PIF Slippers

Also on the Pay It Forward crafty list are these Felted Slippers. Surprisingly quick knit, but took 7 washes to felt them to the appropriate size. I think I will keep my felting adventures until I own a washer and don't have to pay per load at the laundry mat! :)


Yarn: Jo-Ann Sensations Kashmira
Color: Green
Content: 100% felt-able wool
Needles: US 7 knitting needles, 3.5mm crochet hook
Pattern: Vintage Slippers


This was a test-knit and a Pay It Forward item at the same time. . . only because the test-knit worked. I do recommend the pattern as it makes a lovely slipper. I intend on making my own when she makes the pattern for the larger sizes.







I love how this yarn felted.  It kept the stitch structure of the moss stitch.


The rolled edges are created very niftily, it seems more difficult that it is, it is definitely one of those patterns where you just have to trust the pattern and go with it.


Obviously they lack some structure without feet in them.









Unfortunately my other two Pay It Forward gifts are more behind. I am still working on them, I apologize to the other two recipients! :)

Hello 2012!

Well, it is a new year.  Yet another one where at least part of the population thinks the world will be coming to an end again!  :)  I have to say, this one is particularly humorous to me.  If you truly think that a culture that couldn't predict the demise of their own culture had the power to determine when the entire world would end . . .

Any who, a new year, a new start . . . in theory right?  I try to make changes through out the year, because let's face it, if you continually put it off until the new year, you are wasting a lot of opportunities.  But when New Year rolls around, my mind gets even more into, what changes do I want to make . . . so I have New Year Goals, whether I believe in the principal of it or not.

I am trying this year to make them more realistic.  I think that is usually the downfall of my goals.  One often thinks they can achieve more than they will.  I hope to have evolving goals that I will review and alter if needed each month.

So, I have two main goals:

1. Take better care of my health.  This is the broad theory, broken down:

~ Really Gluten Free - I will eat out and eat things I know there might be contamination issues with, just to make it easier.  Easier to eat out with my husband(who likes to eat out), not to inconvenience people, easier for myself, etc.  Sometimes things go okay and sometimes I get really sick.  So, for the month of January I will not be eating out.  Everything I consume will be something that I know the parts that go into are gluten-free.  To help me on this journey, I recently purchased 100 Best Gluten-Free Recipes by Carol Fenster and Gluten Free on a Shoestring: 125 Easy Recipes for Eating Well on the Cheap by Nicole Hunn. And a few months ago I purchased Gluten Free Asian Kitchen by Laura B. Russell.  I will be learning to cook gluten free from home more.  Trying out new recipes and learning more about the different flours and what I like and don't like.

In part to this or a deviation from this, I have learned in 2011 that I love the principal of Sushi.  I only eat cooked meats in sushi, but still, love the principal and think it's a great way to work in more veggies.  Tomorrow, I will be trying my hand at making my own Sushi inspired rolls.

~ Exercise/Fitness - I made some progress with this during different parts of 2011 and some setbacks, but more if it was in the positive.  So, I am continuing with this, because I know it can work if I make time for it.  So for the month of January, my goal is to exercise each day for at least 20 minutes.  I have a few different exercises to vary things from day to day.  My day often ends up feeling too long, so my goal is to wake up 20 minutes earlier and exercise before I head off to work.

2.  Write up and publish a knitting pattern.
~Here my main goal is to get my butt moving on doing some designing stuff which I am very interested in.  So for the month of January, my goal is to write up the pattern I used for the Vetter Baby Sweater from the notes I have scribbled in my notebook.  Then in the next months I will do things like prepare the pattern in other sizes, etc.

Pay It Forward Socks

So, I know some of you think I forgot about my Pay It Forward gifts, but I didn't . . . got a little busy at the end of the year so I am a little behind, but still working hard on them.  I was able to finish two of them, one of them being this pair of socks for Deneen over at Yarns and Musings.


Yarn: Premier Yarns - Echo
Color: 42-205 (Red and Blue with a White strand throughout)
Content: 68% superwash wool / 22% Polyamide / 10% cotton
Care: Machine wash and dry
Needles: US 1 /2.25mm
Gauge: 8sts per inch
Size: US Women 7.5
Pattern: Plain Vanilla – my own.







Here is right after the heel and gusset were done.






Then I got really horrible at taking progress shots so I only have the finished pictures:


















Now they ended up pooling in completely different ways. At first they pooled so the red was on one side and the blue was on another, but I worked with my numbers and gauge to fix that problem.  Overall, I think they turned out well and I hope she likes them.

A Wookie Christmas

Let me tell you interwebs, I love this Christmas thing! First off, Daddy's shutdown for work falls at this time so I have someone home all day and night, that is great, cause lets face it, I require a lot of petting! Then, Mommy gets a three day weekend since she works for a bank. Yeah, for more walks!

