Been a bit busy/ill/etc

But figured it might be ok to pop in and share baby in knitting pics.

My newest grandson has arrived...

picture from Anna Douglas Photography

Isn't he gorgeous?

Blanket & hat is knit in Cascade Cherub DK, color Boy Blue. The blanket is the pattern Twinkle Twinkle Baby blanket. It was a super fast knit for DK and was easy to memorize the pattern. I created the hat by using the same pattern, but stopping the increases when I had the right number of stitches, adding a couple of increases to get to evenly divisible by 6. Then I was able to repeat the star pattern by simply staggering the stars. It came out a tiny bit big (room to grow into, huh?) and he's shown wearing it with the brim rolled up.

Knitworthy little boy - and Mario

It's DONE! <>

Yes, it's done, DONE, DONE!

To be honest, the worst/hardest part was coming up with charts for the words and I'm not entirely thrilled with either panel. But all-in-all, I think it's going to be a great blanket for his bed. It's ALMOST, but not quite big enough to cover my queen sized bed.

I've got a few ends to tackle (intentionally left for maximizing points)... but it's been through the washer and the dryer and is currently stashed for putting under the tree. (please ignore the messy bedroom)

Unlike the star wars blanket from a couple of years back, this is much lighter weight and will work throughout summer months... whereas the star wars blanket mostly has to be put away to prevent him from sweating to death once it gets even slightly warm out. Good for this time of year though... :-)

Still more Christmas gifts coming off of the needles

First, a ski mask... for little Aydan who REALLY, REALLY wanted a dragon... and when I offered to make him a ski mask instead decided he wanted BOTH a dragon and a ski mask....

This was made with Red Heart With Love... with a pattern I wrote as I worked it. I cast on the same number of stitches I would have for a hat, knit in K1, P1 ribbing for six inches (for a six year old) - older and adults, I'd go up to eight to ten inches...  Then I cast off half the stitches - for me, I used Jeny's Extra Stretchy Bindoff from Knitty. K1, P1, the other half of the stitches... then used Backwards Loop to cast-on the stitches I had just cast off. I knit in K1, P1 ribbing for a good inch or so... then changed to stockinette (disregard the one row of K1, P1 ribbing that slipped in there somewhere during a good part of the tv show I was watching. I knit it stockinette another four inches (would have done closer to six for an adult).  Typical hat-based decreases, I K5, K2Tog  repeat through end of row, K one row, Then I repeat each row decreasing the number of stitches between K2Tog until the last row which is just K2Tog all stitches.  Quick, fast and mindless knitting. Fun and bright... perfect for a little boy who doesn't like to freeze.

Second, a pair of simple socks. I used the Easy-Peasy sock pattern on Ravelry. Worsted weight socks are SUPER FAST - this pair is in some Hobby Lobby I Love this Yarn in Ombre print.

He's growing so fast, and he's had to give up several pair of outgrown hand-knit socks this fall. He loves these socks, though they are almost as thick as slippers... but they keep his toes warmer in winter, and what's not to love about a little boy who loves socks that his mom makes him?  I want to knit him dozens... lol.

Lastly a set of bells... these were made following project notes out of the left overs from  the Red Heart with Love yarn from the ski mask hat...

One for me, one for little 'a', one for big 'A', his fiance 's', her son the littlest 'a' and the rest will go to teacher's with the teacher's gifts. Super fast at only an hour or so to make each one. The only thing stopping me is that I ran out of jingle bells. I have added a jingle bell inside each bell as a 'clapper' so that when 'rang' there's actually some noise.

I love following the tradition of hand-making ornaments every year and gifting them. It was getting to be a chore at one time when the number of nieces and nephews getting them were getting a bit 'numerous'... but after cutting back to immediate family and teachers, I can start enjoying it so much more again. I love finding a new pattern. And while I enjoy the more tedious projects as well, you just can't beat something that turns out this cute and is so super fast! These were made with a thick worsted yarn and came out to about four inches tall, three inches wide... but I was thinking some fingering weight yarn? might turn out tiny bells? and wouldn't that also be soooo cute?!

Pikachu is finally done

I'm not quite sure he looks like the character... but I did what I could.

Here's the finished Pikachu:

Yeah... not perfect.... but eh... my son loves him anyway.

The yarn I had started him with was more neon-shaded... but I ran out and couldn't get more... so the new yellow is a bit brighter than the photo would appear... it's a good color.  I didn't get the face/head quite right. But I love the ears and the tail. Tail is made in seed stitch with lots of zigs and zags and a bit of darker color at the base. I added stripes to his back with duplicate stitching.

