April/May KAL Wrap Up

Last Thursday I sent off the hats and scarves I'd made/collected for the Children's Emergency Relief International (CERI). CERI was the chosen charity for the April/May KAL for the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project on Ravelry. CERI delivers hats and scarves to orphans every winter. The kids get to pick out a handmade item all their own. Many of the members of the group participated in making the Road Scarf (a free download from Lion Brand yarn). They all turned out great! I had collected quite a few other scarves and hats over the months (years) so I threw them into my box of contributions as well.

My Road Scarf and the Ant Egg scarf.

Two old scarves I'd made. A plain garter stitch scarf and (I think) a double knit scarf. I made them a long time ago so I can't really remember the all the details of their making.

A faggot stitch scarf and a fuzzy garter stitch boa scarf. Again, made a long time ago. The boa may have been the second or third scarf I'd ever made.

A faggot stitch hat that I made to go with the scarf.

A simple orange hat based off the Turn a Square hat that I made during the Middle Tennessee Fiber Festival.

A cabled hat. Also whipped up during the Middle Tennessee Fiber Festival weekend.

The Hat From Hell. Worn once (I washed it before I sent it off). It was a pain to knit and pain to wear. The yarn was a booger to use because it was a tangled mess. The hat was a pain to wear because I made it too big for my head so it was constantly slipping off. I'm hoping it finds a good home with someone who has an even bigger head than I do.

I also threw in these hats. I'd originally made them for a blogger friend (Helen) who was trying to gather 100+ hats for a school in NY. Unfortunately these didn't make it to her in time and got returned to me. They're on their way to a nice new home now.

So, in total 6 scarves and 6 hats. The large priority box from the post office was stuffed! I'm equally as excited about the upcoming June-September KALs as I am about the last one. The next charity we decided to support was Project Hope. Project Hope is working to stop child abandonment in Romania by providing support to families. One of the ways they help is a Christmas collection for mothers and children. The KALs for the summer and early fall will focus on projects that can be donated to Project Hope (socks, hats, mittens, and sweaters). I've already started designing/knitting a fair isle sweater for a little boy.

Actually a lot more has been knit but this is the only picture I have.

Penelope was trying to help me one night. I should be able to get a lot done on the sweater this week because I'm on vacation at the beach! When I'm not sunning myself that is ;)

Secrets Revealed

My secret project has been given away to its intended recipients so I can reveal what I've been working on for the last few weeks.

Ta da! Dishcloths! Wedding themed dishcloths by Kris Knits none the less.

Hearts and cake

Dove and man and wife

Church and champagne glass (color is most accurate in this picture)

Rings and bells

They were a huge hit at the shower on Saturday and a ton of fun to knit. I could pop one out in about 2 hours so they were also quick, a real plus. I would definitely recommend these to anyone and I'm pretty sure I'll try some of Kris's other patterns in the future.

Dishcloths aren't the only thing I've been working on though.

My week 3 portion of the Road Scarf KAL for EEROP is almost complete.

I just need to knit the 4 rows of garter stitch that separate this section from the next. I'm really enjoying knitting on this scarf! It's so easy and yet, I don't get bored with one pattern. It's got me thinking about ideas for other scarves...

Also started teaching a new sock class last week which means I started my "demonstration" pair of socks.

It's just a child's size so it's moving along quickly which is good because I'm not terribly fond of this color (though it looks a lot better in the picture than in real life). I dyed this ages ago with gel food coloring in black and red. Gel food coloring is not the best thing to use to dye yarn as I found out. The colors came out really washed out looking. I might over dye with blue or something. Still not sure.

Nothing on the needles for myself at the moment. Or for friends and family. I wanted to start the Skew socks for myself but the pattern suggests using circulars and I don't have any in the correct size. Thought about just trying it with DPNs but I'm not sure. Suggestions as to what I should do are welcome.

I still have some requests from friends and family for knits and there is a shop sample to be made. But right now I just want to take some of this pink and purple and sparkly yarn and knit something. Probably another scarf.

I want to give all my loyal readers a heads up about some changes coming up. At the beginning of May there are going to be some changes made to the blog and to the store. For your patience with these changes I'm going to have some giveaways and prizes. There will be more updates coming soon (hopefully a whole blog post devoted to the subject) and you can follow me on Twitter to be on the cutting edge of changes.

It's Beginning to Feel a Lot Like...Christmas?

I'm having mixed feelings about the weather here in the South lately. On the one hand I'm very excited that it's so mild and feels like spring is around the corner (I hate cold weather). On the the other hand there are 12 days until Christmas and it is 80 degrees outside...how am I supposed to get in the holiday spirit when it feels like I should be at the lake?!?!

