still knitting.. (^_^)

 Christmas is over and I'm still finishing up a few little knitted items. For my coworkers I have been making some little cup cozies and I have a couple more to finish. I plan to finish these today and tomorrow. The last of the Christmas knitting is off the needles and blocking. I really could have finished this cowl before Christmas. I had plenty of time after work but I was tired and just kind of zoned out instead of knitting. Anyway it's finished now, all washed and drying. I'm not going to mail it right away because I decided to make a couple hats to send along with it. Might as well since this is late anyway. As of today I have nothing on my needles but will remedy that in about an hour. We are all going out to look for a long needed new couch. I'm so excited!! And of course I will have my "bring along knitting" with me.

 I think this is my favorite Christmas present so far. It's a mouse pad with Micah and Jayden's picture. I get to see them all day long now.

Here is the Cabled cowl. The pattern is from Lion Brand and they yarn is Knitpicks wool of the Andes tweed. A nice combo for a guy. This is a really fun pattern and I want to make it again with just a natural color yarn. To me cables always look the best in the natural color.

Christmas eve

 I think this is just about finished. I has taken me the longest of all my projects. Probably because I was working on this in between all my other projects. I just needs about 2" of ribbing and it will be complete. There is always knitting on Christmas Eve. It's a tradition haha.

 My little Needle Gnome is complete and has already been given away. These were so easy and so cute I think you will be seeing a lot more of these in the future. I made it for the shorter wooden needles. I think I need one of these too. I saw these on ravelry but for small double pointed needles and I had wanted to make it as a gift but it calls for fingering yarn and all the fingering yarn I have is for socks and washable. The only felting yarn I had in my stash was worsted weight yarn. So I made it bigger and I made it on my knitting machine .. faster.

 More quick knitting machine gifts. These little cup holders went to my managers at work. I still have one more to make.

 The gifts are already arriving. Maybe this one fell off Santa's sleigh. We are going to have pancakes for Christmas breakfast!! I leave off with saying I wish you all a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas day full of all things wonderful. Off to finish some quick last minute gifts to be wrapped up tonight and slipped under the tree. (^_^)

last minute gifts

 Whipped up some last minute gifts on the knitting machine. I made another Stiller infinity scarf in a different color scheme this one is called regatta. The only thing I did different is to use 2 skeins of yarn this time. There is just a little left over because of where I ended the pattern. 

 This little fellow was whipped up on the knitting machine in a couple of hours before work yesterday. Last night after work I felted him and was pleased with how he turned out. I will tell the rest of this story in the next post with finished pictures tomorrow.

one more gift

 One more gift completed last night. Time is running out for knitted items. I have one more gift still on the needles and a couple more to make on the knitting machine and that will probably be all I have time for. Some time between knitting and work I need to get my tree up. Today is my first day off in 5 days and I'm kinda pooped. I got my house work and laundry out of the way first thing this morning and will start washing all the hand knits and laying them out over night to dry. There is quite a pile. Once dry each will be put in a gift box and wrapped. All will be sorted and put into shipping boxes to be sent out by Monday. Well that's my plan anyway.

The Pac Man hat is for someone that is hard to make or purchase gifts for. There are a few of those on my list. Not sure how this was going to turn out I was relieved after I finished knitting the little red ghosts. Now I want one too haha. In fact everyone that sees it wants one. I got the pattern free on ravelry. I believe it's written in French. I used the google translator which doesn't translate knitting terms  very well so there is a lot of guessing involved, but there is a chart which is basically what I followed. I used acrylic yarn because the person I'm making this gift for like to put stuff in the washer and dry.. Yikes.. so the yarn I used is Lion Brand Vanna's choice on a size US 7 needle. I think the sizing is perfect. Hope he likes it.

check.. Finished Christmas knitting!!

 The first picture is of all the kiddy knits that I have finished so far. From left to right.. Hooded poncho, Kitty scarf, Wild thing hoodie, Batman hat and Brobee hoodie.

As far as adult knits (I still have more to finish!) first is the Entrelac infinity scarf and cable hat, Machine knit lace alpaca scarf, little foxy scarf, ( that's a present to myself) Stiller infinity scarf and Elf cobbler wrist warmers. All the girl stuff is done and I'm still working on all the boys stuff. The boys seem to be more picky than the girls this year making it harder to pick out stuff to knit for them or even to buy for them.

