Pup picture

I forgot to post this a minute ago. It's just a picture of my pups cuddling on the couch.
How adorable are they?!

Holiday knitting begins

I said I wasn't going to do any holiday knitting, but now that I've been working from home I seem to have an extra few hours every day (the time I would have been commuting). So, I'm going to knit as much as I can for the holidays. I started with some washclothes and then I will make homemade soap. This will go to the women in my boy's family, my cousins, my aunt, and my grandma.

I know this is a horrible picture. It's the only way I could show some of the pattern. It's supposed to be a leaf pattern. And an i-cord is woven through the top row of holes to hold the soap in. I've got 3 done and I need 8, I think.

Next I started on a bag for my niece. She loves pink. I made the pattern up as I went and thought it was just going to be a purse, but I had enough yarn that I decided it should be a messenger bag. I don't know if it will fit her as a messenger bag, but it barely fits around me so I think it will fit her fine. Here's a couple pre-felting pictures:

It's knit using Paton's Classic Wool and an embellishment pack of ribbons from my sister's local yarn shop, Wild and Woolly Wools. If you're ever on Long Island, you have to stop in. The owner is a hoot and she has a great selection of quality yarns. Anyway, here's a picture of it felted:I haven't decided yet if I should trim the ribbon or not. I think I'll leave it long and leave the decision up to my niece. It's cute though and the fabric is really thick and sturdy and hopefully it will last a while.

I took a trip to my local yarn shop, Knitting Sisters, today to get some needles to make another Christmas present and another ball of yarn. I so don't need it, but it was what they called for in the pattern and I didn't have a substitute in my stash, imagine that! It was a fun trip and I was actually amazed at how little I felt like I HAD to have. I think my stash is becoming overwhelming, I have to start using it up!

Charity auction craziness

I don't have any pictures to post. I know, what fun is a blog posting with no pictures. Well, i will point you in the direction of a blog with lots of pictures:

Jasmine Trust Charity Auction

I've been working on putting together a website for an auction to benefit the Jasmine Trust. Peopl ehave donated so much stuff for the auction. I personally have my eye on a piece of jewelry and a hat.

I'm in full out Christmas knitting mode. I told myself I wasn't going to knit this Christmas, being that I'm attempting to finish my doctoral degree, but who knows when that will actually happen. But, I'm making little knit washclothes and then I'm going to make some handmade soap to put in them and that will be all the girl presents (well most of them at least). I'll actually have to shop for the boys. Unfortunately the number of boys I have to shop for has increased dramatically when I married my boy. He's got his dad and 3, yes 3, brothers. Gift certificates for the lot of them! They don't care anyway and I don't have the time to go shopping.

My niece will be getting a special present this year. I'm knitting her a pink bag that will be felted. It should be pretty cool cause I'm adding ribbon as I knit, we'll just have to wait and see what that will look like felted. I'm also thinking of doing a few other special knitted items for Christmas, but I'm waiting for yarn and needles that were ordered online before I can decide if I have time for them.

Pictures of my washclothes and my nieces bag will be up soon.

Two color mittens done and gorgeous!

I actually finished the mittens that my mom and sisters got me the kit for. And they fit! I did them quickly thinking I would need them since the dogs just played tug of war with my store-bought gloves, but the temperatures are supposed to be in the upper 60s/low 70s all week. Then a big temperature drop down to the 50s! I'm going to wear them everywhere!

Yarn: 100% alpaca from Kilblaan Farm, NH

Needles: 11 and 13US

Pattern: Christina's mittens (kit from Kilblaan Farm)

I'm going to try to make a pair of small child's mittens with the rest of the yarn and put it in the auction. I don't think I'll have enough yarn to do that, we'll see.

2 colors, what fun!

First off, here's some pictures of finished projects that I just seem to forget posting. The felted bag:Yarn: Paton's SWS
Pattern: an original Buli design!
Needles: Size 10.5
Knitted for: the annual charity auction to benefit the Jasmine Charitable Trust
Yarn: Mango Moon alpaca
Pattern: Clapotis from Knitty.com
Needles: I don't remember, but I think 9
Knitted for: the charity auction

And the completed puppy quilt. I'm still not sure about the yellow binding, but it does keep with the outrageously loud color scheme for this quilt. Now if my neighbor will just have her baby already!! Although I still have to make a label, maybe the little boy will hold out for that. Amazingly, this quilt was finished before her due date, which is this Sunday. I think that's the first and last time that will ever happen! Fabric: all cotton (of course!) - most from my mom's fabric stash (Thanks Mom!)
Pattern: ripped off from a quilt given to my brother when he was a baby
Sewn for: My neighbor's soon to be new born son.

I've been having tons of fun today with my first ever attempt at fair isle knitting (using more than one color, 2 in my case). This is a kit my mom and sisters got for me at a fiber festival in NH. The yarn is an amazingly soft alpaca. It feels like there is lotion in the yarn, I love it! The only problem is there were lots of places in the skein where they tied the yarn together. I untied the knots (since they were barely holding together) and now I have a million ends to weave in. I guess it will just make the gloves thicker and warmer. I can't wait to finish it! A potential problem is that I didn't do a gauge swatch. It uses 2 different size needles and the pattern didn't state which size needle the gauge is for. I'm just going with the suggested needle size and seeing what happens. I've got pretty normal size hands and I'm usually spot on with the gauge with the suggested needle size, it shouldn't be a problem.

