An Early Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving arrived a few weeks early and I already have some new things for which I am incredibly thankful...

First, I want to get to say a BIG thank you to my BFF, Billie, she came over early (9:30 - that's early for a Saturday) and she cleaned my house. She cleaned the kitchen, living room and dining room. She wanted to organize the office but my guilt was beginning to set it. She called me back later and wouldn't let it go. She has a plan for the office and she wanted me to promise to let her do it.

Well, I mean, she twisted my arm. So that will be the project for the new year.

Bill is one of the folks for whom cleaning has a deeper meaning. I'm one of those people for whom cleaning is a chore. She has been bugging me for the past couple of months to let her come over. I agreed to let her help me and that's when she said she wanted to do it herself. I started before she came over and when she walked in the door and I started again, she told, none too nicely, that I was in the way and messing up her mojo.

Can't mess up a girl's mojo. I have to say she did a better job that I would have done. She did a better than Mr. Honey would have done and I thought he was a master cleaner. The big thing we (and I do mean we) accomplished was moving out the old love seat. Mr. Honey said it would be a big deal to move and as it turned out it was quite easy. Afterward he said it went exactly as he thought. Yeah.


The second thing I am grateful for is a photo from someone who purchased a prayer shawl from the studio. It was for her Grandmother's 90th birthday and she needed it overnight. Her grandma is going through some treatments and she wanted to get her a shawl to keep with her during those times. I wasn't expecting the photo and it brought tears to my eyes. Grandma loved it and the color certainly suits her. Very touching. We wish grandma improved and continued good health.


Lastly, at least for this post, I decided last Thursday after we came home from date night (after 9pm) that I would start a hat. I needed hats for the sale in December and I told myself just to make one. With a twelve hour period, I made the hats here. In the interest of full disclosure, one had been started but not completed. I forgot how much fun hats are to make. They are to me what socks are to other knitters.

When they are made with chunky yarn (Deborah Norville's yarn is great for these) then they go pretty quickly. I did stay up for several hours finishing them off and there are two more that I made in the time frame - one hasn't been photographed yet and the other I didn't like so I took it apart and made something else. So I have five new hats for studio/sale. I will have to make more but I don't want to go project crazy because I do most of my work in the living room. And it's now really pretty and with the dismissal of the love seat, I don't have as much working surface so I don't want to do more than one project at a time and that project has to fit in the knitting bag or, in the case of an afghan, across the ottoman which is now in front of my easy chair. I want to keep the fiber under control, you know.

So I have one project out in the open and that's a scarf and that's how it will stay. I know what you're thinking but it will stay that way. Remember a while back when I said Mr. Honey was on the car cleaning jag after he bought the van?
The car is still clean. I'm not about to let all of Bill's hard work go for naught. That would be the height of ungratefulness. I won't let that happen - mainly cause i don't think I could get her to do it again -

but also because that would be rude!

Never Say Die

I know I showed you the scarf a few days back and said the hat was coming. And then it seems I dropped off the blogging face of the earth after telling you about the Sit & Knit. But I haven't forgotten about the hat - here it is. Nor have I forgotten about the blog.

The truth is, I've been playing on Helium, a site for writers. I've been having a lot of fun writing articles and participating in contests. Well, one contest, and it appears that right now, I am in fourth place. If you land in the first three places, you get a cash prize. Not a great deal of money, but certainly enough for a yarn shopping spree - which I would not take because I had a ton of yarn - I'm just saying this as a way to compare. Of course, I could just say first prize is $60, second is $40 and third is $30 and not mention the yarn at all. Maybe next time.
In any case, the hat has been waiting to be photographed and placed in the shop.

This hat is so darn cute! It goes down over Calvin's head (yes, he's wearing a girl's hat. He's quite comfortable in his maleness) it's sized for a small head which means it would probably be at the ears of a human.
What I like about the hat is the star in the back. I didn't even know it was forming until I was done with the whole thing. It's one of those nice knitting surprises that happens every once in a while.

I should also go ahead and confess I've signed up for Facebook. I haven't made the pages live yet because I haven't completed the setup. I am going to have to embrace the technology. Not that I am against it - used to make my living installing hardware and software and troubleshooting PCs and if I didn't embrace technology, who would I be talking to right now? As soon as I've launched, I'll let you know. It is strictly a business decision - though I will probably manage to have some fun - I mean, I have fun with my work - or why do it?

I'm almost finished with a pair of legwarmers and they will go up in a few days - then, frankly, I have no idea what I'm gonna make next. I can't wait to find out!

Babies and Mothers-in-law

OK, everybody say it together: "Awwwwww!"
(Wait until you see the booties! That's right, I made my first bootie today. There's only one thus far and it's just so cute I want to fry it in sugar and chomp on it!)

Babies just make everything better. I wanted to create a set of hats to sell on etsy. One little hat isn't enough for a baby - they need to be tricked out and styling at least four days of the week. Here's a head start. (Head start; get it? Yeah, I crack me up.)

