Handwarmer Bandwagon

I was already on the handwarmer bandwagon, just haven't had time to post. I made my daughter some knucks and then made them longer, added a ruffle and a cable!! She loves them!!

pi r square

Since it appears to be Elizabeth Zimmerman day here on PK, here is my first EZ project completed! The body of the pi r square shawl is so easy - a lot of garter knitting with some yarn overs for shaping - easy! So I figured that the borders would be easy as well -- not so.... Lets just say that I learned alot. I need to re-block the piece, but for right now, its good enough to wear, enjoy and if you didn't know, you probably wouldn't notice. I think that is another EZ lesson right there.

On an fyi note - Halcyon sent me new yarn for the Hush Hush dress - I have started over - more details on my blog!

Have a great week!!

Hi Everybody

I updated the layout on my blog with a super evil Purple with Yellow Polka Dots template. It is more reflective of the real me. Lawrence Welk would be proud if he was not stricken with terror at the pure darkness embodied in the new template.

I take it I am the only one that likes tiny bubbles here. I am probably the only one that owns a bubble machine here as well. Next time I will try to be more sinister.

Visit if you dare : www.zeeppoville.blogspot.com


Onto real knitting stuff. Choosing a yarn for The Marley is almost finished. We have made several test swatches and are narrowing in on a yarn. We have had several choices and it is looking like we are leaning to several of the sport weight acrylics. I am even thinking of going with something other than the traditional favorite Red Heart Mexicana. I will post picture of the swathes when I can get pictures of them.

The Marley will be our long scarf for 2008. This yearn long scarf The Judy was a braided design that six people could knit on at once. The Marley will be knit out of icord made on an icord machine. The up side is that people from far flung places will be able to knit on The Marley.

Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Cuteness is cool, right?

I promise I did listen to some punk while knitting this. I had to turn off the TV and use music instead so I could pay attention to the pattern. A few mistakes can only be caught if you stare intently at the sweater. Hopefully nobody will.

Pattern : Elizabeth Zimmermann's February Baby Sweater, Knitters Almanac

Yarn: Elann Peruvian Highland Silk in Celadon (more green then in the picture, almost exactly like Silver Sage by Restoration Hardware

Needles: Knitpicks options, size 6, used as straights, which was great, because the cables gave a lot of flexibility.

All About The Hands

Since we are on the topic or posting about hand warmers, etc and I am currently not knitting a pair...I went in search of free patterns for them. Here are my finds, so far...

Checkers Wrist Warmers, Stars Wrist Warmers, Armwarmers, Buttoned Fingerless Gloves, Cabled Fingerless Gloves (PDF), Cabled Gauntlets, Mens Fingerless Gloves, Mohair Armwarmers, Fingerless Gloves with Ruffles, Wristers, Nearly Gloves, Simple Fingerless Gloves, Cozy Wrist Warmers, Dragon Scale Gauntlets, Pulse Warmers, Earthtone Warmers, Earthy Warmers, Fetching Fingerless Gloves, Web Surfing Mitts, Snowball's Chance In Hell, Fingerless Gloves, Long Fingerless Gloves, Fingerless Mittens, Fingerless Mitts, Spooky Cabled Armwarmers, Funky Punky Armwarmers, Supple Rib Knit Armwarmers, Funky Vintage Wrist Warmers, Swedish Fingerless Mitts, Glove Bites, Symmetrical Braided Gauntlets, Touch Of Whimsey Fingerless Gloves, Lacis Gauntlets, Sockotta Fingerless Gloves, VooDoo Wrist Warmers, Victoriana Gloves, Warm Cable Braid Wrist Warmers (PDF), Vino Armwarmers, Lace Hand Warmers, Wrist Warmers, Flashdance Wrist Warmers, Little Twist Warmers, Long Noro Rainbow Arm Warmers, Knucks.

Time to jump

Yeah yeah yeah, I'm doing it too. But hey, at least I'm trying fair-isle. lol I'm seriously having a love affair with this pattern. I already ordered more yarn to do a brighter, more exciting version in green and yellow. To be honest, I've only finished one mitt so far, seeing as how I'm having technical difficulties with the second one. >.< blargh

We should have a fingerless mitt party. Who's in?

Knitting day !!!!!!!!

