News!

Sorry I havent been posting much lately. We found out that I'm knitting up a very important project this year.... knitting up our first BABY! He/she will be due this October and we are very excited!!!!!!

Speaking of babies....I went to a friend's baby shower yesterday and it was so much fun! For her gift I whipped up the baby jeans (finally finished those in time!)



And also since my friend's little boy-to-be is named Gus, I knitted him his very own AsparaGUS :-D get it? This was so much fun to make!!!! I probably should write the pattern out since I made it up on the fly:




Can you tell I had WAY too much fun with this photoshoot??? I actually had the real asparagus before I knit this, it was my inspiration :-)



Hope everyone is having a great spring! I will leave you with a picture of the gorgeous tree in our backyard. :)

Booties ahoy

When my cousin had her baby the other week, we finally learned the sex (boy!) and so I commenced my knitting! I decided to do the Cabled Booties from Vintage Knits for Modern Babies.



Turned out pretty cute! I wish I had fabric covered buttons like in the book, but I had to work with my meager button stash because I want to get these mailed off! I actually had to restart them too after I had one bootie knit up.... I had started on 6's and didnt realize they were coming out too large. After I ripped it out I switched to a size 4 needle and it was MUCH better. :) Whew!

Matinee Jacket

Greg's cousin is expecting his first kid, a baby girl, this year! The baby shower is this weekend and my SIL and I have been teaming up to work on some handknits. She agreed to do a hat and booties and I tackled a sweater. Thanks to my MIL, I had the awesome book "Vintage Knits for Modern Babies" to flip through, and I found a cute pattern - the Matinee Jacket!



It turned out pretty cute! Mare (my SIL) picked out the yarn color (vanna's choice brand), and I found the adorable ducky buttons. :) Can't wait to have their cousin open our gift!!!!!!!


(the extra 2 are for Mare to use on her booties!)

Hippo's pants

Yes that's right folks, I had to make hippo some PANTS! The poor guy was running around all indecent!!! :-)


Again, I made this up as I went along.... I worked from the bottom up, knitting two tubes for the legs and then joining them with a couple increases for the body...I did one short row on the backside too. Then I did a foldover brim for the waist so I could do a drawstring waist (I thought that would look cooler than ribbing - and hippos need to be cool!) Oh and of COURSE a hole for his tail! Can't forget about that!


They were a lot of fun to make and now hippo can feel comfortable in public! ;-)

Hippo in the house!

This is a long overdue post, but I'd like you all to meet Hippo :-)


He joined us not too long after Christmas, because I got the book Itty-Bitty Toys on xmas eve, and knew as soon as I saw the hippo pattern, that it would have to be my first proj! (My hubby is partial to hippos)


I had a ton of fun making him!!!! It really wasn't that hard, I just had to be careful sewing all the pieces together to make sure he didn't lose an arm or anything, hehe!


The ears are super adorable!!! And his big round hands and feet! I can't wait to make another animal from this book :)

Of course, I couldn't stop there! The poor hippo needed some ACCESSORIES! First thing I knew I had to make was a simple garter stitch scarf... with fringe of course!


Hmm what next, well I had some leftover green and tan from the scarf... oh I know! A matching hat to keep his head warm! (with ear holes for his cute hippo ears, duh!)


Put it all together...


One fine lookin' hippo!


Now, I'd love to give you all a "hippo hat" pattern, and I think I took a few scant notes, but I truly made that thing up on the fly and got extremely LUCKY that it fit! I just kept trying it on him and eyeballing where the holes should go for his ears! Glad it worked out and he looks super spiffy!

Up next.... hippo gets his DECENCY!

KAL, anyone?

Guess what! There is a group of us getting organized to knit a February Lady Sweater for ourselves in 2010! Don't you love that sweater? I am so excited. Feel free to follow our progress on the KAL blog:

FLS Knitalong

And if anyone else wants to KAL with us, you are more than welcome! :-)

Haiti

I made a donation, won't you too? Let's help out the people of Haiti in their time of need.

Christmas knitting 09

Happy 2010! Before we look forward to the new year, let me recap my christmas knitting!

First and foremost, I can now reveal my secret project that I've been working on since JUNE.... it is the Estes Vest, and I knit it as a christmas gift for my sister in law!!!!!!


It was quite a project... cables, charts, POCKETS (never made those before!), and more! It was really a lot of fun though and I am very happy with the finished project.




And more importantly, so is Mare!!!! Woot. And it fits her, another plus! Apparently she even liked it enough to wear to her husband's family christmas party the next day... that was so awesome of her!


Next up was gifts for my family. We just had our christmas celebrations the other night since my mom was out of town! First up: I blogged about the "button gloves" I made for my mom earlier, and luckily she was very impressed when I gave them to her!


