WIP Wednesday

So here it is, May 26, 2010...that leaves me with just under 7 months to get everything done for Christmas...I know...early to start thinking about that...but I don't want to be the knitting zombie I was last year...I won't face the formidable IT from the Yarn Harlot's life...

And, besides, I have a large family, and not enough needles to have several patterns on the needles at once, like most folks do. Nope, it will be just 1 or 2 projects at a time.

But I spent an insomniac's morning going through my family lists, figuring out who would want what kind of gifts. I have decided, looking from ravlery, that all of the adult women (with the exception of my mother) will be getting large-ish felted tote bags for their various goodies. My mom won't carry a purse or tote bag if her life depended on it, so she will be getting something different...not yet sure what... The adult guys will all be getting bulky wool slippers, as most of them have hard-wood floors in their homes. I will be lining the slippers with leather soles to make them slip resistant...

All of the young adult women (cousin, sister, and niece brackets of family tree) will be getting ear-warmer headbands, and fingerless gloves. All of the young adult men (cousin, nephew brackets) will be getting beanie caps and candy, they are so hard to craft for. For the little ones, (10 or younger) they will each be getting hats and fingerless cable gloves. The 2 littlest ones (under 4) will be getting sock monkeys.

I don't have pics yet, because I don't have yarn yet...but the projects can be found on my ravlery...

As for right now, on my needles as we speak......................I have Wisp in baby blue mohair/acrylic for my birthday, I am hoping to have it finished by Saturday.

WIP Wednesday

So I am finally getting back into the groove of things. My health has been a roller-coaster ride, and with school so close to finals week, I have let a lot of things slip.

On the bright side, Health issues gives plenty of time to knit and crochet. (Mostly knit). I have been reading Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's Yarn Harlot, and it has gotten me inspired to work more on the craft. To explore more. I am hoping to get my toes wet in that big bad world of lace with this Tam (Raveled)

(Note: not my picture, instead it is the pattern picture by Ravler "lv2knit"

I have not yet cast it on, as I haven't got the needles for it, nor have I got a set that is larger that I can alter the pattern for with...They currently have another project on them.

I am sure most of you have seen, and maybe even knit up a few pinwheel baby blankets, am I right?

Beauties like this one by Ravler "YanTanTethra"?
Well I took inspiration of this flat, ever expanding, and evenly smooth pattern to make a smaller version of it as a hat....a baby hat....a baby beret.

I have done this without pattern, so if it doesn't fit anyone...I will give it to Brooklin to use with her dolls. And I will alter the pattern and try again. It is top down from the center of the 4 chunk spiral. I used the "Magic Cast-on" on by Judy Becker of Portland, Oregon

I have 4 more increase rounds, then I will decrease and work a 2x2 ribbing into it for the band. There will be an eyelet row just above the band, so I may add a pastel green or maybe a bright pink ribbon to it... loosely strung and tied into a bow.

Another project that is getting me in the mood for summer is my orange cream car-seat blanket... I am taking the idea from Ravlery, Garter Stitch Baby Blanket with Braided Edge. The pattern calls for you to stitch until there are 160 stitches on your needle before you start a decrease. I am doing a smaller blanket, and so I am doing 4 squares with 50 stitches on each, in 2 different colors. A variegated orange, and a Cream white, both in machine washable acrylic.



What are you working on in this sneezy spring?

WIP Wednesday..a day late

I am working on getting over a cold. So I have had a lot of time to work on my crafting.

I have worked up a design for a simple crocheted round purse using 2 metal dream catcher rings, I will post a pattern for the finished project tomorrow, before the inspirations post.



I am also working on some handspun, it is koolaid dyed and I call it my Cherry Limeade. This picture is 1 of the single I spun, it will be plied with a thick and thin single in the same colors for a finky pastel art yarn.


I spun Cherry Lime-Aid on my new Pioneer spinning wheel named "Kaylee"



I blogged about Kaylee here

Another big thing to add to my stash of cool gadgets, is my new Bond Brand Ultimate Sweater Machine. While I get so frustrated with it sometimes, when it actually works as it should it is wonderful!


This is Combat Baby, she is partially finished...I need to add a scalloped edge to it, and then "kill" the acrylic yarn so it lays flatter. (Tutorial on Killing Acrylic is available over at Sarah's blog, here.)


I may be starting a Tam for myself, but I haven't decided on a pattern, I might pick and choose what I like from several different patterns. And accommodate them to fit what yarn and needles I have on hand.

WIP Thursday

Alright, so not much to report. Just trying to tame my WIP basket, only 2 projects left in it, 1 I don't have photos of, but it matches the Daisy Jane hats I made last week.

Daisy Jane. (raveled)

It is in the red tone, and has the flower on the end, and is the width of 1 side of the pentagon made from the flower. It will end on the other side with a fringe, on the end of the fringe will be many more small flowers to match the single large flower.

The other project I am working on is that shawl I showed you a few weeks ago on WIP Wednesday. I have not progressed any further. My health and my school work has interrupted that momentum, and so she sits in the bottom of a box, just waiting for inspiration. (raveled)

WIP Wednesday

So, not much to report. Finished off my biggest project, Brooklin's dress.

