Saturday, February 4, 2012

Mo's Gifts

 You know all those little hanging patterns at the craft store & fabric store?  Those little hanging things in front of the yarn that are just begging to be taken home?  Yeah those!  This bootie pattern was one of those.  I grabbed it at a store when we lived in Washington State and made a pair for a co-worker's baby.   I totally forgot about it but yesterday when I was digging around in my pattern stash for a completely different pattern, it popped up! !
Because I was in a bit of a time crunch (shower is tomorrow...) I figured that this cute little pattern would work really well!
I think it did!   Aren't they cute!!

This time I kept track of the time it took to knit them.   I started last night while watching TV and worked on bootie #1 for 48.5 minutes... I was almost done!  Just had two more rows & binding off! This morning I woke up extra early~ wasn't my fault!  Dang newspaper slammed into the front door at around 530am. Yay.
It was so peaceful this morning without the kid (he he) being up that I quickly finished up bootie #1 and started on #2! 47 minutes later.... yeah... okay it's just a little over two hours!!   Anyway... I finished bootie #2.  That's just the knitting part!  It only takes a little while to sew up the bottom & back seam so I didn't include that time, but it probably only took another 10 minutes max.  So.. that's like 105.5 - hey!  That's even less than 2 hours, but.. I think I'll stick to the 2 hours ~just in case I added wrong or counted wrong.   I also didn't count the time it took to string the ribbon through the eyelets either...

Mo's Mommy's baby shower is tomorrow so I finished all this stuff just in time!   What a lucky little man Mo is... he gets a little blanket, a hat and booties all too match!  Stylin' lucky man!  Now all he's gotta do is hurry up & get here!!

Friday, February 3, 2012

2 Hours Later....

So I got frustrated using those itty bitty knitting kneedles (IBKK)... imagine that huh? They were so tiny that it was hard to hold them and manipulate my yarn the way I'm used to. I can't just loop it over my right index finger & throw it over the needle & wa-la! Stitch made. Nope. Too tiny. Every time I flipped anything the whole thing went flying right across the room! Too much oomph in the flip!!
I did manage to keep going! AND to figure out how to hold the IBKK's and to knit with them... but then I discovered... dang... I made a big boo-boo! Drat it all anyway.
I finally went to bed at 11pm last night ~which is super late for me!! Only after ripping the baby hat out twice, re-starting it twice... ugh. I ended up making a wonderfully little baby boy mobius... or I would have if I didn't just walk away. So that's what I did. I just went to bed & said forget it. (Not really... that's probably not what I said... but I will let your imagine wander here!)
This morning I got up and saw the poor IBKK's just sitting there, tangled up in blue yarn.... ugh. No way am I going to try to make that hat again. It just was not going to happen!
So.... I started another one!! Using the IBKK's of course and doing (gasp!) cables! Yep! Go me!!
I found this pattern (right here)
 and thought Hey! I can make that one! It's got cables, it's a baby hat and I only have until Sunday to finish it! More specifically... has to be finished by Sunday at noon! That's my deadline!
It's a pretty easy pattern. You can either make a 5 cabled hat or a 10 cabled hat. I picked the 5! Didn't want to push my luck and not get this baby done!  I'm really amazed at how quick it knit up! The cables were super easy. C6F (cable six front) and you only do it a couple of time!
The coolest thing of course is that I did it using ONLY my IBKK's - I didn't even switch to dpn's at the very end!
I started this morning.... and almost 2 hours later.....
Ta~Da!!! 5 Cabled Baby Mo Hat!!
I say almost 2 hours, because I didn't really keep track... but total I think I spent just over two hours knitting this little hat! Love it! ~said of course in my best sing-songy voice!!
Now I'm all set for Sunday!
No deadlines to meet... nothing on the needles... oh no! Whatever shall I do....
let's make some more!!! I'm totally going for the ten cabled hat just to see how long it takes me!!

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Pumpkin Hand Dyed Yarn

I love pumpkin!  Pumpkin is probably my favorite thing to eat! Pumpkin pie, pumpkin roasted, pumpkin coffee - okay so you don't eat that! I even bought a whole pound of pumpkin colored fleece to spin! That orangey yummy color of pumpkin and how smooth it is?!  What's not to love about pumpkin?
Oh man oh man!!
So imagine my delight when I found this chance to win two skeins of Blue Face Worsted Yarn in pumpkin king..... oh my.  It's a give away. They want to give this to someone... so why not me?
 I don't know why I'm sharing it with you because I so do not want you to win!! Nope! Selfish me wants this all for me! ME!!!
Oh all right... here is the link......but don't enter though... okay?  LOL go ahead... just remember... it's all mine! MINE I say!!!

Want to win some gorgeous, hand-painted yarn?



