It's Been a Busy Day

Mostly it was busy because we were ripping up carpet so we can put down wood floors, but that story is for another day.

First, it's the day before Easter and it was snowing this morning in TX. It's kind of hard to tell, but it's there.

Those white streaks are flakes.

Next, I felted the boys clogs (finally because it got cold again and we have exposed concrete in the living room and hall.) I really like how the colors turned out. We were so busy I didn't do a lot of checking and D's (the green pair) for whatever reason felted more than J's. The same yarn, the same size, the same wash cycle. Just different colors.

It wasn't until I pulled them out of the wash that I realized I dropped stitch on the cuff of the blue clogs. So there is an interesting vented design element on the right blue clog. I'm not sure what I will do to fix it or even if I will worry about it.

Here's Baby Girl in the cat's bed. I think they've decided she can have it.

I got a bargin on these beads at a Hancock Fabric store that's going out of business. There are three different selections here. On the left is what I would call silver lined root beer. On the right is a silver lined medium topaz. The middle box is a mix of the root beer, black and light topaz.

I have two tubes of beads that sort of go. Most of them are matte, pearle or iridiscent. I have seven boxes of the boxed beads and only two tubes of the others. But I can always add to the matte collection when Hobby Lobby has a sale. This is all to go on my linen beaded scarf. I'm very excited.

This is Only a Test

Apparently Jan Craig has been knitting golfclub covers since the 60's. And I guess they are still popular with all the major golfers. I decided to give the headcovers a try. The SOWs pointed out that they are basically just socks with no heels. That should be easy enough.

There are several patterns available, but alot of them don't have pictures. So I decided to make a sock without a heel and see what I could come up with on my own. I did this in two evenings. A total of about 4 hours knitting, which I didn't think was too bad. This is not however the full size, this was only a test. The leg of the sock has to be much longer.

This is a prototype. I was testing several different things. First, I tested it "toe up", The goal - to ensure I have enough yarn or even better to make sure I use up all the yarn so I don't end up with stash. Learning - my increases look a little too much like the real toe of a sock. Not exactly the look I'm going for. I need to flatten that out.

I also tested out the size of the stripes and the spacing between the stripes. I like the 3 row stripe. And I like two rows between stripes rather than three. There are three rows between the top and the middle and 2 rows between the middle and the bottom.

I was also playing with options for the ribbing. There's a 2x2 rib. Those never really seem to work for me. They don't pull in like I think they should. I'll probably do what I do on my socks, a 4x2 rib. The other rib was a spiraling 4x2. What's interesting about that is the purls pop out instead of pulling in. I like the pattern, but it doesn't pull in the way I want it to.

A friend of a friend has a Jan Craig cover so the friend is going to bring one so I can see it. I think the genius of her covers is the pom pon. Why grown men want head covers with pom pons in beyond me, but that's what struck the person that brought them up to me. I'm interested to see what weight of yarn she uses. I used worsted weight and as I said it knit up pretty fast. However, most of the patterns I've seen call for sport weight yarn. So I'm curious. I tested worsted weight because I plenty of stash in the weight.

The other interesting thing is the headcovers are wool. Don't they know that (1) you can't machine wash those and (2) when they get wet they smell like wet dog. That's going to make your car smell good when you get caught in a rain shower or in the sprinkler on the golf course. But I would much rather knit in wool than acrylic anyway, so I'm happy.

One Sock, Two Sock, Pink Sock, Blue Sock

I finished another sock, but it's a blue one. The one from Sock Madness - yes, just one. So I have two socks but they don't make a pair. Not even close. The good news is I have two socks finished and with just a little more knitting I can have two pairs of socks.

The fit on this sock is OK. It could be a tad snugger in the foot. I may drop down two more stitches in the next one.

As soon as I finished this sock last night I picked up sock #2 of the pink pair. Just a few more rows of the gusset decrease and then it's a race to the finish on the foot. I made good progress and hope to be done at the end of the week.

If the second sock for Sock Madness works with my stash, then I may start one of those. If it's the sport weight pair, I'll work on sock #2 of the blue pair and wait for sock madness pattern #3. I don't really have second sock syndrome. In fact, the more sock #1s I have, the more likely I am to do a sock #2.

