I ripped the sock back to the error, almost to the beginning, and went at it again. Once I'd finished the heel flap I found ANOTHER error!! This one was small and I was able to hide it (thank goodness). I'm hoping to finish this sock today and get started on it's mate. Tonight while watching the Sopranos with the neighbours I want to finish knitting the felted clogs. I'd like to felt them at Mom's tomorrow, since I don't have a washing machine of my own. Both clogs still need the second sole piece done, and I have a bit more to do on the second one, but I think I can get them done.

I found some yarn at Value Village last night! Most of a ball of brown Regia sock yarn with the tag for 69cents and a 1lb cone of blue cotton for $1.99. There was also a lot of bright green aran wool that was a bit too bright for me, and some pretty veregated pink skeins. I couldn't tell what the pink yarn was and when I felt it I found it really scratchy so I left it behind. Still, I'm happy about the cotton and Regia!

I have nothing new and exciting to show you knitting-wise. I've been working on the Fibre Trends Felted clogs for my father in law. I am finished all but the 2nd sole piece on hte first one and MY GOODNESS they are HUGE!!! Seriously, I think this thing is 20inches from heel to toe! I sure hope it shrinks a lot in felting! If they end up a little big they may become a gift for someone else with bigger feet, I'll have to see how it goes. I made a beaded heart necklace and bracelet for a friend last week. Once you get the pattern in your head those things move along quickly, I finished both in one day.

Our local stamping group had a class on using Chalks last monday. Here are the cards I created:

Well I wanted to show you a scan of my beaded knitting (or bead knitting, I never can sort out the difference) but I've lost it! I had my little project in a ziploc and its no where to be seen! Hopefully it turns up soon. Im trying to make a beaded purse necklace for my cousin. I got almost tot he halfway point when I ran out of beads. No problem, I figured I could hop over to walmart and grab more......but they stopped carrying the brand and colour I'd used. So I sent hubby to a bead store to get some. He got a perfect match except his beads were of higher quality and more uniform, and would have made the bag look strange. {sigh} So I may be starting over. I wasn't thrilled with the colour using white thread, I might try it with dark thread instead this time, and I might try making it a little smaller. I was only half done and it was already getting pretty heavy from the beads!

Started a second pair of socks for mom. These are in confetti jacquard yarn as wekk but in olive, mustard, purple, beige and white. Quite a neat colour combo actually. I'm doing these ones on two circular needles too, which is a nice change.

I finished my gloves on friday night. I'm quite pleased with how they turned out. They fit my hands wonderfully, I'm proud of myself for adjusting the pattern to fit my large hands :) Here is a crummy photo of them:
The colour doesn't come out great but they are a pretty green mix, 2 plys green, one darker green, and one grey. They'll be perfect to keep my hands warm while typing at work!

I also gave my brother his jester hat yesterday. He was quite pleased, and apparently wore it out bowling. (and name himself "the jester" hee hee) Hubby tells me when my sister saw it and found out I made it she was quite impressed. Hopefully she will be impressed with the sweater I am making her ;)

Glove #1 is done!!!! (I'm wearing it now as I type - hee hee) I can't believe I worked it up so fast, hopefully its mate will work up quick too. I started getting frustrated near the end, it's hard to work in such small rounds, each finger being only about 15 stitches or so around. I also still have to darn in all the loose ends, my least favorite part of knitting things! (well it's a tie with sewing I think!) I didn't bring a needle to work though so I will have to wait until later to deal with the ends. Maybe I will start on the mate in the meantime.

I liked working on 2 circulars as compared to a set of DPNs....I might do my next pair of socks this way, if I can find some small circs at the thrift shops.