Right now I am mainly working on spinning the fiber I picked up last week, also, putting together a spindle, just need a rubber grommet and we will have a second spindle to use. 1 spindle is full, at least as full as I am comfortable with, so we will have to pull the yarn off and save it for plying.

This is 'Magic"



when it is finished, I think it might make a great stole, or maybe a fancy beret.

I could see using "Magic" in this:


Or maybe this?


What do you think?

WIP Wednesday!

So, not much to show you, only have 2 projects going right now.

The first project is the dress for my baby sister's baby girl. Her birthday falls on Easter, and so I am making her a super cute Easter outfit. I already showed you the hat here, and now I am working on a Maxi Dress. This is a top down sweater dress, so no seaming, which is cool. I took the pattern and used the top have, the shoulders then too some 'advice' from the mom, and tweaked it a little bit to make the dress more "twirly and swirly". Instead of doing an increase on either side of the markers, I am doing a YO before each marker, creating a visible "Swirl" down the shirt section of the dress. (Raveled Here)


Brooklin liked one of my tank tops last summer, so it will flow and fall like that one, tight around the bust to keep it in place, then flowy from the tummy down. She will love it (I hope)!
Need to go by the "dollar Tree" today, they have this yarn in stick, only a buck a piece, and in more than just these 2 colors, I need to pick more up for this dress and some for a few hats too.

***

Secondly, the scarf I showed you last week is well on its way and just over 1/3 done...



Again, this is done on the Knifty Knitter long blue loom, with 1 strand black acrylic (not sure the brand, but it is very soft) and 1 strand of the Sensations Rainbow Boucle in Red/black. the 2 strands are used as 1 throughout, wrapping around every-other peg zig-zagging down the board. I will be knitting this out to 300 rows, I am just past 100. That will make this scarf roughly 6.5 ft long. (Raveled Here) There is no official pattern, but if you would like to use this reference, please feel free.

WIP Wednesday! and Happy St. Patty's Day!

Here are my WIPs for this week!


This is my elegant spring wrap, it stays chilly here in Central Oregon until about mid May, and even then, the evenings can get down to around 40* f in the middle of the summer. So I have decided to pull out my looms again, and make up this shawl. It is knit with 1 strand of Red Heart in black, and 1 strand of Tonal Rainbow Boucle in Red Pattern by Sensations. It is knit zigzaging between every other peg on the KK 22 in long loom. Raveled here.


This is another of Angela's Fab Felted bags. The pattern is on Half-Assed Housewife, and also on Ravlery. You can find the information on my previous post about my Cherry Garcia Bag here. Knit on size 7 needles, with tan and lavender in Deluxe Chunky 100% Wool (found at Enchanted Yarns in Redmond, OR) Raveled here.

AS for St Patty's Day, we made a great homemade Guinness beef stew (my recipe, message me if you want the recipe) and Irish Boxty (potato pancakes) and some beer. It was a great, though we made enough for about 10 people, and had invited just as many (I hate it when people don't RSVP) and no one, I mean NO ONE showed up. Guess hubby and I have plenty of leftovers for the week.

Here was dinner!
MMM Good hearty Irish food. Probably not the most healthy, but still damn good.

Also, proud to announce the passing of all my classes this term with a B+ or higher. On to next term with momentum.

WIP Wednesday!

A good start to my new goal of organization, it is time to show you what I am working on!

Here is my main project:

This is my progress on March 7:

Here is it when I got home from my knitting group tonight, March 10:

By the way, that JM cigar box was inside the bag both times to show comparison and shape.





After I hand felted the whole thing after casting it off. Tomorrow, after it has blocked out a bit, I may do another felting job, to tighten up the fabric. I plan on threading the i-cord pictured through the front of each long side, and tying it on the short sides.

Original pattern is found on Angela's blog, The Half-Assed Housewife, and is called Felt Me Up, or Angela's Fabulous Felted Bag! This pattern is also Raveled. I was working on it in a solid Rosewood colorway, from Patons Classic Wool, but ran out of the yarn, my Michaels is really low on wool right now, something about "Felting coming back into style faster than they figured it would"...or something to that effect. Anyways, I decided that the top half of that bag would look nice with a rich brown tone to match the brown woven through the pinks of the rosewood. I decided to go with Chestnut brown in Patons Classic Wool. The colors blend seamlessly... they are such a great match. I saved out enough of the rosewood to do about 2 ft of icord, I will felt the icords and do tied in handles instead of the purl bind off handles in the pattern.


My other WIP of the week is a scarf that I have designed, blogged, and raveled. Crooked Little Paths - A Scarf of Dreams is crafted using a granny square style cluster stitch, and it made up of several pentagonal shapes. I do not have enough of this done to warrant pictures, but it will be done in Caron Simply Soft in jade and silver, and Caron Rhapsody in Cranberry Mist. I will put up pics later in the week, when I post the pattern.