+MaGic PiXie KniTteR+*+

2012-01-29T19:10:00.001-05:00

Listen.....music... knit...

2012-01-29T19:07:00.002-05:00

Music to knit by on a Sunday afternoon.. enjoy..

What I am doing today

2012-01-27T13:12:00.000-05:00

Today is my son-in-laws birthday and they asked me to babysit so they could go out together and of course I said yes. So... I have my little stack of projects ready to work on when I get a chance. As you can see sock #1 is finished and I started sock #2 right away... trying to avoid second sock syndrome. I usually knit my socks two at a time preferably from the toe up. But this sock was so fun and different I just had to knit it. Unfortunately I don't think there is a way to knit them both at the same time.

Last night for no reason that I can think of I started a crochet project. Some day this little pile of silky yarn will be a shawl. The yarn is very silky but sometimes catches on my fingers. Maybe I should use some hand cream.. 0.0

results of a fun day spinning

2012-01-25T13:00:00.000-05:00

The results of my spinning fun yesterday. The top yarn is my first art type yarn. I used really aweful fleece to practice with. It looks pretty and soft but its scratcy and hard although it has a nice drape. I spun a thick and thin single first and then I plied it with a sequenced polyester thread. This type of yarn is so fun. I really don't care what it looks like yet because it is so fun to make. I plan to continue to practice and graduate to my better fiber batts soon.

This is a little spiral yarn that i spun from a roving I bought a while ago. This is merino, bamboo and nylon. I spun a thinner single and then plied it over different berroco sequence thread and a latter thread all silver and black. It had beautiful drape and shine.

today I'm....

2012-01-24T15:20:00.000-05:00

Before the holidays I was working on core spun art yarns. The 3 you see in the picture is the result. I added silk ribbons, sequence, lace and embroidery threads to the yarn. They are really pretty.. but I have a problem as to what to do with them.. I guess just look at them and admire.. 0.o.

Even so... I am going to work on more just because.... they are so fun to make. In a few days I'll post the results. Last night I spun a pretty little spiral skein with sequence and ribbons and will post that as well.

Ok.. This is what happens when you work at a shoe store and stuff goes on sale. I love all my handbags and boots and use them all!!. I haven't wore the little zebra heals yet... but I will the first chance I get.. !!

wips of the week..

2012-01-23T12:19:00.000-05:00

Such cuties.. This is the latest picture I received of Cam and Abby. Hehe Cam is wearing a hat and scarf I made quite a few years ago. It is a Berroco free pattern made with Berroco Hip Hop yarn which has been discontinued quite a few years ago. I can't believe how big they are getting .. and so fast.

My sock is progressing and still fun to knit. If you have been thinking about knitting this sock pattern you should do it. I have 2 more strips to knit on this sock and my ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller. It's hard to tell if I will run a little short. If that is the case I'll make a solid color toe. I just happen to have a solid natural color ball of the Patons Kroy sock yarn. Perfect to go with my Patons Kroy stripes. Wish there was a way to knit a little pink heart on the toe. It would be so cute but, that would be annoying or irritating on your toes. I try to avoid any ends to tuck in around the toe area. Below is an inside view of the sock. I think this is the cutest sock I have ever knit.

Friday I went to a knitting friends house for some wine and cheese and chit chat. She just got a new spinning wheel..she actually won it as a door prize at our Christmas party. Elaine was so generous to add that as a gift. Anyway, I helped her get the feel of spinning for the first time. In between I spun this lovely roving of merino, bamboo and nylon. It has a wonderful feel to it. Not sure what I'm going to do with it yet. A few ideas are spinning around in my head.. hehe.

Last on the Wip list is this project. This was going to be a little chunky lace shrug, but I don't think this yarn is right for the pattern. I love this yarn and I think it will make a pretty chunky cowl instead. So this project is going to be frogged today before I knit anymore on it. Decision made.. bye bye shrug.

Fun stuff..!!

2012-01-18T12:06:00.001-05:00

A pretty sunset on the way to my knitting group last night. I officially finished and mailed out all Christmas knitting projects and started on some fun stuff.
I haven't knit socks in about 2 years and I'm thinking it's somehow related to the fact that I was knitting socks when I visited my brother for the last time. He was very sick and passed shortly after my visit. I did buy sock yarn though with good intentions. So on ravelry I saw this fun pair of socks and I had the perfect yarn and so.. I'm knitting socks again. This sock is knit in strips so when you use self striping yarn the stripes become little squares. So fun. These will be a birthday gift for someone.. shhhhh.

Just 3 !!!

2012-01-14T12:14:00.000-05:00

A quick little Brobee hat for Cameron who just turned 3 today. Happy Birthday Cam!!

Not quite sure if I like this new project. I think it's a bit small and I might end up frogging it and using the yarn for a nice bobble cowl. This pattern is call Pretty in Misti shrug. I'm going to knit a few more pattern repeats and see what happens. I know it will grow once I block it also.

peacock x 2

2012-01-11T15:27:00.003-05:00

Ok... I really love this pattern. The name is Peacock and as usual I found it on ravelry. The green one is for my son and was made with the left over yarn from the Cabled Cowl. The other is for his friend who would probably appreciate a nice wool hat. He works on the ships in Alaska. brrrr. Any way this is a fast and fun project. Both are off the needles and have been washed and already to ship to Washington state.

Micah in his Brobee hoodie. He loves it.. and the fit was perfect. Today I have to pick out some new projects to knit from my knitting queue. It's always fun to start a new project. I also took out the sewing machine today to hem some curtains for the kitchen area. Tomorrow it's back to work.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-03T13:37:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year to everyone! The New Year celebration in my neighborhood was outstanding. Fireworks were going on for hours and then at midnight people yelling happy new year echoed along with horns and more fireworks. It was an awesome way to start the new year. I was baby sitting the little ones and they were sleeping at the time so I was able to sneak outside and enjoy the fireworks.

This new year brings a brand new sectional for the family room. A nice way to start the new year. Our old couch was really old and very used and we have needed a new one for quite awhile. Every time I had some extra money something would either need repair in the house or my car would need some major repair. So finally.. a new sectional. This fall I had painted some pictures for this room and repainted a large chest for the breakfast area, that would be to the right of this room if I had taken a picture of both rooms together. I never thought I would be able to get a sofa in the exact colors to match. The color is so perfect that you would think I got the furniture first and then painted the pictures and the chest. The next piece of furniture to be replaced will be the kitchen table and chairs which are equally as old and falling apart.

Wip of the week... I finished the Cabled cowl but had a whole ball of yarn left over so I decided to knit a hat. I saw this hat on ravelry and really liked the old world look of it. The pattern is called Peacock. Right now I am almost finished with the chart and then there will be another knit braid and the rest is knit is one color. I haven't decided if I will knit the solid part in the green tweed or the light tan. I'll have to see how much green yarn is left over.

Tonight is my knitting group so hopefully I will get some knitting done. I'm anxious to move on to other projects at this point.
I have plans!!!

still knitting.. (^_^)

2011-12-28T11:22:00.000-05:00

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

2011-12-24T17:55:00.001-05:00

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

2011-12-19T07:23:00.001-05:00

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

2011-12-14T13:04:00.001-05:00

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!!

2011-12-08T16:45:00.001-05:00

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

2011-12-04T10:01:00.001-05:00

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

2011-11-30T21:49:00.001-05:00

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!!

2011-11-28T11:40:00.001-05:00

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!!

2011-11-25T22:40:00.001-05:00

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...

2011-11-21T11:37:00.001-05:00

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!!

2011-11-14T15:13:00.001-05:00

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!!

2011-11-10T16:56:00.001-05:00

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!!

2011-11-08T15:52:00.003-05:00

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.

Colors!!!

2011-11-05T10:32:00.001-05:00

Here are my Wips for the week. The Lacy entrelac scarf is growing. One of the balls of yarn I bought for this project was very dark and the other one is more colorful even though they were the same dye lot. If I ever use this yarn again I will keep that in mind. Anyway I got tired of the ball of yarn with all the very dark shades and just cut it off and attached the other ball. I kind of wish I had started with the more colorful ball. My progress on this seems to be doing one lacy square a day. So that would equal one whole pattern sequence a day.

This week I did some cleaning up and took down my sewing machine and set up my knitting machine. I have been wanting to make this scarf for a while and after I started it and saw all the bright pretty colors I think I will have to make more. The pattern is mine. It's a simple lacy scarf pattern for the knitting machine. It can also be hand knit by following the chart. So fun! BTW this picture is about 2 hours or so of knitting. The yarn is Bernat Mosaic.

new projects!!

2011-11-01T11:54:00.000-05:00

After finishing some kiddie knits I casted on some adult knitting projects. The first picture will be a gift for my son. Instead of a scarf he choose a cowl this year. The pattern is from Lion brand yarns called Cabled Cowl. The yarn is Wool of the Andes Tweed from Knitpicks. The yarn is really nice to work with and very soft. The whole project is very fun. I haven't knit cables in a long time and I just love how they look.