Brother's jester hat has been knit and sewn! I just need to felt it now, I may do that this afternoon before I go to stamp club. Something odd happenned though, The 'head' part of it had nice even stitches, but when I did each of the points, the tension went funny. It was like half of each stitch was tighter than the other half. The first point I did on straight needles (main hat part was done on a circular needle) so I thought that was the problem. I did the second point on the circ, though back and forth, not in the round of course, and it was the same! Very strange. It didn't make a big difference, and I suspect once felted. IF anything the points will end up a little stiffer which is just fine by me. I can't wait to give this to him, I hope he really likes it!

I started on some fingerless gloves for myself from This Pattern. My fingers get cold at work, when I'm typing or knitting or anything really, so I thought fingerless gloves would be a good thing. I have some neat stash yarn that looks like 2 plys olive green, one ply forest green and one ply greyish. I don't know what the yarn is made from, possibly a wool blend, but it feels nice and looks cool. I'm trying these on 2 circular needles, which is much different than the DPN method of knitting in the round. So far I like it, I'm getting the hand of which "loose end" to knit with so I don't knit myself into a circle. (did that a couple times already)

I started the jester hat for my brother the other day. I'm doing it in bright red and bright blue, and it looks pretty cool so far. I'm totally guessing on how many stitches to use, I made up the smaller one as I went, and don't remember how many stitches I used. At least with felting by hand I have a "little" bit of control on how the sizing goes.

The scarf I'd had nearly finished for my mother-in-law fell off the needles. Sadly the combination of Snowflake and eyelash yarn, while pretty and soft, does not lend itself to easily picking up slipped stitches, so I think I may have to rip it and start over. I'm not too unhappy, I found it to be a bit wide and short, so I can make it 2 stitches narrower and probably be happier with it in the end. I don't really like working on the huge needles though, I find them awkward.

OUCH!

It was bound to happen, and my own darned fault.....one of my knitting needles slipped between the cushions of the couch and when I plunked myself down to knit later, I sat right on it! I was pretty lucky, it only went in maybe an inch tops, and into a well padded area of my upper thigh, so other than a tender spot and some light bruising, I'm okay. It was scarey though, I jumped up once in happenned and couldn't tell how far in it was!

In happier news my sister's sweater is getting really close to completion. I'm half done the second sleeve, then I need to sew it all up. Mom's socks are nearly done, I will finish them today I think. I bought red and blue wool yesterday to make a larger jester hat for my brother too.

I still haven't found wool to make another jester hat. I want to make one for my brother but in bright red and blue maybe. The shop downtown seems to be the only place that carries the stuff I want, and I haven't managed to get down there yet. I'd better hurry I only have a few weeks! I'm still working on my sister's sweater, stalled while I wait for arm measurements from my mother.

I made a jester hat with my koolaid yarn this weekend. It was super easy and loads of fun. Basically I just knit for a while on circular needles, then split the stitches in half and decreased on each side to make triangles, folded each in half and sewed them up. I then tried my hand at felting, by hand since I don't own a washing machine. (I'm certainly not about to pay $1.25 a load at a laundromat to play around!) I'm quite happy with the result:



Sorry the image is so big, I don't have photoshop here so I had trouble resizing it. It's toddler sized, so it will be for my neighbour's little 2.5 year old girl. I bought round bells at walmart this morning to finish it off. I'm going to make another one now, larger, for my brother. He's a bit of an oddball and would love something like this. His birthday is in less than a month too. I'm not sure if I did the felting right, It did all bind together and shrink some, but it seems like my stitches still have a lot of definition to them, should they? at the bottom of the hat, where the edge rolled up since I just did straight stockingknit, it bound to itself, which was kind of cool. The seams on the points almost dissapeared too. I just used HOT tap water in a bowl with some sunlight dishsoap, and alternated between that and cold running tap water, rubbing the fabric against itself in both temperatures. Is that right? Tips anyone??

Whipping along on the mate for the sock pictured below, when this morning I discovered a problem. The dreaded dropped stitch! Worse yet, it was about 20 rows back! I couldn't bear the thought of ripping back that much, so I set to trying to just pick it back up. It took a little while but I did it, and you can't even see where! I remember being MESMERIZED when a woman at the knitting shop picked up some stitches for me several months back, amazed at how she managed it with just needles, no crochet hook, and here I am doing the same now. Go me!

