Mysteries abound

   Christmas knitting has begun, so all you get is a peek.

Oooooooooo

Ahhhhhh

Preeeety

Sorry! That's all I'm saying!




And then there are my mysteries. I have no idea what I'm making. These are projects from this mystery group. I'm guessing these are mittens maybe....

And this may be a shawl or a scarf...

And both may end up as Christmas gifts so you may not see the end result for a while.

A weekend of completion

 I had a fabulously productive weekend. To start with, I finished THIS! And I couldn't be happier. I'll have to get some pictures of it on someone because this doesn't show the full effect of my fabulous, big, warm, cozy shawl.

I got a little obsessed with the feather and fan "border". I based the shawl on a pattern I love, Multnomah, but when I got to the feather and fan I just kept going and going and going. I ended up with wonderfully long tails that make it great for wrapping and tying. 

 Next I totally reworked this hat. I had made it based on a pattern, but with different yarn and needles. So my size was WAY off, even though I thought I'd allowed for the differences. The hat ended up about half an inch above Hannah's ears. This version fits perfectly.

 

And then I finished this hat. No pattern, it's all improvised. Hannah modeled it last night...

And this morning I added the ears. This picture is the closest to the actual color. It's a lovely greenish grey. 

Woohoo! three finished objects on one weekend! And that was besides washing 5 loads of laundry and making cornbread to eat with the butter beans my friend Amy cooked in this...

Yummy!!!

A wonderful weekend indeed!

Yoga!!!

 Yoga is the big new thing in our house. Hannah is very excited to be able to exercise with me and has several favorite poses. Personally, one of my favorite aspects of yoga is not having to wear shoes. However, I have been a little concerned about how I'd do yoga in the winter, considering that my feet are cold so often. So.....

Yoga socks!!!!

I just made my favorite pattern and left off the heel turning and toe. I had to bind off and then cast on to make the heel hole and I added 5 rows of ribbing by my toes. I think they turned out rather nice!

I love the colors, but the yarn, ICK! It knit up fine, a comfy sock. But it was no bueno to work with. Lots of unraveling and poofing up. So I do NOT recommend Hobby Lobby brand Walk Away sock yarn... and I have a ton of it.....

Socks

I'm not sure where my sudden obsession with socks came from, but it's here, full on. After a long, very, very hot summer of knitting, well, not much... mostly washcloths, I am back in the knitting move big time!!! It started when I rediscovered a book I got a while back, Toe-Up Two-at-a-Time Socks. My feelings about the book and the method are mixed. It's a super cool method, but I doubt I'll knit many socks that way. And the book is VERY descriptive. Maybe too much so. Several times I have wondered how dumb the author thinks I am! I've actually had more trouble wading thru the stuff I don't really need to know than figuring out what I DO need to know. So with some help from my friend Amy at The Yellow Sweater in Buda I got started. And did a pretty nice job, if I do say so myself! And then stopped. I'll pick it back up. Promise. But I wanted to just make socks. So....

  

I made these! And I LOVE them. They are a tad tight, which I prefer to a tad loose. I'll add a row or two if I make another pair from this yarn. I have two more skeins so I may. I like the yarn just fine. Pretty well actually. It's just that it's Knit Picks Felici Sport which is only available on their website and I'm trying VERY HARD to buy locally as much as I can. (I've even cut back on my Target shopping, can you believe....!)

 

And then I started these, yoga socks, which are so cool! I'm so proud! I modified a pattern, left off the heel turn and the toe, and added a bit of ribbing at the toe end. I'm working on the second now. I love these colors and the yarn knits up just fine but I HATE working with it. It's the Hobby Lobby brand sock yarn, one I bought on clearance a million years ago, and I'm not even going to hunt down a link cause it's such a pain. 

So there ya go, socks. Lots of fun here! I should have more for you soon!!

Silver Seas

 I've been working on this one for a while. It's been my fall back project. It's mostly cotton and has just the perfect summer weight to keep the A/C chill off your shoulders. I love it! But it's not to keep. I really do not need a different shawl for each day of the month, no matter how much I like them. Soooo, it's 

FOR SALE!!!

 $40 and it's all yours. Any takers?

I still need to weave in the ends and block it. Blocking shouldn't change it much at all - I'm going to do a very light block - but it will "clean" it up some. I'll post more pictures when I finish all those little detail...

Happy retirement Mom!

 A shawl for my Mama.

It took way longer than it should have to finish. Can you see why?

 

I was about 10 yards short. Just a little annoying to buy a whole nother skein for 10 yards!!

 

 But it's finished and delivered, finally.

 

Organization....

 ....is not one of my strengths. Therefore I have just spent an hour going thru yarn in an attempt to organize and only ended up with a bigger mess...

 

So I'm stopping to work on this. It's not much yet, but it will be a baby blanket. It's a commission, not at all a yarn I would have chosen,  but it's super soft and fluffy. Now that I'm getting used to using it I think I like it.

I'm knitting and knitting and knitting....

Any guesses what this is? It's a gift. Most everything I've knitted the last few weeks is a gift, hence the lack of posts. This one I have to finish ASAP.I had something else for the recipient, but decided it wasn't quite right so I changed to this... and now I'm knitting like a mad woman!!

Actually, I usually knit like a mad woman.

Still, I'm knitting in a hurry so you should see the finished product soon. I'm fairly excited as it's looking rather nice. Hope the recipient likes it as well as I do!

This blog is supposed to be about craft, not just knitting, and has been rather knit intensive. I think I should have something a little different pretty soon.

First sweater, baby sweater

Mystery revealed

It's a scarf!!!

 Please ignore the really awful-ness of this picture, just wanted to sow how it wears...

Valentine's Day prep and a mystery

  It was one of those, rare, unexpected, productive days. The little one was sick over the weekend so we skipped her dance class today and spent our entire day in the house. So much got done - dishes, dinner, laundry, and of course a little crafty-ness.

These hearts will turn in to H's Valentine's. Since she's technically in 2 classes we are actually making double. I have a small blister from all this cutting... H's contribution to this step was to volunteer to take 3 of the hearts I cut out and draw on them, play with them, and give them to her babies. Stay tuned to see what they become.

And this, um, this thing, this centipede fish type thing is my mystery project. My best guess is that it will be some sort of wrap - scarf, shawl, I'm not sure. However, it is indeed a mystery. Every week for a month we get a clue, so it may be a while till I know what it is. If you are interested the group is on Ravelry.

That's it for today. The other project I worked on today is my first Christmas 2011 gift, so I probably shouldn't post it, just in case anyone's looking!

Showing off

I challenged myself last year to make as many of my Christmas gifts as possible. It went well, although I wish I'd started earlier and planned better. Below is a variety of projects from this past year, many of them Christmas gifts. Hopefully this year I can continue this tradition and expand it.

Christian's Christmas socks, using my foot to model hence the somewhat odd shape.

Baby booties!

Brian's Christmas mitts

My slippers - the plan is an average of one item a month for me and this is December 2010.

Shopping bags for Camille

bags rolled for storage

Mitts for Olga's son

Grace's Christmas Hello Kitty doll.

Taryn's Christmas socks

My mitts - November 2010

My shopping bag - October 2010

My bag folded - I moved the ties on the ones I made later and think they worked much better.

Grace's Hello Kitty hat. There were 4 or 5 different color bows that could clip on.

"Elsie Blue", Hannah's bird