This next project is called Lacy Entrelac infinity scarf and it is from the knitpicks web site for a minimal price. This project isn't only fun to knit but addicting. When I picked the yarn out for this I pictured it looking very differently. The outside of the ball of yarn was very colorful but I started knitting with the end in the center and it's very dark almost black.. a lot of dark with just a few spots of jewel tones popping out here and there. The yarn is super soft lightly spun but has no spring. Even so the project is soft and lofty.

The ball of yarn fell apart already into a big mass of yarn so I rewound it into a ball. The colors totally remind me of a Night Elf from World of Warcraft hahah. I think I'm going to call this project The Night Elf cowl!!

knit'in for the kiddies part II

2011-10-26T14:43:00.002-05:00

Most of the knitting on these projects were finished except for the capelet, but a lot of finishing was left to be done. With all the knitting finished on the Batman hat.. I still had to duplicate stitch the bat design on and tuck in all the ends. I used vanna's choice for this hat and I don't like how it feels. I've used this yarn before but never noticed how stiff and twisty it is. Any way it's done. Check..Finished!!

This project was started as an after thought. It's the hooded caplet from Loop-d-loop. A few years back I had knit two and never made a not to myself that I should go down a needle size. Duh I should have gone down a needle size. Ok that is said after all the knitting is finished... The stitches look loose and sloppy. I'm hoping that after washing and laying it out to dry it will look a little better. The hood is a big large.. well not really the hood but the neck opening so I will add a button which fixes the issue. And there are a few with this project. Don't ask.....

Third on the list is the Brobee hoodie. I used two different patterns for this hoodie and it came out better than expected. I'm not a fan of acrylic yarn but the Red Heart soft knitted up so nice and smooth. The yarn lays really flat where the zipper is sewed in and I just love it. So does Micah.. I showed it to him today and he made a big smile.. Check.. Finishe!!

Time to cast on the next project and work my way through my Holiday knitting projects.

getting organized..

2011-10-24T12:34:00.001-05:00

This past week I have been acquiring yarn for projects on my to holiday knitting list. It kind of scares me to see them all laid out like that...haha.. Looks like I'll be putting in some knitting hours. I'm really pleased with the yarn I purchased this year and look forward to knitting every project. My plan is to finish all the kiddie knitting first and work on a mans cowl at the same time. I think the cowl is going to require the most time. If I complete everything in good time I will add a pair of gloves and a pair of socks to that. And yes... I still have to add the finishing touches to the batman hat and brobee hoodie. I have a day off tomorrow.. a good time to get working on everything.

Wip progress. Started on the second row of the fair isle pattern.

yarn???.. did you say yarn??

2011-10-22T11:27:00.000-05:00

I had the privilege of visiting the Four Purls yarn shop yesterday with one of my knitting friends and I wasn't surprised to find it was a lovely little shop full of friendly knitters and gorgeous yarns. For the first time in a while I actually found perfect yarn for the projects I want to knit. They have a large selection of Cascade yarns and a variety of every kind of yarn.. something for every knitter. I felt at home as soon as I walked in and...... no pressure selling!!! Yay. I work in retail so I appreciate being able to browse without pressure and getting help when I need it. All in all a wonderful day. Besides all the lovely yarn and one fiber batt, I picked up this handy little tool.

My wip this week is a pink hoodie for Abby. It's slowly growing. I would be farther along if I could read directions better... 0.O

The sewing is piling up!!

2011-10-16T10:58:00.002-05:00

With the knitting completed...the sewing and finishing is left. I figured out the instructions for the Batman hat which were a little confusing. I had to read it over a few times and think about it. I also asked someone on ravelry, who had also knit the hat , what she did so now I know what to do. For a little hat there is a lot of finishing.. a partial seam in the back... folding down and sewing the ears and finally duplicate stitching the bat on the front.

After I had finished all the knitting on the Brobee hoodie I needed to get the zipper. I ended up getting a red zipper because the colors were very basic at Joanns fabric. On this project I have to sew in the zipper and sew on the little points and tuck in a couple of ends.
All of the knitting was finished on my other projects so until I get the chance to work on all the finishing I started my next project with is a little hooded cape for Abby. The pattern is from Loop-d-Loop. I don't know why but I love knitting with really chunky yarn and I love how the stitches look. This project is knit on size 19 needles. So fun!!

You can find all my projects on ravelry.

knit'in for the kiddies!!

2011-10-11T10:11:00.000-05:00

Progress for the week. Yes I did get the Brobee hoodie finished. Well all the knitting is finished. I just have to go and purchase a separating zipper and sew the little red points on. I tried it on Micah and was happy that it is a good fit.
Next in line is a Batman hat for Jayden. I started this one a while ago and picked it up again. Jayden is 4 years old and loves superheros. He picked out this Batman hat. He also loves angry birds and gets higher scores than everyone else in the house so I asked him if he wanted an angry bird hat but he choose Batman instead. This is an intarsia design, which I'm not fond of. I used to do a lot of intarsia knitting back in the day but like I said I'm not very fond of it so I decided to do the bat in duplicate stitch. Hopefully that will turn out well.

The last picture is of my next project to hit the needles. This is a fast knit, which for me is about 2 days if I really sit and work on it. This will be for Abby. She can wear this over a heavy sweater or her coat if it gets too cold this winter. Abby is now 5 years old and just started kindergarten. The family also just moved from Syracuse to New Jersey so winter for them will not be so harsh this year. I am also crocheting Abby a little cat scarf in an off white which will go nice with her new pink coat.

Abby, Cam and Jayden... hehe

October Fest!!

2011-10-05T13:36:00.002-05:00

I haven't posted in a while because there wasn't much to show you. I kept thinking I'll have more progress tomorrow.. well many tomorrows after I have completed the sleeves and started on the hood yesterday. I had to stop last night because I needed to size up the hood to make sure it was going to fit and Micah was already asleep. So for a few minutes before going to sleep myself started working on the little points that go on the top of the hood. As you can see I made my stripes a little smaller but this is going on a small person so it should look ok. I keep telling myself that anyway. Brit says that she would like a zipper instead of the buttons that this pattern calls for so I'm thinking I might make a crochet edging instead of the knitted edging which would make it easier to sew in a zipper.

Most Fridays we go to wholefoods to shop and eat. This Friday there was a nice surprise. They were having an October fest. There were 20 beers to sample and a polka band. I just love the accordion.

After shopping we headed over to Lake Lily to view Art under the stars. This was a judged show with 150 artist.. snacks and wine.. this was a wonderfully cool evening.. one of the first cooler evenings here in Florida and we totally enjoyed ourselves. Good thing because the day after I started feeling sick and am recuperating now. It seems I got a sinus infection from the kiddies.

Dahlia table..!!

2011-09-28T12:31:00.000-05:00

Ok.. the Dahlia table is finished. The day I started painting the table I was a bit under the weather and felt tired and sicky and not very focused. So my pedal placement was off a bit and the next day I had developed a soar throat and painted anyway and added highlights to the wrong pedals. Then when I was feeling better I went back and tried to fix it a bit and this is the outcome. It is not exactly like I wanted to paint it but it's close enough. I feel its a bit messy. One coat of varnish really brought out the colors nicely though. I already know what my next painting project will be and will hopefully start that on my next day off.

The Brobee sweater is a little over the halfway point. As you can see I am up to knitting the sleeves. The pattern calls for knitting the sleeves flat 2 at a time, but I choose to knit them one at a time in the round. I tried the sweater on Micah and it's a good fit. Sorry to post the same pictures in this post as in the last.. next time there will be something new to look at. (^_^)

a day of rest....

2011-09-23T15:19:00.002-05:00

Works in progress for the day... I finally got an afternoon to work a little on the flower table. Not sure if I will get to finished it today but that's ok. Below is the little Brobee sweater that I restarted. The size is much better and the fabric a bit softer. I tried it on Micah and it looks like a good fit with a little growing room. They grow so fast and he wont be wearing this for a while because we are still in the 90 degrees.
This week has been one weird week of ms-adventures. If something could have gone wrong.. it decided to all go wrong this week. The internet went out and the company was searching all the boxes in the neighborhood for 2 days until they found the bad one. Both of my computers needed work and had to be taken to my local computer repair guy. My dog decided to throw up and have diarrhea right when I was leaving for work one day. She has recovered.. seems she ate some yarn and after she pooped it out all was good.. 0.o' We had a customer at work that brought up one of our giant shopping bags full of shoes.. probably about 30 or so pairs without the boxes and when she asked me the prices of the shoes .. she no longer wanted them.. so I took the pile in the back and tried to sort it out where I found her doing the same thing and said she was tired and would like the manager to find shoes for her and that she was in a hurry not to sort out the mess until she was finished... 0.o'.. You just have to love retail. I think it took us about 2 hours to finally find all the boxes... I developed a sore throat earlier that day and still have a bit of the sniffles.. but now I get to sit and relax for the afternoon and paint for a bit until I need to just rest and knit.. I look forward to next week... sigh....