Something I did notice. When I picked up the Koigu sock after working with the blue sock (Regia, I'm pretty sure) the Koigu was like knitting with butter. It was so soft compared to the Regia. I hadn't given it much thought before, but it was very noticeable last night.

The Bead Market

I do not need another hobby, but if I did, beading would be on the list. I went to the Bead Market today looking for rocaille beads for my linen scarf. There wasn't a huge selection of rocailles, but I found these and they are perfect.

On the other hand, there were tons of other awesome beads. It was a bit overwhelming, but I had a good time.

The linen scarf is on hold at least until I get my two pairs of in progress socks done. Then I may start it or I may go on with my Cherry Tree Hill socks and then start on the lace projects in my stash.

New Clothes

Will you just look at how well two of the shirts my Mom bought me for my birthday match my one finished KPPPM sock. Now if I can just get the other one finished, I can actually wear the socks with the shirts. I'm on the heel gusset of the second sock, but Sock Madness has gotten in the way.

I met for 5 hours yesterday with three other sisters in the wool (and 2 in spirit) and we knitted away on our Mad Cow socks. Don't ask, we didn't name it, but I like the pattern.

My yarn selection is working out OK, but it might have been better with a little more contrast between the two. I will consider doing the pattern again if the fit comes out OK. If not, I may adapt it and do a rib. I've finished another repeat since this picture. That's another 10 rows. I really need to start thinking about the heel. I did venture out this round and decided to do the sock toe up (as you can see) I've never done that before, but Susan showed me how. And no matterh which direction you went, toe up or top down, you have to do a short row heel and I've never done that before. They say it's challenging. Great.

Now as for finishing in the first 16 in my group. I'm not sure I even want to. My fingers hurt now from all the knitting. They aren't so much muscle sore, but sore from pushing the sharp needles around. I have set my mind to finishing these two socks as quickly as I can, but if I don't move to the next round, I don't think I'll cry. In 5 hours yesterday I barely got past the first repeat after the toe. There are people that have finished two socks already and I'm not even to the heel. But that's OK. It has been fun. And it ain't over til it's over.

One KPPPM Sock Done

That's double good news. I have one and a half socks done and a pair of needles freed up for Sock Madness. Now, if I can just find the yarn for Sock Madness, I'll be in good shape for Saturday.

Here's a lovely shot of the toe. This is a Jeri toe. I can do it, but can't explain it as well as Jeri can I'm sure. It involved finding the spot where I wanted the decrease and one round SSKand then the next round K2T. The next round you SSK using the K2T stitch as the K in the SSK. And the next round incorporating the SSK into the K2T. Not difficult at all and I forgot my stitch markers and survived just fine without them all the while on a plane. It makes a nice snug toe.

This shot shows the colorway a little better and it's just funny because of Baby Girl. She got curious about the beeping camera and jumped down to take a look. She is so crazy.

My plan for tomorrow is to track down my yarn for Sock Madness and, if time allows, pick up the gusset stitches on KPPPM sock #2. I really don't want it to get left behind. Knowing I'm not that fast a knitter, I know I won't finish before Sock Madness kicks in, but I want to keep moving and it is good to stay in the sock mood.

And oh yeah, this is stash busted.

It's Madness - Sock Madness

The emails are flying amongst the SOWs (we're international now with Jo in Ireland). There is much discussion about how to post to flickr. I figure, if I get that far, it will be a miracle.

Here's what the SockMadness website had to say about the yarn needs for the first pair of socks.

"As promised, here is a little advance info on the materials required for the first pattern. It requires one skein of variegated yarn and one skein of solid and US #1 needles. The weight is fingering and Felicia did the test knit with Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock (of course)."

I have a goal of destashing, so I wanted to find something within my stash that would work. Luckily I have a photo record of my stash right here on my blog. So I searched my photo album and found this. That's an almost solid blue and a varigated brown and blue that I actually bought to go together. I was going to do some mixing of my own at one point, but this is perfect for this first pair of socks for Sock Madness. I'm starting to feeling lucky.

In other news, I'm about to wrap up one of my KPPPM socks to free up the needles. I'm traveling tomorrow and really hoping I can get finished no later than Friday. If I would just sit and knit for an hour or two it could be done. Except maybe for the kitchner and I'm not above making that wait. Pictures to follow.

