Hats are hits!

I think they liked their hats! Made it all worth it!

Posted by judi at 9:38 PM | Comments (3)

More hats

So I got all the hats done, yay! I have put the crochet hook away for a while and am now back to sewing. The studio isn't done yet, darn it all! The saleswoman didn't order the right length of vinyl so she had to order new. Should get it installed on the 22nd - the weekend before Christmas. It's been tough with so much disarray in the house - no holiday spirit for me - and no decorations because I still have all my bedroom furniture in the living room!

But back to the hats ... the dino hat is for my 5 yr old grandson, his favorite color is green. This is green, lol. Very green. The hat is crocheted and the teal spikes are knitted (and stuffed). Maybe a bit too stuffed. I think he'll like it.

Finally there are two more owl hats - and they aren't angry birds either. One is for my 4 yr old grandson and one is for my 8 yr old niece. They were fun to make and the pattern was free on Ravelry. My nieces hat has 'ears' or whatever you call them. Crocheting hats sure is faster than knitting them and now I have a big stash of {gasp} Red Heart yarn. Don't tell my snobby knitting buds!

It helps if you do it right

So the reason the hat didn't fit my grandson was because I wasn't making the double crochet stitch properly. I was putting the hook in the wrong spot and shortening the stitch. Once I realized that, things clicked. The hat is the proper shape and size now. I am making a bunch of these for the kids in the family. Not all will be owls - this was supposed to be one but now is kind of an angry bird. Hard to see the eyebrows though. Notice the little white highlight on the pupil? I had to do that, lol. It's the life light, right?

In other developments, the floor for the studio should be installed on Friday. I am super excited to put the room back together although all the decorating will take a while. I still have to paint the trim for the windows and doors - well - we have to buy it first, which always helps. So no pictures for a bit. I am working on three rooms in the house, the bathroom is practically done, just needs a towel bar. I painted my bedroom walls this weekend and it gets new flooring on Friday too. We do still need to paint the ceiling though. Lots going on, just not so crafty right now.

Hooking again

or crocheting, to put it properly. I saw some super cute owl hats at a holiday marketplace recently and my 3 yo grandson gravitated right to them and decided to try one on. I figured I could make him one. I hadn't crocheted in years but figured it would come back to me pretty easily. I found a free pattern by Sarah Zimmerman on Ravelry, bought about six skeins of yarn and went at it! All I can say is "Thank you, YouTube", lol. I had to remind myself how to do everything! The hat (which isn't quite done) didn't fit my grandson but it does just about fit my childhood doll! I am going to make another one with more rows so hopefully that one will fit the little guy!

She looks pretty good for being over 50 years old!

Window Cushion -Part 2

So I finally managed to get a picture of both the cushion and the bag I made. I had a heck of a time with it. The cushion works well but there were construction woes. It turned out that I didn't make the piping wide enough so wasn't able to sew the final seams at the proper width. That meant the cover wasn't as tight as it should have been. It's rather wrinkly. But no one but me ever notices it.

The bag I just love. It came out perfectly. But I don't care for the shape of the very bottom so will be tweaking the pattern for the next one. This is now my everyday knitting bag. This is the gorgeous fabric Shashi bought for me in India.

What to do with sock yarn ends?

Wondering what yarn ends are? It's the yarn left after you've done knitting. I guess other types of knitting will have leftovers too but I tend to knit more socks than anything else so I have a lot of sock yarn ends. One of the gals in my knitting group hosted a baby shower for a gal who is new to town and I figured I'd just knit her something. Ended up being two somethings! Both of these patterns were free on Ravelry (you need to join this site if you knit or crochet). The nice thing about the sock yarn is that it's thin enough for baby things. This isn't as soft as some of the baby yarns out there but it should be fine.

One of the things I learned with this pattern was how to cast on in the middle of a row with a second yarn. I had SUCH a hard time with it ... until I thought to turn to YouTube ... only to find out that I was holding the yarn wrong .. such a simple thing! I♥ YouTube!

Malabrigo Mitts

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We sure did - it was a lot of fun and spreading the cooking out over two days made it pretty stress less too!

This one's for Kai .. the mitts that match the Meret Beret. Once again the yarn doesn't do justice to the pattern. The lace on the button band is just lost. The rest of the mitt is pretty plain. These are okay but I'm not going to make this pattern again. I had originally thought to make these as a test run for the purple ones I want to make but it's not going to be. I 'favorited' a couple of patterns on Ravelry for the next pair, just have to decide what I want to do. So without further ado ...

Posted by judi at 2:22 PM | Comments (2)

Bramble Beret

I don't know about these titles, lol. This one is made from a Knitty pattern called Bramble Beret ...it's made with Malabrigo worsted in Purple Mystery, size 6mm needles. This one is a tad bit big .. I must be channeling Goldilocks! The length is perfect though, it's nice and slouchy. You can't see it but the sides of the hat have lovely cables - it's a very interesting beret visually. This one matches my new bright purple pea coat! This hat I just love - it's nice and warm.

so .. not a good hat shot .. but .. nice one of me, lol.
I am going to make mitts to match this too. Soon!