Remember the hat I just did?
This one here. Something I forgot to tell you about it. As I blogged a few months ago, Joe's mom passed away last September and he's been slowly cleaning out her condo. (With the market the way it is, there's no great rush of people wanting to buy homes, let alone condos which require a bigger down payment.) He goes over every day and the past few days he's come back with crafting items. His mother is one of the original crafty girls. She could look at a dress or piece of clothing and whip it up without ever seeing the pattern. She knit, crocheted, and did stuff with glue guns.

The other day Joe walked in with this box that contained a gazillion little crochet squares which I will form into something and a bag of ribbon. He walked in with that bag of ribbon just as I was working on this hat and thinking I wanted to do something different and thought ribbon would be nice to do a running stitch with. I looked into the bag and there was the ribbon that matched my hat quite nicely. (If I do say so myself.)

There were also knitting needles, crochet hooks (including a super cool wooden one that I will cherish) and those ribbons, enough ribbons for me to match up with those new booties I make and send a little of my m-i-l with them. As I was getting into knitting, she was slowly phasing out her crafting because her eyesight and her hands were giving out. But she loved babies so I know she'd smile at this.

Finally, we can collaborate.

Patience is a Virtue

I want you all to take a look at kat's site.(http://katnap.wordpress.com) It is simply one of the most gorgeous sites I've ever seen. go over and take a look at it - and read it while you're at it cuz the writing's pretty good, too.

Some things come quickly - some things take time. It is the yin and yang that keeps us in balance.
I started working on the 'cable box afghan' more than two weeks ago and it has tried my patience. It is not finished yet. I pinned the latest strip to the other three and figured I would need another three strips - two with one cable and the last one with two - and then the afghan would be done. (Of course, this is another design of mine which is probably one reason it's taking so long. Another thing I didn't consider was how much time doing a cable adds to the process. I've never made this many cables in one item before and they do take time because you have to use the third needles and have to do the twisting, etc. The result is stunning and I'm going to love it when its done but I didn't plan this afghan would take this long to make.
To help ease the pains of a project taking longer than I expected, I decided to start another project - it would be a hat. This hat. Seriously, how cute is this?
This actually took only a day to do so it wasn't much of a distraction, but it did serve its purpose in allowing me to do some more designing. This cloche like hat would be great in holding braids, dreads or extensions.
It's a little funky and a lot of cute.
I am back to working on the afghan and I expect it will take a few more weeks before it's done. Not only do the strips have to be done but then they have to be sewn together and a border put around the whole thing. But I understand now how the time put into it will make the whole experience that much better - especially when I'm done.

Mad Hatting - Part 2

So, I've already done the first hat and I have another one on the needles when I told the HB what I was up to. "I'm not really into hats."

Like that matters.

He said he'd rather have a scarf. I gave him a scarf a few weeks ago and now he has put a cramp in my knitting mojo. Should I make a combination of hats and scarves? Could it be that others of the male persuasion will not be into hats? Could it be some females might not want a hat because it doesn't match the coat, dress, hair style?

Who really cares? It's a a gift, dangit. It's the start of a tradition. A hat is something you don't have to wear to the office or the movies. You can pull that sucker out on a day like today where the weather is cold and your car needs to be cleaned off. A nice warm hat can come in handy for something like that. It can come in handy when you need to go to the store and you don't want to comb out that mob that some folks call hair and it will hide it nicely.

It's the thing one gets and compares it with the ones the others got and then you start to trade for the color you want all the while knowing it's going to wind up in the bottom of a dresser drawer until that cold snap hits and then you don't care if someone see you in an orange and green hat with a big, old pom-pom on it cuz you will be warm! And maybe Aunt Bev wasn't all that crazy when she made you all hats.

That's what the giving spirit is all about.

No, the mojo is getting a little of his own back. He will not be second-guessed. The hat making will continue and we might not get them all done by Christmas and no one will get anything, but it will be a good start to the hat project or maybe I will open a store on Etsy.

But the madness goes on.

Project Updates

So, you see the weird hat. I tried this thing on and I thought my head was going to topple over. The knot makes it so heavy; but I swear, it looks just like the photo in the patten. I may have to take the knot out and do a weave through or something. I can't sell or give it away - it could hurt someone!
The scarf is folded-4 times. I had someone 5'7 drape this over their shoulders and it still reached the ground. They could fold it over their neck several times which made it very warm. It's the Sunset Strip scarf. Someone wanted to know if it was a pastor's stole and I had to laugh because I had the idea the StitchCraft group should make one and give to the three pastors in our church. I still may look up some stoles on line for inspiration and do one in stockinette stitch then duplicate stitch the symbols in. Of course, I will let you know if that should come about.

Does she really have 5 projects going? Yes, she does. Don't know what she was thinking, but there you are. And for all the projects I have going and all the yarn it takes. My house still looks like Yarn Warehouse, LTD. It breeds in the dark when I'm not looking. And it will never end.

Purple Quick Knit

Isn't it cute? It looks blue in the photo, but that's just because of the flash. It's my favorite color-purple. The one on the right is without the flash. (I just stick things on Marilyn's head and take pictures. She's so used to it, she just kept on knitting away. I'm not sure if I stuck a pom-pom on the top, though I think one would look really cute.