Overdue Update

Has it been almost a month since I updated my blog? I can't believe it. I have been traveling a lot. And getting some knitting done too.

First, Josh and Daniel's clogs are done except for the felting. I don't want to felt if they aren't here to try them on. So we'll do that the next time they are here. Now DH is hinting he might like a pair. Tough luck hon, I'm out of the clog business for a while.

We finally had Christmas with my family in OK. My sister loved her crazy clogs.

They were huge when she got them. I think she might have been worried. And, although I didn't notice it before, I can see in the picture, that the one on left is bigger then the one on the right. Fortunately, when she re-felted them, they fit fine and were the same size. She loves them.

I'm cruising right along on my Koigu socks. After some discussion with the SOWs, I decided to just do a 4 x 2 rib with this yarn. Others had attempted a pattern of some sort and it only got lost in all the varigation.

I'm not a huge fan of striping yarn and you can kind of see it in this picture, but this yarn is spiraling. It alternates between the pink and the blue. Which to me is striping. Love the yarn, love the colors, am living with the striping.

I've turned the heels and with Susan's help picked up the gusset on one of the socks. Now I need to get these finished because I need the needles for Sock Madness http://sockmadness.wordpress.com/. I join my SOWs in asking, "What did I get myself into?" This is a speed knitting contest. One need only look back to my last entry to see that I've been working on these socks for - oh - about a month.

I'm in Wendy's toe up division, which means, right off the bat I'm learning something new. I've never done toe up socks before. But I guess that's what it's all about. Stretching ourselves to try new things. I did make the switch from double points to magic loop. That was a great trade too. No more stitches falling off the needles while they are in the bag. Magic loop makes a much better traveling sock project.

I have several skeins of sock yarn so I hope the first pattern is compatible with one of them. I figure it won't be a 4 x 2 rib. Most the of the yarn I have left in stash is not overly varigated so a pattern should work fine.

Finally, while I was in MN, I went to Needlework Unlimited and rolled around in their yarn. So many choices, so little space in my bag. I fell in love with one of their finished objects and knew I had to do it. It was a lace wrap made with linen yarn and 10,500 beads. Again, I'm having one of those "What the heck was I thinking" moments, but this wrap is fantastic. http://iwpshopinfo.interweave.com/Knits/2002%20newsletters/SummerKnits2002.htm Here's a picture of the finished object, but the picture in no way does it justice. That pattern was in the Summer 2002 Interweave Knits magazine.

I know I won't actually wear a shawl, so I'm making it scarf size which means I need half the number of beads. Oh good - only 5,250 beads to string on the yarn. Now that's mindless work.

I am on a yarn diet, so this linen is a bit of a cheat, but I did finish two projects and the socks are coming along, so I decided it was OK. Plus, I don't know when I will get back to Minneapolis and the pattern was free with purchase of yarn

Socks a Tad on the Small Side

I was moving right along on the KPPPM socks. I was working both of them at the same time, but I tried one on today and the 60 cast on was way, way too small. So, I frogged it and re-cast on 72 (it was that much too small). I feel like the new cast on will fit much better. I'll move this one along to a point where I can try it on, then I'll frog the other one.

I'm in MN tonight and it is cold - COLD. It's a cold like I don't know that I've ever seen. When we landed it was -7 degrees. I've been out a couple of times late in the night for presschecks and I'm sure it's colder than that.

It is so cold it hurts to breath. I'm really looking forward to going home tomorrow. A little knit time on the plane should put me back on track with my sock.

Pics of the Sock and More Hats

Here's a picture of the start of my Koigu sock. I just love the color scheme. It's not what I would normally pick and that means these socks will look different from any other socks in my drawer.

Three more hats The cotton one is Fiesta. The pink is a glittery fushia fun fur. It's call Fushia Fantasy. And the third one, well that was tough. I already have "Something About Hairy" Like twins they look the same, but they are not. So I'm thinking ...it will come to me.

Nine Hats and Counting

I have nine hats done for the Children's Medical Hospital. No pictures yet because I'm too busy knitting. I have 5 fun fur hats and 4 cotton hats.