Posted by judi at 8:00 AM | Comments (1)

Meret Beret

Yep, it rhymes but that's not my fault! It's the name of the pattern! This is made in Malabrigo worsted - super soft and yummy. It's a tad bit smaller than I'd like, I wanted a more slouchy hat. But it will match my winter parka (which is brown).

It's a really lacy pattern but the variegation on this yarn really lost it. Shame, really!

Monkey socks!!!

I'm fighting with a doll I'm making - she doesn't like any of the clothes I've made. She might just end up naked at this rate and that wouldn't be pretty. Meanwhile I did finish these off this morning. They are from the popular Monkey Socks pattern from Cookie A. - which is a free Ravelry download. I'm going to make another pair but using someone's modified pattern. This was a super easy pattern and don't they look great!!!!

Twisted Rib socks! Done!!

... and they only took me ONE YEAR !!! I think I'm beginning to understand what second sock syndrome is all about. This was a great pattern - and the chart was easy enough even for a beginner like me. The yarn was hand dyed by me and I love the way it knit up. I wonder how warm these will be though - look at all those 'holes' !!

The pattern on one sock kinds of rolls to the side and I don't understand why. Oh well.

Pattern: Rib Fantastic Socks by Barb Brown
Yarn: South West Trading Company TOFUtsies

Cabled purse - done!

Well, kinda done - it still needs some type of closure but I haven't decided on what yet. I knitted this up in about 6 hours - it's Brown Sheep Burly Spun - a super chunky wool. I love, love, love the color! It took me a couple of days to put it all together though. Took me a while to line it - I made one that wasn't big enough so I had to add more fabric to it. I even put pockets in the lining - so I have somewhere to stash my iPhone! I didn't realize that the lining would 'squish' when I put the handles on - so the pockets kind of gap - but that's okay I'll just fill them up! The only thing that's really bad is that the handles cracked (cheap wood from JoAnn's). I glued them together and then spray painted them with black lacquer. Since it's not for sale I'm not going to worry about it. I really like this though and it looks way better in person than in the photos.

Posted by judi at 6:19 PM | Comments (5)

The Xmas socks are done!

I know it's a month after Christmas but, hey, what can I say. Like I said in my last post, I did manage to get one sock done and in her stocking ... now she has both of them! This was some self striping yarn my daughter picked out when we went shopping in Anchorage last month. They are plain vanilla socks - a ribbed cuff and then stockinette stitch. I'm still not used to how BIG hand knit socks look since there's no lycra or spandex in them! Kinda boring to knit but I wanted to try to get them done fast. This sock took me about a week - not bad for a beginner! Heyyyy - see how I matched the stripes too! Whoot! Now the question is what to cast on next - I think I'm hooked on socks!

Queen of Cups

I FINALLY got this pair of socks finished! I've been working on them on and off for months. I probably shouldn't have picked a lace pattern for my second pair of socks but I do like a challenge! I'm pretty tickled with them - they are comfy - maybe a tad bit too big - but I'll figure that stuff out as I make more socks. Next up is the mate to the plain jane sock I knit my daughter for Xmas. She was rather surprised when her stocking only held one sock, lol.

Pattern: Queen of Cups, Knitty.com, Spring 2007

The socks are done!

Had a blast at the yarn shop today - you'd never know we had a sock class going on amid the gales of laughter coming from our table. Our class table ended up being the place for everyone to hang out and knit and we had 6 or 7 gals on and off all afternoon. Nothing like doll classes! But then they aren't quite as portable are they? So here are the socks .. not very pretty but I learned what I needed to ..

The sweater is done!

I went to a knitting retreat this past weekend - lots of fun! We knit and ate, knit and drank, knit and ate, knit and chatted, and knit and ate. We stayed at a rustic lodge,which is actually a restored bunkhouse from an old gold mine. The place was neat but the lighting left a lot to be desired. Next time we'll have to bring some Ott lights along. This particular lodge is really popular in the winter with the Japanese tourists who come to see the Northern Lights and each bedroom had a bare red light bulb mounted on the wall so you could still see but didn't interfere with seeing outside. Didn't do much this time of year as it is already light most of the night but I thought it was a great idea and I might have to get one for my living room next winter!

Although a lot of the women knew each other from the yarn shop, this particular retreat was formed (created? sponsored?) through an online group from the knitty social network, Ravelry. I think it's pretty fascinating that the social landscape has changed so much - dating, crafting, friends, it's all so common on-line now. Here's a photo of Sarah's son Blake modeling my baby sweater ... I am so glad it is done. It has lots of mistakes but I learned so much doing it! Now I have some wrist warmers and a scarf on my needles!

Photo taken with my iPhone - can't believe I forgot my camera!