Achoo!

Travel kleenex cozies, or whatever you call them! 

Today i figured out a better way to resolve the bias tape, carefully folding it under in a tricky way! They turned out good and i plan to give them as gifts! 

They take a very small amount of fabric. That pattern is from One Yard Wonders, available at your local library. 

I think this one is for my Grammie. :)

And! I spent last night, the eve of my 30th b-day making a mix cd, later watching Sense and Sensibility and knitting the toe of this sock. For the 2nd sock i picked up stitches last night. (I am just after the heel) It will probably bemy lunch  break knitting! I sort of feel like the cuff seems short. If i have leftovers I may try to lengthen it a bit. 

This week.

Just wanted to share what I have been working on. Making more curtains and I even made curtain ties for the little bedrooms.  I had just enough fabric. 

I need to hem our bedroom curtains, and hem sheers I got at Ikea for our sliding glass door. They had tabs and so I removed them and will use that end to fold up for the bottom hem. 

Started some socks. A very basic pattern. The yarn is Moonshadow colorway by Black Trillium Fibers. I was not sure if I had enough yardage, so yesterday I bought some basic black yarn to do heels & toes. I also bought the Fish Lips Kiss heel pattern on Ravelry for $1 because I have heard so much about that pattern and would like to try it. I currently have 1 cuff all the way done and am almost done with the 2nd cuff. I am taking turns working on both so hopefully i will not run out of yarn. Or at least will run out at the same spot.

Here is some other yarn. I do have a project in mind but more about that later.

Today I may sew another knitting project bag.  Also I am cutting out some quilt triangles. I would love to start on a sock heel if i have time!

Finally finished knitting

 Yep, you guessed it, I did finally finish the fingerless gloves, and the Blue Green Socks.
They were finished last week, (I wove in the ends on a beach daytrip) but I have not gotten photos til now. Slightly washed out, I believe I mentioned previously they are a pretty/ugly green/brown.

The heels look funny in the photos, but feel pretty comfortable.

I started another rainbow toddler sock, but have not made a lot of progress. I also started a toddler mitten in a pretty colorway that goes from navy to dark green to purple. It is in my purse, and I did a little bit of knitting on it, not a ton of progress...
BECAUSE...

We have moved in with family for at least a month and I have been cleaning the old apartment, and then today trying to organize all the piles of stuff in our bedroom, plus do laundry, cook etc.

I am hoping to knit from some of the random stash that has been in a box here... we'll see. Once we move to our house, I will probably primarily do lunchtime work knitting.

Sock Re-Do

These are some socks I made years ago. I ran out of yarn so started using the light green/white yarn to make it stretch. The socks were toe up. I found them in my knitting bin at my parents and knew that a moth or somebody else had came and went. I decided to rip them out and since they are bright rainbow, make something for little kids to wear. 

 As I began to rip out the socks I found that the pale green yarn was coming apart, I don't know if it was just eaten or just didn't last well. I only saved a small amount of it that still seemed good. I think it was Tofutsies brand, so it has soysilk in it. I'm trying to decide if I will make socks or mittens from it. Yesterday I wound it into big loops, got it wet and let it hang on a hanger to get some of the kinks out of it. It is pretty much dry today and I will wind it into balls.

 We are moving in the next few months (Not sure where yet...) I am trying to slowly sort things through. The last few weeks I have been cutting 6in squares for a denim quilt. I think I am close to having enough of the same types to start the quilt. When I cut up pants I take off buttons, occasionally zippers (To repair my husbands jeans some day, if needed.) I often cut off the tags (I am interested in them)  and If there are good sized patchs I save them to someday make a sort of crazy quilt hopefully. I saved pairs to remove the pockets so I can get 2 more squares from the fabric underneath. It is tedious but hopefully I can get it done soon and throw out the rest of the pants.

Springtime knitting

Here are some current photos of two projects I am working on. Knitted socks for me.

              Please excuse the basement apartment lighting... I'm sure I have said before, this is my lunch time knitting and keep-in-my-purse knitting. 

Baby sweater for a friend. Using the Baby Sophisticate pattern for worsted yarn. It is a really pretty navy (not so dark as the photo). It looks small but I realized the collar will add to the width around. I am doing a 12 month size, but I know my yarn is considered a light worsted.

Other news of sorts. We are trying to buy a house. We have to move soon from our current spot. And my husband has to move his small business. So we are trying to get a house to combine it all. We have one in mind but are not sure if we will get it. If we do It needs a ton of work, like redoing all the flooring and removing wallpaper etc. lots of painting, of course. I am excited and nervous at the same time!

