First FOs of the Year!

The first of the Mini Mochi socks will be finished later this evening. No way will I be able to make the second match. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the stripe pattern. They will be delightfully color matched but stripe mismatched socks.



Last night I put the finishing touches on the Lace Tee. I absolutely love this top! I added a crochet scalloped edging to keep the lace on the edges from rolling. I really like how it looks. Can't wait til it's warm enough to wear a short sleeved top.



The first project started in 2010 was this cute hat. Finished it up in just a few hours. It is very very warm.



More work this week on Chelsea's baby blanket. Need to get that finished up soon. Really starting to get tired of the colors and the pattern ..... uggggg. I hate when I lose interest in a gift!

Long Time No Knit

Well, not really, but there's been precious little of it for someone who's as obsessed with the craft as I am. Let's just say that the last quarter of 2009 was bad for me and quite frankly, I'm glad I don't have a bunch of dreary posts in my blog to attest to it. Here's hoping 2010 turns out to be a much better year!

I still have a ton of WIPs sitting in various stages of completion in my craft room. I'm hopeless it seems. I'm not even going to attempt trying to finish them all this year. Not going to make some resolution not to buy yarn this year. Not going to do much except enjoy the projects that I decide to knit/crochet at any given time. I've decided life is much to short to stress yourself out over a hobby.

I currently have 3 projects in my room that are being worked on. The first is a baby blanket for my hair stylist. She will be having a little girl in February, so I need to work on this regularly so it gets completed in time. I am almost done with all of the base blocks (have 2 more of the shooting star ones to finish). Need to put borders on 11 more of them, then sew them together and put a border around the blanket.












I have been spending quite a bit of time decluttering my craft room and getting rid of some things that I've been keeping just for the sake of keeping. I gave 3 tall kitchen size trash bags full of yarn to my sister, and have a 4th started that I'll pass on to her when she's here to go through the piles of books and magazines I've decided to part with.

While going through all the patterns in those books and magazines, I came across a pair of socks that I am in love with. Dug around in the yarn I decided to keep and found the perfect yarn for them and cast on. This is the beginning of the Bacchus Socks for Interweave Knits Fall 2008 and it is the second of the projects in my room. Nothing like waiting a year to cast on a project huh?



I found several pair of socks on the needles and decided to put a pair in each car for traveling knitting. Amazing how much I get done while riding in the car. Below is a pair of girly camo looking socks made with Panda Silk prints I started several months ago then forgot about when they got buried in the craft room. They will now live in the Caddy waiting for Paul to drive me somewhere.



I will need to bring the pair that lives in the Lincoln in sometime this week to get a photo of them. They are made with Mini Mochi and I love the colors and feel of the yarn.

The third project currently getting some quality time with me recently is a crocheted top. I am making this with Gloss Sock yarn and so far I'm really liking the way it looks and feels. I don't think this one will take much more time to get finished up if it keeps my attention for awhile.



Got two projects finished up during this holiday weekend. An adorable hat and a lacy cami tee shirt. Will get photos of them later this week.

It's Amazing .....

.... what you can accomplish when you quit playing computer games! LOL

I was hoping to finish the Flower Child Tee before Paul and I spent that long weekend in a cabin (with no cell service so work couldn't reach us ... yay!!), but I decided to work on other things instead. True to my word to Amanda, I took it with me and finished it up during the vacation. I've worn it twice now and love it!



I also took the Cabled Top with me and did a lot of work on it. I pulled it back out yesterday during the True Blood season 2 marathon and put the finishing touches on it. Can't wait til the weather cools a bit so I can wear it.



Before we left, I finished up Jenn's Seashell Tote and promptly filled it up with all the stuff she keeps leaving in the bathrooms. Yes, I did mean that to be plural. The girl fills up both bathrooms with all her hair stuff.



So, what is it that I really don't need? New patterns you say? Well, yes. And, I did purchase several books and magazines in the past couple of weeks. More yarn? Ummmm, yeah, and you guessed it, I bought quite a bit during my LYS's recent sale. Another project on the needles? Yep, you guessed it! And since I didn't need another project on the needles, I cast on 2!!

A couple of knitting buds are doing the Yarn Forward Mystery Blanket, so I decided to knit it along with them. I started my first square this weekend when we met up for some knitting and socializing time. I finished this one tonight, and am ready to cast on another one. I'm a bit worried that I didn't buy enough yarn, but hopefully it's just that the first square I did takes more yarn than some of the others since it's cabled.



