An absolutely BRILLIANT solution for a problem!

OK, So, still working on projects, still have tons of posts to make (just have to find time).

In the meantime. I donated my time to put up an auction item to raise money for United Way. My item to the auction is a hand-knitted Christmas stocking that the user would select from a selection of patterns... and I would customize to their requirements.

Since I have hand-knit stockings that someone else knit for me (ages ago)... I was thinking about the fact that in the inside of the stocking there are lots of yarn loops (that catch on everything I put into the stocking)... from the multiple colors used to knit up the stocking. So, I had planned to do a technique that can be quite tedious (called inartsia) and can create a lot of loose ends that you have to weave in (which I hate) -- but at least the person who bought my stocking wouldn't have to deal with all the yarn loops.

But... once they selected the pattern they wanted (From Knitting Digest Magazine) - Gift Santa Christmas Stocking (1996)... would you believe that they designed the stocking with an even better solution?

The entire stocking is knit in only three colors Leg & Foot; heel & toe are in contrasting colors. THEN they have you knit up the ornament - Santa with a lap full of presents... completely separately - and then you simply attach it to the front of the stocking... and ergo - completely encase all those loops of threads between the ornament on the stocking and the stocking itself. The inside of the stocking a) has no extra yarn loops and b) no hundreds of cut ends of the yarn to weave in... because they can all be hiding behind the ornamentation.

OMG... I've had a couple of ideas for making scarves with characters on the ends of the scarf and or putting initials on it... but didn't want the reverse side to look funny. I can SO do this for that project as well.

It's like a lightning bolt of creative ideas just based on a simply brilliant solution that the back of the knitted piece that has lots of different colors in it just doesn't look good.

Who knew? I sure didn't even imagine trying something like this.

A knitting me-me

Swiped from knittech it's intended for a secret pal swap; but I figure I can swipe the questions and adapt it for a me-me anyway.

Secret Pal

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like? Actually - I use a lot of acrylic because me & my boys have yarn allergies. Caron Simply Soft is inexpensive & soft. Bamboo is delicious but not right for many projects. Cotton is "ok". LOVE cashmere but have to do a cashmere blended with something else to avoid allergies - besides who can afford to spend so much for yarn? I've knit with wool - once - never again. Am still trying to learn to have the patience to knit with laceweight yarn.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in? I have vases for my double-points and regular knitting needles. Right now my cable needles and extended needles are tangled up in a photo box.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced? I tried to learn as a child - didn't really work out then. I picked it up again in 1988-1989 - but after knitting up a couple of Christmas ornaments, I dropped it again. Picked it up again in 2006 after my stroke. I find the yarns available now really spur me on to try more and new things.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list? Yes, have Amazon for books/movies and a wish list on Tiger Direct for electronics.

5. What's your favorite scent? vanilla

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy? Totally - White Chocolate; Chocolate in almost any form

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin? Crochet, paper crafts (scropbooking, card-making), beaded ornaments, just about any glue & go craft - am tempted to learn to spin, but putting it off because I don't know I could afford to learn to spin with non-wool fibers.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD) I've got an MP3 that I've used like once... just don't download songs... love classic rock the most.

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand? Love blues, purples, deep greens, reds ... don't care for pink for myself, not much into orange/brown shades.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets? Divorced mother to two... plus a dog & cat

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos? Scarves & mittens yes - hats in the worst of winter only - ponchos never....

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit? Right now - it's baby sweaters (good thing got two babies to knit for)... wanting to make a sweater for "a" but have to finish his blanket first.

13. What are you knitting right now? WIP - "a"s blanket started two months ago (haven't worked on it for two weeks - on a sabatical); baby sweater for Sebastian (four weeks old) started Saturday and about 75% complete; a summer top for me started (sigh) two years ago - and not worked on for over four months - it's in a time out because I have to redo a couple of rows and am not in the mood.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts? Yes!

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic? I mostly use circular's (Addi's) and have a collection of straight needles when needed - mostly aluminum, but some plastic.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift? No - but I want one or the other

17. How old is your oldest UFO? My top - which was about 75% done at one time and ripped out back to the beginning. I'm about 60% done now - and still need to rip out a couple of rows.

