Bbrrrrrr

Just want to stop in and show off my latest completion.

A Star Stitch baby blanket for a friend of mine. All that's left is to mail it off. She lives in North Carolina so I hope it's not to heavy for the weather. Although they just had a bad ice storm and we got hit with lots of snow. It was so cold outside to get pictures I just grabbed some quick shots and came inside. My fingers were frozen by the time I came in two minutes later.

Not sure what I am going to work on next. Knitting my sweater and Crocheting a blanket. Its cold, I'd like to wear the sweater. Yet, I love to crochet and its a blanket for my bedroom and we just put an offer on a house and I've got the decorating bug. Right now we will be doing neither because the baby has unexpectedly awoken early from her nap and I am being summoned. Happy Holiday Weekend to those who have off tomorrow! I won't be one of them!

Over yonder this one runs.

See I knew this would eventually happen.  A long period of no updates. But oh so much has been going on. Lets see we had a first birthday for little star. Christmas. Daddy's birthday. Busy life at work with lots of changes. Oh yes and I am officially a knitter. 

So our first birthday went off pretty well actually. We had a polka dot theme.

I'm pretty proud of my handiwork. We did buy a lot of the decorations but some I came up with myself. Like the window polka dots. Yes there is definitely a repeating pattern there!

I decided to make the cake and cupcakes myself. I cheated a little bit and used a box. Shocked? Well, sometimes its what you have to do because no one has that kind of time with a one year old and a full time job. One thing I usually always do to boxes though is add a flavor extract (lemon or almond.) But in this case I piped in some Raspberry Jam. It was heaven. The icing is light and fluffy whipped icing. I just piped it on. It was almost the consistency of marshmallow fluff (mmm) which made it really hard to pipe on so some look a little gooey.  And then I just added some polka dot sprinkles (of course!) The taste, well the parts with just cake and icing tasted like a twinky (not kidding, yellow cake mix, whipped white icing = twinky) But the parts of cake that I ate pre-icing (shhhh) reminded me of tastycake jelly krumpets. (Do they even make those anymore?)

 

Mmm it's been two months and I still get a watery mouth looking at these.

Then we had Christmas. I made lots of scarves. And I mean lots. I used Moogly's Artfully Simple Infinity Scarf Pattern. It takes me one full skein of yarn and about 3 hours to make one. I made 11 of them for gifts. I also made a pattern for a wine bottle bag that I really like. It was hard for me to find one pattern that was simple, quick and easy to change for various shapes of bottle. So I grabbed a bottle of wine we had on hand. (Funny story actually, no one in the house drinks red wine and this was a bottle that took me a while to realize that the name of it was Red Knot and the graphic on the label was a red ball of yarn. I thought it was funny...any way moving on) I came up with a pattern that I would like to share for you but I have not yet re-created it to get pictures. So that will have to wait a little.

After Christmas I finally got to work on an afghan a friend asked me to make for her back before Thanksgiving. I was planning on whipping up a quick 4 skein lapghan for her as a house warming gift since she just bought her first home. But after she saw the Bobbles blanket I made for our co-worker she wanted to pay me to make her an afghan. I told her to just purchase the extra 4 skeins and I'd make her a full-sized afghan. Around that same time Moogly released her 100th pattern, the Vintage Wobble Afghan and we both really liked her ombre effect so we decided to do that but with her earth tone theme. Ta-Dah!

You can find more on this venture here.

After the afghan I decided to work on something for me since I had lots of time. I purchased this magazine The Unofficial Harry Potter Knits sometime back and wanted to knit my first sweater. I have only ever completed two knitting projects prior to this. A poncho for Little Star's Red Ridding Hood halloween costume and an entrelac scarf.

But now I have a friend who is due in less than a month so with the body and one sleeve complete on my sweater I had to move on to her Baby Afghan. And that brings us up to date!

Update!

Greetings from sunny and warm Orlando! It's been a while since I have posted. So much has been happening in my personal and crafty life. Little Stars first trip to Disney World. The trip here was a little rough. 14 hours with a baby in a car is not a very fun drive when they get tired of being in a car. 

I also have a few firsts on my plate. I finished my first shaw. The Elise Shaw. With my first time working with lace yarn.  My first time knitting. Yup, I learned to knit and it was fun. I made a poncho for Little Star to be Little Red Riding Hood for halloween. It was fun! The only mistake I made was not knitting or purling out of the back loop when I did my increase. So for the first two rounds of the body I have some holes. And I wasn't sure how to frog it and pick stitches back up yet. It was honestly my very first time.