Sock update

Last night I started on the heel of my sock and finished it  today and it turned out pretty well! Now I get to continue on the foot!

Catch up 2: The list so far..

Remember this list? See part 1 if you wish... Here's what I have finished lately!

In threes sweater. Made for a sweet baby yet to be born. I have friends in mind but we don't know the gender yet so I figured make it anyway and save it for another baby if they have a boy. I may make the baby sophisticate if they have a boy. I do like personal gifts so it feels a little weird to make a random sweater, but I think since I have some free time, I should just make what I can before our lives are so busy. I have done this pattern before, in this color. It is such an easy and satisfying pattern I want to make them in tons of colors. I use cascade 220 superwash.

Here it is getting washed.

Blinded by the light!!

Pretty bad photos, but here is a pair of reflective mitts I made for my mom. They walk a lot and she has made at least one sort of arm band that reflects. When I saw this yarn i thought of her and I had to buy it. They are made so she can wear them over other gloves and hopefully the cuff will stretch enough to pull over coat sleeves.  

These socks are not yet on the list because I am not done (though I am further than this photo) I am doing the classy slip up pattern. With an after thought heel. I am past the heel and I think soon I will stop and do the heel so I can have a better idea of how long the foot will need to be. It is my lunchtime knitting! I generally have at least 30 mins to knit which helps me de-stress and I can at least get a little bit done every day.

Photos of a pretty small rag rug. I started it years ago. It took forever because the fabric strips were too thick, it was pretty hard to knit and hurt my wrists if I did too much at a time. I think they were 1& 1/2 inches and I should have just done 1. Anyway. I finished it just so it could be done and gave it to a friend. It is so colorful and cushy. (They currently have it on the seat of an old chair) I love rag rugs as a way to finish up bits and pieces of fabric. They have so much history of the various projects the fabric was used in originally.  But they can be a lot of work. I started cutting 1 inch strips to crochet a rug. It is less heavy to crochet it, and I have a bigger crochet hook than I have knitting needles. 

No pictures yet of the cowl I made. More on that later!

Ps: maybe someday I will learn to link things better. Use google or Ravelry to see the original knitting projects if you wish.

Summer Projects

 Today I finished stripping the last 3 drawers of my dresser. I started last summer, and it feels so good to be making progress. I love real wood, and hopefully next week or so I can tackle the rest of it. I think I will stain it maybe a medium tone, or maybe even a red of some sort.

This is the first of my Afterthought Heel socks. I'm very pleased with them, and the whole process was much faster than usually when I make socks. I will start the next one soon. The yarn is Heritage Paints sock yarn by Cascade.

Tonight I also finished up knitting the felted red slippers I am making. I just need to seam together the soul and felt them. Today I also cut out triangles for a black and white quilt I have been planning for some time. The last time I tried to lay out the quilt I got overwhelmed by the pattern. There's supposed to be darks, whites, and then like a dark "gray" and light "gray" of values. Each piece's value is relative to those around it, so I kept moving pieces around and then gave up after a while. I have a few more fabrics added now, and I'm also contemplating making the quilt smaller, like a twin perhaps just to help make it less overwhelming, and also to have room to lay it out on the livingroom floor.

Lala

Today I cut out fabric for some PJ pants. I'm excited to make them, I know pants can be hard, but they are PJs, so it's not like it really matters if they are perfect. I will sew them later this week or next week I hope.

Also... I'm finally much more excited about some socks i have been knitting.  I have been trying to make a pair of socks for my sister for, oh, a year. And somehow the first pattern I tried, i got so confused on it, it was hard to set down and pick it back up again. So, then I came up with another pattern, Twisted which is free on Knitty.com. So i have maybe 3/4 of an olive green sock in that pattern. A few days ago I found another pattern I really liked, Simple Striped Socks, a free pattern from Lion Brand Yarn. I started knitting them maybe 2-3 days ago, and they're going so fast. In addition to the olive green, I'm using (I think) Noro sock yarn. I bought the yarn last year, and tried to make socks while I was in Kenya. I finished a black pair for my boyfriend sucessfully, but never finished the first one for me. A few days ago, i took apart that first sock and meanwhile got inspired to put the two yarns together for the striped sock. The colors are a little off in this picture, but i'm finally more excited about the project. I think i will finish the Twisted sock, and either give her mis-matched socks, or make two striped ones if I have enough yarn.

Today I met with my friend Sarah for our first knitting group. It was really fun, I knit on my socks, and she started a turtle... Sheldon.
I look forward to knitting with her again soon!