We are giving away two skeins of Blue Face Worsted Yarn in Pumpkin King to one lucky winner. This gorgeous artisan yarn retails for $24 a hank, but it is so worth the money! Each 4 oz. hank features 200 yards of hand-painted yarn spun for its strength and durability. I'm making a nice autumn cowl out of my stash, but this yarn could easily be used for a fall sweater, mittens or a hat.







I May Need Glasses...

See why I'm going to need new glasses? Look how little those needles are! AND just look at how short that cable is. Um... what was I thinking?
It's a 9inch cable- the shortest I could find. What I didn't realize was that if the cable was short.... the needles would be too. LOL Duh.. that's what makes them so good for using on stuff like this...

Like Baby Hats & socks!!  You can work with a smaller amount of stitches than on a 16 inch cable.
I don't know about you, but I can't seem to get 16 inchers to work well unless I have around 90 stitches on them. So... I use dpn's...

to make stuff like hats. Like Mo's Hat I made last week......
 I like DPN's. I really do. They are nice to use and after I get used to the fiddling around and get into a rhythm... it goes pretty well.  Unless.... I'm not starting out a new needle with a purl stitch.  Ladders.  Ugh... 
See those ladders? Those funky stitches that look like a seam between those lovely cables... yeah those. Ugh. Hate those.
I get ladders because I can't tighten the stitches up really well on purl stitches like I can with knit stitches! I would much rather knit at the beginning of a new needle and avoid the whole ladder thing, but... with cables... and this pattern....
Ta-Da! That's why I bought these itty-bitty knitting kneedles (I had to add the k! Just had too!) I am bound and determined that I am going to make this hat pattern (HERE) for Mo's Mama's shower on Sunday.
Oh crud... Sunday. Yeah.
That's like 3 days from now. Yikes.
So off I go to test my sight and my cable ability on another Mo Hat!
Just make sure when you see me next you help me cross the street~
I'm sure with my vision being tested I will totally need the help!

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

My Favorite Yarn Becomes My New Hat!

Don't you just love it when you finish something and you like the results? Yeah... me too!

I finished my new hat yesterday while sitting at the pool waiting for my fish-child to swim his little heart out.   3 hours at the pool with nothing to do but swim or knit.  Hmmm... what to do, what to do? Guess what I did!  I knitted, swam, knitted some more, swam some more and wa-la! Finished my hat!
So now my new(est) favorite yarn- this stuff right there! That yummy kid mohair blend that I gushed about last week... that yummy stuff knitted with my other favorite, Cascade 220 Superwash, became this...
Yay! I like it!
 I only had to rip it out a billion times - I wasn't paying attention when I started decreasing to form the crown (ugh) and although it's a simple pattern, you kind of have to pay attention. Kind of.  The little windows where the mohair peeks out are just formed by slipping stitches of the main color and then knitting with the contrasting one.
To avoid having ladders (see the picture on the left?) I ordered some short (6inch) circular needles, but because I have no patience and didn't want to wait until later in the week..... I went ahead and bought a pair at the yarn shop in Woodbridge!  The little needles made it easier to decrease on the circulars and to work with a smaller amount of stitches in the round!  I ended up having to switch to dpn's anyway at the very end but the result is really worth it! NO ladders!! I can't wait to remake that baby hat I made last week!
I really like this hat!  It is super duper mega (enough adjectives for you?!) soft and I wish it was a tiny bit smaller ~ just so I could have the softness up closer to my head! LOL
It's a little bigger than I intended because I was a little worried about carrying my yarn around when I created those little windows! Just another reason color work makes me nervous!!!  I was worried that the yarn I carried around the slipped stitches would become too tight and then make the hat too small.   Guess I should have worried a little more about getting it just right huh? Oh well.. next time! This hat is just loose enough where it won't smoosh my hair anyway!
Obviously Boy doesn't think this hat is all that groovy....            But I sure do!


Ha! Thought I would let an opportunity to slip by without plugging a pic of the kid in here!~ LOL





Here's the link again if you want the pattern - http://www.straw.com/cpy/patterns2/accessories/moonshinebejeweled-hat.html

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Things That Make You Say Hmmm?!..........

Hmmm.... that's all I can say about knitted lampshade cozies.... hmmmm.... and maybe.
I like yarn. I like the textures of these cozies.  I like imagining how they would look interesting with light filtering through them. Hmmmm. I think I like them.... I think I do, maybe....
Not sure I'm ready to purchase a pattern for these yet. Hmm.... maybe I will work on designing a pattern of my own. Can't be that hard right?
AND what a way to use up some of that cheaper not so favorite yarn! Oh no! Here I go... off on another tangent...
Uh yeah. Have you met me? I'm a total paint by the numbers and a color in the line kind of girl. My imagination stretches, but how do I stretch it into designing.............Hmmm... you got any ideas?
Here's the link to where I found this
http://www.craftsy.com/workshop/Finocchiaro-Swirls-Lampshade-Cover/11;jsessionid=7E5B7D19FDB2DE3FA1EBBF9FD14C2AE5.rush