That's My Deer!

It's time for my annual birthday pattern! Wow, the older I get the faster the years zip by. When I was a kid, I wouldn't have believed it if someone said that, but it's really true. I wasn't sure what to do for this year's pattern. I had at least three rejects before I settled on this one. I like a pattern that makes me smile and is easily recognizable. This one does both for me and I hope it will for you too!

Look, the picture is right side up and in color! If you remember, my last post had black and white photos. I'd like to say that I figured out my new camera, but I haven't. I just went back to my old one. LOL!

When I showed this to my husband, he told me I watch too much "North Woods Law"! He may be right. In any event, both of these were knit with the original Peaches & Creme and I used U.S. size 5 needles. As I've said, you want a denser fabric to make the stitches pop. With different yarns, you need to adjust your needle size for optimum results.

Both patterns are free and are available in the sidebar, or you can click here for the bib and here

On another note, my son graciously renewed my website, so I promised him I'd TRY to post more often. I know you're used to seeing mainly bibs and cloths, but I thought I'd start sharing some pictures of the baby hats I knit for my local hospital. Since my blog is geared for babies, I thought you'd enjoy seeing them.

Thank you all for being my "presents". You loyal readers are the best gift anyone could have on their birthday!

Jelly!

Don't faint! I'm actually posting again! All I can say in my own defense is that I've had an awful year. I was sick for months this past winter and, after the death of my father, my mom has taken a slow and steady downward spiral in her own health. All of which combined to a lack of knitting enthusiasm on my part. In any event, things are looking up and I have a new summer pattern to try and get back in your good graces again!

This is Jelly another "water" themed cloth that has the same stitch and row count as my other designs. I hope it will be a welcome addition for those of you who like to knit sets!

Wait, that's black and white?! Well, I can't get a picture to upload that isn't sideways! My new phone is supposed to take exceptional pictures (the reason I picked it) and it just has a mind of its own. I'm so frustrated with it. I'll have to wait until my tech savvy son comes to visit and can show me how to fix/use it. In the meantime, this can just serve as an inspiration for you to use your own colors!

The links are in the sidebar or click here for the bib and here for the cloth.

Enjoy your summer!

It's Snowing Again!!

It was very quickly brought to my attention that there was an error on Row 12 of the Snow Buddy cloth and Row 16 of the Snow Buddy bib. I was about to send my testers to bed without any supper, however, I realized that we all had discovered that error before I posted the pattern. For some reason, when I uploaded it to the program I use, it took the "test" version and not the corrected one. This has happened to me before and I confess that I have no idea how it happened. I have it corrected now, so you can download it again. This is a perfect example of why I should just stick to knitting and not try to do technical stuff, like a blog!  I apologize profusely.

I also want to remind you that the original Snowbaby bib and cloth have been completely rewritten.  This pattern has been a thorn in my side ever since I created it.  It was riddled with mistakes and so I just rewrote it.  My friend, Tim, once told me that he didn't like to start a row with a purl stitch and since then, I've tried to accommodate him with every new design I create!  The corrected Snow Baby pattern now starts with a knit stitch! Tim, you're welcome! ;o)

Hopefully, I won't have any more posts like this one, however, I confess to being human.  Remember if you're having a problem with the written instructions, you can always double check a row against the chart.

I'm Snow Buddy!

Wow, I can't believe that it's time for my annual birthday post!  It's been quite a year dealing with my father's declining health and his subsequent death a few months ago.  He passed away just a week after his 92nd birthday. He always told everyone that he was "strong as an ox", despite his multiple medical issues. Every time we thought he might not make it through a medical crisis, he'd pull through and surprise us all. I think he finally reached the point where he just wanted eternal rest. He led a very full life that was filled with good deeds for so many people, especially children. He would take old bikes and fix them up and give them to kids who couldn't afford one. He'd stand out in the blazing sun and in the freezing cold, day after day, selling candy to raise money for many organizations. He was most proud of his work with finding funding for under privileged children who needed dental work. He helped countless children to get the dental work that they desperately needed. For all his work, he was recognized nationally as a "Doctor of Smiles". Always a proud member of the Masons, he was thrilled to be asked to become the first Caucasian male ever to be inducted into the Black Lodge of Massachusetts. It was an honor that he cherished. We were, and still are, so proud of him and miss him terribly. He left a pretty big hole in our family.