Sadly, he looks a bit more like a pillow than a pikachu... but I can live with it since little 'a' loves him all the same.

Of course, five seconds after he took Pikachu back to his room after he was finished he came back to me asking for a Snorelax... because it 'ought to be easy and really good for cuddling'.

While he ought to be easy enough to make.... I'm not sure I'm ready to sign up for coming up with him from scratch with no pattern... not yet anyway. Maybe. Good news is that his face is pretty straight-forward embroidery - so at least I'd be less likely to mess it up. So, for right now,  little 'a' is just going to have to settle for 'let me think about it'.

Super-fast necklace

A couple of months ago there had been a class prompt that asked you to use some metalic colored yarn as one of the options. I wasn't going to do it... but in the craft store I stumbled onto a rack of Lion Brand BonBons and kept eyeing the package of metalics.  The package contained six little 35-ish yard mini-skeins and the metalics package had silver, gold, copper, etc. Super cute and super fun... and I broke down and brought the package home.  I ended up whipping out a super-easy, super-fast bracelet...

Basically, I knit three different I-cords; then braided them... which was inspired by a thought I had around making a braided rag rug - but instead of using rags; I wanted to use scrap bits of yarn and make I-cords from them. Making the bracelet  helped me think through the process and experiment a little.

This month, along comes another prompt... this time it was to be inspired by keys... and I couldn't resist adding a necklace to match:

It took only about 5 yards of each yarn. I used big needles to make it go quick... an dit did. About one hour from first cast on to trying on.

June Mid-month progress (albeit a little late)

Detention project - AIRL rescue blanket. - DONE

Socks! Bamboo/rayon blend. Nice, soft, fit well.... simple pattern, super-fast. - DONE

Photo taken in New Jersey... can almost, but not quite, make out the Empire State Building between my toes....


Couple of Charity hats - DONE (well, a couple are done, we might fit one more in, if I find time - unlikely, but possible).

I know, I know... more brioche hats. But at least I played a little with color and went back to doing two-tone worsted weight hats a little bit and set aside the bulky weight yarn (for now).

Quidditch tote bag... the top came out too small. But I've stuck this in my utility room and it's great for storing plastic bags from shopping in. I re-use them around the house all the time, so it's actually pretty nice to have something for it. - DONE

Not as fast a project as one would have hoped. I did do it in one day. But considering that day was spent in airports, airplanes and taxi rides, I would have been happier if I could have finished it within a couple of hours instead of closer to eight hours. (should have done crochet)

ON THE NEEDLES:

Still working on my tank top... Not going very quickly as I haven't had much time devoted to it... poor thing, seriously neglected. (sorry, no photo) - About 33% done - hope to finish before end of June.

Still working on the first section of my son's Mario Mushrooms blanket. Four squares done, fifth square needs some embroidery done. Four more squares to cast-on and finish, plus seaming. - About 50% done - hope to finish mid-July.

NOT YET STARTED.... and honestly? at this point, might not get started unless this weekend holds a spectacular amount of knitting time.

2 hour baby blanket - If I can get tank top to 50% AND the fifth square finished -  I might take a break and work on this... we'll see.

Adipose - it doesn't seem like it would take more than a couple of hours to whip this out... but it's on my low priority list.

2 blanket squares - I'm behind in my blanket projects... and working on this would help me out with that... but I'm not even going to try to cast it on until the end of the month - and only then assuming I get other things finished first.

May - end of month progress post

Previously posted -

2 scarves
1 crocheted necklace
1 macrame'd bracelet
6 of the 7 charity hats
Lastly:

1 more charity hat (won't picture it - looks just like the others)

Dead Fish Hat!

I used scraps of acrylic up - and it turned out adorable. I did get my 9 yr old son to wear it for about five seconds, as long as I promised to NOT take a picture of it... But it turned out cute!

And while waiting for the "GO!" moment on my Order of the Phoenix mission... I decided to go ahead and finish the Dragon I started in April. Grandson thinks it is AMAZING and HE LOVES IT... and has named it "Stuffy".... :-)

He got turned into Detention in May - and has gone home to live with grandson who is definitely going to be giving him a full life.

Lastly - I got one square finished for the Order Mission - eight more to go, plus seaming. Photos to come.