The other project I cast on is Valentina from "The Lenpur Linen Collection". Lenpur Linen was one of the yarns that was on sale, so I couldn't pass it up. I have to be careful because it can be a bit splitty, but I love the way it feels when knit up. This cardigan will be very drapey and soft.



I've also been working quite a bit on the scarf for my stepdad's birthday. Just under 1/2 done with it. Hopefully I can keep up doing a few repeats of the cable pattern each day and not lose interest in it.

I'm not the invisible woman .....

I just play one on the internet sometimes :-) Sorry to those of you who sent me e-mails or posted wondering where I was and if I was okay. I got a bit too wrapped up in that silly computer game and let all my crafting languish.

This weekend though, I took a break from the game to do my fantasy football drafts and crafting has overtaken my life once again.

A few things to show, but not a lot of progress on any of them. That should change in the next couple of weeks.

Tonight I finished up seaming all those pieces to create the front and back of Flower Child. I am bound and determined to have this one finished by Thursday night so I can take it on the weekend getaway Paul and I have planned.










Some progress (though you won't be able to tell unless you compare this photo with the last one I posted) on Mary Tudor. I was planning to bring this on our weekend, but I might leave it til the weather cools a bit more in the evenings. Not a fun thing to knit something of this magnitude made out of wool that brushes against your legs when you're wearing shorts!



A couple of weekends during my blogging hiatus, I met a friend for some away from home knitting and socializing time. On one of these meetups, we both purchased the yarn and pattern to make Cabled Top by Debbie Bliss. The yarn (Pure Cotton) is a dream to work with, and the pattern is quick to knit and addicting. I've finished the back, and am about 1/3 done with the front. This may be one of the projects I take this weekend. Would be nice to have a couple of things finished up so I don't feel like such a knitting lollygagger.



This weekend was one of the meetups with my friend Amanda. Before meeting her, I stopped by one of my LYS's to get the yarn to make the scarf I promised my mother I would make for my stepdad for his birthday. The cable pattern is reversible and was easy to memorize. The yarn (Mountain Colors Mountain Goat) is a wool/mohair blend. The resulting scarf will be soft, squishy, lightweight, and very warm.



Anybody else have a daughter who enjoys leaving her hair appliances/makeup/you name it laying around in the bathroom? I promised my daughter that I would make her a tote to cart her things around in if she promised to quit leaving said things to mess up my bathroom. I decided on crochet instead of knit since I got in a crochet mood. This is the bottom of the Seashell Tote from the Spring/Summer 2009 issue of Interweave Crochet. This took no time to complete, so I'm hoping the tote will be finished by next week.



Starting the tote really gave me the crochet itch, so I flipped through the magazine and found another pattern to start (like I really needed another project going!). I grabbed some yarn in the appropriate weight in my stash and worked up the top portion of the back of Bustier Top. The yarn looks white in the photo, but it's actually a soft sage green. It's fairly neutral so I hope to get a lot of wear out of this vest this fall. Of course, the project will have to keep my interest long enough for me to finish it!



So, that's what I've been doing the past .... has it really been more than 2 months?

Long Time No Post

Looks like I slacked off on posting again, oops!

It hasn't been for lack of progress, even though progress has been a bit slow these past couple of weeks. With Paul out of town, I got back into a computer game that he got bored with. It's been almost a year since I played Guild Wars and I missed my characters. I started a couple new ones too, but now I've got the itch to do some knitting again.

Flower Child is turning out to be a pretty quick knit .... when I actually knit on it that is. Three of the five front pieces is complete, and tonight I should finish the second of the five back pieces. Crazy to make a tshirt with 10 pieces eh? But I love the way it's turning out!



A fairly good closeup of what the center front will look like.



Not as much progress on Scheherazade, but there was a bit. Hopefully next time it's chosen by the spreadsheet I won't be distracted by a computer game!



I finally got around to taking a couple of photos of the buffet and china cabinet I brought back from my Gramma's house. It's a bit of a tight squeeze in the dining room now, but I really like them. We just need to get a new piece of glass for the china cabinet door. The tablecloth is one of the hand embroidered ones she made. Since I'm the only one with a big enough table to use them on, I brought them all back to my house and I love changing them each week. Woe to he who drips food on them and stains them, for he shall not live long!









I finished up my two felted projects during my blogging hiatus too. I think the Viktoria bag turned out really cute.



And, I'm loving my felted clog slippers. My daughter says they reminder her of Grinch shoes and they crack her up. I'm thinking that is a hint that she wants some. Maybe I'll get some neon green and orange and make her a pair for Christmas.