This was going to be my entry hat for Ravelympics, but decided I needed to design my own - pray for me friends, I still have four strips to complete in five days to earn my afghan marathon medal. It's going to be a photo finish!

This is almost the same as the other quick knit hat except I used a different stitch. It's a knock off from Quick Knit - Cool Accessories. It's probably Caron By the Pound because I don't have any other yarn in purple. Well, I think I have some Hobby Lobby yarn in purple, but I haven't knit with it yet.
Check out the archive for the info on the hat!

Olympic Hat & Scarf

Here they are! My Olympic Hat & Scarf.

These were items entered into the Ravelympics! I have Cai, the afghan left to complete.
So, these were made mostly with Caron by the Pound, but the ring colors were made with yarn that was donated by someone. And I still dig the Pom-Pom on the hat. (Thanks to my hubby for being willing to model the hat!)

The scarf is mostly stockinette and it's folded and pinned to take out the curl. It's over about five feet long (I think). These will be available at the November Bazaar (sold separately).

Quick Knit Scarf

Well, I'm just a knitting fool since the Ravelympics started. I still have the olympic scarf and the cai afghan to go, but this was almost done so i thought it would be best to go ahead and finish it up.

This scarf goes with the hat (that's Marilyn modeling it). They're both made with Red Heart yarn on size 9 needles. The hat was modified from a pattern found in Quick Knit - Cool Accessories and the scarf was made up from a stitch I found in a stitch dictionary and thought it would make a great scarf. and so it does.

this cute little set will be sold at the November Bazaar - come on by and buy it!

Olympic Hat

So, here's my Olympic Hat! That's the hubby being the model. My favorite part is the Pom-Pom made with my pom-pom maker! It was a challenge because my original thought was to make a cap when I decided to make it into stocking cap. My first hat design!

Cutsie Hat & Scarf

Sometimes you just get distracted. It's true! You do a project, take the photo and say: 'I need to get this on the blog!' and then life intervenes.

I made this hat and scarf sometime in June. I know, I know, I track my projects by my blog posts...but I refer back to that life intervenes thing. I was doing other things. Like work. Work can mess up a perfectly good day.

I got the pattern out of a magazine - I don't remember which one mebbe Creative Knitting? Interweave? Geez, I really don't remember. It was pretty darn easy and of course, the yarn is Caron By The Pound in jonquil. I really do have other yarn - I just have a lot of Caron By the Pound. (Though I must admit, I may have found a new love in worsted weight yarn that's an even better value than CBTP - I have yet to knit with it so I will let you know what happens!)

I can't remember a thing about this project. I think it went fast. I don't remember the size of the needles or anything..I'm telling you, this is life's fault. I can tell you it's sitting in the inventory getting ready for the fall sale in November. If I run across the pattern again, I will fill you in on the particulars.

Photos from the Sit & Knit - Part 1

A bum knee and the registering knitters kept me in the lobby where Marilyn made this beautiful set up of the yarn. Knitters were free to come and browse through whatever skeins they wanted to take and there was more yarns in the boxes off to the right.
Hats and squares were the order of the day and this cute little pom-pom was a favorite. We think the pom-pom is bigger than the hat, but someone will be able to use it and they will look very cute in it!
This little hat is especially important to us because Sherry made it - it is her very first project EVER. She did not know how to knit when she walked in the door. This was actually a sampler to teach her how to knit and purl and we were able to turn it into a hat for a very small preemie.
Here are a bunch of preemie hats. You can see the subtle differences in the hats. Everyone was free to put their own spin on the hats and they did. They're cute in the pictures - you should see them in person!

These two were top favorites!
We had a great time! The Pleasant Home staff was great and everyone wanted to do it again. And so we shall...planning for the 2009 Sit & Knit at Pleasant Home has already begun!

The Knitter's Restaurant - Sit & Knit Info

The registration and information for Sit & Knit is here.

OK. So, here's the deal.

Here's the link for the pattern for the child/adult hat.
Here's the link for crochet hats.
Here's the link for the knitted preemie hat.
Here's the link for the crocheted preemie hat.

You may create your squares in any pattern you like as long as it is 10 inches before blocking. Please weave in your ends.

We will have a class for novices/beginners and a class to learn cables. Class size will be restricted to the first 15 to sign up at the registration desk on Saturday.

We will have copies of the patterns at Pleasant Home. You can register in person if you haven't turned in your form.

The weather outlook is good, so if you want to bring a blanket to sit outside, please feel free to do so.

Thank you for all who have sent in their registration forms. I look forward to meeting and seeing you all this weekend!

Sit & Knit - Pattern 4 - Adult/Child Hat

Information and registration for the Sit & Knit is here.

The knitted hat we recommend for adult/children can be found on the Lion Brand website.
This hat is easy (all garter stitch) and it can be unisex and made with or without the pom-pom on top. Adjust the stitches to below 70 for a child's head, keeping the gauge in mind.

Also, if you are interested in knitting for charity and want to find groups where you can knit with others, or want to find a group that could help out folks in need, check out their Charity Connection.
It's a great place to source for groups doing good work in the world!