18. What is your favorite holiday? What winter holiday do you observe? Christmas by far my favorite holiday - my mother made it truly magical and my goal is to do the same for my chidlren

19. Is there anything that you collect? besides yarn? I like to collect various things for Christmas - lit houses for a Christmas village, little santas that are about two -three inches tall, stuffed animated santas, 10" angels.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have? More yarn would be soooo cool - love, love, love having yarn around to inspire. Would love to get more patterns for knitting top-down one piece construction (though I have a book now that's supposed to have that covered, it's hard to follow)... and I don't subscribe to any knitting magazines - I'll buy one every once in a while, but most of my patterns come from the internet.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn? Tons - some of it is a matter of repeating things so that I don't have to always look them up (i.e., kitchener stitch, provisional cast on) - I can do them, but I have to look up how every time I do them. More cast ons, more cast offs, and would love to have some laceweight lace skills..... mostly the last I need to do better at learning how to count (lol).

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements? Yes, I have knitted socks... have done a couple of children's socks and one pair of adult socks.... but my adult socks were done in wool I was thinking about gifting them - but can't get the cast off done right - so will probably end up ripping them out and re-using the yarn for something else.

23. When is your birthday? 29June

24. Are you on Ravelry? If so, what's your ID? I'm pennyia on Ravelry.

Baby items - FO with pics

Finally some knitting to show.

These were gifted at the baby shower for my co-worker.

First was a crocheted blanket made pre-sex id'd... and I used this as my "tissue" in the gift bag to wrap the other gifts.

I used some orange & white acrylic (for easy wash & dry) boucle for the center section. Then a matching white boucle for the ends. If I were to do it again, I would probably have saved the orange for the ends.

Then for the baby sweater. I had bought the self-striping blue & white yarn with matching blue yarn for a project specifically for this baby. But could not decide on a pattern... or how I was going to do it. I was about to give up and simply do stripes of blue with the self-striping blue with the same hoodie sweater pattern I had made previously in pink/white/blue stripes. .... when I had a 'brainstorm' -- I was watching a knitting show on tv and decided I wanted to "frame" boxes of the colors within the other plain color -- and found a pattern to adapt ... and used that to adjust the hoodie sweater pattern. I liked it while I was doing it, although in the back of my mind I kept thinking that I would probably have preferred it if the "frame" was a contrasting color instead of a coordinating color - to make the color pop. If I had ONLY known how beautiful the self-striping was on its own... I would have simply used the self-striping yarn in a simple stitch for the whole sweater.

I'd already finished the sweater - before I started the booties. AND it was the booties where the heel and foot was made entirely with the self-striping yarn... and I almost wanted to undo the sweater and start it over. The yarn really pops on it's own, and the complicated stitch pattern I used for the sweater didn't really show it off to it's full potential.


But, after the booties, I still had almost a full skein of the self-striping yarn left, and a half-skein of the coordinating blue... so I had to make more... so, along came the hat... and then I had to think for a bit, and found an awesome pants pattern. I didn't like the self-striping quite as well in the pants. And it's a bit much with the sweater - almost like they shouldn't be worn together. If I had to do it over again, I would have NOT used the blue to try to do the complicated stitch pattern on the sweater - which would have saved me enough of the coordinating blue color to have done simple blue pants.

Live & learn - right?

I've been knitting away...

but not posting about it - sorry.

I'm 90% finished with a very special blanket I'm making for my son... and have about a half-dozen posts semi-prepared for posting about it... so that I can share my inspiration, my mistakes, and my patterns (the couple I made up from scratch)... so - you just have to wait a bit longer.

However, I have reached a point in the process where I have to make a final decision about something. The back of the blanket is not going to look pretty. There will be a very definite "right" side to it. I've put in probably over 20 extra hours being extra careful to weave in ends "just-so" and without making it too much of a mess.

