Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Weekend Purchases and Knitting Frustrations

This weekend was my great romantic getaway. I slipped in a yarn shop and purchased a skein of Noro Kureyon Sock Yarn in 180 color way. I plan on making this into a pair of wrist warmers. It is a beautiful color way of blues, oranges, and purples.

I have been working fiercely on a cute spring dress for my daughter. I made the size 8 which I thought would be a little big. Well, it turned out to be a lot too wide and a lot too short. I could never get the gauge right. I ripped the whole thing out. Now I am following the pattern for the Size 4 for the width and the Size 8 for the length. Giving my gauge, this should make it a Size 6 width but longer for growth. I think I'm going to leave it sleeveless. Perhaps it will be a great dress for next fall.

I also bought a book called, The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques by Nancie M. Wiseman. It describes various knitting techniques, but more importantly, it tells you when to use them and when not to use them. I'm learning a lot and I hope it will show up in my knitting.


Monday, May 12, 2008

Precious Picot Dress

I have been working on a spring dress for G. It is in a variegated yarn of pinks and purples. I have finished the front and back, and seamed them together. I finished both of the sleeve pieces, and I attached one. I had G try it on, and the sleeve doesn't fit her right. I took the sleeve off, and I will end up leaving it sleeveless while I work on the skirt. I think the skirt is going to go fast because the pattern calls for picking up stitches and knitting in the round. I love to knit it the round. It is great knitting for watching movies. Some can even do it while they read a book although I'm still working on that particular skill.

I'm not sure what I am going to do about the sleeves. I may just shorten them, but if that doesn't work, I may crochet or knit them in a lace or eyelet stitch. I am concerned that the sleeves are too heavy and eyelet would help to be lighter.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Faux Cable Tee ... Finished!!!


Finally, I finished my tee. This was knitted from the bottom up, and since I didn't have enough of the Brown Merino Cotton, I added the aqua stripes. It has raglan sleeves and it did go fairly quickly once it was the right size. I really like the Merino Cotton because it can be both the warmer and cooler than you think, making it the perfect Spring and Fall sweater.

Car Personality

Since I describe a nondescript minivan, I like to add some personal touches so I can find my car in a large parking lot. At one time, I had made some fuzzy dice. They started to get a little frayed, and then my son tore them from the rear view mirror. This is what I came up with to replace the fuzzy dice. It is too large rosettes sewn together, and I found the pattern for the rosettes on the Lion Brand Yarn website.

Easy Baby Gift Idea


I literally crocheted these cuties in an afternoon. The pattern is called: Baby Beret and Mary Jane Booties and I bought it from here. It was a very quick baby gift.

Easy Gift Wrap

I finished this wrap in a little over a week. It is just a rectangle knit lengthwise in garter stitch (knit every row). I used 4 yarns, and changed colors as I felt like it. One of the yarns is a hand tied yarn with many colors throughout it, including some yellow, pink & spring green. I added yellow and spring green cotton yarns and a pink boucle. This knit up so fast and the color changes made it interesting and fun to see how it would turn out. I am very happy with it.

I made this for a friend of mine who just had her seventh child. I thought after bearing seven children, she needed something for herself. I knit this wrap to be a hug whenever she got up in the middle of the night to feed her wee one.

Ta Da

My migraines have slowed down. This may sound a little strange, but what has helped is a magnesium powder that I add to hot water and drink before bedtime. It helps me to sleep deeply and no bad dreams either. I have finally uploaded all of my photos and in the following posts, I will show you what I have been doing.

This is my Willow sweater finished!!!! It fits great, except I didn't like the sleeve length so I added a little charcoal gray in a crochet ribbing. I coordinated a crochet slipstictch around the sweater edges and added gray buttons too. The green yarn is Lion Brand's Woolease Chunky in willow, and the charcoal is some leftover yarn. I think it is a chunky shetland tweed from Paton's, but I can't be sure. What do you think?