On a happier note, I hope you'll like my snowman. The idea just popped into my head one day and I thought it would be good to have him make his debut on my birthday!

Many thanks go to my talented test knitters, Denise and Tunie!  It's such a luxury for me to have both of them willing to help me out! Even though I try hard to catch any errors, I'm only human so I'm grateful for the extra "eyes".

Denise knit the blue bib pictured above.  I knit it in red, but it's so hard to photograph that color.  I should have known better and used a different one for the picture.

See what I mean?  It shows up so much better in the blue.

I love snowmen and this one is fairly quick to knit.

The links are in the sidebar to the right, or you can click here for the bib  and here for the cloth.

It sure would be great if this is the only snow we'll see all winter, but I hear that it's supposed to be brutal here in New England. I hope they're all wrong!!

Farm Blanket

I thought you'd all enjoy taking a look at this adorable blanket that a fellow knitter made!

Isn't it pretty?  Cindy gave me permission to share it with all of you. Check out the square with the barn. That's her own design and how appropriate. I love it! Here's a link to the blanket, with all its details, that she posted on Ravelry. Baby Farm Blanket  She used three skeins of Caron's Simply Soft Solids in a pretty green. (My favorite!!) I've never worked with that yarn before, but I love the way the designs look knitted up in it.

Well done Cindy and thank you for allowing me to share!

Who says I'm crabby?

I don't want to jinx anything, but I think that we might actually have a summer after all!  It's been so cold here in New England for so long, it didn't look like we'd even have a spring, but it seems to be changing.  In that spirit, I decided to add another water themed cloth that I named "I'm a Little Crabby!)

I knit it up using Hobby Lobby's I Love This Cotton! in aqua. I really enjoyed working with this yarn. It's so soft, although I did have to drop down a couple of needle sizes to get the design to pop. It would make a great facecloth or a blanket square.

The bib is knitted up in my old standby Peaches & Cream. It's a good choice for bibs and holds up to repeated washing. At least that's what I've been told. Unfortunately for me, all of my grandkids are well past the age for bibs!

The cloth uses the same stitch width and row height as my other "water" cloths. I wanted them to be the same size in case anyone wanted to use them together.

 

I might have missed one or two, but I think this covers it!

The pdf patterns are in the sidebar to the right. The bib is also here and the cloth is here.  As always, if you find any errors, I'd appreciate it if you'd let me know, although I have knit this crab several times! I did a second version as well with skinny legs, but decided I like the original better!  I hope you do too!

Sweet Blankets

Now here's a couple of really sweet blankets that I'd like to share with you, especially since it's Valentine's Day! A fellow knitter on Ravelry, Ellen, shared these with me and I thought you'd all enjoy seeing them too!  She knit them for charity and they're destined for a NICU.

 First, she used my bunny patterns (A Tail of Two Bunnies and Hippity Hop) and combined them with my Heartbeat pattern. She used Caron's Simply Soft Solids and used U.S. size 5 or 3.75mm needles.

Her second blanket used my "water" themed squares and she aptly named it "Water Babies".  I have to confess that I just love this one!

The blankets are naturally small, since they're intended for preemies.  Each blanket measures about 17" X 23".  Both blankets look a bit gray, but they're light blue and country blue.

Aren't they darling?  I'm so flattered that Ellen wanted to use my designs. If you're on Ravelry, be sure to tell her how much you like them too.  Ellen uses "melk" as her Ravelry name and I know she'd love to hear from you!  

Thank you Ellen for giving me permission to share your beautiful work!

Happy New Year!

I had intended to actually post this on New Year's, but life got in the way and so I'm only a couple of days late. I hope this isn't a sign of how this year is going to go!

You'll have to trust me when I tell you that this pattern looks nicer in person than the photographs suggest.  For some reason, my new camera doesn't like taking close up photos. I can't tell you how many pictures I snapped trying to get a true likeness. I was at the point that I debated whether or not to even post it! What I should have done, is begged my good friend, Denise, to do a test knit and then use her photos! She's an amazing knitter and always gets great pictures of her projects!  In any event, here's my latest design.  A happy little mutt!