The blogger app

2011-09-19T10:09:00.001-05:00

Blogger just released their first app and I wanted to try it out. So this is a test run. I had a rather tiring 2 days at work starting with a meeting at 7:30am on Saturday. I work in retail, so that's an early day for me. I work a lot of closing shifts. But... Today I have a day off to rest and work on some projects. Last week I started painting a table and would like to finish it today. After that I see an evening of knitting and probably playing Rift with a friend.

I added a picture of the wildflower boarded to see if it was easy to edit. I think the app is really easy to use. Yay!

lots of green!!

2011-09-18T14:37:00.000-05:00

I finished the the baby ripple blanket the other day.. now all that is left is tucking in the ends. My daughter said she would do half.. hehe. Anyway I started a Brobee baby hoodie for Micah who is now 9 months old. He loves Yo Gabba Gabba and every time he watches the show he smiles and jumps up and down. When I did my gauge swatch on size 8 needle it was measuring perfect but when I started knitting the actual sweater I think I started knitting tighter and it was way off gauge. The fabric was too firm and the sweater was coming out way to small. So I ripped and started again yesterday with a larger needle and its way better. Softer and bigger.

So much green in this post.. I just noticed that. Years ago I threw a lot of wild flower seeds on the side of my house where the yard is right next to this little reserve and now there is a giant border of little wild flowers. I walk the dog in that area and yesterday there were butterflies, big ones, little ones and all color butterflies flying from flower to flower. I took a picture of the biggest one.

project-less!!

2011-09-12T20:13:00.000-05:00

After finishing my lace shrug..I didn't really give any thought to the next project I would like to work on. So I'm kind of project-less right now. For months this pretty crochet baby blanket has been sitting in the corner in a very large basket. My daughter had started to make this when she was pregnant with her second child who is now 9 months old.. hehe. She had a good excuse at the time for not finishing it because she had developed a form of carpal tunnel syndrome that you can get during pregnancy. I guess I was hoping she would pick it up again and work on it. I guess not. The two little ones keep her pretty busy so unless I add a few more rows to finish it... it will sit in the corner forever. I'm on the last color and then all that will be left is tucking in the ends. She did say that she would help with that part. Working on this gives me time to decide on my next two projects. For some reason I'm having a hard time deciding. I would like one project to be a pair of socks and I think I'm going to start some hoodies for the little ones and maybe squeeze in another shawl.

This is the last picture I took of the Diamond lace shrug. As you can see it was still blocking. Hopefully on my next day off the man will help me with some better pictures. Even though it is still pretty hot here.. there seems to be a little coolness to the air. Maybe because it rains for about 30 minutes every afternoon. If it's a pretty day out hopefully I can get some pictures outside. Below is a picture of just that sort of rain which decided to pore down right when we were about to leave wholefoods and of course it was sunny a few minutes before so the umbrella was in the car....

paint & knit..paint & knit

2011-09-08T17:26:00.000-05:00

Lately I have been feeling more like painting on my days off. It's proving to be very relaxing. I used to paint quite a bit but started knitting more than anything else. It's nice to split up my time between the two. My newest project was repainting an antique cabinet in my breakfast room. Years ago my daughter had painted a mermaid on it and I think it was time for a make over. I have lots of photos of the mermaid so nothing will be lost. I wanted a little more updated look. We are planing on purchasing a new table and chairs in the very near future and I was thinking white wood chairs with a black table with some solid white dishes. I think the over all effect will be pretty. I also added faux marble to the top. All that is left is a coat of varnish.

As you can see my Diamond Rib Lace shrug is on the last few rows. After I varnish the cabinet today I plan to finish the ribbing on the last armhole and then wash and block it so I will be able to wear it this week to work over some pretty tank tops. Like most jobs in the area sleeveless shirts are not in dress code.

This is the change of seasons in the retail business and every week now we are getting new inventory for early fall. This strange looking shoe just came in at work and I tried it on. It's not my size but you get the idea. It reminds me of something from the 1920's.

now there are 3!!

2011-08-30T15:59:00.001-05:00

When my son was visiting we played this awesome card game called Dominion in the evenings. At first you had to strategically choose cards for the game play and then nearing the end of the game you had to accumulate point cards. It was pretty fun. He has since left for Seattle to get ready for school and get settled in. I miss him and playing games in the evening. Such fun. He was lucky to leave the day before we were to get some rain from hurricane Irene. We were pretty lucky here also and only got little bursts of rain here and there before it moved on. There was actually more rain after it had passed us by.

In my last post my son and I had painted some trees. He applied paint with a knife and I applied paint with brushes. There was one canvas left and I decided to make another painting to add to the group. I was trying to keep them all in the same color range. For the last painting I used the same colors but not as much of the silver metallic paint as in the first two paintings so the colors look a little brighter and I applied the paint for the background with a knife and then painted the tree with a brush. These will soon be hanging in my family room once it is painted with a fresh coat of paint. Painting these pictures was such fun.. I think I need to buy some more canvases and see what else I can come up with.

As you can see from the picture I am making progress on the Diamond rib lace shrug. As it is now, it will fit but very fitted and I wanted it to have a little more drape so probably two or three more repeats will do it. To bad I have to keep ripping. At least I can get back on track pretty easily. I need to hurry up and get started on some Holiday projects asap..!!

Here and there.. this and that

2011-08-23T14:28:00.000-05:00

This is what happens when you take pictures from a moving car. My son is visiting this week and we visited the Orlando museum of art. The exhibits were really enjoyable. They had American artist and some ancient artifacts, and beautiful crystal on display. After all the viewing we got hungry and stopped at Wholefoods for some yummy food, wine and deserts.

One day we decided to have a painting day. We had an inspiration picture and decided to do our thing using the same color paints. He used the paint thicker and applied it with a knife, and I used my paint thinner and applied it with brushes. This was really fun and we had great day ending with a yummy dinner made by my son-in-law and daughter. We topped that off with a night of game playing. We have been playing Dominion which is a card game just about every evening. You should try it !!

My life seems to be full of shoes lately. I picked these up at the outlets.. very inexpensive and very different. I haven't seen them before and they are comfy as a bonus.

Last but not least... my progress on my Diamond Rib Lace Shrug. It's growing a little. We have been busying this week and I have been mostly knitting in the car on our outings. Knitting with black yarn is a little challenging especially in the evenings but it isn't as bad as I thought it would be. I really wanted to knit a black shawl awhile ago but decided against it because I have always had a hard time knitting with black yarn. I have only had to rip back the usual amount of times.. heheh.

Andrea's Shawl.. Finished!!

2011-08-17T15:13:00.005-05:00

Well it's about time!!....Yes it's finally finished. For some reason it took me almost a week to bind this off. I don't think that was a reasonable amount of time and it normally shouldn't take that long. I was just lagging. Anyway it's finished now. I'm undecided about the outcome of this shawl. It is one of my favorite shawl patterns but there was a color in the yarn that never showed up in the shawl and that was the reason I purchased the yarn in the first place. I weighed the yarn and I actually have enough yarn left over to make another shawl but that will be sometime in the future. The other issue I had was that the Noro Taiyo yarn was beautiful to work with and soft and the contrasting yarn felt soft and spongy in the ball but after being knitted up, washed, blocked and dried it now has a bit of a prickle. So I am definitely going to knit another shawl with a better contrasting yarn. That leaves me to decide what to do with this shawl.. someone is going to be getting a pretty shawl for Christmas!

Of course, finishing one project means starting another. I decided on the Diamond Rib Lace Shrug pattern (pdf) because I need a very light cover up to wear over tank tops at work. Recently I purchase a lot of pretty sleeveless shirts but we can't wear sleeveless at work and being Florida (hot and humid) I need a really light weight shrug . This shrug seems pretty lacy and light enough to wear down here. The yarn I'm using is a vintage cone yarn with loads of yardage that is a blend of alpaca/wool/acrylic. So far I'm really liking this.

Music to knit by.....

Biggest!!

2011-07-28T18:10:00.002-05:00

Big, bigger, biggest. It's growing a little each day. Right now this is the only project I'm working on. I had planned to start on some socks but then I would be splitting my knitting time between 2 projects and I would rather just finish Andrea's shawl first. When this is finished I will probably cast on some socks and a baby sweater and work on both.. or maybe just one more shawl. I'll think about it. The last picture is a little anime style picture I drew of the man.. hehe

beautiful days...