In the knitting world I have been working on the final front panel for the preemie sweater. The only difference between this panel and the other one is that the cables go in the opposite direction. I don't have pictures but you can imagine what that looks like. I'm hoping to finish the preemie sweater (well, all the parts at least) today.

I teach a knitting class at the very beginning of the day at the school where I work. Today the little darlings were learning how to bind off so they could take their "finished" projects home over the Christmas break. They were supposed to be using a garter stitch and making a scarf. However, I had several variations on a scarf that look like amorphous blobs, some that looked like Swiss cheese, and one who gave up completely and decided knitting wasn't for him. All in all, out of the 10 kids in the class I would say we got five good scarves. But at least they learned how to knit and I'll be sending them home with instructions for making other things if they like.

My list of knitting projects is growing. And on top of that I have one cross stitch WIP that really needs to be finished just so I can say it's done. Smart one here picked up 3 more very involved cross stitch patterns from a fellow teacher the other day though I have no idea when I will start and/or hope to finish these things. My knitting "To Do" is as follows:

1. Finish preemie sweater, block, and sew.
2. Block multi-colored baby blanket (pictures to follow).
3. Finish faggot stitch scarf.
4. Make a present for The Boyfriend (I know exactly what it's going to be but I want it to be a surprise for him).

Speaking of The Boyfriend... he gets major props from me. He came over to my apartment after our Bible study last night and helped me make muffins. Then he actually acted somewhat interested in my knitting projects. The thing that wins the major points though is that he helped me clean my living room. I despise cleaning in any and all forms and have seriously considered hiring a maid to clean my apartment. He's a sweetheart and I'm not letting him go. Sorry girls.

P.S. I have just discovered an awesome blog written by the Yarn Harlot. I know that some (if not most of you) have already heard of her but I love her blog. And the fact that she has a fluffy cat and, from what she writes, a fairly "lived in" house just like me.

To Do List

My cat, Penelope, does not like to sleep in. Not when I'm home. As today is Saturday, I was trying to sleep in for the first time in ages. At 6:30 Penelope climbed onto my stomach and began kneading my belly and swishing her fuzzy tail in my face. Then she feel asleep, which is ok for about 5 minutes then she starts to make my back hurt (she is 10 pounds of pure fuzz). At 8:30 she walked across the pillow and stood on my hair. When I yelled she jumped off and positioned herself so close to me that I couldn't even roll over. By 10:00 she had given up on me and went to sleep on her side of the bed. By then I was ready to get up so she climbed over and took the warm spot where I had been sleeping. So is the life of a cat owner.

Through all of Penelope's escapades this morning something productive did occur. I, in my half awake stupor, was able to work out a plan on how I wanted to attack the cabling of the preemie baby sweater. I plan on finishing both panels today and sewing the thing together. We shall see how that goes.

Over the past week or so while I was at work I made of list if around 110 scarf patterns (give or take 4 or 5) and, coincidentally, one baby sweater from Knitting Pattern Central that I want to use. I have an idea of what I'm going to do with 110 scarves but I will tell you more about that later. I've already started on a faggot stitch one that is looking cool and showing off some textured boucle yarn that I'm trying to use up.

Today's plan is to finish the preemie sweater, do some shopping at Target, read some from my great new book, Girl in a Cage, and clean the apartment (boo).

Simple Scarves

As promised...here are some pictures of some projects I've completed over the past year and half. First up, three simples scarves. These were all knitted using a garter stitch (knit all rows).






Here's a close up of the blue hued scarf. I believe the yarn I used I was Red Heart Multicolor in Ocean (or something very similar). I had this left over from several other projects. I cast on 25 stitches and used US size 13 needles.






This is a close up of the skinny blue scarf. Unfortunately there was no good pictures of the color. The scarf was really shiny and the flash from the camera kept bouncing back. Anyhow...this is a cool scarf. It came in a generic "Learn to Knit" kit I got for my birthday. I would not suggest using this type of yarn to learn to knit. I gave up on it after about an hour. Lion Brand Funky Fur yarn is a type very similar to the one pictured. This scarf is very skinny, about 15 stitches, but long.






This is a close up of the red scarf. It was actually the first thing I ever completed. I'm pretty proud of this because the garter stitch came out really even for someone who had no idea what they were doing. I used Red Heart yarn but I can't remember what the color was. Something dark red and on sale no doubt. I used US size 9 needles and about 20 stitches.


Feel free to mimic any of these designs (they're really tough, I know...). Enjoy!