots of spices as we like Thai, Indian, Mexican, & Lebanese dishes - and are now "filed" in the bottom pull out shelves next to the stove. They're even in vaguely alphabetical order with labels on the top so I can see what I have at a glance. This is going to be so much nicer than having to rummage through a cabinet shelf in search of the Five Spice powder for stir-fry. {g}..

As you might imagine, with all this going on, I haven't had much time for knitting. Sock #2 is about where I left it a couple weeks ago. I did whip up four plain hats last week between Monday & Thursday to go with scarves one of our K4 members, Frances, had crocheted and knit a black garter stitch scarf over the weekend. My biggest project at the moment is the sweater that I'm designing for my grandson. These photos are from a week ago, but I now have the fair isle pattern on the yoke complete and am just about ready to start the back yoke.




The yarn is Bernat's Super Saver worsted weight on 10½ needles. The body is knit in the round up to the armholes and then back & forth for the yokes. The Norwegian Star pattern is from Alice Starmore's Fair Isle Knitting Book. It's another "design as I go" original so things may change as I go along, but right now I'm planning on a boat neck with 3-needle bind-offs for the shoulders, then picking up the sleeves on 16" circulars and using a small fair isle pattern at the top while I work down to the cuffs in the round. Grand-daughter's sweater arrived in California last week and she tells me that she's already worn it to school, kung-fu class & Girl Scouts. I think it made a hit!

A New Translation

A member of our K4 knitting group (Hi, Marian!!) asked me earlier this fall if I could figure out a way of making this sweater without having to seam the front & back halves together. I've been working on it for a week or so and this is how far I've progressed.




I knit the front & back of the body in the round and when I reached the underarm I used a provisional cast-on from a crocheted chain (that's Knit-Cro-Sheen which has the advantage of not splitting when picking up stitches). When I reach the front shoulder in a few more rows, I'll bind off for the neck and then leave the shoulder stitches on holders while I go back and release the sleeve stitches from the chain. At that point, I can knit up the back yoke & sleeves and when I reach the shoulders do a 3-needle bind-off. If everything works the way I'm hoping, it will be finished except for running in yarn ends.


I did have one small problem that I didn't go back to fix. I'm working the sweater on size 6 & 8 needles rather than the 5 & 7s that the pattern calls for because that's what I had handy. However, I'm so used to working on size 10½s that when it came time to switch to straight needles and pick up the sleeve stitches from the crocheted chains, I grabbed a 10½. If you look closely at the circled area of the following photo you can see a row of larger stitches.


In other news, DH's new pair of Fuzzy Feet are finished and felted. The addition of the strand of sport-weight orlon didn't affect the felting process at all. On the blue sock, I had started working a lace cuff and then after about 4" had switched to a rib. After looking at it for a while, I decided that I didn't like the rib with the lace so last night I frogged back to the lace section and will continue with that without ribbing. I'll post photos soon.

Third Blog-versary

I let the first two slip by unnoticed, but yesterday I realized that today, Jan 6th, 2008, is the third anniversary of my very first blog post back in 2005. Therefore, I thought that I'd take a few minutes to sum up what I've been up to during those three years.

As you probably know if you've been reading this blog for long, most of my knitting & crocheting is done on charity projects in conjunction with our K4 (Krazy Kool Knitters & Krocheters) at the local Senior Center. To date, I've made 446 hats, 318 scarves, 29 afghans, 14 baby afghans, 22 garter stitch shawls, 10 shawls with lace edgings, 49 washcloths, 10 pairs of booties, 2 pairs of mittens & 2 shrugs - all of which have gone to various charities in this area.

Personal knitting is still happening, but not in those quantities. I've made my DH three pair of Fuzzy Feet and have another pair on the needles right now and yarn ordered for a pair that I hope will incorporate some recycled silk into the toes & heels in hopes that they won't wear out as quickly. For each of my two grand-kids, I've made two sweaters plus a hat & mitten set each. Two of my projects for the new year are new sweaters for each of them. Back in 2005, I participated in a lot of KALs - you'll find the complete list over there in the side-bar along with the list of patterns that I spent August & part of September designing & knitting items for The Wool Peddler. You can follow the link both here and there to purchase the patterns that are marked with *s. In 2006, I managed to knit the Wool Peddler & Highland Triangle Shawls from Folk Shawls, a second pair of fingerless gloves & three Barbie dresses for my Grand-daughter. In 2007, all I made for myself was a pair of Sassy Stripes socks on size 3 needles, proving to myself that I could work a short row heel. During all this knitting & crocheting, I managed to read 290 books over the course of the three years - please don't ask me what my house looks like..

What's ahead in 2008? Of course, we never can tell what the future will bring but I plan on continuing to knit and crochet for charity while making a few more things for myself & family. We're still planning to move over to Mom's house as soon as the kitchen is finished and we can figure out how to fit all our furniture in with the antiques that Mom collected. Other that that, there are just the projects I have on the needles now that I want to finish - the blue socks, DH's Fuzzy Feet & a toddler sweater that I'm trying to "translate" from a pattern with two pieces that need to be sewn together to one that's seamless. I have a stash of fingering weight yarn from Knitpicks that may turn either into socks or into a fair isle vest if I ever get around to designing it. I suspect, Good Lord willing & the creek don't rise, that I'll spend this coming year the way I've spent the last three - doing my best to give back to the community via charity work, reading lots of books (and recouping my property taxes via the books I get from the library and don't have to buy), spoiling our cats and avoiding as much housework as I can {g}..

Happy New Year!

This is what greeted us New Year's Morning...






That's a yard stick stuck into the snow on the deck about 18" from the sliding door and, yes, that's the 14" mark that's almost covered by the snow! It looks like a winter wonderland out there, but I don't think I'm going to go traipsing around outside any time soon because my boots are only 12" tall {g}..


We spent New Year's Eve with friends and then stayed the night rather than risking the roads with all the cars that didn't have Designated Drivers. It was a wonderful time with lots of friendship, conversation & food including champagne & Olde Lang Syne at midnight.

So here we are, the first day of 2008. Hopefully it will be a better year than 2007 which along with 2003 have to count as the worst years of my life what with losing my parents.

I'm looking forward to more charity knitting after a short break while I'm going to knit a few things for me and my family. The Grand-kids have requested new sweaters and I have the measurement I need to get started. I started a new pair of Fuzzy Feet for DH, but I think before I go much farther, I'm going to knit a swatch with the one strand of wool & one of acrylic that I'm using to see if it will felt as well as the wool & recycled silk mouse I made for the cats. I'm hoping that it will felt & that the acrylic will help the slippers wear better. I'm working on the leg of the blue sock #1 using a simple lace pattern before I switch to ribbing so the finished sock won't fall down. The next week or so will be spent picking out appliances for the new kitchen at the other house. The counter tops are in but I forgot to take the camera over so no new photos - will try to remedy that during this next few days.

For everyone who reads this, I hope this next year brings you Health, Happiness & enough Money to keep the wolf from the door. {{{{HUGS}}}}