I was granted as good wish for the day as Valentines Day is nothing to me. I got the day of work as a self proclaimed knitting day. So I stayed in and worked on these.

6 cup Tea cosy in pure Aussie wool known as Mudgee Wool. A basic patons pattern was used as it reached the top the pattern was not the best so I tweaked it to a beter way.

An alpaca baby cardigan that has taken over a year to get completed. It is for the alpaca only classes. Now I will tinker more on things and hope this weekend to knock more over to the list of done for the show.

Everyone else was doing it...

Here are the fingerless mittens (or "Hobo Gloves") I just finished.

Yarn: Cascade 220

Needles: US Size 6 DPNs

I used my easy wristwarmer pattern, but increased my cast-on number to 40 because of my tighter guage.

♥ : Kaity

Cowl from Loop-d-Loop

I hate to ruin the streak of fingerless gloves today, but I made something different. :-)

Behold, the cowl from Loop-d-Loop:

I'm liking it, although it looks like I started making a sweater and gave up after a couple of hours. See my blog for the dorky (dorkier?) flipped-up neck version.

Speaking of fingerless gloves

I happened to finish a pair of these the other day too. (Sam & I must have been having the same knitty thoughts, lol).

Anyway, these are from the free pattern at: http://fpea.blogspot.com/2006/08/free-pattern-friday-raging-fingerless.html

I followed it up until it got to the top of the hand. I didn't like the unfinished edge that appeared when it said to just bind off. So, I ended up doing 4 rows of K1P1 rib like on the thumb gusset so it looked more polished.

Wavy rib glove things.

In red. I tried SO hard to get a proper picture of these but the camera didn't like them so this is the best I could do. They are a sort of uneven rib with dropped stitches every few rows, to make the holes, and they are fingerless so you can actually DO stuff whilst wearing them. There is a little hole for your thumb to go through so they dont go all "old lady slouchy tights" round your wrist :-)

Its a bug, It a bug

Well this morning was interesting......

About two weeks ago i had a house guest in the form of a GRASSHOPPER and it seemed no matter how many times i would return the unwanted guest back outside the next morning he would be inside again freaking my kids out, who would in return demand (not ask) that i KILL it.
Well i haven't seem it for about the last week so i thought it got the hint that it wasn't wanted until my youngest pulled her dora house out of the wardobe and started screaming something that resembled BUGGGGGGG. Well the grasshopper haven't left the house he had just found another house to live in.

I have been knitting heaps. Its like i go through fads with knitting. Just finished the Irish hiking scarf and a red double moss knit scraf as well.

I am looking for Dora the Explorer mofits if anyone has seem any. My daughter is Dora mad. Its cute its her first real interest not sure what will be next Barbie or Brats.

I could cry.....

I have been working on the hush, hush dress from knitty for quite a while now. I figure that I have about 30 hours in it so far. It has been a side project, since it is for spring and I thought it would be cute with my skinny jeans when the snow eventually melts. Mr.sunneshine and I watched a movie this morning and I finished the decreases for the body and held it up ---AND THERE IS A HUGE STRIPE IN IT!! Being the pack rat that I am, I ran back and picked up the four cones of yarn that I had used already, ready to mia culpa for my mistake and throughly flog myself for not ready more carefully -- BUT ALL THE NUMBERS ON THE CONES ARE IDENTICAL!! I am not sure how I could not have seen the color difference, other then I usually knit it watching movies - the pattern is simple so I look at the tv more then the project. I could cry - this dress is 280 stitches to the round on a size two needle and I am 18" into the 20" body - soooo much time into this project, it is not my mistake, I don't understand. The yarn was ordered from Halcyon, and every number on the tags matches....yet there is still a giant stripe through my dress! I have written Halcyon, its their 3/2 pearl cotton yarn, but I don't know that they will do anything......anyone have any suggestions besides dying the d@mned thing black.....

update - thanks for all the kind words!! Unfortunately for me, the stripe hits - read accentuates my widest point, so just leaving it is not an option. I did receive a call from Halcyon today - I was unable to take the call. So when I talk to them tomorrow, I will let you know what they suggest....

Many miles away but still busy here......