I also started my KPPPM socks. I've been savoring that moment. Saving it for a nice long plane trip which I was supposed to take this week. As it turns out, the trip was postponed until next week so I just knit on the socks for the fun of it. I'm really liking how they look. Mostly it's the yarn because the pattern is just a 4-2 rib, but the Koigu is lovely. I'll post pictures of the sock in progress this weekend. In the meantime, here's a picture of the yarn.

It's cold here again. It snowed yesterday. So, if I knit this weekend, I have to knit on DS#1's clogs. I have one sole done. Did I mention I am so over clogs. And now when I tell my husband I am over clogs, he says he wants a pair - aaarrggghh! I can't tell if he's joking or serious.

Something About Hairy

I named this blonde hat Something About Hairy because I knit it while watching Something About Mary. In the movie Cameron Diaz has a cute blonde bob, which this loosely resembles.

That's three fun fur hats down, plus the other three hats I plan to send that I knit in March. They are just sitting in a drawer waiting for a home.

They are "Sunshine", "Orlando" and "The Perfect Summer Day"

I called the middle one "Orlando" because I knit it while I was in Orlando, FL and it has yellow for the sun, green for trees and blue for water. The Perfect Summer Day follows a similar formula, but it has lots of sun.

I have more Sugar and Cream cotton in the drawer and the hats go so fast, I think I'll make some more. This is stash bustin' on steroids.

No Hair Hairy Hats for Children's Hospital

http://minisoup.blogspot.com/2007/01/contest-and-childrens-hospital.html

I have two hats done and enough yarn for at least three more. They are kind of fun and don't take long at all.

The pink hat was just a partial skein. Actually there's a little band of glittery pink yarn that I got from Grace in my knitting group. Thank goodness she gave it to me otherwise I would not have had enough pink to finish. As it is it's kind of short, but cute. I did the decreases different on the pink one (I knit the blue one first and followed the pattern). I knew I was running very low on yarn so when I hit the decreases I kept decreasing. I didn't do the knit row in between. I prefer the flatter topped hats. The blue one is kind of pointy for my taste. Because the blue one turned out a tad big, I only cast on 50 for the pink hat.

The blue one, I call it Dr. Seuss, is a combination of three skeins or partial skeins. The dark blue is glittery (thanks again Grace) I really only wanted the dark blue and white stripe around the bottom, but switched back to the white when I ran out of the medium blue. It's difficult to see, but there's a small spot of the dark blue at the top of the hat. I followed the pattern http://www.headhuggers.org/patterns/kpatt10.htm for the smallest size but it still turned out pretty big. Hence the cast-on of 50 for the second and all subsequent hats.

I'm having a lot of fun putting together the different colors of fun fur and naming the hats. Like the blue one is Dr.Seuss. The pink one made me think of a flower. So I've decided to call it Pink Thistle.

I'm also happy to say that I have stash busted the pink and the blue fun fur yarn. I have little white leftover, but there's a spot for it in another hat I'm sure.

Stash Scarf a Success - Sort Of

Alterknit title might be

I Hate It When Jeri's Right, Jeri I Hate It When You Are Right

My stash scarf is a little long. Well it's a lot long. I'm not bending over in this picture and I'm 5' 8" and it drags the floor - significantly. I have to wrap it around my neck 3 times to keep from stepping on it.

I love the color combination and I did use up both of the blue skeins - stash busted.

I think I may have a solution to the length problem(if I ultimately decide it is a problem). I came up with it today while waiting at a presscheck. I was studying the problem and remembered an episode of Knitty Gritty where they added new rows to old sweaters by picking up exisiting stitches in the middle of the sweater and knitting with a new yarn and then cutting the bottom portion of old yarn off. Because you pick up live stitches and knit, it doesn't unravel.

Of course that was stockinette and this is garter knitted longwise. But I thought I would mull it over a bit. There's a scarf on knitty that has cute ruffles added after it's knit. I could add a black ruffle to each end to shorten the scarf. It's a WIP.

Did I mention I hate it when Jeri is right?

And my felted purse that was more like a baguette bag is now a cat day bed. Fawn loves it.

Our New Puppy

Marshall's been wanting a puppy and as luck would have it Fancy needed a home. So now she's our baby girl.

Marshall and Fancy played and played.

Then she took him for a walk.

But before we took her out into the cold, he had to put her sweater on her.

Finally it was bathtime.

Such cute puppy love.