Also a big hit was the hat I made for my brother! He put it on right away and made comments like he thought it looked like something he'd see at abercrombie or something.... I'll take that as a compliment!!!!


(yes ladies, he's single!)

Finally, my other big project.... my dad's vest!!!!


For all the plain gray stockinette I had to slog through, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out... and also happy I was able to block a few extra inches into the width! :-)


Luckily dad indulged me and tried it on when I gave it to him.... and it fit! YEAH!


Finally, two small projects I whipped up in my "spare knitting time" before xmas.... Yes I actually had some! I know you will all hate me for that. Maybe next year I will be the one sweating it out and knitting into the wee hours of the night on something :-). I made a simple yellow dishcloth for some friends of ours (not anything photo worthy) and then I did some gloves. Simple fingerless ones for my Aunt: (one of my fav patterns: malabrigo mitts)


And lace up "opera gloves" (pattern) for my friend Shawn. I made them shorter than what the pattern specified, but I think they are plenty long enough!


Whew! So that sums up Christmas 09. I am very satisfied with what I got done, and am looking forward to what I can whip up in 2010!!!!

2009: A look back

I guess since we're moving to a new DECADE I could be doing a look back on the decade, but considering I only started knitting about 4 years ago, I better just stick with this last year.

Overall I am pretty happy with my knitting progress this year! I made several things that were in a new category for me, such as an adult size vest (2 of them!), I made some really fun projects, and also in general got a good volume of knitting done for people!

The year started out with some baby knitting, as 2009 brought lots of wee ones to my friends and family members:



I made a cute keyhole scarf for my mom, and then I tackled my first big project and also a commissioned project (for megan), the turtleneck shrug from Scarf Style:


It turned out pretty cute, and megan says it has been keeping her warm this year! :-)

I made one of my favorite baby sets for a gift for my coworker's soon to arrive baby girl:

Totally "punk" baby, eh??? :-)

I made several baby and adult hats in general, and I did a cute owly vest for Holden for his first bday! One new technique I mastered this year was felting... my first and second projects were cute felted bowls like this:


I made some baby legwarmers, and this sweater is probably my fav baby girl sweater:


One of the funniest things I've ever knit was this finger mustache thing... LOL....


I knit a shrug for one of my friends in less than 2 weeks, that was crazy, but I got a delicious cake in exchange :)


And of course, I made a cardigan for my mom's birthday!!!! I am so glad she likes it :-)


Other new things... I knit a dog sweater, little bunnies, dishcloths, dishtowel, scarf, baby vest, baby mittens, lots more hats, its been fun!



I will post about my christmas knitting next, but for now, here's to another adventurous and fun year of knitting in 2010!!!!! Knit on!

Merry Christmas!

Hope you all have a lovely holiday season, whatever you celebrate!

What????

Wait a second, we still have 4 days till christmas and I am all done with the Christmas knitting this year??? Wow.

Next year is probably going to come back and hit me hard for this one!!!! :-) Today I found ribbon for some lace-up fingerless gloves I made for my friend, and I cast off the last armhole ribbing on the vest for my dad! YEAH! Now I am going to block it and it will be DONE!!!!!!!!!!! I am so glad I decided to go ahead and knit it even though at the time I never thought I would make it :-).

Oh, and I whipped out a super fast bulky 1x1 ribbed beanie for my brother, that only took 2 days! Love those projects.

Anyway, I feel like I should offer my free hands up to anyone else who is pushing deadlines. I would offer Cynthia my services, but it looks like all she has to do is seam up her mom's sweater! Talk about fast knitting. Congrats on your hard work girl!!!!!

Pics coming soon, I promise!

Sometimes the simple things....

... are the best! I whipped up a simple ribbed hat on large needles (holding some Patons yarn double) for my coworker Joe. I gave it to him the other day and he went NUTS over it! Wore it around the office the whole day, and he said he's been telling everyone about it! Its funny that it was such a quick and easy project! It's always awesome when someone loves something you've knit!!!!

Number 4

Happy 4TH Blogiversary to me!!!! WOW! Have I been really dragging this thing on for 4 YEARS? I guess so! Thanks to anyone who has ever read a sentence here... or left a comment - It's nice to hear from you all!

Hope everyone is getting ready for Christmas.... it is getting CLOSE. I got to the point where I divided for the sleeves on my dad's vest, and I still need to buy something for my secret project... and then maybe squeak in a hat for my bro! Good luck to everyone else with your Christmas knitting (especially you, cynthia!!!)

Turkey Day

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I am so thankful to be healthy, have people that love me, and have money to buy yarn with :-) Hope you all find something to be thankful about too!!!!