2011-07-20T12:28:00.003-05:00

Beautiful days in Florida lately.. yes it's hot too!! We are down one car so there is a lot of driving to and from work. I drop him off, drive home, drive myself to work, drive home and then pick him up and back home. The ac is fixed in the car and everyday seems to be so pretty that all the driving isn't that bad. I also get a little knitting time on Andrea's shawl. I completed the lace edging and border and started on the stripes. It's a little more stripy than I thought it would be.. I knit on....

So excited!!

2011-07-16T13:10:00.001-05:00

Finished the edging lace last night and was excited about starting the lace border. I decided to go for the larger version after reading others say that their shawl turned out too small and I have enough yarn for the large so might as well use it. I had originally planned to knit the medium size. It took me a while to decide on whether or not to use a solid natural yarn for the lace border or the noro that I plan to use for the striped portion and as much as I like how the creamy color looks in the lace pattern I'm going to use the noro. I haven't been excited about knitting anything for a while, but this pattern has renewed my excitement for knitting again. I think I found my knitting mojo again! Thanks to ravelry I also found the perfect sock pattern for my schoppel-wool crazy zauberball yarn. It is the Burning Stripes sock pattern by Susan Luni. I just love the heal and hope to cast these on in the next couple of days and a carry-a-long project.

Last week on our way to the store we had to turn around because a little playground in the neighborhood was on fire...I felt bad seeing this because it seemed to be deliberately set and there are not very many playgrounds for the kids in this area. Now there is one less.

So fun to knit!!

2011-07-13T13:44:00.002-05:00

Finally finished my Coquille shawl. It took me longer than I anticipated probably do to less knitting time the past 2 weeks. We are down to one car working around two different work schedules which means a lot of driving. This is also the reason for no posts in a while.. I really had nothing new to show you as far as knitting goes. There was a lot of home and car repairs during that time not sure you want to hear about that.. hehe. Good thing is now I get to start a new project and I have pretty new yarn to work with. There is a pattern I have wanted to knit since I first saw it and that is Kristen Kapur's Andrea's Shawl. This shawl has a very unique construction that makes it pretty interesting to knit.. So here I go, I casted on and started working on the first step which is the bottom edging using some charcoal bamboo sock yarn. For the body I'm going to use my noro
taiyo sock yarn. More pictures to come as I progress.

For now I leave you with some nice knitting music.. (^_^)

I decided...

2011-06-20T17:47:00.001-05:00

So as you can see I decided to continue knitting this shawl just because this is an enjoyable pattern to knit. As of today I'm at the halfway point and still having fun so much so I think I want to knit this again with a little heavier yarn. This pattern calls for a fingering yarn and the yarn I'm using is a lace weight yarn.

This past weekend I got the chance to drive to Tampa and stopped by the local yarn shop there. I haven't been to a yarn shop for awhile so it was a treat. I picked up these 2 beautiful yarns.. I just love the colors!! They also had these little fiber bags for $3.50 that looked fun so I had to get them. Now to find just the right patterns to show off these pretty yarns. (^_^)
(click on the pic for a larger view)

ew..time to rip..

2011-06-14T12:16:00.000-05:00

My anthropoligie capelet # 2 is all finished. I added a wide crochet button closure at the neck and a large crochet button. The lace edging is called quill eyelet lace and is very similar to razor lace. If you like this edging it is from Knitting on the edge by Nicky Epstein. This capelet is for my daughter's birthday which passed already so I need to get it in the mail asap.

I started a new project last night and I think I'm going to scrap it. I know that it's not blocked and projects tend to look a lot different after they are blocked, but with every row I just keep thinking .. this just doesn't look very nice. I don't know if it is because of the thick and thin nature of the yarn or my knitting is crappy or maybe both. As fun as this is to knit I'm afraid to go any farther. This pattern is Coquille from Knitty fall 2010 and I have looked at others on ravelry knit with noro sekku that looked really nice. Guess I'll have to decide what to do.

shoes can be fun!!

2011-06-08T15:08:00.001-05:00

Shoes can be fun... I love these and bought them with lots of coaxing from the man. I thought they were a bit of an extravagance and was going to pass them by but I'm so glad I didn't. I just love them. I originally saw them at Universal for twice the price which makes them so much better.
Progress on my second anthorpologie capelet. I used 3 shades of blue. I kind of like it. Sometimes I get these ideas and after the fact I'm not sure if it worked out or not. This is the progress after a week of knitting. The lace on the sleeves is all that is left to knit and I have another idea for the closure. Lets see if that will work out. And I just love this yarn...Kauni wool 8/2 Effektgarn!!

project progress

2011-06-03T12:43:00.000-05:00

Yay.. a finished project. My Anthropologie-inspired capelet made for Abby who just turned 5 in May. It wasn't the original project that I started to make for her but time seemed to slip away and I was only half finished after a month and a half so I decided to make something that would knit up a little faster, which it did. My mods: worsted weight yarn, size 7 needles and I casted on 61 stitches. I also added a border on the bottom and the sleeves. I purchased some fabric the other day to make 2 sundresses that I will hopefully get to work on today. The patterns are vintage and I had originally made them for her mother long ago. So glad I didn't throw them away. I looked at the patterns at Joann's fabrics the last time I was there and was shocked at the price. I could just purchase a dress for the price of just the pattern. That wouldn't even include the fabric and notions. The little buttons I picked up on sale a while ago and now found the perfect use for them .
This year I seem to be playing catch up. Below is a another capelet. This one is for Abby's mom who's birthday was May 31st. This is the progress after 3 days of knitting on and off. The yarn is a lighter weight then the pattern calls for and I'm using needles to match the yarn gauge and not the pattern gauge. I casted on more stitches and will do more increases and hopefully it will work out. The good thing is that my daughter is just about my size and I can gauge the size by how it fits me. I'm graduating the color from dark to light and will add the same lace border as I did for the childs version. I like that lace pattern because it is very easy and it matched the number of stitches that I ended up with.

doing a little of this and a little of that..!!

2011-05-26T12:05:00.000-05:00

Doing a little of this and a little of that..I finished this little corespun art skein which I spun from one of my batts. I added lots of silk ribbons, some threads and lace. I'm still over spinning a bit. Maybe the yarn isn't perfect but it sure is fun to spin and so I think I'll have to be satisfied with that. The remedy is just to spin more!!
At my Tuesday knit group last week I started another project that I was hoping to be able to finish up quickly. Then I decided to add a lace edging that took me 3 days to decide on. Once I finally decided on one I like and figured out the stitch count the actual knitting isn't taking that long. Tomorrow is my day off and also my birthday and I plan to knit in between other stuff we have planned for the day. The man and I have been having one day off a week on the same day. For three years I worked on his days off and he worked on my days off and it was really hard for us. So for about a year now we have had the same day off which makes a world of difference. Not sure what we have planned for tomorrow yet. (^_^)

Right now these poor little projects have been put to the side and are zzZZzz. My plan is to finish these projects this summer hopefully. Unfortunately I stopped in the middle of a row on the Gail shawl and I'm sure it will take me a while to figure out where I am. Who stops in the middle of a row!! What was I thinking.

Something 70's shrug..

2011-05-16T12:03:00.000-05:00

I can't believe I finally finished this shrug and now I know why I was dragging my feet. The finished product is not at all as I had envisioned it and I probably will never wear it. I guess it is the combination of stripes and then the ruffle edging. I wasn't expecting the edging to be so ruffly. I would probably wear the shrug if it was a solid color. Project notes.. FAIL!! I guess not everything will turn out wonderful..On a more positive note.. I can now start on a new project. I usually use the summer months for finishing projects that have been hibernating for a while. I have two project that I haven't touched in a very long time. One is the Gail shawl and the other is a lace scarf I was knitting with my handspun yarn. I would really like to finish both projects. At the moment I can't seem to get interested in starting something new. Or maybe I just can't make up my mind as to which project to knit first.

The core spinning is going well at least. I'm pretty happy with how this yarn is progressing and I'm having a lot fun spinning it. I'm getting braver and adding different bits and pieces of silk ribbon and even some lace. There is just a little bit left to spin and I'll do that either today before work or tomorrow. I really wish there were spinning groups closer to the area in which I live, but they all seem to be so far and with gas prices so high and hours being cut driving that far to spin isn't an option. Lately Kissimmee seems to be at the outer edges of the knitting and spinning world hahah.

such big trees!!

2011-05-09T13:01:00.000-05:00

This week I have been doing a little core spinning.. and I say little because that is all that I seem to have time for. Every skein I spin has been improving. The skein above is from two small little batts of wool, bamboo, tencel and some silver angelina. To that I added some sequence yarn that I had left over from a project. I'm pleased with my progress. Below is another batt called "your full of it". Wonderfully soft wool/tussah silk blend. This batt will make self striping yarn too. I decided to tear off strips in color progression and as I spin it I have been adding scraps of silk ribbons and threads. I love how this is spinning up. The yarn is really smooth and silky and wraps so nicely around the core thread. This is another batt that hasn't sold on my etsy shop. If the yarn ends up as good as it has started it will end up in my shop. Anyway it is really fun to spin!!