Stash Bustin' Scarf and Bad Kitties

I guess it isn't all their fault, I did leave the yarn around for them to get to. It could have been so much worse, I walked into the living room today to find my two scoundrels playing with a small ball of black yarn.

I've seen at least three girls in one day wearing cute, super long, thin, vertically striped, machine knit scarves at work. I think they look pretty cool. I was checking one out and realized first that it was machine knit and then that it was knit side to side with lots of color changes. Been there done that, definitely not doing it again. So I decided to make my own and knit it longwise. I picked these colors because I think they go nice together. I may have to toss in some WOTA natural to give it a little bit of a color break. I'll decide as I go.

I have 80 grams of the green, just under 50 grams of the bright blue (blue bonnet WOTA from KnitPicks-left over clog stash), 40 grams of the dusty blue (the label is gone but it's probably rain) and lots of black.

Here's my formula. On a previous project (same yarn, same needles and I liked the fabric) I was getting 4 stitches to the inch. I would like my scarf to be at least 7ft long. 7*12 = 84". 84" x 4" = 336 number of stitches to cast on.

Then I figured for every foot of the long tail I left I could cast on 16 stitches 350 (I rounded 336 up to nice round number) /16 = 21 feet or 7 yards. I used the old hand to shoulder measuring method and added an extra yard for security.

I had a little over a yard of the tail left when I had cast on 350 stitches so I added 50 more for total cast on of 400.

The only way 400 will be a problem is if I run out of yarn before I finish and when I go to cast off. I bet I'm going to hate casting off.

I'm going to starting knitting tonight. A mindless or mindnumbing garter stitch. I plan to weigh the black ball before I start the first row and then again when I'm done to see how much yarn a row chews up. I have other colors I can add in if I need to. There's plenty of stash to go around.

I was knitting this scarf in my dreams last night so I have to get started on it.

Leftovers = Stash

I'm part of a yarn destash along and they have ruled that yarn leftover from a project (which you finished, but over bought for) is stash. I tried to call it leftovers, but they said that's like saying broken cookies don't have any calories. OK, when you put it that way.

Looks like I have more stash to confess.

Zephyr Peacock 50% wool/50% silk leftover from my Mom's peacock shawl. I have no idea how much there is. I wish I'd weighed the cone before I knit off it. Now the weight of the cardboard core throws it off. I'm open to suggestions to help me determine what's left.

Leftovers from three pairs of socks. I have just over 50grams of the pink (it's wool and feltable). 40 grams of the green (autumn flashes, I dyed KP superwash) and 80 grams of the blue and white (some sock yarn I bought at Hobby Lobby - it's superwash.)

I guess the green really is stash because I don't think I ever did anything with it. It's a Knitpicks yarn. There are just over 50 grams of it.

The white is also a Knitpicks lace yarn. I have just under 50 grams. Its the yarn I used if for my swallowtail shawl.

This is the yarn I hand-dyed to add to my SIL's clogs then it didn't go so I made fingerless mittens. I cannot locate it right this minute to weigh it, but I think I have about half the skein left which would be 50 grams. It's KP WOTA Natural. I'm considering an overall dyewash to change the color and then a second pair of fingerless mittens, but we'll see.

I have this leftover. I'm going to frog the finderless mittens because they are too big so technically it's back in the stash pile again. It's Silky Wool which I love. I'm waiting for it to talk to me again. I obviously misunderstood when it said it wanted to fingerless mittens.

With all the rain and ice and overall nasty weather, I got a closet cleaned out and started on the second clog of the green pair.

I also felted my green purse the one from Knit It Mag. I hate it and I'm going to stop felting. Once the felting is done there's no salvaging the yarn, it's just lost. I guess you could cut it up and make potholders, but I didn't work on it that long to make a stupid pot holder. Maybe I'll take pictures today and write more about this later.

I Want to Make this Scarf

Cast on 90 sts
Row 1: Knit
Row 2: Knit into front and back of every stitch
Row 3: Knit
Row 4: Knit into front and back of every stitch
Row 5: Knit
Row 6: Knit into front and back of every stitch
Row 7: Knit
Bind off

I used less than two skeins of Trendsetter Dune with #13 needles. Apparently using larger needles and a thinner yarn helps the spirals. Glad you like it!

Isn't it cute?