Then, get this, they give you things!




Check out my gifts!


Mommy and Daddy got me my very own bed.  I still love to share their bed, but when I don't want to be so snuggly, I sleep here now.  I really like it!


Then Aunt Kathy, who is Daddy's aunt, sent me toys!  The little yellow giraffe is a squeaky toy and I attacke it even more just to try and shut it up!  I love a good tug-a-war rope.  Then the reindeer has a squeaker in it's head and it's tummy has crinkly stuff inside that sounds like you are crumpling paper.  I really like this one, I will even jump in the air and catch it . . . which I never do for any of my other toys.


Oh, did I forget to mention, Aunt Kathy also sent homemade doggy cookies.


Not to be rude people, but it's cookie time, so I will see you later . . . I don't share.


Oh, yummy cookie!






P.S. See you next year!

P.P.S. Do you like my winter coat/fur?

John's Illusion Scarf

My brother-in-law John asked for a scarf for his birthday.  Since it's nice to have someone appreciate one's craftiness, I had to oblige.  But I knew that I wouldn't be able to knit a whole scarf, especially one for a man over 6 foot, if there wasn't more to it.  He wanted one in colors of the Seahawks. So I decided to go with that theme and decided I would try shadow knitting.  I couldn't find patterns for lettering that I thought would work well, so I designed my own.  This was definitely an interesting experience.

Yarn: Caron Simply Soft
Color: Limelight & Dark Country Blue
Content: 100% Acrylic
Care: Machine Wash & Dry
Needles: US 5 / 3.75mm
Hook: 3.5mm





Here is a pic just straight down of the detail.


A straight down picture of as much of the scarf as I could.


The scarf is around 7 feet so it's hard to get a good picture of it all, here is a piece of the word SEAHAWKS.


A little better.





A few more attempts to get a good shot of the letters.





Here are some shots of the individual letters.H


A


S


W


K





I know there is a heaping ton of pictures, but I am quite proud of this scarf.  It turned out well and except for the rolling I wouldn't change a thing.  If I were to to something like this again, I would add a border of another stitch. . . . maybe seed stitch.  I am definitely tempted to try some more illusion/shadow knitting.

Vetter Baby Sweater

So, as always, I do apologize for just disappearing. This project at work is ending up being more work and more tiring than I expected. This is the first weekend I have actually had Saturday off, so I enjoyed it by taking a bunch of pictures so I could actually post things this week. Due to various issues, I have been given extra responsibility at work, so I cannot guarantee that I won't continue to disappear here and there until the end of February, but I will try my best. Hopefully the mix of this new responsibility and my normal work will make the days more enjoyable and go quicker.

Any who, onto the Vetter Baby Sweater. . . it is named after the baby I knit it for. At my previous receptionist position I worked with a woman with the last name of Vetter and she was very appreciative of my knitting and insisted that if she got pregnant again while I was there, that her baby would need something knitted by me. I finished this sweater in late September and she had her daughter in early October. I designed this sweater especially for her. It is inspired by the Sliding Shawl (rav link) that I test knitted. Sliding Shawl (blog link).

Warning - - Lots of pictures in this post.

Yarn: Sensations Cuddle
Color: Pink
Content: 100% Acrylic
Care: Machine Wash and Dry
Needle: US 5 / 3.75mm
Size: 3-6 months






Here is a full shot of the front of the top.


The back.



I tried to get an angled shot so you could see the texture better, but with this being in pink, it was just so hard for me to get good pictures of the texture created in the pattern.



Another attempt trying to demonstrate the texture.



A simple neckline of crochet slip stitch.



Snap band as who wants to deal with tons of buttons by an infants neck!



Both sides of the snap band are reinforced with ribbon.



I really like how this turned out and even though it was a bit tedious, it made it much easier to attach the snaps and added some very much needed reinforcement.







A crappy sleeve shot, again trying to show texture, you can see the slipped stitches a little better here though.



The end of the sleeve has an applied border that is worked onto the end of the sleeves live stitches.



The hem is also a cable, I decided that instead of connecting them, I would make a place for a non-funtional button.










This was completely a prototype for this pattern, which meant the poor thing was knit, ripped, knit, ripped, etc. barely getting finished in time for the baby. I am hoping as soon as I have time to write up a pattern and get some test-knitters to try it out.

Hello from the Netbook

Yes, I am saying hello from my new Netbook and so far, I am definitely liking it. I just got it last night. I have to say this week flew by even quicker than I expected.

I have some projects to share with you all though. I hope to take some pictures tomorrow after I get out of work and have some actual post for you guys this week! Which should be much easier this week, since I have this nifty little thing!