Knit One Quilt Too

Knit Unto Others Wrap-Up

Here are the last photos of all the items I sent off to Annie at The Village Knitter today.  From the left: Dulaan Cloud Hat made with Cascade 220 held together with mohair, Dulaan Cloud Hat made with Jo-Ann's Angel Hair, the Live Dangerously, Don't Swatch Hat made with Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted, basic baby hat made with LL worsted, baby hat from Felted Knits made with 100% alpaca, preemie hat (modeled by Pooh) made with LL worsted and the Fiber Trends pattern called Ear Cozies. 

On the right:  mittens made with Classic Elite Bazic and an Ann Norling pattern, basic mittens made with LL worsted, fingerless mitts from Last Minute Knitted Gifts in Noro Cash Iroha, and a pair of tube socks from the Kids Knitting book and LL worsted. 

These were all fun knits and the great thing about charity knitting is being able to try out so many different patterns.  I'm learning a bunch of techniques and getting an idea of what I like in a hat or mitten.  I'm also learning that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Lorna's Laces.  These projects where LL was used are all with leftovers in my stash and I can't get enough of the stuff.  It knits up beautifully, has great colors, is superwash and looks good after plenty of wear.  Thanks to Margene and Carole for coming up with this knitalong!

Let the Holidays Begin

My birthday was a lot of fun.  The parade was a wonderful small town affair with lots of animals and a few vehicles.  The animals are the cutest though! 

The firetruck is for Ryan!  The other two are at my parent's house later in the day, the wonderful chocolate fondue and the snowshoes I got as a gift.  Luckily for me we are having a very snowy week.  They are predicting 12" by tomorrow evening!!  I tried out the snowshoes yesterday and they are fantastic, so light and quick to walk on.  Here's a photo of that and what happens to a shih tzu in the snow.  Notice the armpits full of snowballs, that don't come out, I might add, until they melt all over your floor!

It was such a fabulous evening.  We played a game called Anagrams that my mom said belonged to her parents.  It's a bunch of letter tiles like Scrabble letters without point scores.  You have to make words, but you can also add at least one letter to an opponent's word, make an anagram and then you get to keep their word.  With two people it goes pretty fast.  With five of us playing it took hours and we didn't leave until 11:30.  We had so much fun that I'm looking for these vintage games on ebay! 

Knit Unto Others

I've finished my Knit Unto Others knitting and will be boxing these items to send to Indiana tomorrow.  The last hat is made with the pattern provided on I'm Knitting as Fast as I Can and it came out great.  It's made with two colorways of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted (leftovers) on size 6 dpns and 90 stitches.  It's a bit big on Chloe, but will be fine for a grown-up.  What a great pattern!  I love the I cord bind off and will try it again with different yarn and maybe I'll do the half-linen stitch next time.  I'm exhausted and need to get to bed, but birthday and parade photos will come soon! 

Happy Birthday to Me!

Your Birthdate: November 26

You lucked out the the skills to succeed in almost any arena. Put you in almost any business or classroom, and you'll rise to the top. You're driven and intense, but you also know when to kick back and cooperate. Your ability to adapt to almost any situation is part of what's going to make you a success. Your strength: Your attention to detail Your weakness: You can be a little too proud of your successes Your power color: Turquoise Your power symbol: Arrow pointing up Your power month: August

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Today we'll be visiting my parents and going to the charming little Christmas Parade in Sisters.  It's about 20 minutes long and includes lots of llamas, corgis and donkeys.  It's fun to watch and you can park right on the parade route so you have a nice warm place to hang out.  Then we'll wander about Sisters checking out the holiday open houses at the art galleries (free munchies- yum!).  Then later dinner and chocolate fondue for dessert.  It should be a wonderful day, especially now that the sun has come out and there's a fine coating of snow.  What a beautiful day!

Yes, I can!

Finished at 11:30 pm last night.  I hope you are all having a lovely day.  I'm baking and cooking and will enjoy a relaxing afternoon with my family and my parents. 

Happy Thanksgiving

It's been a busy few days with friends visiting over the weekend.  I did manage to get some knitting and quilting finished though.  For Knit Unto Others I finished another hat made with the Dulaan Cloud Hat pattern.  This time it's made with something I picked up at Jo-Ann's called Sensations Angel Hair.  It's a bulky yarn with 22% wool, 50% acrylic and 28% nylon and oh so soft!  I might end up making hat for myself with this stuff.  This would be great for hats, scarfs and mittens and soft enough for little ones.  It's also a great price (about $5.00).  I think I'll be able to get 2 adult hats and one kid size hat from two skeins.  Knitting continues apace on the candy cane stripe mittens and the second man's scarf.  I think I'll make one more hat for the folks in Indiana and then get the pile sent off.

I also finished a baby quilt for my cousin Greg's new baby.   They live in Australia so it's winging it's way down under right now.  The baby's name is Jayden and I hope he likes this bright rainbow quilt which Chloe named Jayden's Rainbow Dreams. 

Tonight I'm going to work on hand stitching the binding of a fall quilt I started last year.  It's made of beautiful fall flannels and is much needed now that the weather has turned so cold.  I hope to have it finished in time to cuddle under tomorrow evening.  Think I can do it?

