When a Crocheter Knits

My crochet friends are wonderful friends, don't get me wrong, but........ Do not believe your crochet friends... ever!! Never!! They tell fibs. Big ones. ALL the time. Oops. Wait... let me rephrase that a little bit! I have two friends that strictly *cough* crochet. They said they can't knit. *insert a little whine here...* "I don't know how. It looks hard. Two sticks? Really? I can't do that!" ~ those are just a few of the whines things that I have heard them say.
Um... yeah... so don't believe when they lie to your face say they can't knit. They probably can.

V's KNITTED washcloths.

My friend Miss V way out West in Tennessee said she can't knit. Doesn't know how. Whatever. *insert eye rolling*. She knits. She knits like crazy! She made & sold knitted washcloths at a craft fair last year AND she knits these crazy scarves by the bazillion! Her grandmother-in-law sells them to her friends as fast as V can make them!  Not only is she knitting away... she's making some money at it!  Can't knit huh? Oh yeah... to add to her list of already growing transgressions... just yesterday she asked me to clarify a pattern direction for her. NOT a crochet pattern mind you..... A KNITTING PATTERN! Yes, V.. k1, p4 for two rows means you k1, p4 all the way across a row and then return, therefore doing it x2 rows. AND THEN.... she says she has to by circulars. Oh really?
My other crochet friend... who by the way is the crochet expert in our local knitting group * did you catch that? K N I T T I N G group! Anyway... (yes you can insert eye rolling here) Miss M is not only an expert crocheter, she lies. Lies like a rug. She knits. I even caught her with dpn's. Oh my.
The other night, Miss T and her children were here for a visit. She decided that she was going to 'mess around' with knitting needles. *insert snorts & eye rolling* Mess around? Lies. Completely. Mess around meant that she was bored with not only knitting, but purling as well. AND guess what? Even more lies! She made ribbing! Mmmhmmm... ribbing. 
So... me being the superwonderfulnicehelpfulfriend (yes, all one word) I decided instead of her distracting me with her cute kid so she could knit in relative peace; I would show her cables. That stuff is hard! Right?! NOT. Miss Thang herself gets it lickety split! Yeah... Miss I don't know how to knit............

 This is what she did. Besides lying to me....

See that? Knitting a border on both ends! Some stockinette stitch, some ribbing and those cables! *the odd shape of the sampler is my fault... I didn't have her count on an adequate amount of stitches... sigh

So my friends - whom I know will not lie about their talents..... do not believe your crochet friends when they say the cannot lie knit.

Portable Projects with a Cause Take 2

Here is the plan kids! Once a week I will post a pattern for one of the six squares for the afghan project!  I know, I know... it hasn't been quite a week since I posted the idea last Friday (yeah, yeah...) here is the LINK for block #1 AND at the bottom of this page is the pattern for block #2.
Once you have the pattern, knit it up in ANY washable worsted weight yarn you wish *do try to make it washable because it is a charity project and who knows where it will end up! **I have yarn we can share**
I think it's a great idea and I'm hoping you do too! It fills a lot of my summer knitting needs... it's small, a little challenging (to keep me interested) but not so challenging I won't do it (a sweater) and small enough to take wherever I go! Portable Knitting with the added benefit of doing something for someone else!  When we have all the squares completed, and it's stitched and bordered together, off it will go to a charity we all agree on!
I'm really trying to hold myself back and not just whip through the whole thing because so far, block #1 and #2 have been pretty simple!  AND I'm super excited about learning some of the techniques in the following blocks!  I am going to wait for you all  catch up and will only knit the square that I've posted for that week!  I WILL! I promise!   Patience... yeah... not one of the strongest parts of me!
Because I'm so anxious and we did (I did anyway) start last week,  I've made block one (twice) and block two once, BUT because I don't want to get too far ahead, I'm working on another block one!  I promised I wouldn't work ahead so I'm just going to make more of the blocks for the week!  I will be posting block #3 next Wednesday!!

Big Bamboo aka Block #1

This is my block #1, Big Bamboo. They look completely different sizes and shape, but with a little blocking these should measure out to the right size...
 I just reached into a bag of yarn that I have and pulled out a ball.... no thought at all went into the color choice!
 Block 2 ~below~ is made out of the same stuff and  would totally be better with a solid color. Sigh... I have a week to make it as many solid colors as I can...  I wanted to use up the ball that I had and now that I've used it up, it's  back to the bag of randomly placed yarn I go! Woohoo!!