New projects are forming themselves in my mind way faster than I can knit them. I REALLY need to think about something for my brother first though, his birthday is in less than a month!

Sock #1 is finished! After many false starts and multiple different patterns, I managed to create a sock from This Pattern. Here it is:




I think it turned out pretty well. This pattern makes a fairly pointy toe, though. I started grafting a couple rows early to combat this, but it's still pretty pointy. I hope I can finish it's mate fairly fast, I want to try socks on 2 circular needles next! Everyone keeps raving about them and it sounds like fun. I'm going to head down to the LYS, Beehive Wool today to see what they have. I want to look into felted slippers as a maybe gift idea for my father in law!

It's finished!

I love how it turned out, I'm so proud of myself, hehe. I'm going to take it to work today for the raffle. I hope they like it, I sure enjoyed making it! I used the hooded baby sweater pattern from Knit It! magazine. The yarn is Lion Brand Microspun, which is wonderful to knit with and came out so soft.

Still working away on the sweater for my sister. I'm done the front and back and am about halfway through one sleeve. It's nearing completion now, getting closer to the dreaded sewing up stage. I really don't like the finishing part, I am not good with sewing pieces together. I think if I looked up how you are actually SUPPOSED to do this, it would go better, usually I just wing it.

I also need to restart mom's socks in that nifty Confetti Jacquard yarn. I need a good simple pattern, my first few toe-up attempts failed, for one reason or another. I may have to start from the cuff on this one. But I still have to decide on a pattern. Most I found so far have detailing and patterning, but with the Jacquard patterning of the yarn I want something plain.

Well, here is at least a low quality image of the dying I did the other night:


What do you think? Funky colours eh? The green is a little brighter than that, but the purple is fairly close. I was just playing around so I didn't want to "waste" my good koolaid colours! I don't know what I will make with it now, maybe socks, as it's about a fingering weight wool. This was so much fun I can't wait to dye some more! I have one more small skein of wool to play with and then I will have to find some more. I've been unlucky finding more at thrift shops, and Michael's doesn't carry any pure wool yarns! Lewiscraft had a couple but they were a little pricey so I'm waiting on them.

I found a cute baby sock pattern at http://home.earthlink.net/~nanknits/5hbssock.htm that was designed to match the "5 Hour Baby Sweater" pattern you can find online. I am doing them to match my hooded baby top I'm doing. I took a crummy photo of that, I will try and scan it in soon. These socks are so cute, much better than any of the bootie patterns I tried before. I have to get busy this weekend, the baby stuff and stamped cards are due next week!

I dyed some wool last night!! Thanks to the great directions Kristi Porter wrote in an article in Knitty.com it was all so easy! I wanted to buy some wool at michael's on the way home from work to play with, but they didn't have anything that wasn't more than half acrylic! So I just got to play around with 50g of fingering weight thrift shop wool I had. I made half of it a bold kelly green and the other half eggplant purple. I'm hoping to have scans of them for tomorrow, or later tonight. I can't wait to dye some more, I need to find some wool!

The top is done! Well, I still have to sew up the underarm seams, weave in a couple ends, and attach the buttons. I bought the CUTEST buttons the other day, they are little yellow stars! They work really well with the lavender yarn I made the top out of. I started and frogged a couple pairs of booties to match, I just haven't found a pattern I'm happy with yet.

I started the Sweater for my sister last night. Already I have done over 5 inches on the back, this stuff knits up quickly! It's "hard" to knit though, like I have to put out more effort to make the stitches, if that makes sense. It looks nice though, I know she will love it.