I hope you all have a very nice Thanksgiving if you celebrate.  If not, I hope you have many things to be thankful for.  I'm thankful for my family, living in this great town and being able to use my creativity to make life warmer and happier for others.

Three Hours

It's the time it takes to:

fly half way across the country

prepare, eat and clean up after a good dinner

give birth (if you are lucky)

make a Dulaan Cloud Hat

See it in all it's glory.  This is a gorgeous hat, but the mohair is hard on my hands.  I also found that I couldn't use the 16" circ because the needles are so short and cause my hands to cramp.  So I used the dpns after the first few rows.  I'll finish up this skein of mohair on another one, but after that I'll have to stick to regular yarn. 

Three hours is the time it takes to do things both big and small.  For me this three hours was a small time commitment, but to the person who receives this hat it could be a very big thing.

Feeling Thankful

I was born on Thanksgiving (at noon, so mom only got a turkey sandwich!).  It's always been a big holiday for us even though we don't do the Norman Rockwell thing.  I've had pumpkin pie stand in for birthday cake many times and I've never tired of that.  It's been nice to have family together for my birthday nearly every year.  So, this time of year I'm especially thankful and love to make things for people in need.

I just found out about Margene and Carole's new knitalong and it fits perfectly with what I'm already doing!  As it happens I've already made a little pile of knit hats and mittens to send along to the folks in Indiana, but I also went out and bought more yarn to make some of Ryan's Cloud Hats, and some hat and mitten sets.  I'm interspersing this with my holiday gift knitting and finding that method works well at this point.  I feel good that I've made progress on holiday knits, but also feel I have enough time left till the holidays to get everything done, so I can squeeze in some charity knitting. 

Here are some photos of items finished and ready to send to Indiana.  After I've completed a couple more hats for the pile and sent them off, I'll continue to make more for Dulaan, which I participated in last year too.  The green mittens are made of stash yarn and an Ann Norling pattern.  The yarn is Classic Elite Bazic.  I'm not a big fan of it because it's hard on my hands while knitting.  However, it's machine washable and will be great for the mittens.  By the way, these are also for the Warm Hands knitalong.

Today I'm also including a photo of my new stash container!  It's the chest that Chloe let me put in my sewing room.  I also got the tiered basket set from my LYS and I love it.  This is most of my stash, but not all! 

On the right is a small wallhanging I'm making from a Mary Lou Weidman pattern.  It will be on hold until I can get my holiday knitting and quilting done.

Peaceful Palms

I finished the Mac & Me fingerless gloves for Peaceful Palms.  I still need to block them, but they came out very nice.  The fabric is so soft and warm.  I'm still trying to figure out who I made them for, but they will be a gift for someome.  Meanwhile, Sandy & Norma alerted me to a knitting project for the victims of last week's tornado in Indiana.  I have several Dulaan items that I will send along, since I'll have 6 months to make more for Dulaan. 

I'm working on a bunch of small Christmas gifts, like hats, mittens, a dog sweater, a one skein wonder and a small quilt.  I'm also doing some rearranging in my sewing room.  My daughter had a beautiful lingerie drawer in her room that she thought was taking up too much space so we moved it to my sewing room where it is now storage for finished items and much of my yarn stash.  As I put away the Halloween decorations yesterday, I thought I'd take photos of a couple of small fall quilts I have hanging around.  The Halloween one was made in 1999 and the scarecrow in 2002. 

Sparkly White

Yesterday we got our first snow that actually stuck and after a really cold night we woke up to sparkly white everywhere.  It's so pretty!  That's Mt Bachelor up there, showing off the powder it's famous for.  It should be opening next week.  Mark and Chloe are excited to start the snowboarding season.  Ryan and I love to do the tubing runs at the mountain.  Meanwhile, Scrabble is seeing his first snow! 

Yesterday, while it was cold and grey and generally a nice day for sitting by the fire knitting, I had the odious task of taking care of the piles of paperwork that have built up over a few weeks.  It wasn't fun and took literally all day.  I'll be glad when paperwork becomes history!  Anyway, there has been knitting going on, though not really any quilting for a few days. 

I picked up some gorgeous yarn by Bouton d'Or which is camel and wool.  It's so incredibly soft.  It took two nights to finish this scarf which is the Men's Cashmere Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts.  It's a very simple pattern, but looks so nice.  This is a gift for a special man in the family.  I have another in the works for another gift.

Meanwhile I also worked on the first of these fingerless gloves.  It is a Mac & Me pattern and is so soft and warm.  My husband tried them on and asked if they were for him.  I haven't decided yet, but maybe so.  I'm using Blue Sky Alpaca sport weight alpaca from my stash.  Maybe I'll need his and hers pairs!  I need to re-do the bind off.  It was too tight the first time, too loose the second time.  Hopefully third times the charm. 

On the right is the One Skein Wonder I started while on our trip to MA.  I had to wait for the third ball of yarn to be sent for the ribbing and I just got it bound off yesterday.  I can't wait to see it blocked.  I can see why this pattern has been so popular.  In fact, just last night I cast on for a red version of this, also in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran.  This is my new favorite yarn.  I'm thinking about what I can make for me with this stuff which is a dream to knit.