AND? I'm thinking I want to put a back on the blanket. (which means I could have tied knots in the yarn & cut it off without all that extra work) sigh

BUT, honestly? Has anyone ever seen a blanket (knit or crochet) that was backed with fabric? I'm thinking a nice super-soft fleece on the back would make it 1) warmer 2) more cuddly and 3) more likely to get used longer.

I'm thinking I'd treat it a bit like a quilt and tie the front & back together with yarn... of course, I'd have to baste all the way around the edges... I would love some feedback - is it too weird? too impractical?

Project in the works

OK - so I'm still stalling on the sweater. And I've crocheted a baby blanket - pic to come... done while we still didn't know if it was going to be a boy/girl for a co-worker. (so it's orange).

I've got some blue yarn selected for a baby sweater -still digging through patterns for her (as yes, it's now known to be a boy).

So, I had to come up with something I could work on at work - as we sit together at lunch at least once a week to knit together. And I can't very well knit a gift for her in front of her and still surprise her!

AND... "a" decided he needed a blanket for himself. As he liked the baby blanket I had made. We talked and talked - and I wasn't able to convince him he wanted a green sweater (as I had already bought the yarn to make him a green sweater - sigh).

Nope - he wants a blue star wars blanket. And nothing else. sigh. But, I had something I wanted to. His eyes have been bothering him. I'm not really sure if it's itching or burning from possibly allergies (I have this, not impossible to believe he might as well)... or if actually it's related to the fact that he's having to deal with his vision issues more so than in the past now that he's really trying to learn his letters. I do know that they bother him more at night or morning - and that's kind of typical with his vision issues which do get worse when he's overly tired. So, I suspect the latter. About all he confesses is that "he can't see" and "my eyes hurt" and he closes his eyes. His "bad habit" is that he wants to lick his hand & wipe his eyes with his hands. NOT GOOD. So, my bargain is that he's to STOP doing this and he can wipe his eyes with a clean, wet washcloth or paper towel instead. It's a hard habit to break already, but I figure that it's going to take me months to knit up a blanket ... and if he sees me working on the blanket, I have a good reason to apply pressure to get him out of his bad habit.

So - stay tuned. I'm a knitting fiend and have several blocks completed already - will post pics shortly. In fact, I also have several graphics. I figure I'm going to write a series of posts as to how my idea evolved from my first plan - to finish product.

A few finished items to share

OK, I'm struggling with motivation on the sweater. I have a mistake that I've been trying to ignore for six rows, and every time I picked it up - the mistake would bug me. Keeping going hasn't helped. sigh. I have to undo back to the mistake and redo or it will drive me nuts. Normally, I'm not this much of a perfectionist, but since the more I do the more obvious the mistake becomes, and the more it's bugging me, I guess I better do the right thing or every time I wear it - the mistake will still bug me. But, it's just as slow (if not more so) to unkit each and every stitch as it was to knit it in the first place. If it wasn't the inexpensive yarn, I could probably just take the needles out and pull the yarn (very fast) to undo it. BUT, this yarn (guess I should call it cheap instead of inexpensive) doesn't take well to such harsh treatment. As such, I've set it aside for a while until I get "more motivated".

That said, I had two other projects that were virtually finished, but just needed a few minutes to call them done. They had sat for over six weeks for the one, and over three months for the other. The other night, I got a wild hair and finished them both in less than 30 minutes. Sigh... guess I had to be in the mood? All the first one needed was six buttons sewed on... and the other needed a couple pieces of velcro sewed on.

But at least they are done now.

Also finished (pics to come later) - a hat & scarf made with "won" yarn from a giveaway. These are going to be held onto until next fall and then given to a charity that provides these to the homeless. I've found a charity in Ohio -- but I may just try to find a local one instead. We'll see, got a few months before someone will want them.

First a baby sweater (unfortunately said baby is now a year old and it will not fit)


Next a doggy sweater (more feminine):

Finally a pic

As you can see from the pic, there are cables (lines) that do some shaping of the garmet... I'm about "boob-high" working from the waist to the shoulders... so some ways to go yet. I messed up a little about two rows back, didn't notice it right away, and just about skipped going back and fixing it, but it's bugging me and my perfectionism is showing. So, I'm re-working the last couple of rows to fix it. sigh