Why Knit The Stash Is Over

Last week, I posted saying that my Knit The Stash challenge was over. I did have a good reason for this. Actually, 5 good reasons.
This isn't a very good photo, but it's four of the five GIANT garbage bags full of yarn I have received.
And, there is more to come. A lot of it is from companies that are no longer in existence, from what my Ravelry search tells me.
Somehow, my mom was connected with a woman who can no longer knit. She is in her 80s, and I believe she is moving into a nursing home.
There are bags upon bags of various yarns. From 100% cotton, to 10% angora, some mohair, a couple with cashmere, and so many more. I can't believe this! I will be passing a lot of it on to LeeLee hats, but I am keeping some for myself. I can't wait to see what else will be coming!
Also, from the same woman, I may be getting a knitting machine. Or two. I am hoping I will be able to afford them both, but I am not sure about that. I may ask my parents to purchase them for me, and pay them back. If they have all the parts, and are in good condition, I will definitely have to think about it seriously.

In other news, I finished my second baby blanket! The shower is this Sunday, so I now have plenty of time to work on other projects. More on those soon!

Moving Forward

Sorry I missed Monday. I didn't have my computer with me, and I am just now getting time to blog.
In this past week, I have rid myself of 17 skeins/balls of yarn!! They all went to LeeLee Hats. I did acquire one ball though.
Rick and I stayed at his parents for a night, and I underestimated my yarn needs. I only brought about a half skein of Homespun, and I blasted through that really quickly. I picked up one rather large skein from Zellers. I figured it was balanced out with the one skein I finished.

I also made EIGHT baby hats! They are all different. The Homespun was turned into two teddy bear hats. They're not perfect, but I am definitely working on the pattern. I really want to make more of them. The one pictured is the first one I made. The top is a bit pointy, but I think I have that fixed.
The second, rather awful photo, is of all of them. Three all white, two teddies, a white with purple stripes, and then a black and purple, and a white and purple. As a group, LeeLee Hats is taking part in Clicks For Babies. We are making purple hats to raise awareness of Shaken Baby Syndrome and Abusive Head Trauma. I will be making more and bringing them to Tracy, hopefully before Rick and I go to Iceland.

Self portrait Monday: March 14, 2011

Today, I kind of feel like garbage. I spent the night at my parents house last night, and slept in a fairly cold bedroom in the basement, so I am thinking that has something to do with it. Sinus pressure, stomach ache, and an awful headache that hasn't been alleviated with medication. I'm just going to have to deal with it, I guess.

I went to a charity hockey game last night and that was so much fun. I saw so many of my old coworkers, and caught up with a lot of them. One of the girls that I worked with drove me to my parents, where I pretty much crashed right away. I read a few blog posts and such in my RSS reader, and then went right to bed. I got to sleep in a bit, which was nice.

I went to see some of my relatives with my mom after we picked up a few groceries and some things for Winston. We were going to stop at a yarn store that moved to a new location, but they are closed on Monday's. I'll have to try to get there sometime during the week soon. I've been to their old location a few times, and they have really nice stuff, and usually really good prices.

I am going to keep working on the baby hats and try to get 50 done this month. I am getting pretty close, and I still have a lot of yarn to use up. I really hope to get to Zellers or Michael's to buy some inexpensive baby yarn to make more hats. I really wish I hadn't gotten rid of all the yarn before I moved. It would be perfect for these hats. On the bright side, one of the women I gave yarn to knits for this group, so I know some of the yarn is going to be used for this cause.

Self portrait Monday: March 7, 2011

Today is Monday, so here we go with a self portrait post. I am going to continue in this schedule even if I am updating daily in another way. I feel like Monday's are "catch-up" type days where I can tell all of you what I've been up to lately.
I finished a burgundy cabled cowl this morning. I've been working on it off and on for the past couple weeks. I just had a few rows to go, one with the cables crossing, and about 2 more before casting off. It's a nice, thick cowl and the cables really stand out.

I also started and finished a baby hat on my Knifty Knitter. I am going to donate some hats, and some yarn, to a local group that makes hats for a NICU not far from Windsor. I've been looking for somewhere to donate more yarn, and this seems like the place to go. The hat in the photo only took about 45 minutes to make. Super simple!!! The only downside to using the Knifty Knitter is that you have to pay attention while you are knitting. It's not really something you can look up from, which is somewhat inconvenient for me, because I like to knit and read or watch TV at the same time. I'll just have to start listening to podcasts more and making the hats.
Not much else going on over here. Though, I do have a new model for my knitted stuff. Maybe I'll post a photo of her tomorrow. She can be kind of shy at times, but she is beautiful.

Lost Projects and Some Progress

Do you ever lose track of some of your WIPs? Starting too many things in a short time frame, and just forgetting some. Or putting something heavy/warm (like a blanket of wool sweater) away for the warmer months, and the next time the cold hits, it slips your mind.
I went looking for some particular yarn the other day, and I came across a shawl and a blanket I started last winter. I don't remember ever blogging about the shawl, but the blanket I definitely have. They're both pretty neat items, and I'll be super happy once they're finished. I'm working on the shawl right now. It's pale pink, super thin, slightly fuzzy yarn. I totally love it.