 This cloth has the same number of stitches and height as the majority of my cloths. I try to keep them pretty consistent so they could be used together for blankets or whatever.  You can see what I mean about not getting a good picture.  So frustrating!

 The pdf for the bib and the cloth are in the sidebar, as usual, or you can click here for the bib and here for the cloth.

If  you knit this fella, I hope that you'll post a picture on Ravelry. I love seeing all of your projects!  Happy New Year!!

Unicorns!

Well, if it's October, it must be time for my annual birthday pattern! I know I haven't posted in quite awhile, so if anyone is still reading this blog, I apologize for the long absence. I've been super busy working on knitting hats for the babies at my local hospital.  I also "volunteered" to knit mittens for a Christmas fund raising event for our Historical Society. Actually, my husband asked me if I'd do "something" to help out, so I chose mittens. I'll post some pictures of them in another post, if you'd like to see some. I love knitting mittens.  Well, I did, but after 26 pair, I'm a little burned out.  In any event, back to my birthday post. I was struggling with what to make, when a Ravelry friend asked me if I had a unicorn. I don't do special requests, as it would be impossible to please everyone.  As I've said many times before, I just do these for fun and I'm happy to share. I never intended this to be a job and I'm not an artist by any stretch of the imagination! The idea of a unicorn appealed to me though and I gave it a whirl.

I think my granddaughter would like this one.  She's way too old for bibs, but she likes to take the washcloths and use them as blankets for her stuffed animals!

I'd post a picture of the bib, but for some reason, every time I try, it comes up sideways!

The links to the patterns are in the sidebar, or you can click here for the bib, or here for the cloth. Note that they are listed as "Baby Unicorn" in the "updated" files.

Many thanks to LouLou for test knitting the pattern.  Such a luxury for me!  I hope you all enjoy my birthday present to you.

I'm back!

Just when you thought you'd never hear from me again, here I am with a new pattern! This has been sitting next to me for awhile, but with summer fast approaching, it was time to get it done! I was so fortunate that my old friend and amazing knitter, Denise, offered to test knit for me. She even let me use her picture, since it came out so nice. For some reason, my new camera doesn't take particularly good close up shots.

A baby octopus to add to my "water" collection! Now, for those of you who feel the need to point out that this baby only has six legs, let me assure you that he does, in fact, have eight. The other two are merely behind him lending him support and stability!

The pdf files are available in the right hand sidebar under "Updated Bibs" and "Updated Cloths". Or you can click here for the bib and here for the cloth.

Hope you enjoy it and have a safe and happy summer!

One Fat Cat

Today is my birthday and so, in keeping with tradition, I'm happy to present a new pattern as a gift to all my readers! I was working on this design when my granddaughter spotted it. She has a little stuffed kitten, named "Purple Kitty" which she takes with her everywhere. She was very excited and wanted me to name the cloth after her kitten. I was all set to do just that, but every time I looked at it, all I could think was "that is one fat cat"! I'm sorry to disappoint Ruthie, but that's what I decided to go with for a name. This guy really is one fat, but happy cat! Doesn't he look like he just ate a bowl of cream?

This is the first time that I've used Hobby Lobby's yarn "I Love This Cotton!" There are tons of bibs on Ravelry that have been knitted with this yarn and I wanted to try it myself. It is much softer than the Peaches & Creme I usually use, however, I don't think it would be as absorbent for a bib. The P&C makes a much firmer fabric. It would be really nice for a face cloth though. Of course, this is just my opinion. Unfortunately for me, I don't have any babies around to conduct an experiment!

I'm having difficulty uploading a picture of the cloth. For some reason, it keeps turning upside down! You can see that I do have a cloth though and the pdf files are in the sidebar. Hopefully, when I post the cloth on Ravelry, it will be right side up!

I hope you'll enjoy the pattern.  Many thanks to my great knitting buddy and friend, Tunie, who helped me test knit. Her "purple kitty" is actually green! Watch for it to show up in her projects page.

Hope everyone is enjoying their Fall.  The leaves here in my corner of New England are just gorgeous.  A lovely month to celebrate a birthday!

