Olearia

Before I share the saga of my latest project with you, I just want to address the comment that was left for me a few days ago.  It was brought to my attention by Kerry that, apparently, one of you (maybe more for all I know), has been selling my patterns.  I can't believe that someone would take advantage of me in that way, but then again, there are a lot of low lives out there.  I especially feel sorry for anyone who was gullible enough to purchase one.  All I will say is that it's a round world and what goes around comes around.  I'm sure you'll be punished in good time.

On a happier note, my neighbors across the street have a new baby girl!  The mom went to school with my oldest son and so I've know her for a good many years.  She didn't want to know the sex of the baby ahead of time, so I wasn't able to get started early on a project.  She was born a week before Christmas and even if I wanted to drop everything and knit for her, I just didn't have time.  I started by choosing this gorgeous yarn by Holiday Yarns. I already had a skein of sock yarn in the colorway "Rose Garden", so I thought it would be neat to make a sweater out of some DK weight.  Once I decided on the yarn, I had to choose a pattern.  I found this sweet sweater on Ravelry called "Olearia".  (Olearia is a native Australian flower.)  It was just the weight I needed and I loved the design.  I started it, but after getting about half way with it, I started having second thoughts.  It looked really huge to me.

So, I reluctantly decided to choose another pattern and start over.  Instead of ripping this one out though, I just used the second ball of yarn that I had.  The second attempt was this easy Seamless Yoked Sweater a free pattern on Ravelry.

It was okay, but when I reached the same point as the first sweater, I realized that they were exactly the same size!  I really loved the Olearia, but I thought the ruching was too long.  I decided to go back to the first sweater and rip back the last pattern repeat.  It looked a little more dainty to me.

I really love the way this came out after a rocky start.  The yarn is so soft and after it's washed, it's even nicer.  I wish it wasn't quite so pink, but it's perfect for a little sweetheart.

I couldn't find a hat that I liked, so I made up one!  It's pretty simple.  I cast on 144 stitches and purled one row, knit one row, purled one row, then knit for about four rows.  The next row I knit 2 tog. to get down to 72 stitches.

I then just repeated the purl-knit-purl sequence until I had three ridges and worked one repeat of the pattern.  When the hat was about 3 1/2", I started the decreases.  k6, k2tog, around.  knit one row. k5, k2tog. around. knit one row, etc. until I had a few stitches left to knit a two inch I-cord and then tied it in a knot.  If she's like most babies, she won't keep it on her head anyway.  I like a little brim on a hat and this is just what I had in mind.

I finished up the set with some matching socks.

This is the same colorway, as I said before, only it's in the FlockSock.  This was a little more trial and error.  When I followed the ruching instructions, it was way too puffy, so instead of increasing in every stitch, I just knit one stitch and then increased in the next.

All in all, it's a pretty set.  I don't usually buy baby patterns as I have so many books and leaflets as it is, but this one was just so darn cute.  There are tons of sizes and lots of variations.  Short sleeves, cap sleeves, etc.  It's really well written and there are lots of pictures.  I will say that the ruching is a bit tedious, but the effect is well worth the effort.  I'm sure I'll be making another one of these in some form for my Ruthie.  She's even cuter than the sweater!

Angry Mitts

My grandsons are just crazy about those Angry Birds.  They needed new mittens and the idea of these came to me as I was falling asleep one night!  I've been known to dream about some solution to a knitting dilemma more than once! (My husband even claims that I knit in my sleep!  This is partly true, but what he doesn't see is me ripping out everything that I knit while I was sleeping!)

These are really simple to make.  Use your favorite mitten pattern for worsted weight yarn.  I have an old pattern that was passed down to me by my grandmother, but this free pattern: Classic Mittens is almost identical to mine.

 

Jack seems to prefer the red bird and this was also the easiest to make.

Marty, our four year old,  loves the white bird.  He has one that he carries with him everywhere!  He named it "Whitey".  Pretty, original, eh?  Whitey has his own birthday, his favorite colors, his likes and dislikes. It's like another member of the family.

Mickey likes the blue bird. This one seems to be the least angry of the birds from what I can determine!

 

I surprised the boys with them yesterday and they were a huge hit!  I was half expecting a lecture from Marty about his white mitts as he's an absolute stickler for details, but even he loved them!

If you'd like to make a pair for your own bird lover, I've put the "recipe" in the sidebar under "Miscellaneous" patterns or you can just click here for the pdf file.  You knit your favorite mitten as you normally would until you reach about 1 1/2" from the top.  You break your main color of yarn and join the beak color, knit a couple of rows and decrease as you would for the top of a sock.  The embroidery is done before you close the mittens.  It's really basic.  Just remember that you want a left and a right mitten so be careful which side you're embroidering on!

Now, go slap a pig!

