Baby Layette

Thank you so much everyone for your well wishes on my new art school that I posted about in my last post!  It means so much to me.  Everyone I know virtually and really have been so supportive, and ready with a kind word when I feel down or feel like I'm not going to be able to this whole thing fly, that it warms my heart and keeps me going.  So thanks so much!

Onto other things...I haven't been able to create a whole lot lately but the kids have a new little baby cousin coming soon and I just had to make something!!  I love cute baby clothes!

 This sweater was so easy to make up!!  Front and back are basically the same, sleeves are the same, put it together, sc around the neck edge and TADA!  A wee little baby sweater is born.

 These pants were a little more tricky, but I powered through and completed them.  I hope they fit.

 The hat a booties really just crocheted themselves!  They went so quickly!  I love this newborn baby hat pattern and I think I will be making more of these in the future - an hour of time from the start to the finish and it was done.  Aren't those baby booties just the cutest?!

This is the whole layette all together.  It's called:  Mint Green Newborn Set and is available for free on Ravelry here.  I can tell you that the pattern is well written and super easy to follow.  The texture created from the combination of crocheting into the front loop and the back loop is really interesting and very pretty.

Please check out the sidebar for more fun projects from other talented fiber artists!

New crochet stitch - new blanket

In spending too much time on Pinterest :o) I found this little stitch that I totally fell in love with.

 It is a sc, dc, dc all in the sc of the previous row.

 I started a chain that I had done the math and thought I would wind up with a blanket that would be approximately 4 feet wide.  Well....it wound up being 6 feet wide (obviously, I need to go back to 1st grade!) so now I have decided that is the length - I have made it 2 feet wide so far and have about 2 feet to go.  It is truly eating the yarn though.  I have used a one pound ball of yarn and 2 other normal size balls of yarn that were in my stash and then purchased another one pound ball of yarn of which I am about one quarter of the way through.  It is going to be one heavy, warm blanket!!

 Both my husband and my daughter want a bright turquoise edging so this is what I chose.  I am not quite sold on it yet.  What do you think?

 This is my progress so far.  My oldest daughter asked if it could be all white, and I had said, "Sure!"  Now, after hours and hours of time with this monster, I am sort of regretting that decision.  Just a little color, please?????

This is the current book that I am pouring over.  It is really well written and easy to follow.  I am planning on trying out some of these ideas in the new scarf that I am trying to make from start to finish on my loom.  So far, I really like the Leno Lace so that will make it into the scarf, but I'm not sure what else.

Click on the links on the sidebar for other WIPs.

Fish Blanket

I've been working steadily on putting the Fish Blanket together.

 All the vertical stripes are done and now it's just a matter of crocheting the horizontal stripes.

 Still a few rows to go, but mostly done.  A border will need to be added as the ends do not line up as neatly as I had hoped.   I'm not quite sure what type of border this needs or even what color.

 My favorite fish.  I love the fun and happy color of this one!

 The back of this blanket along with the book I am currently reading.  I am almost done with it and have enjoyed it immensely so far.

A close up of how this method of attaching pieces together looks on the back.   Kind of reminds me of Frankenstein!

Look over at Tamis's and Ginny's for more yarny type fun.

Tuesday Tallies

This week was not quite as productive as last week. Lots of other fun stuff going on - science fair for the 1st and 4th graders to name one - the projects are fun, but the write up (especially for the 1st grader) takes a lot of work.

My 7 hexies. Also, these hexies with added elements take quite a bit longer to make than the other ones!!

This is my favorite of the bunch. I will definitely make more of these!

This one is ok. I liked the duplicate stitch stem and leaf, but the rose is a little wonky. It sticks out a bit more than I would like. I might try one more just to see if I can get it to look a bit better.
This one I don't like at all. It is MUCH bigger than the others and I really don't like the "holes" where the stuffing is showing through. The pattern for this is well written and easy to to follow - I might try it again in much smaller yarn and a smaller hook. Just to see if I can get it right.
I am on the fence about this one. My dh says that I should make the ruffles shorter - not have them go all the way to the ends of the hexie. He thinks that will look better. I don't know. Maybe. Will have to give it a try.

7 squares for the Gingerbread Bear Afghan

7 more kites. I almost just kept knitting on this. I like just pulling out a ball of yarn from the box and adding it in anywhere I choose. Plus, knitting these takes no brain power at all and sometimes that is just what I need!!

One-a-Day Tallies

This week was a really good knitting/crochet week! Soccer games started with scrimmages each an hour and a half. 3 hours of good knitting time!! Also, the first grader still reads to me for 30-45 minutes EVERY day - he is getting more and more confident, though so that knitting time is soon to disappear. It's ok if he's still reading to me when he is...oh....say...23, right??

Without further ado, I show you 7 more hexi puffs!