Things are still busy with the Show mode working and the ending of the first stage of Certificate Knitting being prepared for sending. It might be rather warm but a repreive with wet weather and good night of thunder has helped a Shawl get its wings off. I so far Have a Lace weight scarf for the show done and so close to finishing a few other pieces. Charity knitting also is keeping me on my toes. There is still a fair amount to do before the show as well. Last year I got most sucessful knitter and hope to enter as many classes as I can again this year. For more updates and Pictures see my blog.

If You Got The Notion...

I've had this link to Acme Notions bookmarked for awhile- I actually have no idea why I never shared it before.
I like notions, notions make me giddy in a way I can't really explain. When I found this shop last year, I fell madly in love. At the time I was doing medieval reenacting and I needed a wooden thimble and wooden needle holder (it is a long story, just go with that I needed them) and I got both of them there for $2.50 with like $1 shipping. By the way if you are the uber crafty type, you can repaint and refinish the wooden tubes and thimbles to whatever you like- I did, its super easy.

BUT, the reason for why I mainly wanted to give you guys the link is because of all the vintage stuff they have, like a filagree yarn ball holder, vintage books, vintage patterns, vintage accessories for those patterns, vintage and old fashioned notions.

They even carry random stuff like ring sizers, pencil sharpeners, iron on transfers and patches, and black cat mini cards (I'm looking at you Obsidian Kitten).

I'm in, are you?

I found this pattern, I'm so making me a pair of these:
http://www.plfm.net/michelle/Toe_Socks.pdf
I always wanted to make a pair of toe socks, since the once I buy from Target or wherever always get holes in them.

Anyway, just thought I'd share.

All things turquoise

Well, I don't mind turquoise at all really, but of course I prefer black, lol. It just so happens that the recipients of these gifts wanted that colour. The 1st item is a pair of socks (my design) that I did on my fine bed knitting machine using a tuck stitch.
Next, this beret pattern is from "Interweave Knits: Winter 2006, pg.134". Done in the round on my new Knit Picks Options, which, by the way, I am in total love with & will now knit everything on! I just used larger needles because I was knitting with the same sock yarn as the 1st project. Samantha also wants socks to match like the ones above too.
Here is Sam sporting her new beret. Anyway, that's it for now. If you're interested, I've written a cheesy poem about my love for making socks on the blog. http://thecreativecastle-boop.blogspot.com/ Thx. for looking :O)

Oh lookie! LesleyD is almost finished with her Pizza Slut Cash Bag!

Details are located at my blog :-)
http://knitting4zen.blogspot.com

Knit and Crochet Festival Pittsburgh

The Clowns and I are getting ready for the Knit and Crochet Festival here in Pittsburgh this week end.

If you are not busy come down and see us. Great fun will be had by all.

Well everyone except for that guy behind us in the picture. We think he might have a deep seated fear of clowns or something. Either way he did not look happy to see us.

be safe out there and keep you stick on the ice. And watch out for that guy.

Skull illusion scarf

Yup, it's the one from the side links; thanks Lana. I did 4 repeats (2 each side) & plain in the middle. I worked it in 2 pieces so that the skulls were all facing the appropriate way. I absolutely love this pattern!!!

Some Free Patterns

It's been pretty quiet for the last few days. I am going to just post some random free patterns I have found while surfing this week...

Sonata Shawl, Tori Vest, Argyle Cable Afghan, Lucy the Lamb, Coco Evening Bag, Harry Potter Uniform Sweater, Journal Cover, Cabled Headband, Mesh Stockings, Fern Leaf Lace Socks, Roxane Scarf, Gansey Gloves, Reid Sweater, Twiggy Hat and Scarf, Razor Cami, Gwennabe, Tarantino Vest, Eiffel Top, Sigil Sweater, Top Down Sweater with Crazy Collar, Wisteria Sweater, Licorice Whip, Bikini Top, Shimmering Gown, Jazz Coffee Cup Cozy

The Great Felted Mitten Experiment

I finally finished the "Great Felted Mitten Experiment"

(Before and After Shot)

Read the full story on my blog at: http://creativecarissa.blogspot.com

Feb. Magknits!

Just a reminder to everyone that the February issues of Magknits is up.

Also, I noticed that the AntiCraft is all new too. (this comes with a explicit warning, a racey issue this time around. I warned you!)

Go forth and knit...

Madonna

I finally decided to post this... ANOTHER pillow. What can I say?? I am redecorating my house!! Except this one is (was?) supposed to be for my sister. I got the chart from PRK blog and away I went!!!