Let's see I used up all my cotton yarn making Lucy's Bag for the pool here at the resort.

And now I am using up the yarn from my bedspread to make a coordinating granny circles blanket.

After our vaca I need to start christmas gifts seriously, so I can be finished. So that's what I am up to. And I promise to show you pictures of all the work!!

There we go!

Okay here we go! Added a page all on how I did the Bobble Blanket and how I added the backing!
Bobbles for Baby

Whoopsies

I know I promised a full project update of that really epic project I worked on for a friend but so much has had me distracted (we are almost ready to start walking here.)  Here's another sneaky peak for your viewing pleasure.

Also - working on my knitknatknockoff still. Its actually almost a decent length. And I only got through ONE color change UGH. However it needs to be a little longer so I may just make it super long. Long enough for a single bed even though its to be a couch blanket. I know i personally like to wrap blankets under my feet and still come to my chin. We'll see how far down the spectrum that ends up getting to.

Okies - Little Star is asleep so it's hooky time! Ciao.

A Few Hoorahs!

Whew, what a crazy past few weeks. Lots of project completions. Tomorrow I will be revealing a project that I have desperately been wanting to share with you. I just delivered it to my expecting co-worker and I am pretty sure she likes it. In fact several people in the office have asked if I have taken any orders yet. Wow - that would pretty amazing thing if I could. Here's a sneak peak.

Cheese!

I finished the Giant Giant Granny Square I have been working on for my bed, it's quite comfy may I add. Although I feel I wont be finished with it just yet, I still want to add the last 10 rows but got project ADD and needed a change. Its functional. Its pretty. Its fine as is for now.

Ooh pretty.


I also worked on a new pattern from Moogly. The Eloise Sweater. It was so cute and I could just see my Little Star wearing it. And I have never made a sweater before. Ever. So it was a fun challenge. I also mastered the Foundation Double Crochet and Chainless starting DC. I delved into my stash and came out with some left over Vannas Choice yarn in Silver Heather, Scarlet, Terracotta, Aqua, and Fern. After I was done the skirt, which I had to start over a few times (I think the pattern had one too many turns in it.) I realized I wouldn't have enough Silver Heather to complete the bodice, So I had to break out the remnants of Silver Grey I had. I was wary of the two different greys looking bad. But everyone assured me that it wasn't so bad. I only had enough to make short sleeves (two rounds each.) I did not have enough to do the final grey edging. Some how (though I counted twice) I ended up with too many stitches around the bodice and had to modify my pattern without really understanding what I was modifying (never having made a sweater before.) But now I know what is wrong with it, and I have vowed to try again. (If at first you don't succeed.) I will try again with the suggested yarn (Lion's Brand Wool-ease.) Not make the same mistakes and maybe even try different colors. Also I think I may have needed to use a smaller hook with the difference in the yarn. I also have not added buttons.

My husband has said it's her renn faire dress. (it really does look like a medieval doublet.)

I am not ashamed. (I also stretched it to make it look better. shhh)

Finally, I started my "knitknatknockoff" I will explain more about that later on a page about it but here's some yummy pictures to consider.

Sitting in some gorgeous weather with my Little Star getting some work done.

Beautiful Ripples. So calming.

Lots of progress.

Lots of progress in the DtE world. Lots of busy progress. Little Star is moving around now and always on the go. So is mommy right behind her. I have managed to get quite a lot done on my giant giant granny. I have finished all the color changes. At the last row of navy I tested the size and the afghan just covers the top of my bed. I wanted some over hang so I have estimated about 20 rounds of white granny clusters to the end. I've done 5 so far. 

My final three colors came in for my KnitKnackKnockoff blanket I was asked to make. Can't stop thinking about what I am going to do with the left overs. (That's always my favorite part)

Today I got a lot of work done on a gift I am making for a friend who is expecting.  She sent me a picture of the material of the sheets she had ordered off of Etsy. And I have taken off on this project with one idea after another. I really can't wait to share it with you. But I won't for now. I'm afraid she'll somehow find this blog and see and give away my surprise. So once I give it to her I'm going to create a huge page devoted to it. It's truly epic. I am actually working on the last touch right now. I will paint you a picture of what's going on over here; beautiful weather, windows all open. The neighbors are having a backyard concert of sorts (free live music) there was a folksy rock act followed by a harder rock/metal band called GI9. There's a piña colada sweating in my hand and a sewing project sitting in my lap under the iPad. Ah, heaven. Every summer should be like this. Good weather, good music, and crochet. Drinks are optional.