20 posts tagged “finished objects”
Because I'm crazy, I've decided to participate in NaNoSweMo (National Sweater Knitting Month?) and NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month). I am going to try to post on my blog every day in November and I cast on today for Anhinga, by Norah Gaughan, which I am knitting in All Seasons Cotton, of course. I am having issues with uploading and there isn't much to see so there's no picture yet. Hopefully I will work out my upload issues. Having pictures would certainly help my blog posting too. We'll see how that goes.
Since I last posted I finished a cowl for a friend's birthday.
A baby turtle for Stefan.
A robot for my friend's son's second birthday.
A top...
a bear in a hot air balloon...
and a blanket bunny for Kristi's baby.
I have to send the bunny off soon, she only has about a month left to go although I know, from experience, that the last month is the longest.
The BobaKnitters also made her this beautiful blanket, which I designed with in put from Cookie. I didn't knit on it but I did most of the seaming.
I also finished a gift for a friend who preparing to battle breast cancer. The day I found out I cast on for this gift because that's what knitters do, we cast on. I hope that my gift and the warmth it provides help her in her fight. I don't have a picture to show you because of my aforementioned uploading problem but that's probably for the best since I think she reads my blog and I haven't given it to her yet.
Wish me luck in my endeavors!
My Manon is done and I really like it. (Ravelry details.)
I enjoyed knitting the skirt of this sweater most of all. I am already looking forward to my next Norah Gaughan pattern.
I was possessed by the washcloth urge on Sunday, as I often seem to be. I crocheted two of the Practically Hyperbolic Dishcloth while at Boba, and promptly gave them to Anabel for her girls. The wee one was interested in it while I was making it so I thought it might entertain her while Anabel got to knit. That worked for a few minutes. (Ravelry Project Details)
I have to say, that's a pretty cool technique. I look forward to trying it in the jacket. It's super fast too, of course.
The fourth hyperbolic dishcloth finished that ball of Sugar n Cream and I went eagerly to my Ravelry stash page to delete it and reduce my stash yardage. I hadn't entered it. Don't you hate when that happens?
It's been all blankets all the time around here this week. Back in January I saw the book Knitalong online somewhere and started to think about making a blanket for Anabel's new little one. Specifically, I saw the Blessingway blanket, which looked like something Anabel would like. I talked to Kristi about it and we debated whether that was the right project, particularly since the book wasn't out and then thought about doing something more square, but what yarn? What patterns? You know, all the things you debate when starting a project. Kristi then happened to see a class a couple of friends of hers taught at her local LYS on log cabin knitting. We discussed a couple of different yarns to use and then settled on Pakucho. Kristi picked some colors and I knit the first square.
We decided that we had a winner! So Mary and I wound yarn into the kits and distributed it to Janice, Lisa D, Lisa L, Karen, Rachel, Jeni, Teenuh, Jill and, last but not least, Cookie. One kit was sent off to Kristi and then I waited for them all to come back. There were more knitters than there were squares to knit, so Juls and Hannah contributed to the ordering of the yarn. The last square was delivered to me on Thursday at which point I got the crazy idea that we could finish the blanket by today because Kristi is in town and I thought it would be nice for her to be there when we gave Anabel the blanket. I sent out a desperate plea for help with seaming and Cookie, Jeni, Lisa D, Karen and Teenuh all came over yesterday evening to help. Thanks all! By 11pm, the squares were seamed.
Originally I had a crazy plan (I'm all about the crazy plans) for a border with mitered corners. Then I thought about an i-cord border. In the end I was pressed for time and overwhelmed by how large the blanket had become. Each of those blocks is 12" square! So, in the end, a crochet edging was added in natural. I did one row of single crochet and then one of half double crochet. I was pleased with the result.
(To those BobaKnitters mentioned here who haven't signed the card for Anabel, I have it, touch base with me so you can sign it, or email me a message to put in!)
On Thursday Niels' teacher asked me to make her a hat. The funny thing is, I didn't make her a hat for Christmas because I had seen her wearing several knitted and crocheted hats so I didn't think she needed anymore. She told me that those hats belonged to her cousin and she had to return them. So I whipped her up an Unoriginal Hat from two skeins of All Seasons Cotton Printed, one in Grape one in Native. (Project details on Ravelry.)
I started making another bunny (Ravelry details), making him slightly larger as I said. Then I realized that i had missed a vital step in the first one, I hadn't made his paws! No wonder I couldn't easily knot the sides like it said in the instructions. So, Justin (as I've named this one) has better paws. I also made his head a bit rounded but I don't think that does anything for him so I'm leaving it off the next one. Yes, I've already started the next one. I think I might be hooked.
* This is from the old knock knock joke about Easter bunnies.
I decide that Kate's recipient's baby brother needed some knitted love too, so I whipped up a blanket buddy (Ravelry details) for him. I started it last night and finished it this afternoon. Stefan glommed on to this one too and is currently sleeping with it, so I'm going to make another. I was going to leave it without a face but Niels objected and I'm glad he did! I think the face makes it much cuter.
I'm working on the second one, I'm going to change him a little bit to make the blanket part bigger and maybe try to make his head a bit rounded. I think I'd like to make a few more in different yarns, actually!
I had a Knitty sort of day. I knitted up a quick Calorimetry (Ravelry project details) for myself and finished up a cute little Kate cat (Ravelry project details) for a classmate of Niels' The only trouble with finishing toys is that the kids really like them. That is good, if I am making whatever it is for them, not so good if I want to give it away. Stefan took it from my hand and gave it a HUGE hug, laying on top of the cat on the ottoman of my mother's glider. He did give it back but I see another one of these in my future.
I realized on Wednesday that tonight was the Hannukah dinner I was having with my family so I needed to get the menorah pillow all finished up. A trip to Jo-Ann for buttons and a pillow form solved that problem. I am very pleased with how the pillow turned out, and I think my grandmother was too.
I'm also still working on the Jeweled Steps socks from New Pathways, I actually just cast on for the second one tonight. I have started a pair of Fetchings for Niels' teacher in microspun. (I broke my yarn diet to buy the microspun but I'm thinking that one ball of inexpensive yarn for a specific gift project is okay. Don't mess with my delusion, please.) I'm also considering Jeanie from the new Knitty. I have five skeins of Regal Silk (the same yarn as in the scarf above) but in a blue/purple colorway. I think it would be beautiful, but I'd also have to adjust the pattern because that yarn is thicker and I have a lot less than the pattern calls for.
So there you go, I may be silent, but it doesn't mean I'm not busy!
I must confess that one of the things I'm really loving about crochet is just how fast the small projects are. Over the weekend, I made a string bag, which my mother was admiring so much that I think I'll make one for her too. Then yesterday and today I made a little mouse which Niels glommed on to. I had intended it to be for Stefan, actually, since I knit a mouse for Niels when I was pregnant. I can just whip up another crocheted one for Stefan though, super fast!
Cookie also gave me a toys book for my birthday: Zoe Mellor's knitted toys. There are a ton of cute patterns in that one too. I might make a "stash snake" one of these days. I also really like the birds in the top left corner of the cover, you make several and hang them on a string with large beads in between. It's really cute
I'm all about the cute these days. Cute and easily finished!