Many years ago when we had our house built we thought it would be nice to line the very long driveway with palm trees. They were so little who thought they would grow to be the monsters they are now. Every 6 months we have them trimmed and every time they are trimmed they seem to grow even bigger and more difficult to trim. Who's idea was that anyway... 0.0

Eunny Jang.. knitting backwards!!

2011-04-28T07:30:00.000-05:00

I saw this video this morning and wanted to share it in case you missed it. Eunny Jang of knitting daily demonstrates how to make bobbles and knit backwards!!

project updates..

2011-04-27T12:48:00.000-05:00

Abby looks so pretty in the top I embellished for her. I think she likes it. I was looking at all the picture of the grand kids and they have all grown so much. I'm missing a picture of Cameron only because I don't have a good one of him. At 2 years old he can't keep still long enough I think.

So I have actually been working on my projects. I picked this shrug up again and finally decided on a crochet edging. This is my pattern Little Black Shrug. The original has a knitted edging and I'm working on some mods for a crochet edging. I really didn't want something too frilly because then you become limited on what you can wear it with so I choose something more linear in look. For some reason this shrug looks totally like something out of the seventies. Maybe it's just the colors. I've been working on both crochet projects a little before and after work while watching some Korean dramas. I just finished watching Secret Garden.. yes all 20 episodes! So I think I'm taking a little Korean drama break. If you have never watched a Korean drama I suggest that you don't start. They are very addicting. More updates to follow soon.

Revision..

2011-04-25T12:11:00.000-05:00

Back in September of 2007 I wrote one of my first patterns. I offered it as a free pattern more as an experiment than anything else . I wanted to see if anyone would even want to make it. Well a few people did. One of the last people to make it said it was really confusing and was worded wrong. So last month I revised the pattern to say Rnd (round) instead of row. I hope that clears up any issues that anyone might have had. Here is the link to the revised pattern.
Reverse Cable rib Baby Hat. Enjoy.

Happy Easter !!

2011-04-24T11:28:00.000-05:00

Happy Easter everyone.. enjoy your day (^_^)

more fiber fun!!

2011-04-22T17:56:00.000-05:00

This month I have been concentrating on spring cleaning and reorganizing. I do a little each time I have a day off and in between all that I have been making some batts, and finishing projects. My progress has been pretty slow this week because my car is being fixed again and we are sharing one car with two different schedules which means less time at home and more time in the car driving and waiting. I have been toting my crochet with me and get a few minutes here and there to work on it. Sadly not enough time and I think I have only completed one pattern repeat this week. It's a good thing I gave myself a lot of time to complete this project. I think I'm going to need it. Anyway this pretty batt is listed in my etsy shop. I made one extra just for me. It was too tempting. I can't wait to see what it is going to look like spun into yarn. I'm still practicing core spinning. I would like to get to the point where it looks a little more smooth and uniform before I attempt some of the prettier batts.

I guess these are pretty old. So old I don't even remember where I got them from. Possibly at a garage sale but not sure. I do remember they were pretty inexpensive. I wonder how old they are. Some are silk and rayon and one is just rayon, all say hand knitting. Humm interesting.

Mixing up the fiber!!

2011-04-18T14:09:00.000-05:00

Mixing up up some fun fiber batts for my etsy shop. The first one is called Fly Fishing. The little bits of novelty yarn reminded me of fishing flys. This batt is colonial, merino, bamboo, tencil and all kinds of glittery stuff and wool yarn bits. It most definitely will make an interesting yarn.

The second batt is also an art batt. I called this one Stary Night 2. This one is a mixture of colonial wool, BFL, mohair, angora, bamboo, all that glittery stuff and yarn bits that have a paper feel to them. I love the shades of blue and aqua in this batt. I'll have to make another one so I can spin it, probably as a core spun yarn. I just have to see what the yarn will look like. Both of these batts are listed at my esty shop. TheHoboKnit shop. I'm working towards adding a few more patterns and new yarn very shortly. (^_^)

sew away!!

2011-04-16T16:44:00.000-05:00

Easter is almost here and this year I really didn't want to send candy, although I usually will only send one candy and some other items. I thought clothing would be a better idea and with so many sales going on you can get really good deals on kids clothes everywhere. I found a cute little top and white sweat pants for $9 at Old Navy. I love that shade of green and just wanted to add a little something to it. I took the little pattern that I had made for the flower applique on the little purse I made and added 2 smaller flowers and basically did the same appliques in white with white bead centers. I think she will like it. Time to pack up all the goodies and mail it out.

hello sewing machine..

2011-04-16T16:17:00.000-05:00

For some reason lately I have been drawn to the sewing machine. A while back I picked up a little change purse clasp and wanted to make something with it. I decided on a little denim bag that would just hold my phone and some change and added a little flower applique to it. This was a learning experience and I'm not sure that I like the holes for sewing on the outside of the clasp. There was a bit of manipulating to get the fabric to fit properly. Not sure if I would like to make more or not. I would have to do it a little differently some how and I also think it needs a little handle of some kind. Still trying to figure out what to do about that.

A trip to Michael's craft store ended up with this yarn. Of course it was on sale.Tthis yarn was exactly what I had in mind for a market bag.

lots of stuff....

2011-04-09T21:51:00.000-05:00

Projects are coming along.. new and old. I had a few days off in a row and I took out the paints and painted this picture. I kind of had the idea of painting a leaf in white over a multi colored background. The painting turned out almost like I envisioned it. I haven't painted in over a year and I did all the lettering free hand and didn't measure. I think if I had measured the lettering I might be a bit better. This picture is for me anyway.. and I'm happy with it.

My pretty little camisole is growing a little. This picture was taken a few days ago so it's a little bigger than this now. I put it down for a few days to work on other stuff but now I'm working on it again. In the picture below I tried making a Super Mario mushroom but I don't think it turned out quite right. Poor little guy..

Recently my car needed some work and I ended up spending my whole tax return on it. Between my car and my house.. I feel like I live in the money pit lately. At least my car looks nice. As you can see, summer is on its way in Florida. We had some really nice weather.. beautiful and pleasant.. birds singing and playing in the trees. Soon it will be very hot and the birds will have gone to cooler climates and it will be silent outside. I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

working on core spinning

2011-03-31T21:16:00.000-05:00

A few months ago I carded a bunch of batts that are now just sitting on the shelf. I have been slowly learning core spinning and decided to star spinning up all the batts sitting on the shelf and put them to good use. This batt is called Vanilla Icing and is soft wool, tencel, tussah silk and silver angelina. I used crochet cotton thread #10 as the core and added bits of chenille yarn. The result : 60 yards of pretty bulky yarn. There is still a lot of over spin but not as much as the first skein.

March projects!!

2011-03-25T22:30:00.000-05:00

March is almost over already. Little by little I'm feeling more like crafting. Crochet seems to be more attractive to me right now with hot weather right around the corner. It's already in the upper 80's here. I even splurged and purchased two magazines. With all the magazines available, each with beautiful projects, I'm trying to be selective and only purchase the magazines with projects that I actually want to make. Over the years I have accumulated a pretty big collection of both books and magazines, some very useful and some not. The two I ended up with are Spin Off and Interweave Crochet.
One of the projects that I have wanted to make for a while is a Japanese crochet pattern for a pretty camisole. Abby's birthday is coming up in May and I thought this would be so cute for a 5 year old. She likes green and yellow and green is so pretty for spring. I can just see her running around in this. Hopefully I have given myself enough time to complete it.

In my last post I mentioned that I wanted to practice a little core spinning. Here is the result. Not pretty hahah.. I see more practicing in the future for me.

a fiber day

2011-03-09T21:59:00.000-05:00

Today was a good day to play with fiber. There was half of a batt of purple hand dyed fleece left to spin, so I finished that. I tried a little core spinning in some spots which gave it a little texture. After I finished spinning I felt like throwing a bunch of fibers on the drum carder mixing it with some chenille yarn bits. It came out a little light so I repeated the whole process and made two batts which I'm setting aside. I plan to practice a little core spinning with a batt that hasn't sold on my etsy shop. It's called Garbage picker, named that because I used the little pile of fibers that I clean off the drum carder. It's rather ugly, but will be interesting to see what the yarn will look like. Maybe I'll name the new batt Celebrate or Party time. (^_^)

crochet on the go..

