Use your imagination
This is what I can show you off the bear so far, partially thanks to another visit in the doctors office, but that's another story. I got all the "accessories", as in arms, legs, ears, nose and shirt, done and I'm stitching along on the body, attaching everything one by one. You have to use your imagination to see the finished bear and to help you along here is a picture of what the original is supposed to look like. 
Trust me, he'll look like that too, because I used to make lots of them.
If nothing else gets in the way I'll be working on my Bonita shirt again as soon as this special bear officially hits the light of day. Hopefully nothing else will jump the list and trust me, there is a list. Labels: Crochet
Chenille or not?
The two scarves are completed and dropped off yesterday. The two girls will be happy and mom didn't have to twist her fingers in a knot making them. On to the next project? Well, I tried to. I started on the yellow blanket and got as far as the first strip. Take a look. Pretty, isn't it?
Well, here is a close-up picture. Still pretty, right?
Well, but it's not soft and that is the whole thing wrong with it. Ever worked with Chenille? I thought that stuff is supposed to be all soft and all. But this one is turning out to be a board. So me and neighbor decided to drop the idea. Now we are looking for different yarn to make the blanket by the deadline, which is the end of May. I know, that's a long ways to go and I'm glad for that.In the meantime I'm working on the bear, but there is not much to show for, so I'll spare you the pictures. I have two blue ears and a nose done and I'm working on the second arm. When it gets more interesting as in maybe a half a bear or so, I'll let you take a peek. Until then, happy knitting, crochet or whatever you might have picked up at the moment. Labels: Crochet
Minor Distractions
So you want to know, why the Bonita Shirt is taking a break? Well, I guess I could say I got blinded by all the white, but to be quite honest, I was getting a little bit bored, so I got side tracked. I finished the cotton socks and now have to hold myself back not to start on the second pair from the toes up. They also have to wait, since a couple of minor (two of them not so minor) "orders/requests" from neighbors and coworkers managed to skip ahead to the top of the waiting list. I have a coworker that wanted to make her daughters some fuzzy scarves, but we know now that fuzzy yarn like fun fur is no FUN to crochet. Since she hasn't knitted in years and didn't know how to do it anymore, I had to come to the rescue and knit the scarves for her. Here is FO pastel scarf and not yet FO fuzzy rainbow scarf. They are knitting up fairly fast, so there is no problem there.
I also was asked to make a somewhat patriotic bear. Well, I guess here comes Pooh Bear once again, this time in different colors. Just stay tuned and find out what I'm coming up with for this special little bear.
Also a "baby" blanket is on order. To replace a somewhat tattered original blanket, which after 9 years of love and wash is not longer so desirable, I'm asked to crochet a new blanket in similar pattern and similar color. This is going to be in pale yellow Chenille and crochet with big needles. Here is a look at the pattern it's going to be. It's the letter "C" for Classic Cover-up from the Leisure Arts Leaflet 3014 "Our best Afghans A to Z.
Labels: FO, On The Needles, Scarf
Cotton Crazy
I guess you could say that I'm a little cotton crazy the last few days. I had to put down the Bonita shirt for a little while and pulled out my cotton sock yarn to cast on some socks. I have neglected my feet for a while and since it's getting warm here, at least during the days, very fast, I need some new socks. Please disregard the mosquito bites, they are also out in full force :)
Not only do the knit up very fast, but I think I might be able to get a second pair of socks from one big ball of 100 gr. sock yarn. On this one I used Online Supersocke Cotton No. 018, just if anybody asks. I knitted the cuff only 10 rounds then 5 more in stockinette, before I started with the short row heel. That's my favorite. I also used the same technique on the toe, but I sewed it up with the kitcheners stitch at the bottom, instead of on the top. Just my own personal preference. Now I can wear those in my sneakers and don't have to worry about swimming away in them. Maybe I'll knit up the second half from the toe up, just to make sure I have enough yarn left, but then comes the pesky cast off. I was thinking of the italian way, where you sew off the stitches rather than knitting them off, but the one time I tried that, it just didn't quite work for me. Any other cast off suggestions? I'm open for them.
Labels: FO, Socks
New Project on the needles
Well, after another finished object there has to be a new one on the needles, right? I need all the distraction I can get, so here we go. I started on the Bonita Shirt from the summer issue 2006 of Interweave Knits. It caught my eye back then and now, that the temperatures are starting to climb (we had 84 degrees today!) it's definately time to put away the 100 % wool and dig out the cotton. Or cotton/linen in this case. I just happen to stumble across the perfect yarn for this project in my stash and after swatching (I usually don't do that) and washing it and washing it again and even throwing it into the dryer, it ended up with the same exact gauge as in the pattern. Great! I guess we have a winner. I actually started on this one while I was doing my last dance with the kimono shawl, kind of to have something to look forward to, and I guess it worked. 