May mid-month progress

First, the two scarves - these are made with 'special' (read this as not my favorite) yarn. A simple chain stitch (not so simple due to the blankety-blank nature of said 'special' yarn).

And voila - a frilly (not my style), ruffly (not my style, but at least not SUPER ruffly) scarf.

Perfect to donate to the west coast charities that donate these to women who have been rescued from the sex slave trade or from domestic violence. Something to help them feel worthy. That's something I can get behind.

A second Crocheted necklace - also a simple chain stitch - multiple strands, knotted 'just so'. Another specialty yarn, this one not as bad as the first. I so-so like it, might give it to my niece when I get to go see her this summer... might hang onto it. I had hopes for purple... but was feeling really sick by the time I had made it to the LYS that carried this yarn... and it's a lot more pink than purple. But, it's a nice necklace.

A macrame bracelet - this didn't turn out very well. I do think macrame tied to using suede cord can make an awesome bracelet that would be very wearable. But, this one just didn't turn out very well. I ended up recycling the cord and button after I finished it, as I just wasn't pleased with the end result. It might be partly the colors, but mostly my lack of tension and not getting the end quite right. I wish I had darker colors for the suede I have. But, hey, this was ultra-discounted at a going out of business sale of an LYS, and at the time, I had no idea what I would ever make with it. I will probably try some other macrame with it in the future.

Dyeing a skein of ugly-to-me pink cotton yarn.-- not going to do this one after all. The prompt was to do something with a dark purple... and dying this yarn to purple might still be in the future. But, I didn't manage to get to the stores to buy the dye and my wrists are a little healthier now than they were at the beginning of the month... so instead I used already existing purple super bulky to create another charity hat (just like tons of other charity hats). When my wrists were just so-so, this is such a treat to do some mindless knitting. Though, I think that I'll probably start focusing in the future on doing more with worsted weight scrap-yarn... it takes longer, but those hats are fun as well (love doing the reversible) ... but for a super-quick, get it done with minimal work, this is the pattern I just keep coming back to. (for folks not aware - it's the Elizabeth Zimmerman Brioche Watch Cap pattern).

Quidditch came along while I wasn't looking and peaked my interest... the first event was non-crafting.. to just use Ravelry to clean-up or manage either queue or favorites, etc. I cleaned up my queue a ton removing things that were no longer as inspiring as they were when they were added, re-organizing my tabs as the tabs I had weren't all getting used.

And then, the 'heat training film'.... squeee. It was for charity knitting (hmmm... can't imagine why that would appeal) and either making up to five squares or five hats.... bet you can guess which of those I picked.

Two of my favorite Brioche hats, and three crocheted hats. Sometimes crochet bothers my wrist more... so I tend to avoid it. But these are powerfully fast to make (20 minutes) versus the 2 hour brioche hat pattern. So, I whipped out some more super-bulky (had to be fast, right) hats.

My target goal is 50 charity hats in 2013.... and these six last hats brings my total to 16. A little low for the year, but remember, I spent seven weeks without being able to do any crafting at all. I'm sure I'll catch up with my productivity pretty quickly.

In progress...

My dead fish hat. Doesn't look much like a fish just yet, you can see the lips and the stripes on the body... I am working on the decreases to the tail - then there are the fins and eyes to add... I'm really enjoying the whole, grab a random color from the scrap pile to throw in and might be doing more 'scrap' hats this summer.

Not started yet - Know Your Mushrooms baby blanket... need to wait until 5/26 to start it. Figure that gives me plenty of time to work on my Dead Fish Hat.

Not worked on yet - My little half-done dragon. I'll pick him up as soon as the dead fish hat is done... though it might be June before he's done-done.

Chain Stitch scarves

Swift and quick... and feasible (ish) with one wrist in a splint. Though, my left wrist is a little sore again today. So, I might end up wearing both splints for a couple of days.

I probably have enough of the net yarn left to make one more, but will probably save it for another sore-wrist day. These plus one I worked on a bit ago will get mailed off to an agency that donates them to women's shelters that focus on helping the abused and/or women who have been rescued from the sex trade.  I'm personally not the kind to wear a frilly/ruffly scarf, but it is pretty and hopefully it'll help make a woman feel a little special when shes had too little of that in her life.

March end of month progress post

OWL - not big enough to count... but after cutting it in half, I think it will make an awesome baby blanket:

It's definitely bright and colorful even with all that black. It's almost luminescent.  I had planned on making 25 squares to do a full-sized afghan.. but there was no way I was going to manage to make 25 squares with my sore wrists and I was definitely tired of the pattern by square 10. Since this isn't made to OWL requirements, this got turned in as my second detention project.