A Tale of Two Kitties. .or Three

There's a tradition in our family that started back in 1971 with the birth of my niece.  I knit her a Christmas stocking from an old Mary Maxim pattern.  Subsequently, with the addition of each new child to our family, I knit them a stocking as well. (For the record, that totals 21 stockings each with a different design.)  This was Ruthie's first Christmas and so, of course, she had to have a stocking as well.  Sometimes we wait a year to see if there's a special interest, however, it turns out that Ruthie loves kittens!  I do too, but I have a hard time designing them for some reason.  Nevertheless, I came up with this really cute kitten.  At least on paper it was cute.  Something was lost in translating it from the drawing to the graph paper.  I knew it wasn't right, but I kept thinking that it would work out once I knitted it and did a little embroidery here and there.  Wrong.  It was dreadful and here's the proof:

It looks like a wombat. Seriously. What's worse, I ripped it out, reduced the design a bit and reknit it.  It was worse the second time as evidenced by the above picture.  By now, it was almost Christmas and time was ticking down. I can't tell you how much it was bothering me that Ruthie would have such an awful stocking.  Some of you will say "it's not that bad", but it was.  It was bothering me so much that I decided to start all over again with a completely new design.  This time, it actually looked like a cat!  I knew I was on the right track when the gals at physical therapy checked it out and said "oh, it's a kitty!".

Much cuter, don't you think?  I also think it looks a little more "Christmasy".  I managed to finish it on December 23rd.  Just in the "nick" of time!

On another note, before I started with the stockings, I had decided to knit Ruthie her very own cat.  Something she could cuddle and drag around.  I found this really cute pattern on Ravelry called C is for Cat .

The pattern is very well written and has lots of pictures and detailed instructions so it's a snap to make.  I had a lot of fun making it.  I used Lion Brand's Organic Cotton in French Vanilla and Natural. It is so soft and surprisingly easy to knit with.  We all know how tough cotton can sometimes be!

I like the way that the yarn stripes, although it was interesting that one leg had actual stripes and the other had these diagonal blocks.  I tried several times to get them to somewhat match, but for some reason, it just wouldn't work.  In the end, I decided that it just gave the cat some personality.

Ruthie seemed to really like it and immediately started dragging it by it's ear!  That was the whole point, wasn't it!

This tree that the cat is hanging out in was the only tree we had this year!  With a bed in my living room, there was no place to put our usual tree.  Our great neighbors delivered this one to us and we decided that was all we needed!  Of course, it was kind of hard to slip presents under!

Happy New Year!

Wow, by now I'm surprised that any of you are even reading this.  It's been a long time since my last post.  It seems that we've had so much family drama around here lately.  My husband is still recovering nicely from his accident, although not fast enough for him.  I still have to deal with everything around the house, which now includes shoveling snow!  Ugh!  At least he can get himself dressed now (except for one sock), which is a big help!  My dad had major surgery right before Christmas and he's still not home yet.  My brother-in-law fell and broke his hip and had to have it replaced the same day as my dad's surgery!  He's also in rehab but is doing well.  Of course, I also had Christmas to deal with and all that goes along with shopping, wrapping, etc.  Oh, and do you remember that I also have a "regular" job?  Do you feel sorry for me yet?  Well, don't because I'm doing just fine, although my knitting time has been severely limited. 

In any event, to make up for my absence and to hopefully, start this new year off on the right foot, here's a new pattern for you.  I had a young gal contact me on Ravelry and ask for a squirrel.  Well, she didn't exactly ask for it, but she told me how much she was hoping I'd do one.  She's only 13 and is quite the knitter.  I was trying to come up with something new and decided to give it a whirl!  So Charlotte, if you're reading this, here's your squirrel:

My good pal, Tunie, in Australia, test knitted the pattern so I think it should be fine.  I've included a chart with it as well.  The links to the patterns are in the sidebar under the updated patterns.

 

I have to admit that squirrels are not one my favorite creatures.  Those pesky varmints raid my bird feeders to distraction.  They even go into my garage to try and get at the bird seed that I have stored there.  This past summer, I had no less than ten of them in the backyard.  I decided to stop filling the feeders for awhile and let them move on to some other yard!  I miss the birds though, so I'm sure I'll go back to the feeders before too long.

 I have a couple of neat projects to share with you, but for now, I'll just say that I hope everyone has a wonderful new year and I thank you for all your support!

Eye Candy

Since I'm a little lean on knitting projects to share, I thought you might enjoy just seeing some pictures of yarn!  Some of them were birthday presents and some were just impulses.  With my husband still laid up and unable to do any shopping, it was great fun just getting whatever I wanted.  My friend, Kathy, who lives in Iowa and is affectionately known as just "Iowa Kathy" in my house, hooked me up with this wonderful dyer on Etsy. Not only does Jennifer dye beautiful yarn, but she's a lovely person as well.  I could (and have) spent lots and lots of time just admiring all her different colorways.  I don't know whether to thank Kathy or curse her!

I love this green, even if she did name it after a new lizard they acquired.  It's called "Anole".  I have a special project in mind for this so I can't talk about it yet.

Of course, my favorite shade of green is this one called "Lime Rickey":





I got this one with my grandson, Mickey, in mind since he loves blue. He told me the other day that he really NEEDS socks. He's the one that decided he only wanted to wear "grandma socks" when he was about three. Back then, his feet were small. Now they're huge and he's only seven.