2011-03-06T11:59:00.000-05:00

Yes it's been a while. I finished a couple of hats that I forgot to take photos of and remembered after I mailed them out. One was a Jayne Cobb hat in red and black for a friend in Alaska and the other was a black wizard hat for my son. After it was knit I sewed a Gryffindor patch onto it. Maybe my son will send a picture of him modeling it.
As you see in the photo I have started a new project. I think it looks totally 70's. I didn't think the yarn would look like that when just seeing it in the ball. The pattern im using is my pattern LittleBlackShrug. I plan to change it up a little and make it more a daytime shrug that you could wear to the mall or a lunch to the zoo, etc. I'll give more details later on.
Florida is slowly heating up. Spring is on it's way in the rest of the country which means thinking of summer knitting and crochet projects. I have my eye on a few things I would like to make and will post them as I start them. (^_^)

2 silly hats

2011-02-08T12:58:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I last blogged so I'll play a little catch up. The boys are getting bigger of course. Jayden recently got a big boy hair cut and looks so cute. Micah is now 2 months old and over 12lbs. I got to baby sit them the other night. Both of them went to sleep. hehe. Since I last blogged I've made two silly hats for the boys and then our weather got warm.. like around 80 degrees. I guess it's the thought that counts. I'm starting to like making these little hats. I also finished a flower pot holder for my daughter... I have yet to mail it. She moved into a new apartment and wanted some new dishrags and pot holders. Hopefully I'll mail them out this week. The last picture is of my son wearing his Jayne Cobb hat in not so Jayne Cobb hat colors. He said it's pretty warm. He visited me the second week in January and enjoyed the warm weather and the parks.
My next small project will be some wizard hats. After visiting the Harry Potter Theme park you just have to have a wizard's hat of your very own. (^_^)

The small stuff

2011-01-19T14:18:00.000-05:00

Can you believe I'm still knitting Christmas gifts. Two more gifts were finished this week. I have family visiting right now and have been visiting the theme parks and the local zoo with them and relaxing at night watching movies and knitting. Yesterday we went to the Harry Pottern theme park and drank lots of Butterbeer and rode all the rides and then came home and watch Harry Potter movies. Such fun!!
I still feel like I haven't recovered my knitting mojo. I'm inching my way through each project. I've been looking at everyone's finished project on ravelry hoping to get inspired. Until then I will continue to make small projects that are easy to finish.

Just a little hat

2011-01-08T12:00:00.001-05:00

Little by little I'm trying to get my knitting mojo back. Making little fast projects that I can finish without much effort is probably what I need to do right now.
I finished this little hat for Cameron. His mom wanted a pointy hat and that is what this started out as and some how had a mind of it's own. I used up some scraps from other projects and still have lots of yarn left over. This pattern is super fast to knit and can probably be knit in a few hours. This will fit a 2 to 4 year old.
Needle size : 11 us
Yarn: Wool-ease thick and quick
Pattern: Teo Hat

The Holidays are over .. it's a new year

2011-01-04T12:54:00.001-05:00

There were cookies and presents and children and food and just good times this holiday season. There were also a lot of shoppers and extra hours and not too much knitting time. This is the first year I only finished 3 knitted gifts. I lost my knitting mojo!! Fortunately I purchases a few more than usual.. not to many though. Well the holidays are over and business hours have returned to normal and I'm hoping for energy to finish up a few more knitted gifts. I have some beautiful batts I would like to spin up and some beautiful knitting patterns that have been calling me.. after a small rest period I plan to jump in and start creating again. I hope everyone had a lovely Holiday and will have an even better New Year. I still can't believe it's 2011!!

One of my recently finished gifts is a Jayne Cobb hat for my son. He loved the first one I made him but wanted it in different colors without a pom pom so he could wear it under a hood. A pretty simple project that took me longer than it should have.. but hey it's finished.

to the shop!!

2010-12-14T15:58:00.000-05:00

I finally got around to listing new items in my esty shop. It's TheHoboKnitShop if you didn't already know. Some lovely little fiber batts and fabric knot necklaces were added. Take a look. Run little hobo!! (^_^)

a fast update

2010-12-11T12:57:00.000-05:00

We have been having a bit of a cold spell down in sunny Florida. All that knitting paid off.. the grand kiddies are nice and cozy.

A fast update on the holiday knitting. At this point everyone will be receiving smaller knit items.. hats, mittens, scarves and worsted socks. The hat is for Abby and since no one was interested in purchasing this pretty yarn from my etsy shop, I decided it would make a nice warm earflap hat for her. The above picture is a bramble cowl. Not sure if I like the tweed yarn. I have a solid color that I might use instead. I'm still deciding which to use. I think it's time for Santa's little helper.. The KNitting Machine!!

Time to get knitting

2010-12-08T12:37:00.000-05:00

Can you believe that I finally finished this sweater. I can't. I don't know what took me so long. Anyway it is finished and it fits him well. Now on to the next projects. Let me see ... my son wants socks.. the other one lost all his hats.. I need to crochet a sweater for Abby.. a vest for Cameron.. and some wee little socks for Micah. Can I do it!!.. I don't know but I'm going to start today. Good thing the weather here has turned cold. It was only in the 30's last night. That is really cold for Florida. I need to work on a big project to keep my lap warm. I like how knitting keeps my hands warm and as I knit my project is nice and warm from my hands.

I whipped up this little crochet hook case as a door prize for my knitting group Christmas party. If there is time I will make a few to sell in my esty shop.
Time to get knitting.. see you again soon.. (o_~)

A new baby..

2010-12-01T21:44:00.000-05:00

I finally finished these slippers for my daughter last night and brought them to the hospital today so she could wear them. She became a mommy again yesterday morning. She gave birth to a little boy, Micah Eli, 8 lbs, 20" long. The new nursery is all ready and waiting his arrival. Both mom and baby are healthy and recovering quickly and will hopefully be home some time tomorrow.

The proud Daddy with his 2 sons.. (^_^)

omy... it's Thanksgiving!!

2010-11-25T13:57:00.000-05:00

I know it has been so long since my last post. There are a few reasons. First is that I just haven't been doing that much knitting. As you can see from the picture of Jayden's sweater.. the knitting is finished and the zipper is pinned in ready for me to sew it in. It's been like that for a few days now. I did start some slippers for my daughter a week ago and they are almost finished except for the edging and little straps. She will be having her second child this coming Tuesday and wanted me to make them for her to wear in the hospital. There will be time to work on these today.
As you know I work in retail and this is our busy season.. extra days of work = less days for knitting. I really like my job. I get to display all the accessories and handbags in the store. Here is a little sneak peek .. shhhh..
Happy Thanksgiving to all that read this blog. Thanks for looking and have a great holiday. (^_^)

craftings away...!!

2010-11-12T15:46:00.000-05:00

Today is a day of crafting. Trying to get stuff finished for the etsy shop and finish up that sweater.. It's name is now "that sweater". I'm on the last 4 rows of the sleeve and hope to add the front edging and baste in the zipper sometime today!

almost there!!

2010-11-10T14:07:00.000-05:00

Little by little I've been getting back into the swing of things. A while ago I had been working of some projects that will end up in my Esty shop and some how I haven't worked on them for a few weeks including my knitting. Today I finally made some progress on both and hopefully will finish them soon. I have all these wonderful creative ideas in my head and no time to produce them. Sometime I think I need to be 3 people to get everything done.. including blogging. This is like.. a minute to blog.. finish up projects and run to the store.. work on more projects later etc. There are only 10 rows left of the last sleeve on Jayden's sweater. Man I hope I can finish this tonight. Friday I have to run to Joann's Fabric for the zipper and my goal is to have all the knitting completed before then. Goals are good. (^_^)

sleepy boy..

2010-11-06T11:41:00.000-05:00

Someone was really tired and fell asleep while watching a show. I couldn't resist taking a picture. At the same time I was working on finishing his sweater. For some reason I have been just inching my way through this sweater which should have been finished already. After my family visited it seems I haven't really sat down to knit. I guess I went on a little knitting vacation too. This is not the time of year that I should be going on a knitting vacation though... it's time to get the holiday knitting finished. I hopefully will get started after I finish this sweater because my list is rather ambitious. Anyway I'm on the last sleeve and all that is left is the 2 from edges and sewing in a zipper. Our Florida weather decided to change all at once from near 90 to the 60's and colder at night and Jayden could use this nice warm sweater. I have off today and plan to put some time into it.

Maybe it was from all the excitement of going to the Harry Potter Theme park and Epcots food and wine festival.

Or maybe from having all the little ones here.

Or the change in seasons.. isn't Hagrids house awesome!! I love the change in seasons here... cooler weather is so welcome after all the months of hot sticky weather. Even the sky looks prettier. Time to do some serious knitting. Or maybe it's time to set up the knitting machine. 0.0

Fun times!!

2010-10-25T12:03:00.000-05:00

My daughter and her family have been visiting from NY and spending time with family, working and visiting the local parks have cut down on knitting and blogging time. I did get a few rows in here and there. I have about an inch left to knit of the stripe pattern and then 2" of ribbing on the body and one more sleeve to knit. I plan to use a zipper for the closure. I was hoping for a loose fit so Jayden would maybe get 2 seasons out of it, but it fits like it should with about 2" ease so I think it will only be a one season sweater. They just grow too fast!!