I haven't forgotten about the Boneyard shawl. I recently joined the fourth (of six) skeins. I love how this yarn (Patons SWS) spit splices! I've never done that before this project, but it's awesome! I will soon post photos of the shawl. It's just hard to do now because it's all bunched up on the needles.

I have also been slowly sewing up baby booties that I had made over the summer. I have a store I want to bring them to, I just have to make some to have ready when they need them. I need to figure out a way to tag them. I want to have some sort of contact information attached to them, but I want it to be super professional looking.

What have all of you been up to?

More baby booties! And business cards, too.

Six pairs completed, and no signs of stopping!

I have been on a roll with these things! I am definitely enjoying making them, and modifying them to my needs. I have omitted the cuff on many pairs, and made most of them with stripes. I have also changed the needle size. They're working out really well.
The pink and white striped pair might be a gift for a relative who is having a baby. I may knit her a blanket instead, haven;t decided yet. The other two pairs are nice multi-coloured yarns I found in my stash. I have a few pairs that still need to be sewn up. One in purple and white and one in a really cool bright blue and white.
I will have a few pairs out for sale at this Sunday's Open Air Crafter's Market, and I'll be bringing some into rEvolution as soon as I get some business cards made.
On that note, Rick has designed some really awesome cards for me! I need to send them in to have them printed, and decide what type of paper I want them on. I will also have hang tags made so I can have the price right on the item for sale. This is so exciting for me!
I will keep you all posted on how this goes.

Finished baby booties!

I literally just cast off the second bootie and sewed it up in the last hour. I am super happy with how this project worked out.

I am trying to use Ravelry a bit more, so I will start linking to the patterns and such on there.
I used the Eco Baby Booties pattern, as I mentioned before, and some blue Bernat Handicrafter cotton. It was one of the tiny skeins (the one dishcloth size) and I still have about 4 or 5 yards left. I'll probably use that as trim on another pair.
I knit the pattern as indicated, but went to 4.25mm needles, because I didn't have the correct size.
I will definitely be making more of these, and probably tweaking the pattern to make larger sizes (this one says 0-6 months, but I'd love to do some up to 12 months)
Overall, I'd say these are a great project for someone like me who wants to get out of the habit of knitting rectangles, or a beginner who is looking for a small challenge.

Congrats Jess!

My friend Jessica just had her baby!
November 27th at 1:17 am.
Baby Scarlett weighed in at 7 pounds 15 ounces.
I went to see them both today, and they're doing great.
Like any knitter would do, I brought her a blanket. The Rainbow one, actually, and as soon as I get a picture of Scarlett I will put it up!

Little Mady

My cousin Chantell had her baby a little while back, and she is absolutely beautiful!
This is the first picture I saw with my blanket in it. (the striped one Mady is sleeping on)
I still haven't been able to see her in person, I always seem to be working while my family is out visiting.

I'm hoping to get pictures of all the babies I have made blankets for. This is hard to do, seeing as they kind of live all over the place, and I haven't met most of them!

Hopefully, I'll meet them all at Christmas!

Babies are comming!

Congrats to my cousin Kristi! She had baby Alyssa Marie at 4:04 am today!
I went to my cousin Chantell's baby shower today, and gave her my most recently completed blanket. She loved the blanket, from what I can tell!
I'm almost hoping more people I know will have babies so I can keep making blankets for them!

An other blanket

My mother's family is... fertile. Two cousins of mine are pregnant at the moment, and this has influenced my knitting to lean even more into the baby oriented. They're both having girls.

I finished an other baby blanket out of multi coloured Baby Clouds. I forgot to measure it, but at its widest it's 70 stitches wide. I had half of it done in a day. It took me about 3 days total, only knitting a few rows at a time. An other terrible picture, it's STILL raining almost every day.

The colour variegation is amazing. Green, blue, pink and yellow dominate, but there's a bit of purple and white, as well.

I've also been asked to knit 2 blankets for some friends of mine. I'm planning on doing one diagonally with Lion Brand Homespun, diagonally, like the one in this post, for Louis. The other will be a Ruffles blanket, for Rachel. Both of these will be full size afghans. I have no idea what to charge for something like this, and I can't find the website I used to use to calculate prices of handmade items. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!

It's Summer!

Over the past few days, it's been high school exams all over the place. I was a lucky one, and only had 2; one practical, and one written. I aced the written, that's for sure, and I did much better on he practical than I had hoped for. The main thing: We had to be able to roll a perm in 45 minutes. It took me 38. I did a victory dance when I found that one out.

I have kept up with my knitting, which is a good idea. I have the pink and white striped blanket that I finished a few days ago. It's fantastic. I forgot to measure it, and I'm icing my knee right now, so if anyone is curious, I can measure it later.That's the one! Sitting on the ugly, over stuffed, under-sized couch. For size comparison, I guess? if it was twice as wide, I would consider keeping it for myself.

This is just to show the colour contrast. Its a very soft, really girly baby pink. I used one pink skein and one white skein of Bernat Baby Clouds. I bought them both on sale at Michael's.

