Knit One Quilt Too

"A" you're adorable

"B" you're so beautiful, "C" you're a cutie full of charms...  This is my favorite alphabet song of all time.  Here's a cute one, turn your sound up and hug your pup! 

I've been thinking a lot about what would be representative of me beginning with the letter A.  It was really hard.  I've got lots of ideas for other letters, but A didn't come to me quickly.  I finally decided on two of my favorite books.  A is for Ahab's Wife and Animal Dreams.  Both of these books really affected me and I've read them multiple times.  After reading Ahab's Wife I was determined to make it to Nantucket Island and we did make it there last September.  Barbara Kingsolver is one of my favorite authors, so any book by her is a must read.

In knitting, I finally have a photo of the finished Fuzzy Feet.  My mom's been wearing them for a couple of months, but I kept forgetting to get a photo when we went over there.  She really likes them!

Scrabble fits quite nicely in his stocking as you see here.  I'll be duplicate stitching the bones and paw prints and I may end up felting it.  I need to try felting a swatch since I don't know if the Lamb's Pride oatmeal will felt, but I just might do it since the stocking is so big.

Lastly, I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year!  I have many plans for 2006 including lots of travel, finishing some WIP's and starting new projects.  This might even be the year I learn to spin.  We'll see!

Christmas Day Wrap Up

Christmas morning was a wonderful and relaxing time.  I made overnight cinnamon rolls the day before, so I just had to pop them in the oven and breakfast was ready in 30 minutes.  They were fantastic too.  I found the recipe online here.

The kids got many little gifts of books and small toys, but they each got one larger item.  For Ryan it was the Playmobil train which he'd been asking for for some time.  For Chloe it was a portable easel which was a complete (but welcome) surprise for her.  She has taken up acrylic painting and has had a wonderful time painting over the past week.

My main present was a new iPod and I'm so thrilled with it.  I've been downloading all the knitting podcasts I can find, as well as public radio broadcasts.  I'm a big fan of the spoken word, so although I'll be adding our cd's as well, I'll most likely be listening to podcasts and audio books.  I think I'll do a review of the knitting podcasts in a future post.

I got these two skeins in my stocking and have already made a pouch for my iPod which will be felted as soon as possible.  These are Big Kureyon and regular Kureyon.  I love these self striping yarns mainly for felting because the felting produces beautiful blended colors.

Here's the cat bed pre-felting.  You can see how huge this is with little Scrabble sitting there.  He weighs all of about 8 pounds.  This thing is huge!  It's been felted and is drying now.  It's still pretty big, but I'm not sure how much Cheryl's cats weigh.  She has three cats, so hopefully at least one will like it!  This pattern is from Cat Bordhi's A Second Treasury of Magical Knitting.

Here's another FO that I've just did the finishing touches on.  This cell phone pouch is of my own invention and the story behind it is that when I felted it with the little stockings I forgot it was in there.  It went through three (!) wash cycles with the Kureyon stockings because Kureyon always takes a long time to felt.  When I pulled it out it was really small and had developed the crease you see here.  This one is made of Blue Sky Alpaca and felted much faster.  I'm sure one or two trips through the wash would have been enough.  Anyway, I stretched it out as much as possible and left it to dry.  After it was dry I realized I had forgotten to put in the buttonholes!  So, I had to cut them into the felt.  Not such a bad mistake after all.  It was easy enough to fix.  Well, here it is, the phone fits perfectly, and it works beautifully on my bag strap.  It will mostly be hanging inside the bag, but I put it outside for the photo.

ABC A-long

I just joined the ABC A-long which I found out about on Norma's blog.  Looks like fun!  We're going to post a photo biweekly throughout 2006 of something starting with each letter of the alphabet.  It's supposed to be something that tells a little bit more about you.  I already know what I'll do with some letters, but it'll be a challenge for some.  Check out the link in the side bar!