 This is finished blanket #4 out of 13.

MISSION/Dissertation - Mission was turned in as a partial. Disseration is still in progress.  Here's my current in-progress photo.

DETENTION

Woops... I need another picture of my sweater...

Potions  - Discovery Challenge:

Baby blanket turned big (guess it's Karma for the OWL that got made small)

Divination (missed deadline for Nerdwars, ended up using something else)

DADA & Nerdology:

Charms & Encyclopedia: (2 of the squares for the Stained Glass Window afghan)

Herbology & Giving Geeks:

This little guy is Arthur the Alien, made with scraps of acrylic... I was worried he wouldn't look 'alien' enough... but my 9 yr old knew immediately that it was an alien and had weird ears. So, that works. He's been mailed off to the 600 Monsters project and I hope he brings a little comfort to someone.

Quidditch 1 & 2 & Flexible Scheduling:

And then an impromptu little project for CoMC made with scraps, a little Dust Bunny:

Not as much as I had hoped, but more than I thought was possible. So, that's all good, right? I'm still sad that I missed out on finishing yet another OWL and yet another Mission. I'm definitely going to try to shoot for ONLY an OWL next term. And probably won't do a Dissertation for NerdWars so that I can focus on finishing my OWL.

Now to start planning April!!!! Woooohooooo!

March mid-month Progress (albeit a little late)

OWL - still down and out
MISSION - rough going. The pattern is REALLY HARD TO FOLLOW. I've frogged several sections more than a couple of times because I didn't understand the directions and have just figured out I made another mistake on a piece that I'll have to rip back and rework.  We's running into trouble here... pretty sure this will be a partial turn in for HPKCHC, but am hoping to still finish it by the end of April for NerdWars.

Potions - was supposed to be a baby blanket. Turned in for NerdWars as based on properties of water.

I used a little over Four balls of Bernat Baby Blanket - which is a chenille like super bulky acrylic. The dark blue was leftover from the bunny baby blanket buddy from last month. And the other three balls were on sale at JoAnn's last month. I cast-on toooooo many stitches considering I was shooting for a baby blanket. I added an extra set of five stripes, but it's still a lot wider than long. So, we're turning it on it's side and pretending it was vertically striped.   This will go over well at the homeless shelter, I'm sure. It's incredibly warm and squishy and lovely.

I really enjoyed the mindless knitting and would often pick it up when I got frustrated with my Order Mission. This is blanket #3 finished of 13 for 2013.

DADA / Nerdology (inspired by a Dr Who shirt with a rainbow) - Rainbow child's hat.

My typical 2-color brioche hat knit in the round... I used up almost all of the rainbow variegated Red Heart yarn and some Navy scraps donated by a good friend of mine. I shipped her the leftover Wool Ease Thick and Quick and Easy and she shipped me a TON of acrylic. Since these hats whip up so fast and can use bits and pieces of lots of different yarns (and I have fun pairing different yarns together, so that works) if I can't think of anything else, but want another hat... this is what I usually grab. Especially when I want to work with something other than bulky.

 Quidditch Challenge 3 / Flexible Scheduling (flashback inspired) - I made two Blue Butterfly squares, seamed them... and added a crown to make a hat.

Quidditch Game 3 - A purple Bulky brioche hat for a child

I used the new Hometown USA from Lion Brand yarn that I bought at Walmart. Absolutely perfect (well, except for the Walmart part). It's affordable at almost half the price of the Wool Ease Thick and Quick. It's a good spun super-bulky yarn tht shows off the stitch well and works great for these hats. I'll be making more. I also found that Michael's is starting to carry this yarn... so I'll probably pick it up there instead.

This hat gets me to 10 Charity hats out of 50 for 2013.

Divination / Flexible Scheduling - Afghan Square - about 1/3 done
Charms / Encyclopedia (architecture inspired) - 2 Stained Glass Window squares for the failed OWL blanket - not started yet -- If I can finish these two, I'll seam them with the other 10 and turn them into detention (no points)... but then I can count the yardage towards my goal. And it'll become a baby blanket instead of a full sized afghan (but that would be blanket #4 of 13 for 2013.
Herbology / Giving Geeks - Alien - not started yet

Previously unplanned - but too cute not to do them (hope they are fast)...  Dust bunnies. I'll make them for Care of Magical Creatures (to earn a badge in the Great Hall as well as the last badge I'm missing from Diagon Alley trip.  They might land themselves in some Easter Baskets if they turn out half as cute as I hope they do. Plus, I'm hoping to use some stash - which will earn a third badge... yep. But, of course, time will tell.  I'm trying to focus on the NerdWars projects I need to finish first so I can get those turned in before (or on) the 28th. The bunnies can be finished after the 28th.