7 more squares for the Gingerbread Bear Afghan

More kites - now these are truly addictive. The smaller ones are approximately 500 stitches to make, while the larger one is 2,000 stitches to make, so therefore the larger one should count as 4 kites. BUT I just couldn't stop, so I present 1 large kite and not 4 smaller ones, but..
5 smaller ones - see that orange one with the stitch marker on it? That one is new also! That brings the tally (if you count the large one as 4) up to 9 kites. WAHOO!!
This is the whole thing - I do think it is wide enough - now I just keep building up until I think it is long enough. If I keep going this way, it will be done in no time at all!!
Because I was on a roll, I pulled out the Whirly Gig that has been languishing for a LONG time and started work on it. This hexagon was done, but not sewn up, so I finished that in short order.
I went on to make another one because I figured that since each hexagon is made up of 6 wedges, if I added it to my one-a-day projects, I would complete more than 1 of them a week.
Then I just couldn't stop at one wedge, it just looked so lonely all by itself! So three more wedges were made.
Here are all of them together. I just love the way the colors meld into one another. I need 33 of these puppies and then they need to be sewn together. If I keep up with 1 hexagon and a bit more each week it shouldn't take all that long to finish it up! Although finishing is not my strong point - think of the fish blanket!
THEN, I wanted to try out a new crochet pattern that I had found on the internet a little while back. I printed out the pattern for it and put it in the "I Love This and must do it soon" pile. That pile is just way, way, too big :o) Thank goodness for Pinterest - now instead of printing these out, I just pin them!
All the yarn is left over from the Granny Stripe Afghan except for the white which I just had to have for these squares. You know, they would have looked so weird with a different color in that spot!
I made 7 of them and love them to bits! The pattern is called "Circle-y Granny" and if you click on the name it will bring you to the pattern. The pattern is super easy and really well written. I made the first one without a hitch and did not even have to rip at all. If you have been reading this blog for even a little bit, you know that almost all of my projects need to be ripped back at some point. These are not slated to become a blanket. I think a pillow for my couch will be perfect!! See you soon!

One-A-Day Progress

This week was fairly productive. Doesn't hurt that we had an extra AP Chem tutoring session (those are 1 1/2 hours each) and we also went to the beach where I got some fabulous knitting time in. What could be better that spending time running in and out of the waves with the kids and then sitting for a bit knitting?? Not much!

My 7 hexies - a couple of them are a little "special".

Love this one! Will be making more of these in different color combinations.

I tried something new with these. The one on the left is knit intarsia like where I actually knit the green and orange stitches with the background stitches. The hexi on the right is done with duplicate stitch. I can't figure out why they are so differently shaped - the one on the right is the right shape, but you can see the one on the left is way skinnier and taller. What happened??
I like the duplicate stitch a bit better because it sits on top of the stitches and therefore produces a more 3-D like picture. It was not as fiddly as I thought it was going to be and actually took the same amount of time as the other one.
This one was way fiddly - with the threads constantly twisting and tangling in the back. Still it did not take as long as I thought - approximately 50% more time that just a regular hexi.
Naked needles :o( This is the first time in a few years that there have been no fish on these needles. They have served me well (and will again in the future). I am happy that I am done knitting the fish, but a little sad also. How crazy is that?!! I hope someone understands me because my husband thinks I am bonkers.
The last 5 fish - I will organize the last 5 rows needed probably this week and continue to crochet them together. Now......to border or not to border that is the question
The required 7 mini grannies for the teddy bear afghan. These whip up so quickly it is almost embarrassing that I am including them in my one-a-day projects.

This was the kite afghan as it stood last week.

This is where it is at now. I kind of had a problem stopping at just 7 kites! It is almost wide enough now so a few more on the outsides and then I will just keep building.

I just love some of the colors - That magenta, orange and white one is a favorite

as well as this crazy green and purple one.

I just knit this big one last night. They are the equivalent of about 4 of the regular kites so they take a bit of time.

Well, I'm off to make lunches for the kidlets to take to school. Have fun today!

Fishing in progress

I now only have 2 1/2 fish to knit to reach my goal of 180!! 180 will make us a very nice sized blanket. I started laying them out on the kitchen table - I had previously figured out that I needed 12 rows of 15 fish each.

I could have taken pictures all day. I love the way they all look together. Some are with just one color and some are with more than one - it just depended on when I ran out of yarn. Above, in the middle of this photo, you can see a fish that has 4 colors!! Just little bits that I didn't want to waste :o)
Right here are 120 fish. 10 rows of 12 fish. I was rearranging them to try to balance to colors so that there wouldn't be too many of one color all together.
Then I bagged them up in order by row. Each row getting it's own bag. I can take from the top of the bag and they stay in the order I want. As I finish sewing a bag of fish together, I can just grab the next bag.

All ten rows bagged up!

The start of my seaming. As always, I am slow - it is taking me about 5 minutes per fish - so about an hour per row.
The first three rows done. My oldest had an AP Chemistry tutoring session (1 1/2 hours) and this is what I worked on.

The front seaming of the blanket will look like this.

I really like the braid that is formed by this method.

And the back seaming looks like this. I seriously can't decide which I like best. I hosted a knit night with my friends here last Friday night and they were split almost exactly 50/50 on who liked the front the best and who liked the back the best.

Those zig zags just look so fun!

3 rows done - 12 more to go :o) Not too much longer and this baby will be hanging out on our couch :o)

Go visit Tami's to see more works in progress.