(a family tradition, to serve your cranberry sauce in the shape of the can - hee hee!)

Official Christmas Knitting List

OK folks, its almost Thanksgiving, so you know what that means..... its time for the 2009 Christmas Knitting List!!!!!!!!!!!! Time for me to list everything I am imagining I will finish in time to give as a Christmas present to some lucky recipient! Am I finally reasonable this year? Have I gone off the deep end with entrelac duvet covers? Let's find out!

1. Secret project - This is about 95% done and will definitely be ready on time! Probably because I started it back in JUNE. Apparently I knew it would take me awhile!

2. Vest for my dad - This one I have been trying to be good about working on, since its not even up to the armpits yet. Luckily its a VEST, so no sleeves. I am knitting it in the round also (original pattern is here: Peter Easy Vest) so I hope the rest will go quickly! Also... I hope my dad doesn't read this blog... hmm I should ask him sometime.



3. Gloves for mom - Done! As you saw in my last post, these are ready to go! Woot!

4. Kitchen towel - This is about 1/3 the way done, but I am not sure who I want to give it to yet.... so we will see about this project... hmmmmm

5. Hat for my brother maybe???? - still need to find a good pattern, something very plain and manly :-)

7. Another secret project that is not even close to done, and I probably am not going to even try.... buuuuut we will see. ;-)

Well thats not too bad. Hopefully dad's vest will go smoothly. I am also still working on some preemie hats for charity. I want to have at least 10 of them before I mail the package! They go so fast though!!!!

Hope everyone else's christmas knitting is going well! I am pretty good at helping other people (ahem, cynthia) at paring down their outrageous lists, so if you need any help, let me know ;-)

Glovies!

These have been done for a few weeks, but cross one xmas gift off my list: Gloves for my mom!


It started when my mom took me shopping for my birthday in October. While perusing the hat/glove/scarf section at a store, she saw some cute (abet fingerless) gloves that had a little strap across the wrist fastened with a button. I immediately took a mental note that I could make something like that for xmas!


When searching Rav, I wasn't finding anything that I really wanted, so I used a plain glove pattern and added my own strap! How did it turn out??? Well thanks to the PERFECT buttons I found at a fabric store in Indy...


They are perfect! Hope mom likes them!


(like the camera strap in that pic? oops! hehe)

Cable Needle?

Last year for Christmas I received the Yarn Harlot’s Page-A-Day calendar. I’ve been enjoying it all year so far! Yesterday’s page was about cable needles. She talked about how “losable” they are since they are so small, and also listed a few household items that could be used in a pinch if you don’t have a cable needle on you. Some of those things listed were: “dpns, toothpicks, hat pins, Q-tips, crochet hooks, pencils…” Hah! I would have never thought of Q-tips. Basically what you need is a thin enough rod that your stitches can slip onto it, and also the stitches must be able to slip off both ends of your object.

A few weeks ago I was working on a cabled project. I had brought it to work per usual to knit during my lunch hour (the best way to spend your lunch hour if you ask me!). When pulling out my project, I realized I had left my knitting kit at home (my bag containing scissors, tape measures, stitch markers, etc)! What would I do? Of course there is a method to cabling without a cable needle, but I’ve always been too lazy to learn (ironic because it would probably be easier). So there I am at my desk, pondering my situation. I begin to search around for a suitable cable needle replacement. Pens? Highlighters? The caps would get in the way. Pencil? Unfortunately I only have mechanical pencils, so they have a “clip” on them, which would snag the yarn. Paper clip? Kind of small and flimsy…. Wait! I got it…. Rummaging through my drawer I pulled out a large colorful drinking straw. I realized the dull ends of the straw would be hard to get in the stitches…. So a few snips of the scissors later I had this:


Hey – it worked! I made sure the next day to remember my knitting kit! :-)

What unusual things have YOU used for a cable needle in a pinch????

Mad Hatter

There seem to be lots of random knitted hats scattered around my house these days! Let's see what we have....

Just finished this simple brown beanie (kind of a small adult size or child) to donate along with an unused scarf I knitted awhile ago to my friend's church. They will hopefully be given to someone who needs them!


This is a warm wool kiddo hat, might be going to a lucky nephew of mine! I am pretty happy with how it came out, I was just making it up as I went along. I knew I wanted a warm thick brim though! (and stripes of course)


Preemie hats! Besides the original blue one I knitted while creating my cabled preemie hat pattern (link), I knitted an additional one in pink, and then 2 more hats using a different pattern, then a light blue hat using my own random pattern. Add those to the cute white preemie hat that Cynthia donated, I have 6 hats so far to give to charity!!!! I hope to have at least 10 before I mail them to the lady in Indy, and I think Jess is knitting me one, so doing pretty good! The more the merrier really.