A Stitch or three in time…

I found some yarn in Michael’s that I just fell in love with. I suppose it would be considered a novelty yarn. All I know is that as soon as I touched it I knew I had to make something with it. That something turned out to be a shawl that I found the pattern for in a small book in the store.

AS soon as I find the label I’ll edit this and put down the yarn I used. I can’t find it right now, (blush).  It’s a bulky yarn that is kind of like a chenille on steroids. Fuzzier and much softer but with that sort of look. It’s totally lucious to touch and you really just want to sink into it.

This is the shawl I made. I had to learn how to do a Broomstick Lace stitch. It was a very odd stitch to understand, but once I learned it I loved how it looked. The shawl is soooo warm! The color reminds me of Neopolitan Ice Cream. I love how it came out.

When the van first broke down, as it always seems to be the case, it was during that week that we barely got above 0 degrees even during the day. My poor sweetie was out in that all day trying to fix the van. For 4 days he froze his bits and bobs off, and his face was practically numb it was so cold. I decided to try my hand at a helmet liner, or balaclava.

I found lots of patterns online. I started one and it was going great until I got to the part where the opening is. I couldn’t figure that out for anything, so I found another pattern and used that one for the opening. There was a bit of tweaking, but it worked out. The only thing I didn’t like was how short it is. It looked a LOT longer in the picture, even though I know I measured it and made it to the size they called for. Next time I would make it much longer and do it with a bigger hook so that it was more of a dickie look before moving into the neck part.

Still, it fits the sweetie fine and he LOVED wearing it the other day while spending hours snowblowing after the storm. He said his face was actually hot. yay!  The yarn is Cascade 220 washable wool in a dark green.

I’ve been wanting to try learning to make baskets. I’m always looking for something different to make to add to my things for sale at the store. I looked at a lot of basket patterns and got the general gist of how it works and set down to make my first ones. These are made out of tshirt yarn that I salvaged from the sweetie’s old tshirts. I like the rag rug look. I’m going to stiffen them up and put a bowl in them to get the shape to really set, but I don’t want them too stiff. Just enough to add a little body to them. I like how they came out overall. I’m thinking of weaving some ribbon in to dress them up a little.

Since I’ve been making nice warm wristers for others and my hands are always cold at my computer, I finally sat down to make myself a pair. I bought this really pretty pattern for a set of cabled fingerless gloves and a cabled headband. I started them last night and one glove is about halfway done, even with having to rip it out and start over.   They are going to be soooo soft and pretty and really warm. I’ll get pictures of those up when they’re finished.  I’ll also show you my newest earrings, which are made with crochet thread and look like tiny doilies.

Talk to you all again soon!

Changed my knitting mind…again

Yes, I know. I was going to start with the squares, for those who follow my blog, but I changed my mind. It probably had something to do with the fact that the first two I tried came out so badly that I frogged them back to first stitch in frustration. So I started the other pattern, you know, the one that looked so hard? I must be a glutton for punishment. I did so love the colors and yarn I had picked out for it though. I’m using Cascade 220 Superwash. It’s a lovely soft wool that doesn’t make me itch and is very forgiving with washing. I’m using a light green, a dark green and a dark brown. I have a ball of antique white also just in case I decided to use that somewhere.

So after 5 tries at getting the very first part started, the 6th was the keeper. This is part one of the pattern. You make this braided strip first. It ends up being 72 inches long when you are finished with it.

You will notice on the finished picture of it that she did the cable in two colors. I’d done a little cabling before but not this much and combined with all the other patterns in that 17 stitches that I had to learn, (like the bobble thingy), one color was quite enough.

The piece should look like this when its done… I hope! lol. 

Now I don’t think I’m breaking any rules here with the pictures of the finished piece because I did not include the pattern for it. If you wish to make this item, its from “Knit along with Debbie Macomber. Friendship Shawls” book. There are gorgeous items in there and its my first book by here. I want the rest. lol.

Anyway, I’ll keep you posted on how its going. I’ve done maybe 35 inches or so of the strip since day before yesterday. It’s not real fast going since there is a lot to do in a small space, but I’m plugging along.

Jeanie

 

 

A Christmas Shawl

Well, I’ve been working on this for a couple months off and on and its finally finished! The picture isn’t the best but you get the idea. I’ll put a link to the pattern in case anyone wants to make it. It was a free pattern from the i’net so I’m not worried about it. It’s quite long so it will really cover her arms nicely. It’s made from Bernat’s Handcrafter Holiday yarn in snow white with silver strands running through it. It is 100% cotton. She lives in Florida and cotton is good for those cool nights, but won’t be as hot as a regular yarn would have been. Since she is also in and out of water a LOT, it will be easy to just toss in the washer/dryer. The pattern you can find at www.redheart.com and its called “The Friendship Shawl”. It’s pretty easy, but even still they assumed a certain understanding of how to do a couple of the things. It’s sewn in two panels, but there isn’t a word of instruction on how they want you to fasten them together. I did a basic whip stitch after I tried to insert a knit panel in moss stitch and ran into problems with that. Also the ends you pretty much make up as you go because it was not great directions for the row ends so you always had to count all your stitches to be sure you have the right amount, then wing it each row. It was a bit odd that way. They also use, of course, redheart’s soft yarn, but you can use whatever you want and it worked just fine with cotton.

The pin is handmade by me. The middle medallion is shell and I wire-wrapped it in silver. The two blue beads I made with polymer clay (did I ever mention I made jewelry and sell it in town?) and I made it in shades of blue to remind me of the ocean and it has shimmer in it. The silver beads are pewter and they are hung on what is called a Kilt Pin. You can use these pins for everything from actual kilts, to shawl pins, scarf pins, hat pins or just regular pins on shirts or coats.  I liked all the silver because of the silver strands running through the white yarn.