I have something to request of all the readers. I want to know about how many of you come here regularly. If you could just leave a comment on here and state your name, and how you found this blog, that would be fantastic!

Finished a blanket!

I just finished the Ruffles Blanket. Its (I think) 35x24. Kind of a strange size, but it will do the job. Probably perfect for a stroller, or maybe a crib. I did mess up some of the row counts (it was supposed to be 7 rows on each needle, some places it's 5, others, 9)

Here is an other terrible quality picture, with bad lighting and a messy room!

Note the laptop set up i have going on. A thick heart shaped pillow, with a big Ripley's Believe It or Not! book, and my mouse is on a Jack Skellington head-shaped pillow.
Saturday was WWKIP day. I had planned on a bit of knitting on the bus, which I did do. I got hassled by a couple gangsters. A sweet little old lady looked at them and said "SHE's the one with the pointy metal sticks..." they shut up right away.

the blankets, ohhhh, the blankets

Finally getting around to updating!

As always, life is dramatic. Colin's dad had a heart attack last Saturday. He's doing much better now, still very weak, but alive. A week or so before that, a friend of the family passed away. Cancer...

Been working my usual shifts. Got a lot of the information on the buyout. That's happening September 26th. I'm hoping by that point, I will have started selling on Etsy, and I will have an other job.

As for the blankets... When I have several things on the needles at once, I tend to bounce around between projects. This way, I knit a lot, but I don't see a whole lot of progress... The exception to this, is the Ruffles blanket. I can see each repeat very easily in that pattern. It's a very simple pattern, but oh so cute. Its about 3 feet wide, foot or so long... That sounds backwards, but it makes sense to me! I think it will come out to stroller blanket size.
Sorry for the low quality picture... My camera didn't want to photograph the awesomeness of this blanket. You can sort of see the ruffles.

I still have the pink and white striped one on the needles. That one is making slow progress, noticeable, but slow. Finally, the Bernat Baby Blanket yarn. Super soft, super fuzzy. All the fuzz has been causing some headaches. There are a few small holes that resulted from either a YO, a missed stitch, or something. About 3 of them.

Pardon the mess that is my bed. It's been super hot lately, and I sleep with no covers on. That's the polka-dot mess at the end of the bed.

Other than all this, I went to a Stitch and Chat for Blankets for Canada. I knit one 8 inch square so far, but I'm going to start on an other one as soon as i finish one of these blankets. I'm determined to make at least 50 items for charity by labour day.

Charity Knitting

Over at Homespun Helpers, there is a Personal Achievement contest going on from now until Labour Day Weekend.
I'm going to be making a ton of these cute hats on my Knifty Knitters from now till then. I have a load of scrap yarns that will be perfect for these!
The red and orange-y one here was made on the second smallest loom (I think the red one) and the rest were made on the blue one.
These have all been made since... Thursday, except the first three.
Red and orange-y made of an unknown bulky weight, blue made from Bernat Baby Clouds, green made from Lion Homespun.


The pastel rainbow is one of my favourite yarns. I have about 3/4 of the skein left. I wish I kept the label. White and rainbow is made of Red Heart sport weight something or other (the colorway is called "crayon", I think) and white. The bottom one is actually a very pale blue at the brim, to a very pale purple at the top.These are awesome. No idea what brand, but it's all the same.
The left is a very pale pink, and the right is purple. Both double stranded with white, and they both have a slight sparkle to them.
Some fuzzy rainbow variegated with white.
The left is mostly white with pink, purple and blue flecks. The right is double stranded blue and green.

Once again, a ton of ends to weave in. I'm going to wait till just before I donate them, and do them all at once.

Still no pictures

I just finished the "Breeze" baby blanket. Its 23x23 inches. Rather small, but I think it would be perfect for a toddler to tote around.
I also just cast on an other baby blanket. This one is going to be striped. Pink Lemonade and Cloud, 60 sts wide, on my purple circulars... (side note: I should get a needle measuring device. I know they exist.) It's about 4 inches long already. I might make this one more rectangular.
On the subject of babies, my friend Brittany just had her baby. March 27th. A beautiful baby boy named Damien.
Her brother's girlfriend also had their baby, on April 6th. Also a boy, named Landon.
They're all doing great! And the new grandpa couldn't be happier, 2 little boys that will carry on his last name.
This month, I'm going to try to finish both blankets I have on the needles. That could get difficult, with some of the stuff I have coming up at school. I am also trying to finish at least one of the skeins of cotton I currently have. Sounds easy enough, but most of my skeins are the big 12 oz ones. And most of them are less than half used.
I also don't want to buy any more craft supplies until all my baby blanket yarn is used, and I can fit all my hemp into my storage unit.
My goal for mid-may is 3 more baby blankets, 10 dishcloths and 50 pieces of hemp jewelry. I have no idea if this will happen, but this is attainable. School might get in the way...
In other news, I have been reading many other knitting-related blogs. Usually while I'm knitting at the computer.
This one is my current favourite.
I'm really hoping my lost camera shows itself soon. Or I will have to borrow someone else's to get some pictures on here!