Where do all these babies come from?

Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted. I've been knitting up a storm all summer long and I never find the time to post. As I've told you, I knit the baby hats for my local hospital and, at first, it was just a relaxing little adventure.  It's a very small hospital and if they had ten babies a month, they were busy. Well, it seems like they have a new female ob-gyn doctor who's attracting new moms like crazy.  Over the summer, I've had to knit more than eighty hats! That's right, eighty! Just since the middle of August, I've knit forty two and they need another twenty for October! I'm a little burnt out on baby hats and I'm ready to move on, but I did make the commitment, so I'll keep it up.  In the meantime, I thought maybe you'd like to see a few that I've done!

One of my favorite hats for the boys, is this cute car hat.

Just to be different, I did this other version:

Looks a little more like a Fall or Winter hat, don't you think? I try to keep the hats seasonal, so of course, I had to knit the famous Pumpkin Hat:

This is her ribbed version and apparently, is one of the favorites with the nurses! The fathers, however, all go right for the football hats. I posted the directions for these on my blog a couple of years ago  The link to the directions is here.

I did knit a couple of "girly" hats as well.  This is my latest:

It's just a my basic beanie pattern with a seed stitch band, but check out that flower!  I've been working on my crochet skills and took a class on Craftsy.  It still takes me awhile to make a flower, but I'm starting to get a bit faster! 

I also couldn't resist including a couple of super hero hats:

I knit a beanie and then duplicate stitched the logo. I found free charts that worked great.  Superman is here and the Batman logo is here. The only change I made to the Batman chart was to add an extra stitch on each side of the first and last row. It just made it a bit more symmetrical.

Finally, I thought I'd make a Halloween hat, just in case they have a baby born that day:

I striped it to look like candy corn and I crocheted the little cat!  I found the pattern for the cat on YouTube here. I had to make it with finer yarn (Cotton Classic Lite) and a smaller hook in order to reduce it to a usable size, but I think it came out okay!  

Now, look for a new dishcloth and bib pattern from me this Sunday. It's my annual birthday pattern! My granddaughter inspired it and I hope you'll like it! 

Tunie Fish

Are you sitting down? I don't want the shock of seeing a new post from me to be too overwhelming! It's been a long time and I was beginning to think I should just pack it in and put everyone out of their misery, but obviously, I decided to go another year! It's a little more difficult for me now that both my husband and I are retired and are on a fixed income. I have to justify the expense of hosting the website without any income! I won't sell the patterns though, so I'll have to come up with something else. In the meantime, I'll try to be a little more active.

I was trying to think of another design to fit in with the other nautical cloths I've done in the past and I thought maybe I'd do a fish, but what kind of fish? A Tunie fish of course, named after my very best knitting buddy and friend, Tunie!  She lives in Australia and has a wonderful sense of humor so she thought it was pretty funny herself. You should read the story of how she got her name "Tunie" on her profile page on Ravelry where she goes by peacockmom. It's hilarious.

If you look close, you'll see that the side fin is actually a heart.  A special nod to my wonderful friend.

Lately, there have been a rash of blankets knitted with these "wavy" cloths. I'm still waiting to see pictures of some, but I'm just so flattered that you like them well enough to make blankets out of them!

The pdf for the bib is here and cloth is here or you can grab them from the sidebar.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer.  Here in my little corner of New England, it's been hot and humid with no rain.  I'm so ready for a day or two at the beach! Maybe even a month. . .

Andy the Panda

When my younger sister and I were growing up, we each had a collection of stuffed animals. Mine consisted of two dogs, but my sister had a whole menagerie. Among them, was her beloved panda named "Andy".  This design reminds me of him.

I used the original Peaches & Creme cotton in Dark Grape for the cloth and Light Grape for the bib, even though it looks more gray than purple in the picture!

It's a quick and easy knit. The pdf files are in the sidebar or you can click here for the cloth and here for the bib.

Many thanks to my good buddy, Tunie, for helping me out with the testing.  Everyone should have someone like her in their life!