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  I hope that's the case, since I totally bought this yarn because of Kathy.  She made herself some socks out of this colorway and I just loved them.  You can check them out on her blog here and here.  She's so talented!  The yarn is called "Jack O'Lantern" and you can see why!:

Finally, I found this great yarn for my youngest grandson, Marty.  Believe it or not, white is his favorite color.  His stuffed animal that goes with him everywhere has two favorite colors:  orange and yellow.  When I saw this yarn, also on Etsy, I knew I'd have to get it for him:

It's called "Jimmy Cracked Corn".  There's enough yarn to make him socks and fingerless gloves.  This dyer is here.  I don't want his head to be cold, so I also picked up this worsted weight yarn:

Can you see the name of this?  It's "Candy Corn".  How appropriate.  This yarn is by Gnome Acres and you can check her out here.
Now, I do have one project to share.  My boss has a new dog he rescued from a shelter.  He and his wife never owned a dog in either of their lives, but since their only son left for law school, they were lonely.  Max has taken over and is being thoroughly spoiled.  I thought he could use a sweater for his first winter:

It's an old pattern from a Woman's Day leaflet published in 1969.  I made sure the seams were sewn in nice and tight and wouldn't you know, it was too small!!  I ended up having to rip out the under panel.  I also decided to unravel all four inches of ribbing and add another couple of inches to the length.  Then I made the under panel twice as wide and lengthened the leg openings.  I don't know what kind of dog the designer thought was "medium", but it obviously wasn't Max!  The yarn is Cascade Superwash 220.

Max didn't like putting it on (or taking it off).  We had our first snow of the season the other day, so I'm hoping that when more of this cold weather sticks around, he'll change his mind!

Tail A Wagging!

Here, as promised, is my birthday present to you!  Every year now for the past four years, I've posted a new pattern on my birthday.  I love getting presents, but I love giving them even more!

This fellow might look a little familiar to some of you.  He's a version of the pattern that I did for one of the past dishcloth calendars.  I tweaked him and he's facing the opposite way.  He also doesn't have the heart border.

I get requests all the time for the old version of this pattern and the two other dog and cat patterns that I did.  All three of the designs were exclusive to the calendar.  The rights to them have been returned to me and I can choose to do whatever I want with them.  It would be easy just to post them, but I really don't think that's fair to those of you who purchased the calendar just for my patterns.  (And I know a lot of you did, because you told me so!)  On the other hand, you might have noticed that I'm not in the habit of selling any of my patterns!  What to do? I think I've come up with a fair solution.  I've decided to post the old designs in a "new" format.  They won't have the heart borders and I may change them slightly.  If you want them with the hearts, then you'll have to buy a back issue of the calendar.  Otherwise, you'll just have to settle for the basic design, which I hope you'll still think is cute!

This pup is 37 stitches wide so it will fit in with most of the other patterns for those who'd like to mix and match.  The pattern also includes a chart as well as the written directions.  The pdf files are in the sidebar, or you can get the bib by clicking here  and the cloth by clicking here.

Now, I get to go and open up my birthday presents!  Of course, with my husband laid up and unable to do much of anything on his own, I "had" to do my own birthday shopping!  There's no wrapping paper involved, but I do get to open the shipping boxes!  There are a couple of new knitting books and some of my favorite stitch markers  (I can never have enough of them!).  There's a possibility that there might even be a new skein of yarn. . .or two.

Blankets

Maureen sent me this picture of the beautiful blanket that she knit for her niece's new little baby, Henry.

It's it just gorgeous and didn't she do a wonderful job knitting it?  That is one very lucky (and warm) baby.  Maureen tells me that she used Berroco Soft Vintage in yellow.  She knit the hen by looking at the picture of the one I did for my Ruthie.  It reminds me that I still haven't posted those patterns yet!  They need to be tested and I have a slight recollection that someone offered to help me, but I haven't had time to go back through my messages to see who it was!  Maybe it was Maureen!!

I also want to direct your attention to this blanket pattern that was posted here on Ravelry.  It's a free pattern download.  She has used 27 stitches for each design block.  This would work nicely with many of my patterns as I use 37 stitches.  If you eliminate the borders, you have 27 stitches.

Finally, here is one more link of yet another blanket here.  Mandy put her blanket together by crocheting the squares.  (I think you may have to be signed onto Ravelry to see it.  If you aren't a member, you should be!!)

This has been so much fun for me to see all these wonderful blankets.  I love the distraction.  To update you, my husband came through his surgery just fine and is already off the pain meds.  Of course, he has to keep his leg in the cast for six weeks, so we'll see how he does once he starts physical therapy.  We may have to break out the pain pills once again!  For now, we're taking it one day at a time.  He can't really move without my help which means no work for either of us!  ("Work" as in gainful employment!)  Fortunately, we both have nice bosses so it isn't an issue. . .yet!  Thank you for all your nice notes and wishes of encouragement.  They mean a lot to both of us!