 The elf cobbler mitts are really cute. I put the final touches on them last night and I like them in the Lion Brand Amazing. I like to wash and lightly wet block all my knittied items and I think they will look nicer after that. I will definitely make them again probably after the holidays. 

Okay... I have been fighting with this sweater and hat ever since I started it. Not so much the sweater but the hat. I knit the sweater on the machine and did all the finishing, and then knitted the hat by hand. I had to rip the hat out once because I didn't like how it looked and went up a needle size.. then I didn't like how the bottom neck ribbing turned out and didn't know what to do with it. Finally I ripped out the bottom ribbing and re-knit it and then grafted it to the sweater. That was a project in it's self.. but it's finally finished and not too bad looking. It felt like some kind of Frankenstein sweater with all the grafting..kind of looks that way to me too. This will be for a 3 year old. Next I have to knit the little fuzzy tail which I will work on in a few minutes. Gezz only a couple weeks left for knitting.. !!

foxy scarf

A quick update before work. The little Foxy scarf is finished. What can I say.. I love it and can't wait for cooler weather to be able to wear it. My Christmas knit to myself!! This has a little bit of everything. A crocheted head and machine knit body and legs. I lightly stuffed the head. It is knit in a soft merino wool that my son left behind when he moved to Washington state.

The Wild thing sweater is basically finished. I need to sew in the zipper. It was a quick sweater but I don't really like the shape of the sleeves. What I do like about it is the garter rib.. very nice.

This weird looking thing will be a little separate hood with ears to go with the Wild Thing sweater. Getting in a few rows before work and hope to finish this tonight. 
That's all for now. (^_^)

Holiday knitting progress

 I had the day off today and besides the usual laundry, dishes and what not.. I worked on my knitting. The top picture is the Wild Thing sweater. Body and sleeves are finished, sleeve sewn in and I sewed one side up. I took a break from that for a little because that was a lot sewing. I might work on that some more tonight.

 I actually started this little wrist warmer about a week ago and have been picking it up here and there. I finished one and you can see it in the picture at the botton of the page. The name of the pattern is Elf Clobber. I liked it because it is worked in both knit and crochet. There is a finer yarn inside that pops out the top. For that I used some very old stash yarn that has lost the label. I believe it is a Phildar yarn of some sort. As you can see I'm making these to go with the Stiller infinity scarf. Now I need to make the second one.

 Ok.. I'm obsessed with this little Foxy scarf. I started to crochet the head by looking at a picture and then decided to experiment with the body of the scarf on the knitting machine. It was a little tricky and I had to rip it out in a few places and rework it. Finally it started to look good and I finished the body part on the machine, did the tail decreases by hand and then sewed up the very long side seem.. shew.. too much sewing today. All that is left are the legs. I'm debating on making them on the machine and sewing up the seams or crocheting them for more texture. I'll think that over tonight and of course he needs ears. Tomorrow we are going out to look at the ginger bread houses at Disney and I'll bring some projects along to work on in the car. For now I'm taking a knitting break haha.

Sponge Bob!!

 Guess who was at our house on Jayden's 5th birthday.. Sponge Bob. He was hiding in the fridge. My son-in-law made this cake from scratch and it was the first time he had decorated a cake. Not only did it look good.. it tasted really good too. The best birthday cake I have tasted in a long time. For the occasion the Fam dress up.. I love this picture.. hehe.. Happy 5th birthday Jayden!!!

 The holiday knitting is progressing. I am making a Wild thing sweater for Cameron. It is not going to be exactly like the one on the pattern. I'm using 2 different patterns so I can do most of the knitting on the knitting machine. Right now I have the back and the 2 fronts completed. I love the ribbing on the original pattern so I'm doing the ribbing by hand then hanging that on the knitting machine and doing the bulk of the knitting on the machine. While I'm at I have been doing what is the equivalent of a 3 needle bind of for the shoulder seam. This looks very neat when finished. Well running off to work. If I'm not too tired tonight I'll try to get at least one of the sleeves finished...!!

Projects.. flying off the needles!!

 Pattern: Stiller. 
Yarn: Lion Brand Amazing
Started this project Tuesday and finished it Wednesday. I really like this pattern yarn combo. There was a little yarn leftover so I decided to make some matching wrist warmer. Adding this to my collection of finished holiday projects.

 Pattern: Cat Cuddler scarf pattern. 
Yarn:Vickie Howell Sheep(ish). There isn't much I can say about this scarf except it is just too cute. The eyes I picked up at Joann's Fabric.