As I type my daughter and family are on their way home. I really enjoyed their visit and spending time with her and her and the children. She did some delicious baking while here, apple and peach pies. Very yummy..

We visited the Harry Potter theme park and the Epcot food and wine fest. Had some game nights and just enjoyed the time together. I miss them already. I'm spending a quiet day off today and catching up on things. Hum there is still some of that yummy peach pie in the kitchen ..I hear it calling me.. no no no!!

the Shower!!

2010-10-18T09:38:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we had a small family baby shower at the house for my daughter. Brooke and her husband cooked a delicious autumn dinner of roast pork, squash, green beans and brussel spouts and cornbread stuffing. Brooke also made a the cutest little onesie cake that she decorated. The cake it self was rich chocolate with homemade cherry jam filling. I really didn't get a chance to take a lot pictures. I was busy helping with the food and cleaning up. The day was fun and my daughter received lots of presents for the new little one.

The chair was a last minute thing I whipped up the night before. She kept telling us she didn't want a chair and her hubby came to me and asked if we could decorate a chair anyway. It was 8pm the night before the shower and I didn't think we could go to the store and get the chair and stuff to decorate. So I ran up the closet and remembered I had bought a bolt of light blue fabric a while ago for curtains but the color just didn't look right in the room. I grabbed a dinning room chair and started cutting. I made a loose cover by just measuring width and length and basically making sleeves. When I was finished there was a perfect size square of fabric from the scraps for a little pillow and then a long strip of fabric left over from the hem to make the bows. She really liked it because it was understated and she didn't want to sit in a frilly ruffly chair. The total process took about 3 hours. I was really surprised at how fast it was to make and that there was no measuring except for the the back and seat of the chair. (^_^)

the garage sale

2010-10-12T17:42:00.000-05:00

All set up for a garage sale. The weather was in the 80's so it was a perfect day. Unfortunately not that many people showed up. The good thing is everything is organized so we can have it again with no problem. My daughter who is 8 months pregnant offered to help so we just hung out for the afternoon chatting. We had a few sales and called it a day.
I started a new project a few days ago, but have been really busy cleaning out stuff and haven't had time to work on it. I also had the opportunity to work on it during the garage sale and got a little of one sleeve finished. This is going to be a raglan cardigan for Jayden. I started at the neck and am working my way down. The yarn I'm using is an acrylic Noro style yarn that I'm pretty pleased with.
Right now I have a house full of family visiting and this coming weekend will be the baby shower for my daughter. All the baby knitting is finished for now the presents are purchased and I just looks like a really nice week ahead of us of visiting and and enjoying the company.

wips on 9/30

2010-09-30T11:15:00.000-05:00

Autumn is in the air, yes even in sunny Florida. Our temps are finally going down a little. For some reason I get energized this time of year and dive head first into projects. In the above picture I dyed some blue face leisester with wilton icing colors and then mixed it with natural fleece at about 50% and then added lots of bamboo nibs which ended up to be a pretty lavender molted effect. Thinking to take a different path I tried to spin it as a thick single, maybe a medium thickness, which I did. I liked the result which was lavender and white with little bamboo nibs popping out here and there and then to finish it off I plied it with a comercial yarn. I ended up with a nice surprise.

At the Florida Fiber in I purchased a bit of fiber and was saving it for a rainy day, but my daughter had to go to the store and I offered to watch Jayden for her. He is very attached to his mom right now and to distract him I asked him if he would like to make batts with me. Of course he did all tears dry up and we blended these 3 pretty batts. Stary Night, Camp Fire and Blue water. You will find these in my esty shop in a day or so along with a few other surprises.
And finally.. yes.. I turned the square. This hat is the first of my holiday knitting to be finished. I better get going a little faster!!

getting there.. and finally!!

2010-09-25T11:08:00.000-05:00

Most of the baby knitting is finished. The baby block blanket, 2 diaper covers, matching hat, owlie sleep sack and matching hat and handspun angora baby booties. There is a sweater and baby socks on the list still to be knit and then it's on to holiday knitting.

It has finally arrived!! Final Fantasy 14. If you didn't know I've been a beta tester for the game for a few months. Most of the time it was rather frustrating because the software was incomplete and laggy and just would disconnect at the worst times. Little by little it would be fixed as the beta testers would post there comments on the game play.. basically we would whine about everything that didn't work and ask for things that we would expect a game like this to have. It was fun. Well the game is released now and I would like to get past level 16 and see other parts of the game finally. I think it was a rushed release and they are still fixing stuff but all in all its a beautiful game with beautiful graphics and music.

When I finished the baby booties the other night I hadn't picked out the baby sweater I wanted to knit yet so whipped up a Turn a Square hat for my son. I think he will like the colors and the fact that it's an over sized version. He likes big hats . This is such a fast knit I might make one for all the men in my life. (^_^)

SALE.. at the HoboKNitSHop...!!

2010-09-22T18:32:00.001-05:00


I can't believe I caught another bug. Some yummy green tea helps. I think I've been run down from not sleeping as much as I need to. Well being home sick gave me time to work on my Esty Shop. I'm having a sale plus destashing some handspun yarns. These are just some of the items I have for sale. Take a look. I also finished all the baby items I was knitting so I have to take a look at my queue to see what I would like to knit next. That could take quite awhile. (^_^)

ooo the fiber!!

2010-09-19T19:10:00.000-05:00

I've been a busy girl this last week. Only 11 weeks until the new baby arrives so knitting as much as I can on baby items. I finished the baby block blanket and I'm on the last few rows of the Owlie Sleep Sack. I finished spinning the luscious angora yarn for the booties. I ended up with 72 yards which is more than enough to knit the booties. I'm going to use the pattern for angora booties in Last Minute Knitted Gifts. They are worked in a double knit stitch that is fun to do. The angora yarn turned out so light and soft I just can't wait to start knitting the booties but I just washed the yarn and it's drying. I'll be able to start the booties tomorrow.
This weekend was the Florida Fiber-in. I was only able to make it to one day of the event. I had wanted to go Friday night to sit and spin and look at all the vendors wares but my car died and was being fixed that day. I was happy to make it there Saturday for all the demos and other fun activities that were going on and of course to browse all the beautiful fibers.. This picture is my fiber booty. I wanted to buy it all. So much eye candy. Tomorrow I'm hoping to have time to card some pretty batts for my etsy shop. I'm also going to have a sale and sell some items that have been there for a while.. So keep an eye out if you are like me and love fiber and spinning. I'm also going to de-stash some handspun yarn that I just never seem to get to use.
I really enjoyed the Fiber-in. It's so wonderful to be surrounded by so many spinners, knitter and fiber lovers. I could do that every day hehehe.

New projects weeeee

2010-09-13T17:40:00.000-05:00

Piling up on the baby knits. I started the Owlie baby sleep sack the other day and then realized I didn't read the pattern right again and had to rip out 3 rows which wasn't too bad.

At my knitting group I got excited when Adelle pulled out a cro-hook and was working on a scarf. I had never seen cro-hooking before. She gave me a little demo of how it was done and I looked up some patterns online. Just to try it out I started a dishcloth. (making a dishcloth is always a good way to try something new) I think I'm hooked. What fun. It's part like knitting and part like crochet and the end result is a double sided fabric. I also just happened to have a cro-hook at home. I think I bought one when it was on sale at walmart.. who can pass up a sale even though I had no idea why you would need a hook on each end. I also lucked out on the yarn which was on sale at Joanns for $4.97 for 608 yards!! This will make many many dishcloths. If you haven't tried cro-hooking give it a try.

I can't believe it is actually finished!!

2010-09-11T13:05:00.000-05:00

Yes.. it actually happened.. I finished this baby blanket before the baby shower with time left over for a few more knit items. It's not my favorite item I have knit but not too bad either. The yarn is a soy blend and is better suited for a more drapy garment. I think a yarn with a little more body, like wool, would have been a better choice but the blanket is very soft and silky so I don't think the new baby will mind.
Time to cast on the next project. I'm not sure I will ever get to my holiday knitting list this year. At least I'll have fun trying. (^_^)

colorfade project

2010-09-10T14:20:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I worked on projects as I'm recovering from a virus or something and felt a little better. Some quiet knitting and a little spinning, tea and soup and crackers. There was just a little left to spin of the singles and then ply them together. I did that and watched some movies. I'm happy with the results. 156 yards of 10wpi, light worsted. Now I need a nice little pattern to use it.

Wear your knits!!

2010-09-07T09:25:00.000-05:00

I love when I see my knits being worn by friends and loved ones. It's a happy feeling. (^_^)

a little here and a little there

2010-09-04T12:52:00.000-05:00

This is the progress on my current projects. I have spun half of my batts and started on the second half. After both are spun they will be plied together. I'm hoping the out come will be something pretty.