The making of a Knitter

I got an email from my sister on Christmas day.  She and her husband were thrilled with all the wonderful knitted gifts they got.  In addition to the fingerless mitts, scarf, doggie sweaters, moebius basket and quilt they got from me, it turns out they have knitters on the other side of the family and received more knitted gifts from them. 

Now my sister is taking up knitting!  That's wonderul isn't it?  She is already a gifted glass artist, quilter and crafter.  She loves to try new things and does a lot of house remodel projects too.  She is fearless when it comes to trying new techniques so I'm sure she'll be a great knitter.  I tried to post the photo of the quilt I sent her, but apparently it's in the wrong format.  Being the non-techie that I am, I'll have to wait to see if I can get help on this.  Meanwhile I'm on the bottom decreases of the cat bed and will hopefully get to felt it tomorrow.  Then a few days to dry and off it will be sent to Cheryl to warm her kitties in their new mountain home next week. 

Now, just to brighten this post a bit.  I didn't mention in yesterday's post that Chloe was wearing her newest One Skein Wonder in the photos.  So here is another one of Chloe and her red OSW.  It's not the best photo of the sweater, but Chloe and Scrabble are pretty darn cute!  Coming next, the Christmas gift wrap-up and photos of the day.  Hopefully, some new knitting photos and maybe even some quilt posts too.

Christmas Eve

I managed to finish Scrabble's Christmas stocking by midnight Christmas eve (except for the duplicate stitching, which, let's face it, is what makes it a doggie stocking!).  It's bigger than the dog is which I didn't plan.  In fact, I stuffed him in there and he looked so incredibly cute, but I didn't take a photo.  I'll be sure to do that before I put it away for the season. 

We had a really nice Christmas Eve.  We went to my parent's house and had a quiet evening with a wonderful dinner and readings of Christmas stories and poems. 

Merry Christmas!!

I hope you are enjoying the day and have your loved ones close by.  We will be spending the day with my parents here at home.  It should be a relaxing day of playing games, checking out all the gifts and eating good food.  Here are some photos from our day trip to Sunriver.  First we went to the Sunriver Lodge to see the gingerbread house display.  These gingerbread houses are real works of art.  It's amazing the detail they have.  The third one is a representation of the lodge, which is really nice inside.  We ate a delicious lunch there, then headed to the stables for a real honest-to-goodness sleigh ride on the banks of the Deschutes River.

It was my first time on a real sleigh and it was really neat.  The feel is altogether different from a carriage ride which we've done numerous times.  Of course, the snow was turning slushy so wasn't as good as the week before would have been, but we enjoyed it nonetheless.  Chloe sat in front with the driver and declared it was a must to do this again next year.

Fun in Portland

We went to Portland last weekend to see the Oregon Zoo's Zoolights display. It was incredibly cold, but the lights were beautiful.  We saw a model train display and rode the little train that goes around the zoo.  We also saw paintings done by one of the zoo's elephants, Rama and saw the elephants in their indoor home eating hay.  It was funny to watch the littlest one using his foot to load his trunk with hay before bringing it to his mouth.

We also went to OMSI, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.  We spent all afternoon there, while it started to snow outside.  We had a great time.  Chloe and Mark tried out the Segue and we all helped to build the wooden dinosaur puzzles.

Portland only got an inch of snow, but it was enough to effectively shut down the city.  We tried to have dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory, but it was closed due to the weather.  We also decided not to try to get to Peacock Lane to see the Christmas light displays because the other cars were slipping and sliding all over.  We were doing well with our snow tires, but didn't want to chance it.  It was just as well as the roads were blocked all over with cars and trucks.  We did make it to McCormick and Schmick's which I've been wanting to try and the food was amazing.  Especially the desserts!  They really know how to do desserts. 

We came home after a stocking-up trip to Trader Joe's.  The weather had turned to rain even over the mountains and on the other side the roads were an icy mess.  It was good to be home, though with the temperatures rising we've had the snow turn quite slushy and the prospect of a white Christmas is dimming.  I suspect we'll still have some snow on the ground, but it will be very wet and unappealing.