To get a longer scarf I may cast on more stitches.

Confession - I Found More Stash

Well, I didn't find the yarn, but I found this picture that reminds me the yarn is somewhere. I actually listed the blue, but forgot about the white. I think the white skeins might be two different brands of yarn. In a previous blog entry I say it's wildfoote superwash. I wonder if I'm right?

I've decided I want to hand dye it. I found this picture digging through my own blog. I'm so glad I made notes.

I like this colorway. It's very pisces. I have several skeins of blue sock yarn, but not like this.

I didn't get much knitting done this last week. I just wasn't in the mood. I did finish one clog and one sole for a second clog. I knit a few rounds on the felted purse. I can't believe I'm admitting this, but that never ending stockinette is about to drive me crazy. I used to love to go round and round. Now it's boring. I'll take it to knitting on Tuesday. At least I can talk and do it at the same time. I probably have two more inches to go - yawn.

2007 - Year of the Stash

A couple of definitions for stash.

stash
noun
1.	a secret store of valuables or money [syn: hoard]
verb
1.	save up as for future use [syn: hoard]

I like that "a secret store of valuables or money" or to "save up as for future use."

Well to me there is no time like the present. I realize my stash is not nearly as large as some, but at times it can be overwhelming to me. Like now. I look at all my yarn and I don't know where to start. Do I knit socks, do I work on my aunt's scarf, do I finish the boys FT clogs (no I do not, I'm sick of clogs) do I make a felted purse. I start to think about all this and ultimately I don't want to do any of it. It kind of takes the fun out of it.

As a result, I'm going to take inventory and get started wiping it out. I'm going to get it back under control. For a while I was into scrapbooking. I collected lots of stickers and paper. Until it go to the point, where I had so much stuff I couldn't keep it all organized. To get it all out to work on scrapbooks was too much. I hoarded stickers (see above "stash") until they lost their sticky. That's crazy. I don't scrapbook anymore because the "stuff" got overwhelming. I don't want my knitting stash to go the way of my scrapbook hoarding.

Here's my inventory - well most of it - that I plan to work through in 2007.

This is 4 skeins of Patons Wool. It's going to be the purse you see in the picture. It's from Knit It! magazine. I actually bought this yarn with this specific purpose. I think this will go fast, so I'm going to work on it first. It will most likely be the first finished project of 2007.

This may look familiar. I took a similar pictures when I was working on my sister's felted clogs. These are going to be the accents on my felted purse. See above.

My first Koigu. And probably the first socks for 2007. I'm actually excited to get working on these.

This is some fantastic yarn I bought at the Shabby Sheep in Dallas, TX. It's going to be a pretty beaded scarf for my Aunt Peggy. Her birthday is in February. So I have a goal.

Several more pairs of sock yarn. They will make good traveling projects. I plan to stick one set in my car - in case of emergencies.

Not pictured is the yarn for my Shetland Tea shawl. That one will take a while. It's going to continue to brew. Tomorrow or the next day I will talk about yarn that is not stash in my book, but leftovers. Now what am I going to do with that?

Going to the Frog Pond

Alternate titles might be

Rip It! Rip It! Rip It! or

I Like to Knit, but I'm Not a Big Fan of Re-Knitting

I ended up giving the kool-aid dyed pink fingerless mittens to Connie. They turned out a more manageable size then the red ones. She liked them.

As for the red ones, I wore them this morning. They stretched to the point where they are going to have to be frogged. They are just too big. I'll salvage the yarn and then knit them again. Maybe with a different stitch pattern this time. And I'll definitely cast on fewer stitches.

I don't have any fun new pictures. But my goal next week while I'm off is to take stock of my stash and begin a period of stash reduction. It looks like I may have to travel in Jan and Feb, so I'll likely get a pair of socks done - maybe two.

FO 21-1/2

This is the first mitten of a set of fingerless mittens for me. I followed the same pattern I used for Connie's Fingerless mittens, but used worsted weight wool I dyed myself with kool-aid.

This is the skein while it was drying. I want a pair of fingerless mittens (although it's supposed to be in the 70's here today) and I was anxious to see how this yarn would knit up, so my mittens moved to the top of the to-do list. I really like how the colorway turned out. In hindsight, I wish it was a couple of different colors. And if there is yarn left when I'm done I may try add some other colors, but overall I'm very pleased.