The baby block blanket is about 3 more colors from completion and then I plan to add a crochet border. I work on the blanket a little everyday and it slowly adds up.

a make over

2010-09-03T13:41:00.000-05:00

This cute little cat sweater was knit in around 1990 or 1991 from a pattern in Family circle or some other craft magazine that I still have tucked away somewhere. (this makes me want to find it).. Seems like things just keep coming back. This little hat is so like the sweater pattern. One of the trendy shops in the mall is selling it.

I guess by now you have noticed a little blog make over. Not sure if I like it or not but its done and can be changed. The background photo is of some shawls I have knit in the last couple of years.

lovely colors...

2010-09-01T11:54:00.000-05:00

Having a little bit of trouble posting today... blogger changed the format and I can't seem to get my text and pictures where I want to them to go.. oh well. Anyway I started a project two days ago inspired by the latest issue of spin off magazine. So I carded my dyed fleece with first about 50% white Blue Faced Leicester, then about 25% then maybe 10% then non at all and the last was a mixture of light teal and purple. I also made a little batt of 50% angora and 50% light teal. This batt I'm going to spin for the specific reason of making some little angora booties for the new grandbaby due in early December.

Every day off I do a little organizing or cleaning.. chores finished for today and the spinning is about to begin. I have also been knitting a few rows of my baby block blanket every day. I need to finish this soon!! I have a few more baby projects that I have to knit before the shower.
The last picture is a picture of yarn I spun from a dyed roving I purchased when I visited New Mexico. This is only 1/2 of the roving I still have the other half to spin. It is a lace weight single.

baby blankets..

2010-08-27T12:25:00.002-05:00

Among doing many other things, both my daughter and I have been working on our baby blankets. I think she is ahead of me at this point and I think her crocheted ripple blanket is coming out way nicer than my baby block blanket. I'm not liking how this yarn is knitting up in this pattern. It's a soy blend and kind of slippery. I have also been knitting tighter then I usually do to try to keep the stitches more even looking.. I don't think I'm winning the battle. I had her look at it because I was not pleased with the outcome so far .. but she wants it because its very soft and silky and she likes the colors .. so on I knit not liking each and every row.

Little Black Shrug has arrived!!

2010-08-25T11:08:00.002-05:00

The Little Black Shrug pattern is finally finished and now added to my etsy shop. I have already worn this little shrug a few times an just love it. What more could you ask for, an economical perfect little cover up for evenings out or to throw over a tank top in summer. The shrug body is crochet and the edgings are knit in a little simple cable twist rib which adds a very finished look to it. So both a knowledge of knit and crochet are needed to make this simple shrug. Don't stop at just black make one in every color!!

You can find the Little Black Shrug here. Thanks for looking and enjoy. (^_^)

Getting Started with Entrelac, from Knitting Daily TV Episode 503 - Knitting Daily

2010-08-14T20:43:00.001-05:00

Just wanted to share this.

testing!!

2010-08-09T12:03:00.004-05:00

I will be testing the pattern for The Little Black Shrug for about a week depending on how tired I am after and before work plus trying to work a little on the entrelac baby blanket and spin some yarn.. so much to do!!

My Little Black Shrug

2010-08-06T12:00:00.003-05:00

When searching through patterns and you can't find exactly what you want.. I say make your own. I was looking for a shrug as simple as the One Skein wonder from Stefanie Japel, but I didn't want a solid knit fabric because I live in Florida and it can be really hot. Since I have crocheted a few items with cotton thread recently using an open mesh type stitch I wanted to make a shrug with that stitch. So.. I started the body as an upside down raglan in the mesh stitch. When it the armholes fit comfy I started the sleeves. Once the body and sleeves were finished it needed an edging. I tried a few crochet edgings but I didn't like how it looked so I took them out and decided on a knitted edging. It worked out perfectly. Once finished, as perfect as it was to what I had wanted, it was a little plain. I thought it needed a little embellishment so looking at different crochet flowers I settled on the bullion stitch flower. Never having made one of these was most of the fun. I love the stitch and I think it is my favorite flower to crochet now. I plan on posting the pattern for The Little Black Shrug in the next few days as a Pdf file. I love knit and crochet together.. yes they can be friends.. (^_^)

Progress of the week..

2010-08-02T14:15:00.002-05:00

Well I finally decided on an edging to finish the sleeve and around the entire shrug. I went with knitting verses crochet and I'm really pleased with it. I'm one row away from finishing the other sleeve and then it's on to the body of the shrug. Lately I've been cleaning out closets and reorganizing little by little. The other day I started with the kids old school papers.. I can't believe I saved all their art work and report cards. All was put in a box for them to decide what they want to keep. I'm going to get some binders and page protectors to put the memorable stuff in for each child. Cleaning out closets is exhausting haha. I have a little clean up left for today and then it's on to finish this shrug and watch some nice movies. I think I will watch the Joneses and maybe Karate Kid..

My daughter has been working on her baby blanket. I think it looks great and of course I'm so bias. (^_^)

a distraction..!!

2010-07-30T11:32:00.002-05:00

Ok... I was happily working on the entrelac baby blanket and decided I needed a little black shrug to wear over some pretty tank tops. This could only take a day or 2 to crochet. It's so little. So I bought some of what is becoming my favorite thread to crochet with , this time in black. The body of the shrug worked up really fast just as I thought it would. I use the One skein wonder formula from Stefanie Japels' one skein wonder shrug, except I'm crocheting instead of knitting. Basically it's an upside down raglan in crochet. Now all I have to do is decide on an edging to work around all the edges to finish it off... how long could that take.. well I am now 5 days into this shrug and still trying to decide what stitch should I use to finish it off.. I tried a double crochet and didn't like that or the single crochet. Now I'm checking out some knitted rib stitches and think I might like to use knitting to finish it off. Hopefully some time today I will make up my mind. To crochet the body of the shrug I used a size G hook so I'm thinking about a size 4 knitting needle for the edging. For this I will have to make a little swatch to make sure the cotton thread doesn't look to loose. Well here I go.. (^_^)

new projects..

2010-07-27T10:08:00.002-05:00

Last week I was pretty sick. It took 4 days of antibiotics before I started to feel better and now I almost feel like myself again. Today I have a day off from work and I plan to do as much resting as possible in between some light house cleaning and some laundry. While I was sick I started this entrelac baby blanket. They yarn is Bernat soy blend. The yarn is very slippery and soft and I'm not sure it's the best choice for this blanket. I probably should have gone down a needle size. The blanket is for my daughter and I let her decide if I should start over with different yarn because I didn't think it was knitting up pretty, but she likes the yarn and said if I used something else it wouldn't be as soft. So even though I don't like how the yarn is working up on these needles and in this pattern I'm going to finish it. A few years back I has taught my daughter how to crochet because she wanted to make a scarf. She picked it up pretty fast. She never did finish the scarf but one of her friends got pregnant and she wanted to crochet some booties. She struggled through but finished the booties and her friend loved them. Now she is expecting baby #2 and wanted to crochet a blanket for her baby. She picked a ripple pattern and is using left over yarn from many other projects. I just happens to all be Vanna's choice. I think she is doing a beautiful job on her first baby blanket. I will be posting both projects as we work on them. (^_^)

not quite right....

2010-07-21T10:23:00.002-05:00

I have been under the weather for the last 3 days and had a fever. I finally got to see a doctor yesterday and have been taking antibiotics since yesterday and feel a whole lot better. The thing is.. I was resting, watching movies and crocheting baby stuff while not feeling well..and for some reason I miss a whole lot of rows for the top part of this little night cap.. so the top is unfortunately short. So you ask when did I notice this? Well yesterday and the hat had been finished since the day before so this is how it will stay. My daughter says it's ok.. but she looked at it a little funny. Well the little diaper covers came out perfect so that's a good thing. Today I start on the baby blanket. (^_^)

2010-07-18T15:46:00.002-05:00

The finished market bag. I added a row of single crochet around the entire top and handles. It's on the small side but will still stretch to hold quite a bit. We forgot all our shopping bags when we took our weekly trip to whole foods but I was just finishing the handles and had this with me.. so I already used it. Most of the dry goods fit into the bag plus some chocolate..(^_^)

I saw these little diaper covers on etsy in Adrienneengar's shop and thought they were too cute. Of course I had to buy the combo pattern and am attempting the little hat too. When I was working at Michael's craft store I stocked up on the Bernat natural soy yarn when it was discounted so I have a nice selection of baby colors. My daughter likes the light green rather than blue. There just happens to be alot of off white and green so I'll use those colors for the hat and a little sweater and another diaper cover.

There was a little dying going on today. My camera didn't pick up the aqua color very well. The true color has more green in it. I think I will blend this roving with some silk or tencel and card a few batts on the drum carder or I may just spin it as is or I could do both!!

*+*MaGic PiXie KniTteR+*+