Next up:
-Finish the fair isle mittens - shouldn't take long with it being so much fun
-Work on some holiday knitting
-A sweater for Josh. I forgot to take pictures of the yarn, but it came in yesterday and I can't wait to start his baseball sweater. He's gonna love it! Hopefully I'll get it done by next winter, but who knows!

Puppy quilt

I've made some major progress on the puppy quilt, but I'm at a standstill. I'm posting some pictures so I can get feedback from my mom on what to do about a sashing. First off, here's the blocks all done:

And here are some blocks with a black sashing:

And here are some blocks with a green sashing:
So, what do you think?

My stash and a mouse

I made a silken braid catnip mouse. I don't know the link to the pattern since my friend Erica e-mailed me the pattern. It's got a great cable on the back and there is just one seam right up the belly. The ears are knitted right in and they're not sewn on later, it's great!!

My sister requested some pictures of my stash, so here we go!
There's some Patons SWS, some random skeins of baby homespun, some wool that my sister got me from a yarn store in New Hampshire, knit picks alpaca yarn for a shawl, a pink embellishment kit for a felted bag I'm going to make for my neice, some white brushed alpaca that I'm going to make a cowl out of, and what's left of the Mango moon alpaca that I used to make the clapotis and I'll use to make another clapotis.

Here we have cream Lamb's Pride that's leftover from a seaman's scarf I made for my husband, some gorgeous blue, green, and purple sock yarn, leftover woolease from hats, patons divine, Lopi leftover from the cardigan Erica made me hopefully I'll be able to make the matching hat one of these days, Lion cotton for dishcloths, and the beginnings of a hat and scarf that will be torn out and made into something way better.
This is pink woolease that will be a dog sweater for little Lizzy, Angelina (brown and white) that's super soft and will probably be a shawl or cowl or something, funky festival yarn that I have no idea what I'm going to do with, silky tweed that I want to make a hat out of, and sockatta sock yarn in a tweed blue and green, and more Patons divine.
Noro blue, green, and purple yarn, grey wool that someone else was getting rid of while clearing out their stash, grey New Zealand wool that I got while in NZ but haven't found the perfect project for yet, and green and orange manos.

Most things I have multiple skeins of so my stash is much bigger than what is in the pictures. I'm working on using up some of it. I really want to start a sweater for Josh but I'd have to buy $100+ more yarn and I should probably not do that until I have more room to store it.

Still working on the puppy quilt and VERY slowly making progress, but it's hard to do at night when I'm tired. OK, off to bathe the pups!!

Things are actually getting done!

I finished 2 whole projects this weekend. Things have a way of getting done when housework is ignored and a nice nor'easter is blowing through. I finally wove in the ends of the clapotis and started blocking it:
I also finished the SWS bag and felted it. It's blocking now and nearly dry. Here it is pre-felting.

And here it is blocking:

And detail of the fabric:

It turned out fantastic. I'm a little sorry to auction it off, but then again I can always make another and the money will go to a GREAT cause. I'm also putting up the clapotis for auction. I'm planning on making one of those for myself too. I've got enough of each type of yarn left to make both for myself.

And last but not least, I've finished blocks 3 and 4 of the puppy quilt. Yet again, it's turning out fantastic!
Happy crafting to all!

Clapotis done. . . almost

First off, here is a picture of the beginnings of my SWS bag. This is the bottom, cool colors!

This is the bottom and the beginning of the side. I definitely made it too small. I'm going to felt it and maybe someone will buy it from our auction for a child's gift. I think I'm going to try a buttonhole bag. My sister made me one and I love it.
Now onto the clapotis! I'm done with the knitting! I still need to weave in some ends and block it though. So, here it is:The colors don't look quite right in the picture. It's striped with dark brown, grey, and light brown but half the time the light brown is replaced with white. Here's the stitch detail.

Here's what it looks like when it's draped over something. It really curls up on itself, which is why it really needs to be blocked.

That's it for me now. I'm going to block my clapotis soon, but probably not tonight, I'm too tired. I think I'll work on my puppy quilt a little or maybe the SWS bag. More pictures another time.

Whew!

Thank goodness for Erica!!! She saved my clapotis! After the "incident" with the dogs, Erica came over and put the scarf back on needles for me. I've done a few repeats of the straight section and have dropped 2 or 3 stitches so far and it looks good.

I also started to knit with the Patons SWS yarn. I'm going to felt a bag with it. Right now I'm just doing a rectangular garter stitch bottom and then I'll pick up stitches around the rectangle and stockinette stitch til it's as big as I want. This is the first time I'm not really following a pattern, we'll see how it goes. I'll post some pictures in the next few days.

On the quilting side of my crafty life. . . I've started working on a rag quilt again that I put aside a while ago. It was going to be for my husband, but then my mom made us a beautiful rag quilt that he loves, so there's no need for me to make another one. This one will be donated to the auction that my knitting group holds around the holidays. I've got quite a few blocks ready to be joined. I haven't decided how big it should be. I'll see how far the blocks that I've already cut will take me. I was planning on making it huge since my husband is 6 feet tall and doesn't like short blankets, but now I'm thinking of making it a lap blanket.

More later, hopefully, I've been pretty lazy at home so we'll see if I get pictures taken and posted.