 I loved the Kitty scarf so much I want to make the little fox scarf. Unfortunately the etsy shop is closed for holiday so I'm trying to work it out without the pattern. I saw a little fox scarf in Anthropologie (I believe this is the scarf)last year but it was a little too pricey for me. I thought it was awesome and I really wanted it.. so now I'm making a cute little fox scarf just for me.. (^_^)

Holiday knitting progressing...

 A quick update on my Holiday knitting progress. The Slouchy hat finished..This was a super fast project and the result is super cute. I hope the recipient of this gift likes it. I knit this hat to go with the Entrelac infinity scarf and purchased the yarns together. The true life colors are rich jewel tones that the camera doesn't seem able to capture. Both patterns are available as PDF files. I snatched them from ravelry.

As you can see my other gift projects are very slowly growing. I work on each a little everyday even if its a row or two on my break at work and before bed. Not to disturb the man at night I started using my crochet lite... so fun to use.

I want to thank anyone that pops by my blog and takes a peek. Sometimes I wonder if anyone would be interested in my daily knitting and silly thoughts. Thank you all for stopping by. 
The Holidays are upon us.. retail is picking up big time... more hours at work.. less knitting time... the crunch is on!!!

accessories!!

 Working at a shoe store has its benefits. I was doing mark downs last night at work and this hand bag was marked down 50% and I had wanted it because  it matches my boots. It's a Poppy Jones which is our brand. The scarf was marked down too and I liked it since it first came into the store..They are both now mine at great prices!!
The last 2 weeks have been a little rough. The whole family got sick with a nasty cold that turned into a cough.. while sick I had jury duty and work plus a lot of early hours after a lot of late or closing hours. So you can say I have been pretty miserable lately. It was nice to treat myself a little.

 Slowly the holiday knitting is creeping along. I have 7 lacy center squares finished on the entrelac scarf and my goal is to finish 11 total. If I work on this every day it will be finished in 4 days.  Yay!! The yarn took another turn to the dark side but right after this dark section there are some brighter colors. I love this scarf and knitting it is really fun. I would like to make another with different yarn in the future. 


I started out working on two project at a time and then somehow I ended up working on four.  Ticking them off... 1. entrelac scarf, 2. cabled cowl, 3. crochet kitty scarf, 4. another machine knit lacy scarf. I better get knitting there is still a pile of projects left to get through!!

holiday knitting underway!!

 I have been attacking my holiday knitting pile lately. I whipped up another scarf on the knitting machine yesterday. This one is an alpaca blend and the scarf turned out very light and silky. There is enough yarn left over to make another scarf exactly the same and maybe a small set of wrist warmers. 
I actually worked on the cabled cowl a couple of days ago while watching a few good movies. One of the movies was The Trip and for some reason I really enjoyed it. The movie was pretty mellow with lots of silly banter. Maybe that's why.

Today I had jury duty and needed a project I could work on in the court house. They are very strict as far as what you can bring into the building. Even more so then the airlines. So I chose a project that I could use a little plastic crochet hook. The hook was clear and it actually broke when I was trying to break my yarn. (no scissors or nail clippers)  Then all that was left was the little hook tip but I was able to work with it. At this stage this project looks a little weird but some day it will be a cute little kitty scarf.

 Yesterday was my son's birthday. I haven't been able to visit with him in over 5 years and for 3 of those years we couldn't find him. Well about a month ago we found him walking in town and have resolved some issues from the past and are now trying to renew our relationship. Yesterday was the first day we went out together and one stop was the bookstore where we both found books we liked for only $1 each. We giggled all the way to the car. (^_^)

so speedy!!

 My machine knit lacy scarf is finished already. This was just a fun and fast project to knit. The finished scarf came out a little too long so I ripped out about 10" which makes it about 70" long. It hasn't been washed yet so these pictures are right off the knitting machine. The pattern is my own ( here ) and the yarn is bernat mosaic. For an acrylic yarn it is pretty soft and had the feel of cotton. I like the yarn and pattern combo. I think I might make a few of these scarves as Christmas gifts. I was also thinking of adding little pom poms to each end.. not sure about it yet.

 My son-in-law baked this super duper chocolate cake from scratch. It has homemade marshmallow filling.. it was so rich I couldn't even finish a small slice.

 The sun looked like gold when I took this picture. Time for the beautiful fall and winter sunsets we get in Florida.