Quickie Hearts

I thought I would do a quick little post, so you can see that I'm still alive.  I have been off to a rocky start this year.  One of my doctors thought I might have cancer, but my other one, disagreed.  I've been through a whole round of testing and it looks like my second doctor was right.  Everything (so far) is negative, so yay for me!  I still have some more tests to do, but I'm in a happier frame of mind, as you can imagine!

I do have lots of fun stuff to share, but I thought I'd just start with these cute little kitchen scrubbies.  I knit them for little stocking stuffer gifts for all the women in my family.

The yarn is Red Heart's Scrubby in Cherry. I used this cute free pattern from Simply Notable. It's all done in garter stitch and is a quick and easy knit on U.S. Size 8 needles.

I thought the yarn would be difficult to knit with, but it wasn't bad. It is a little rough, but then that's its purpose.  It's 100% polyester. Also, there's no stitch definition with it, so a garter stitch project is perfect.

The best part is that they actually seem to work!  Always a plus.

Have a happy Valentine's Day. I hope you get to hug whoever is sweetest in your life.

Foxy Baby

Life is slowly settling down around here. My husband's surgery went smoothly and now he's in the long recovery phase.  This past Sunday, I said goodbye to all my precious grandkids as they headed off to their new home in North Carolina.  It was so difficult to watch them drive away as they had all been staying with me for the past three weeks. We shared lots of laughs and even though it was crazy at times, I loved every minute. I'm sure they'll enjoy their new state, even though it breaks my heart to have them all so far away.

With the quiet, I now have time to catch up on things that have been on the back burner. I designed this pattern several months ago and am just now getting around to posting it.  It's funny how things, work out, but no sooner did I finish charting it up, than I received a request for it! One of my friends on Ravelry, xstitch or Vicki, was looking for a fox bib for her sweet grandson. She even offered to test knit it for me! She's just an amazing knitter.  I often tell her that when I grow up, I want to be just like her! I feel so honored that she wanted to help me!

I went through three different drafts for this one.  The first one looked too much like a cat to suit me and the second one looked like Wil E. Coyote!  You know, foxes are pretty tricky to do!  In any event, Vicki and I settled on this one, and I hope that you'll like it too.

The patterns are both in the sidebar, or you can just click here for the bib and here for the cloth.

I saved the best picture for last!  Here's a picture of Vicki's adorable grandson modeling his new bib!

I love it!  A huge thank you to Vicki (and to her daughter) for allowing me to share this picture with you.  If you'd enjoy seeing more of Vicki's knitting, here's a link to her Ravelry project page:  xstitch She has the most gorgeous shawls and she's even had a pattern named after her!  Xstitch A pretty (and free) cowl pattern with, what else?, cross stitches!

Pumpkin Jack

Did you notice that as you grow older, the time goes by much more quickly?  Here it is my birthday again and I'm amazed (but not delighted) at how fast time has flown by.  As long time readers of my blog will know, I always try to post a new pattern on my birthday as my gift to all of you!

I'm calling this one "Pumpkin Jack".  My oldest grandson, Jack, has this same little smirk when he's happy.  I usually try to stick to animals, but I couldn't resist doing a seasonal pattern.

I knit both of them in the original Peaches & Creme in Sunburst and Gold. Both of the patterns are in the sidebar or you can click here for the pdf of the bib and here for the cloth.

So far, my birthday is shaping up to be just great. My husband fell down our attic stairs and tore his quad tendon (the main one that attaches to the knee) and is scheduled for surgery this Tuesday. You might remember that he had the same injury three years ago to the other knee.  That time, his recovery went from September to April. I guess that means we'll be looking at May before he's back to normal. If that wasn't bad enough, my 90 year old mother was taken to the hospital via ambulance with chest pains the other day; and then, all of my grandkids are moving to North Carolina next month. This is breaking my heart as they'll be so far away. As it is, I can jump in my car and see them in an hour, but now, if I jump, it will be a two day car ride!  Not so convenient. Sigh. Oh well, life goes on and I'm sure we'll all get through it, although I may end up in a corner talking to myself and clutching my knitting needles!

I sincerely hope that you're all enjoying your Fall. The leaves are changing here in New England and it's just beautiful everywhere you go.  I also hope that you like my pumpkins. One good thing about them, they don't need carving!!