Now I'm about 8 inches into the project and it's growing pretty fast. One reason is probably, that all I have to knit it knit stitches with the occasional YO and k2tog or ssk, but no purls. That of course makes it faster and the other thinkg is, that I'm working on the front and the back at the same time and once I'm done with this the sleeves should be only a little thing to add. So, here I am now, knitting away on it, feeling pretty good about it. Oh, btw, I don't know if you can see it really good, but I'm using Anja's stitch markers she sent me a while back. Thanks and they are being well used right now. Just in case you are wondering how yesterdays fair well went, here a few impressions:
Labels: family trip, On The Needles
It is finally done!
Believe it or not, but my Kimono Shawl from Cheryl Oberle's book Folk Shawls is finally done. It took long enough. A five hour trip in the car finally made me finish it up. I was about to give up and only make 20 instead of 25 repeats of the pattern, but I stuck with it. Aren't you guys proud of me? 
Now it's blocking on the floor and I'm happy to say that all the kinks from this being recycled yarn are literally washed away. I stretched it to 24 inches wide and about 72 inches long. I know I should have blocked the edges with a string, but didn't think I wanted to do this when it was wet. Plus I knitted this with cashmere and it was already pretty fragile while I was knitting it, so I don't know how well it would have taken to haven a string running through the edges in it's wet stage. Now I still have lots of this cashmere left and have to figure out what to do with it. I love to knit with it and I love the lace shawls, but I don't even know if I'll wear all of them. I think this one will be one that I'll actually put on but now draped around the shoulders as much as worn around my neck like a regular scarf. On another note we just came back from a little family trip to Sea World, Orlando and Busch Gardens in Tampa. Unfortunately my planned shopping trip for the third day had to be scrubbed, since the Army said so and we had to be back asap. Instead of getting to spend a little more time with me and the boys here at home my husband had to go back to work. This sucks, but I guess that's just one more thing we military wives have to put up with. I think you'll see a lot more knitting and other crafts here on my blog in the future, since I will be having a lot of spare time. We just have to hang in there like the rest of them and make the best of it and hope for a save return.Labels: family trip, FO, Scarf
Sorry typepad users
I just want to send this little note out to all my friends/readers/blogs I read, that are using typepad and are wondering why I'm not leaving comments. Well, I can't. I don't want you to think I'm a snob and don't like you anymore, but it's hard for me to leave comments on typepad blogs lately. It' takes forever to get into the comment section and when I finally get to type in my comment and it's supposed to be saved ... yeah, right... it gives me an error message. So, please understand if I don't leave a comment on your blogs, it's not me, I still love all of you, it's my computer, server, or whoever might be responsible/blamable for this mess. That's why you might find emails instead. Hey, gotta find a way, because I'm sure willing. Did all of that make sense? I hope so. :o)
Playing ketchup ;)
Hi everyone. I guess it's time for me to play catch up with all the projects I've been talking about, working on and unable to post properly. I temporarly solved my computer problem by hooking up a monitor to the laptop, which seem to be working fine. Now I got some pictures to show you:This is what the nice mail lady brought me last week. It's a box from Rachel. She hear me crying about how I never had the pleasure of knitting with handspun and came to the rescue. She sent me some of her very own handspun yarn to play with and this is what I finished with one of the balls of yarn that is unfortunately missing from the picture: 
Isn't it cute? I just had to give this stuff a try and I absolutely love the way the colors change. Great job spinning this up, Rachel. Next up is a ragquilt I threw together in a day for the new little baby girl of a soldier in our unit to accompany the baby booties. Here is a little work in progress photo gallery (I guess) of the different stages of the quilt. Really simple and really fast too = instant gratification. I love projects like these:
Then, like that wasn't enough yet, I knitted up this little hottie in a day with my trusty size 8 mm sparkly needles. Maybe that's what made my fingers fly? I think it's more like the size of the needles :)
After all of that I needed some time out and I made a couple of the mini socks from my left over sock yarn stash and gave some to my deserving friends and I knitted a couple more rows on the infamous kimono shawl. It's still not finished, but after a couple more visits to the dentist's office with my kids I should be done with it soon ;).
Gotta run, I hope that will keep you reading for a while. At least I put enough pictures in there to keep you entertained. I know how boring all my babling can be :) Later :o)Labels: FO, Quilt, Scarf