I didn't even let the spreadsheet choose a new project last week. Sad, since that should mean more progress on Scheherazade, but such is life. This week's project chosen is Mermaid 3. Let's hope I have more to show for this week's knitting than the past 2 weeks.

Another One Bites The Dust

More Spring Cleaning in the WIP list this week. The super duper spreadsheet picked out a sweater I haven't touched in a year, and I just wasn't feeling it. After taking a good look at the photo of the sweater, I decided that it wouldn't look right on me and frogged it. The yarn is destined to become something else, and my WIP list is a bit shorter now.

I mentioned in my last post that I was going out of town last week to help move my grandmother to Ohio to live with my mother. She's all moved in now and settling in well. Since my mother's house is fully furnished, and I wasn't about to let my grandmother's nice antiques go to auction and be sold for next to nothing, I brought a few of them back with me. Her buffet and china cabinet are now in my dining room, and one of the dressers is now being used by my stepson. Hopefully some photos of those later this week.

Since we were going to be working most of the day, and I didn't want to drag any big projects with me, I started a couple of small, quick to knit projects for the trip.

The first night we were there I finished up a scarf using Prism Wild Stuff.



And the night we got back, I finished up all but the felting on a pair of clog slippers. I had plenty of the mulberry color left, so I picked up another contrasting color and plan to make a pair for my Gramma.



I picked a bit at a Ruca Multy scarf, and will work on this during my lunch hours this week.



After I frogged the sweater last night, the spreadsheet picked out a crochet bag I had started last summer. This afternoon, while watching a movie, I finished all the pieces. Tomorrow night I will sew them together and felt it. Finished photos later this week.



Remember the cute as a button kittens we found in our garage? We thought mama cat had run off with them, but I think she just found a spot behind some things stored in the garage to hid them, because Paul spied them on Friday.

Any time I peek through the garage window they scurry behind boxes, but a couple of them are getting used to me.

I was able to snap a quick photo of a couple of them tonight. They are all fluffy as can be and I am dying to get my hands on them.






Of the 6 that were cuddled up on the chair cushion, I've spied 5 of them. The black one with the white belly hasn't been seen yet. Hopefully, as I do some decluttering of the garage I find him. All of them are scared of humans, drat it all. I was hoping to get them used to us when they were still young, so it wouldn't be so difficult to get them to a shelter. If I can't get them to tolerate me being around, a shelter won't take them, so I'll definitely be like my mom and have neutered wild cats wandering around my yard.

There should be a lot of knitting progress the next few weeks. Paul had to go on a 3 week business trip, so my evenings are free to knit to my heart's content.

WIP Spring Cleaning

Friday evening I finished up the base needlefelting on the Ravenna Satchel, then misted it with water and ironed it to set the roving. Since it was still damp, I couldn't move on to the embellishments, but I think I got quite a bit done for a week's worth of work. It is now dry and sitting back down in the craft room awaiting its next turn to be worked on.



Also on Friday evening I finished up the knitting on the Silky Wool Vest. Now all it needs is some buttons. Still haven't found the right ones, but once I do, I'll probably finish this up and not make it wait until next rotation.



Only having 2 projects upstairs made for much more progress than I usually think I get for a week's worth of crafting. I think I'm going to like this new process.

I did a bit of Spring Cleaning this weekend. Spring Cleaning the WIP list that is. I took a good look at what I had on the list of projects, and found several that I really wasn't interested in completing anymore. Those 4 have been removed and frogged. The yarn is now awaiting new projects that it wants to become. I'm now down to 16 projects on the list.

The spreadsheet chose 2 new projects for me to work on Friday night. One of them was the Turnberry Cardigan (one of the projects I found when freezing yarn). The pattern wasn't quite turning out the way the photo looked and I found I wasn't that crazy about it, so found something else in my queue for it to become.

It decided it wanted to be granny squares, attached together on the last round. This is the Gladiolus Vest from Interweave Crochet Summer 2008.






I'd say I finished up about 1/3 of it this weekend, so it very well may be finished up before it needs to be put back in the craft room.

The Koigu Kimono Jacket was also chosen, and there has been a fair amount of progress on it so far. I finished the first strip last night, and began the second tonight. I'm hoping that I can have the second finished and attached by the end of the week.



Next weekend we go to St. Louis to help move my Gramma back to Columbus to live with my Mom. Not sure I'm going to let the spreadsheet pick out projects for that trip. With my luck, it will choose something like the Mary Tudor Cardigan, which requires reading a chart and a gazillion balls of yarn LOL. I picked up some yarn to make myself some felted slippers, and may cast those on and knit them up on the trip.