I'm NEARLY done the baby top for the day care raffle! I feel stupid that it came out so tiny, I must start doing a guage swatch!! That aside, it's turning out very nice. I've learned on this item, which is very cool. I got lots of practice picking up stitches, as that is how the sleeves are attached AND how the ribbing around the hood edge is done. I also got to do grafting for the shoulders - way cool! I loved how easy it was and how nice the shoulders looked, no seams! I'm about 1/3 done the second sleeve, then I will just have to "block" it and get the buttons! (I put "block" in brackets cuz I've never blocked anything before, and am only partly sure I will do it for this piece. Also I suspect I will sort of half invent how to do it as every site I find has a different method!!) I may make booties to match this top since I have more than 2/3 of the second skein left of the purple microspun. I love working with this yarn! I would make myself a top in it if I didn't know it would take about 10 years given the guage!!!

Once I finish this baby thing I can start the sweater I am making for my sister. I've changed my mind AGAIN on what I am making for her, but think I'll stick to what I decided this time. I am making THIS basic sweater in Bernat Denimstyle . I'm using the Indigo colour, which is the dark blue they did the swatch in on that page I linked to. It's totally "my sister" so I'm happy with this selection. The yarn is so soft and cozy, totally machine washable, and fairly cheap($4 a ball retail, I need 6 total). This pattern is the basic sweater from Knit It magazine, but altered to be used with a lighter weight yarn (wool ease) so it will be perfect for the yarn I chose. I am excited about making this top and want to start on it, but because my other project has a deadline, I am forcing myself to finish it first.

I've finished my "6hr sweater" and wore it last week. It's warm and fuzzy, but fits a little funny. I made the arm holes too tight and the whole sweater is a little short. (sigh) I think I am more of a process knitter, I get impatient with finishing and details, and then end up frustrated with the results.

I'm moving right along on my day care raffle items. I've made three stamped cards so far, and hope to do another three and envelopes tonight. The baby sweater is more than half way done as w3ell. Made a boo-boo on the sweater though. I MUST learn to swatch. I used the recommended yarn and needles so I assumed it would be fine, but my item is ending up about 2/3 the size it should be!! I didn't notice until I was too far along to rip back. So....my "12 month" sized sweater is going to be more of a "newborn" sized sweater. Oh well, it looks really nice, and its a raffle prize so there aren't any restrictions on size or anything, I just thought a 12month old size would be more versatile.

I have hardly touched my new knitting book, I've been too busy working on this "6hr sweater" I started last week. Though I have put in a little more than 6 hours on it I would guess, I am using mohair, which is a little slower going. Plus the HUGE needles are a little awkward to use. It looks and feels really nice though. I only have to sew it up now. I may do that after work and wear it to stamp club tonight.

I've got to get moving on my items for the Day Care Raffle! They are due in one month, and I promised "knit baby items" and a set of "hand stamped cards". Maybe I can do the cards tonight at stamp club. I had made some but wasn't happy enough with them, so I need to make something new. The other cards I had made used stamps by a stamping company that wouldn't give me a clear answer about their Angel Policy, so to heck with them! (An angel policy states whether you can make items to sell using their designs. These items aren't for me to sell, they are for a charity raffle, but still, I wanted to be safe)

My book is here!! My husband picked up our chapters.ca order from the post office today so my copy of The Knitter's Stash is at home waiting for me! I'm very excited, I rarely own big fancy new books. :)

I started ANOTHER sweater last night. It's a very simple pattern for a Six-hour sweater. you knit is on huge needles, 9mm and 12.5mm, with two strands of worsted weight yarn, so it's no wonder it only takes 6 hours. I'm doing mine in some pretty purple mohair blend yarn I bought at the salvation army yesterday. Its so soft and fluffy! It's a little awkward knitting on such big needles, but very cool to have the top knitting up so fast. I'm a third of the way up the front already, and I'm going to get as far as I can on it tonight. Two women in my building seem interested in knitting and I think this would make a great beginner pattern. The large stitches make them easy to see, and the instant gratification factor is important too. I wouldn't suggest they start with mohair though, I think a cotton would work well for this!