My Other Knitting Blog

My actual knitting blog is at www.xanga.com/txknitter.

Doin' The Happy Dance

I'm doin' the happy dance for several reasons.

1. I just noticed that today is my one year anniversary for this blog. I think that's cool.

2. I have 2 more finished projects so I'm up to 21 for the year.

• My sisters clogs - currently a private message so she can't peek.
• Connie's Wristwarmers.

3. I made really cute Christmas gifts for the SOWs (my sisters of the wool knitting group).

There are twelve of us, give or take a couple, so I wanted to do something not too expensive. But I wanted it to be useful. I've been pondering this since August (at least). It's sick I know. I like the knitpicks sock bag thing that you can string around your beltloop and knit on the go. But it's $18 - not cheap. So I started thinking about making my own.

I knew I wanted it to have the loops on the inside to guide the yarn and keep it from getting tangled. In fact, I wanted two loops for knitting two socks at a time if so desired. And I decided it needed to be lined.

Initially, I tried to make it so it could be tied on a beltloop, but it wasn't working for me. So I asked myself, How many of the SOWs would actually knit in the grocery line anyway? I determined it wasn't a deal killer so I opted for pretty ribbon handles.

A few years ago I went through a fabric collecting phase. As you can tell from the picture there wasn't much rhyme or reason to it. Most pieces were remnants from the Waverly outlet remnant bin. I just bought pretty pieces that caught my eye. In some cases, I could make three bags from a piece of fabric, in others I got one. So I went through the stash pairing up fabrics for the lining and the outer. Each one I put together, I liked better than the last.

I had so much fun doing this. Although I'm not much of a seamstress, I'm very pleased with how they turned out.

Testing, Testing, 1-2-3

I'm just giving blogger a try.

Connie's Fingerless Gloves

These fingerless gloves went very quickly. I finished the pair in about a week. Of course I didn't knit on anything else, but that's how I like to do it. You actually can't tell much by this picture. The thumb is on the other side, but I wanted a nice shot of the ribbing.

http://www.3gcs.com/adcock/free%20patterns/fingerless_mittens.htm This is the pattern I followed - basically. Since I've started knitting lace, my gauge has gone to pot, so my 1x1 rib is worthless. As a result, I just skip it when it comes to socks and now fingerless mittens. I just started in on the main twin rib pattern. I cast on 48 because I'm using a lighter weight yarn than is called for in the pattern, but for my gauge I think a 42 (what the pattern specifies) would have been fine.

I decreased one stitch after finishing the thumb increase. I don't know if it made that much difference, but it made me feel better. I did it on the third K1,P1 row after putting the thumb stitches on the spare yarn.

In the end, I did 16 rows to get the palm length I wanted. And I did it in the twin rib pattern instead of in the 1x1 ribbing.

They fit me pretty good and I'm happy with them. I just have to weave in a few ends and they are good to go. I am actually surprised at how well they keep my hand warm even when I'm just trying them on for size. I guess it's the wool and silk. This is Elsebeth Lavold silky wool. It was a 50gr skein and I still have about 20 grams left. I feel a mini-sweater ornament for the tree coming on.

My Sister's Felted Clogs

Jeannie, if you don't want to see your Christmas present before Christmas - stop reading now.

My sister is open to trying new things. She's the one who got me started knitting almost 2 years ago. While we like to knit different types of things, we each appreciate the other's art.

This is my art for her. Felted clogs. I gave intarsia a try. It's tough. Lots of strings hanging all over the place. And when knitting these Fiber Trends clogs it's even more of a challenge with wrapping and turning and backing and forthing. The yarn getting tangled. But it was fun to give it a try.

This is what they looked like when I thought I was finished. A little plain. Maybe a tad like clown or hobo shoes. That could have been the result of the size and the shape in their unfelted state. But they needed something, so I decided to try another technique.

I think the flowers are a nice touch. They were fun and easy to add. I wasn't sure what was going to happen to them when they felted. I guess I could have swatched - naah.

I had some problems with holes where the intarsia pieces met. I don't know that I would do that again on clogs or anything felted for that matter. But I liked adding the flowers after the knitting was finished. I did notice everything is more subtle once it's felted. So go strong on the color and know that it be cut back some.