For more undone than done. But, I'm working through my list as best as I can. I keep setting aside the mission and/or NOT actually knitting because it's just so frustrating. I'm going to focus on getting my other projects done instead and see what I can't whip out before the end of the month.

February - End of Month post

OWL

Ummm... yeah. Still stuck at the 10 completed from mid-month. Once I realized that I wouldn't be able to finish 25 of these (15 more in six weeks). I kind of crashed on it. I am hoping to still do two more and make a smaller blanket, but it probably won't be til the end of March.

MISSION

I still owe you pictures of the cardigan-in-progress. I proposed my BROOM as the Chocolate Passion Cardigan. The back was super-fast and pretty easy. The panels that go from the bottom center to the front, up the front and then curve around the neck? Not so easy. I've restarted a couple of times. Funny enough, it wasn't the short rows nor the cables that tripped me up the most (although there have been plenty of mis-crossed cables to have to fix). It's mostly been that the directions were really not very clear and have caused me a lot of heartache.

CLASSES
Flying - DONE

Baby blanket 2 done of my goal of 13 blankets in 2013.

Charms & Muggle Studies - DONE

These were hats #4 and #5 from 50 planned for 2013.

DADA - DONE

Herbology - DONE

Divination - DONE

Quidditch x 2 - Two more hats - DONE

I didn't quite get as far as I hoped on the MISSION nor the OWL (in fact, have caved and admitted OWL-failure already). But, I still got a lot done.

PLUS, I participated as a Ninja in Nerd Wars!!!!  I was able to submit the OWL hat and five of my squares for the OWL to Flexible Scheduling. The Twisty screw-like cables on my Aran square for Discovery, the Bulky bright-colored scarf and hat to Encyclopedia (reminicent of a picture of a winter carnival), the blue bunny blankie for Nerdology (inviting Elmer Fudd to eat some wabbit with me). Plus I gave a charity donation to a worthy cause for Giving Geeks. Gotta love being a nerd.

FO's

The Bunny Blanket Buddy is smaller than I expected...

Certainly more just a toy than a blanket, but definitely cuddly.  I used Bernat Baby Blanket yarn - the new form... which is much more like chenille, but machine washer & dryer friendly.  I bought two skeins since they are only about 80 yards each - yet I only used about half a skein for this.

I also finished hat #6 for charity:

This is baby sized... and I didn't care for the crown - they had you just K2Tog for as many rounds as it took to get to 8 stitches or less and then use a cable needle to feed the yarn through the remaining live stitches. The super sudden decreases without any regular rows between them just seems to dramatic a decrease.  But it's still a hat... :-)

I used some left over Knit Picks Brava Worsted and it turned out ok, not as soft as some others... so I'll probably wash this and see if that doesn't help it soften up.

More Hats!

These are hats # 4 & 5 - Adult-sized in my typical Brioche hat pattern. I needed some samples for the class I'm teaching at the end of the month, and these really are super-quick.

I was struggling to find super-bulky yarn... so the hat on the left is made with a couple of handfuls of left-over bits (blues and greys) of worsted, held triple. If I ran out with one ball, I just grabbed another. Super-bulky is faster and easier than dealing with three strands of yarn, but, it sure does feel good to use up some of the odds and ends basket yarn instead of always adding to it.

The hat on the left was made with Lion Brand's Jiffy-Thick & Quick - a nice, soft, super-bulky yarn. The cost is right for charity hats. The content is 100% acrylic (which is right for my allergies). The weight is nice, the yarn is great for showing stitch definition. BUT. It only comes in highly variegated colors. No solids. And really? Only about a half-dozen variegated color options at that.

Review? Highly sold on the yarn. Not high on the color options and this is not going to be a yarn I purchase much of in the future as a result.

My favorite for these WAS Lion Brand's Wool-ease Thick & Quick . But now that my allergies have worsened, I break out in hives if I work with that yarn. But, a shopping trip last night got me on the trail for another alternative. I'll do a review after I've used it, which might not be until March... but I'll let you know.