Block #2 aka Horseshoe Cable

Honest! I didn't choose any of the colors that went into the bag! It was a bag that was given to me by a friend of a friend (Thanks DB!)  and although I did make sure it was all worsted weight... I DID NOT plan the color scheme!

Block #2 is the Horseshoe Cable. I did mine in a worsted weight, verigated yarn using size 8 needles. Next one is going to be done in a solid color so I can actually see all the work I put into the cables!

It's a bit more advanced... it has cables but really it isn't that bad! *If you don't have a cable needle, just use another needle of the same/similiar size.... a dpn will work great!

HORSESHOE CABLE

Multiple of 18 sts +6

*Special Sts*    6-st RC (3 over 3 right cross) Slip 3 sts to cable needle and hold in back, k3 then k3 from cable needle

6-st LC (3 over 3 left cross) Slip 3 sts to cable needle and hold in front, k3 then k3 from cable needle.

*************

Cast on 42 stitches

Knit 2 rows

Row 1 (RS): P6, *k12, p6; repeat from * across.

Row 2: k6,  *p12, k6; repeat from * across

Row 3: p6, *6-st RC, 6-st LC, p6; repeat from * across

Row 4: k6, *p12, k6; repeat from * across

Row 5-8: Repeat Rows 1 and 2 twice

Repeat Rows 1-8 until piece measures 10"/25.5cm from beginning, end with a WS row

Knit 2 rows.

Bind off.

This is going to be a great way for all of us to work together on a project for a good cause and learn some new stuff along the way! There is some intarsia, color-work and even an eyelet lace coming up!

(HERE is link for the block from last week!)

 ~HAPPY KNITTING ~

What a Busy Week!

Wow. I really didn't think that I would continue to be busy during the winter months. Especially didn't believe that I would get more busy. What is it with January anyway? I want to just stay home & snuggle up with a mug of tea, a book and maybe (just maybe) some knitting. Think that's happened lately? Um... no. Not at all. I don't think I've even been home for more than 2 hours at a time- except for the time between Boy coming home from school and bedtime of course and that totally doesn't count!
Between appointments, volunteering at school and the USO I have no idea where my day goes, but it certainly does not go over (or anywhere near) my yarn stash! Not to mention that I haven't even blogged this week. For me... that's busy!
Lucky for me the weather this morning is not so nice! How lucky is that huh? I went for a walk this morning and didn't even have to work to make my heart rate increase! Every time I slipped and felt my feet try to slide out from underneath me... I'm sure my heart rate went way up!!  Now that I have that out of the way for the day, I'm staying in!! Working on a few (too many) projects around here. NONE of which include that dreaded word.... housework!! That can wait! I am calling an Ice Day!!
I think I will stay in... the coffeepot is on, the coffee is ground and I have a billion tea bags for when that's empty! Woohoo!
So for now I'm finishing this......

It's a cabled (yes! I said cabled) soap cover. It needs to be sewn over a bar of soap, felted and then thrown into the shower! It will help make the bar of soap last longer and I can use all those itty, bitty pieces of soap that tend to get left in a pile...

 I think I might even have time to finish this  lacy knit cowl for me! Finally something for me! I bought some mill ends (the stuff that's left over after a skein of yarn has been made at the mill) from my favorite fiber mill when I was home in Michigan and have finally now gotten to the point where I'm almost finished~!

Stonehedge Fiber Mill is less than 2 miles from our house in Michigan so I always try to buy my fiber for spinning directly from them. Their yarn is available even here in Virginia! http://www.stonehedgefibermill.com/

I also need to finish this!  A baby hat for "Mo". His baby shower is in two weeks and I had some yarn left over after his blanket so.. now I'm making a cabled (yep! dreaded cable word again!) hat!

AND tp tubes! Oh yay!! I have a project in mind for these babies... but without a lot of behinds using up the tp at our house I had to beg the neighbors for theirs. Which is pretty funny if you think about it!

LINK to what I'm trying to make!

So it's shaping up to be a great day in! Hope you have fun with yours!