The Artist at Work

Chloe made a beautiful block printing for our Christmas cards this year.  She had fun printing them out while I wrote the letter and printed out the photo of the kids. 

No Excuse

I'm sorry for the blogging absence.  There really is no excuse other than the usual holiday mayhem.  I've been reading blogs, but haven't taken the time to update my own.  Well, today you'll get an eyefull!  There has been much knitting and finishing lately.  Packages are mailed off, so the knitting must be mostly done.  I'm ashamed to say, that I just realized that I forgot to take a photo of the gift quilt that I mailed yesterday!  What a blogging disaster.  Well, I hope these make up for it.

I just love these felted stockings!  I featured my two favorite, but the others are wonderful too.  I love how the Kureyon felted and the colors are amazing.  The Lamb's Pride version is really nice too.  I will be writing up the pattern and will maybe try to sell it at my LYS.  I showed them the finished pieces and they are interested.  Perhaps I'll even teach a few two hour classes for this next Christmas.  They incorporate a couple of my favorite techniques- short row heels and toes, and I-cord bind off.  I think the toe- up short row toe is awesome and I will definitely use it in the future on regular socks.  The short row heel looks great for stockings because it is so evenly divided, but probably wouldn't be so sturdy on a regular sock.  I did something else to the socks in order to send them out as gifts.  I got myself a needle felting kit and added first initials to three of them.  These will go to three of my favorite little girls- Hana, Dasha and Katya.

I also finished two pairs of fingerless mitts.  I've posted the green ones before, but this is post blocking.  These will go to my hubby.  They are made of Blue Sky alpaca sport weight.  The blue ones are from Manos and the pattern is from Alterknits.  These are for my sister.  She and her husband are moving to the mountains near Big Bear, CA and she'll be needing them!  I love this pattern.  I might make some for myself with a bit of adjustment to the pattern.

Finally, here are the candy cane strip mittems.  I just love these!  They are also from Blue Sky alpaca and are so thick and warm because they are double stranded and have the alternating colors.  These are for my mother-in-law.  This pattern is from the Blue Sky pattern book called Knitters I Know.  It has some really nice patterns.  So far I've made the little felted bag, the diagonal scarf and these mittens.

Other finished knitted gifts include these two scarves from Last Minute Knitted Gifts and the Ear Cozy hat from Fiber Trends.  The scarves are for my brother-in-law and father-in-law, respectively and the hat is for Hana. 

All are winging their way to the recipients, which leaves me with a few last minute knitting projects here.  Last night I finished a beautiful red One Skein Wonder made with Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran.  It needs ends woven in and blocking before the fashion shoot.  I also attempted to finish a felted cat bed in time for mailing yesterday.  It became abundantly clear that it wasn't going to happen so I've put it off in favor of finishing Scrabble's Christmas Stocking.  Photos to come later.  I'll try to get the cat bed done in the next week or two.

Next Post:  Holiday happenings here and in Portland.  Stay tuned!

2 tries, 20 takes, 1 great photo

Well, it took two consecutive days and twenty minutes, but we finally got the Christmas photo.  Chloe has made a beautiful lino-cut block print picture for the front of the cards and I will be writing the letters soon.

We cut our tree on Saturday.  For a $5 permit you can cut a tree in the Deschutes National Forest.  The search required snowshoes this year, at least for the grownups, and we had a great time.  The tree is just over 12 feet tall!

On to knitting!  I finished another charity hat.  This one is such a pretty soft green Chloe wanted it, but she said she could make one for herself and this one should go to someone who needs it.  I will take it to the library this week where they have a hat, mitten and scarf tree.  The items will be distributed to children in our community.  This is also a Dulaan Cloud Hat made with JoAnn's angel hair and 60 stitches.

Here's a photo of the stockings pre-felted.  I might try to get them felted today.  I'm anxious to see how they turn out.  I might try to sell this pattern at my LYS after I get the details worked out.  Also, on the left is the cell phone holder.  It looks a little strange now, but I will post a photo of it in use after felting.  I just hope the phone fits.