See you later Alligator........

Oh Dear, things have slowed down a little here, not because I haven't been knitting, I have, but because I have broken my number 1 knitting rule - The one that says don't start anything new until you've finished your current project.

Those that know me know I have, for the last several years knit one thing at a time. It works for me. I get stuff finished in fairly good time and move on to the next thing. Since the new year started I have started more projects than I have finished and it's bugging me so it's now time to clear the needles.

This is finished:

1. my 'stash busting' excercise with completion of the blue rug, sorry there's no photo yet, this will come later.
2. His 'n' Hers Alligator scarves done
3. Saturday Socks finally done. (Saturday socks because we knit Saturday nights while hubbies do their musical thing at Crystals Patio & Grille, Coldspring, TX) and finally the DK socks knit up in a day, very gratifying.

Lastly, in my quest to use up sock yarn scraps I have been toying (pun intended) with sock monkeys. This one was my first - my pattern still needs tweaking a little yet to get the proportions right but he is kind of cute.

Projects to complete:

1. Lets twist again cabled hoodie
2. Kia Kia circular vest

Saturday socks don't count in the same way that sock yarn doesn't count as stash! (the latest are pink)

Off to knit now........... :0)

More rugs, cat baskets & a wrap.............

........have been completed this week.

Another crochet rug for, this one for YD, several cat baskets and 1 yarn bowl all completed from the continuing 'stash bust'. Also, the entrelac lacy wrap, made from more of the King Cole Mirage.This yarn works particularly well for this project.

Next up:

1. Finish Alligator scarf #1, start #2.
2. Start the cabled hoodie, this time for me.
3. Finish the 'restaurant socks' note to self: go back to 2 sets of needles, stop punishing yourself.
4. Make 2 more stash rugs

As you can see, still have more planned projects than time to make them :0)

I am not a yarn snob.......

...............which means my stash of 'leftovers' includes a mighty amount of acrylic yarn in all kinds of colours. Most of the yarns were from a job lot of 'pink & blue' that I got from ebay plus leftovers from several crochet afghans. I really needed to declutter my workspace but can not throw yarn away, yes, even the cheap and cheerful.

For Christmas I was given a 15mm crochet hook as a gift and my limited crochet experience taught me that a regular sized hook 'eats' yarn, much more so than knitting, so this monster should munch it's way through a measurable amount of stash quite quickly. So, here's my first rug! measuring approximately 4' x 5' and made with 6 strands of worsted weight yarn. Worked in single crochet it has taken probably just less than 10 hours in total and it looks pretty good. It's quite thick and heavy but should be hard wearing and machine washable.

It's construction has had little impact on the (rather large) stash so I'm just off to start another. Happy New Year!

Merry Knitting and Happy New Year

Hello,

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and is looking forward to new and exciting knitting (and crochet) projects in the new year. As usual the run up to Christmas was busy with gift making, none of which I remembered to photograph. There were more sewing than knitting projects going on here as I made tote bags for all my friends, these were made in fabrics that reflected their personalities or hobbies so there were several 'knitting' themed bags made as well as Elvis, dog biscuits, recipes and flower themes to name a few.

I did do some sparkly socks for YD and have been working on a cabled hoodie for my niece. Happily, I can report that this was completed this morning and will be rushed off to England very shortly.

I think that one of my resolutions should be remembering to photograph and blog my finished projects.

So I wish everyone a Happy New Year.

The Poncho is finished.....

.....despite the problems (described in the last post) and the fact that the border was knit in the round with just about 400 stitches on my circular needle, this meant I had no idea what the finished thing looked like until I had cast off.

I added a knitted on i-cord edge around the neck and the bottom edge, this alone took me almost 2 evenings of knitting.

So to summarise, the project took 3 weeks to complete (2 of knitting and 1 of frogging), consists of 1 ball of Aran in terracotta (400g) and less than 2 balls of Adriafil Peru (200g balls) orange/blue colourway.

In your dreams......

After the mitred shawls I decided that a Poncho version was in order, something less 'drapy' and nicely cosy for winter. Yarn was purchased, I even found a pattern exactly fitting the bill (I say pattern but it was more a set of vague instructions, that's OK, I can do vague instructions myself) and last Sunday I cast on, did a few rows, frogged it, cast on again, did the same, cast on again and finally got past row 5 by converting a knit row to a purl row one stitch at a time. Great you might think, I did! I knit the yoke in the round then started the mitres. On Tuesday morning I finished the mitred squares around the front and could finally lay it flat. Well, it looked a little, shall we say small, but I was in that place where you just convince yourself all is well.

I left it spread out on the sofa all morning, sneaking little looks as I passed and mentally trying to convince myself it was fine, why I was sure it looked bigger each time I glanced at it. I was obviously delusional as I finally, gingerly put it over my head and took a peek in the mirror. It looked much like a hippy nuns wimple, more of a large collar than a yoke. I could hear those frogs a calling....Rip-it Rip-it Rip-it...and so, after many, increasingly more desperate thoughts on how to avoid the dreaded frogging I could put it off no longer and out came various needles and stitch holders. 2 days knitting undone in about 20 minutes.

I had had a few problems getting the mitres to line up, as I say the pattern is somewhat vague and mine just wasn't right. Anyway, I cast on again, managing this time to avoid the earlier stupid mistakes and knit the yoke with lots more stitches, not only a bigger yoke but giving me extra stitches to make bigger mitred squares, and it looks great, well apart from those mitres again, 2 of which still seem to 'go the wrong way'

I can't spread out the knitting as there's a mighty amount of stitches all squeezed together on 1 big circular needle, so I add another needle to halve the stitches, and with a few rubber bands to stop the whole thing exploding I can lay it out, it's still bloody wrong! and I can't for the life of me work out why, I try graph paper, cut out paper squares and my Mum in Law, and they all say that it can't be done. I'm satisfied that

a) patterns are sometimes wrong

b) It looks fine and that as long as there is symmetry it doesn't matter

c) It still looks lovely so I can carry on with my plan, (completely shutting out those little voices that are saying "but it's not right yet")

So last night I completed another square.....

And so to the title of this post, I woke this morning very very early and with something of a start, I instantly and without any doubt knew that my WIP had gone wrong, but weirdly I also knew exactly how to fix it......the knitters brain is obviously a powerful thing!

Now I just have to Rip-it Rip-it Rip-it.....................

Funky winter hat.....

for Claire, knitted with an odd ball from the stash. Not much to report really, did another cabled hat for Finley and this one for Claire. I am resisting the final Aran jacket for several reasons, I don't much care for the yarn and it is almost identical in colour to my bamboo needles so it won't make for an easy knit......I really must get it done and have promised myself a lovely poncho as my reward.

Happy Knitting Ladies

A quick post of Baby projects for Finley, project #1 Cabled Coat and #2 Aran patterned sweater and Hat, 1 more Aran project to go then onto some grown up stuff.....

A nice afternoon with the Knitterati today but sadly my last for a while as we're back to Texas soon, so I'm now looking forward to seeing the ladies at Kingwood Yarn it - Darn it for their November meeting.

Happy knitting :0)

Fall Shawl.....

Another 'Mitre Shawl' but this time in shades of red. King Cole Mirage shade 870 (With the fringe this shawl takes about 1100 yards of yarn) I have two more shades yet to do this shawl but am having to do a couple of Aran baby coats before I can start another......

Happy Knitting Ladies :0)

Pumpkin Patch....

Grandma made three pumpkin hats, for Finley and his friends,

They're very cute for little heads, just made from odds and ends,

But "Grandma I have three friends, I needed just one more"

So Grandma got her needles out, and made not three but four.