James' Raccoon Hat

My 10yr old has wanted a raccoon hat (been nagging for one really for about a week and a half now!) and I have finally gotten around to finishing it...  He likes very colorful things and right now his favorite colors just so happen to coincide with the Gators colors...hmmm...   So his hat is very colorful!  I believe that kids should get to express their imagination as they see things , as long as it is tasteful.  I think as long as he is just asking for a hat to wear, what difference does it make if it is not traditional... He doesn't have a tattoo, or piercings all over or break the law so a colorful hat is Just fine!  What do you think?

Paprika Gloves or First knitting in the Round Project!

I love the look of a seamless project!  Up until now, I have knitted all my projects flat...on regular needles.  Oh, I have had double pointed needles for about 3 weeks now but have not had the patience to continue working with them.  They lay in the corner taunting me......day after day......after day!  I finally got mad enough to pick them up and do something with them!  I will not be beat by 4 skinny pieces of metal!!!  Not only did I learn to knit in the round, I also figured out how to make a thumb in the round after leaving it for the rest of the glove.  I am still perfecting this but it doesn't look to bad and I will have it figured out by the next time I go back to knitting gloves in the round!  Here they are!!  I love the feel of the cotton on my hands....so yummy!!   Makes me want to put them up to my face and rub
them like a little kid with his blanket! LOL  If you are just
starting out knitting and are interested in knitting in the round but maybe need some help, here is a book by Jeanne Stauffer on it.  Let me know how it goes!

Fun Hats!

The kids always start asking about hats when school starts.  I usually will do about one a week till everyone has one but this time I am a little ahead of schedule.  I will get 2 more done before Friday!  The current hat my freshman has asked for is a Raccoon crochet hat which I am almost done with.  Of course my grade schooler wants one with different colors!  He likes being noticed but the highschooler does not.  I am writing down my patterns as I go and will probably post one up soon!  Let me know if you like this hat!  I need some feedback other than a teenager's! lol

Need a local yarn shop!

For a while now, I have been buying yarn at Walmart when I can because I don't have to drive for 30 minutes to get there.  Today, I had to go to get fish food (for some reason the fish think they should eat a couple of times a day...)and I could tell as soon as I walked in that things were changing.  I walked into the nursery entrance, and as soon as I got into the regular part of the store, I was greeted with arts and crafts...not the usual array of plant food and fertilizers that are normally there.   Not good.  The arts and crafts were missing some things too.  I know what you are thinking..."Didn't they tell us all they were phasing out the material section?"  and yes, I know that too.  But really...why My Walmart?  Did they have to start taking the things I enjoy out of My Walmart?  I am already having difficulty finding the yarn I need.  Yes, I am glad they still have Peaches and Cream cotton yarn but I really would like to see more Charcoal colored wool or wool blends.  This is a dream obviously, that will never happen.  Now I have to drive out of the way to get to Joanns where I will have to pay much more and still not see much charcoal.  We really need a local yarn shop here!!!  And if there is one, Someone needs to tell me where it is!  Okay....I'm off my soap box now and I think I will pick up the double pointed needles and paprika cotton cuff I am working on and continue.....

Golden Harvest Gloves

My second effort at Knit Crochet turned out ok.  Although it wasn't exactly the color scheme that I wanted, it still looks nice.  Will be trying out a purple/ variagated red-violet-pink/ and orange next.  The Sugar and Cream cotton I used was really sweet! (no pun intended lol)  I love the feel of cotton.  Working on figuring out how to transfer the patterns to PDF so I can send it out!

Fall Glove Pattern

Bear with me as I have not written a pattern this complicated before (even if I have made something more complicated...  : - )

Skills:

Crochet: slip st, single crochet, half double crochet
Knitting: Rib knit 2 x 2

Materials:

2 regular size 8 knitting needles                                         
1 size 9 crochet needle
1 darning needle
scissors
1 ball of Carron Simply Soft Chocolate yarn       A

1/4 ball of Red Heart Classic in Dark Sage         B
1/4 ball of Red Heart Classic in Copper             C


Directions:
With knitting needles, cast on 32 sts in A.
Rows 2-12, rib knit 2 x 2 in A.
Row 13, Bind off in rib knit 2 x 2 in A.
Using darning needle, sew side seams together with an invisible vertical seam.
Row 14.  Turn cuff inside out and crochet with crochet needle and color C, from the cast on row of cuff, in a single crochet until you have 29 sts evenly around cuff and join the round with color B.
Row 15.  Turn glove right side out again and half double crochet in B in both top sts.
Row 16.  Half double crochet in B in top stitch only so that there is a line in color B in the row beneath.
Row 17.  Join row 16 with color A and chain 3, attach into both top sts with a slip stitch and repeat till the end of row and join round with color B.
Row 18.  Single Crochet in color B in the back post of the previous row of color A.  Join round.
Row 19.  Half double crochet in color B into both top sts of previous row.  Join round with color C.
Row 20.  Single crochet with color C into first both top sts of previous row and next stitch into just front top stitch so that you make a v with C into the previous row.  Join Round.
Row 21.  Single crochet with color C into both top sts of previous row and join round.

Making Thumb hole:
Slip stitch forward into next 3 stitches and then chain 7 and attach chain to 6th stitch from chain backwards.

Row 22.  Chain 1 and then single crochet into the chain by making the stitches go entirely underneath the chain of 7 (thumb hole). Single crochet into first stitch to left of thumb hole and continue around until you meet the 1st chain of the thumb hole.  Join Round with color A.
Row 23.  Half double crochet with color A into both top sts of previous row.  Join round.
Row 24.  Chain 3 and half double crochet into 3rd st from chain.  Chain 1, skip a st and half double into next stitch and repeat until you end round.  Join round.
Row 25.  Half double crochet with color A into both top sts of previous row.  Join round with color B.
Row 26.  Chain 2 with color B, skip a stitch and attach with slip stitch into next st.  Repeat till end of round.  Join round with color A.
Row 27.  Half double crochet next round into back post of last row of color A in color A.  Not Green Row.  So that green sticks out and new row is partially behind green row.
Row 28.  Single crochet with color A into both top sts of previous row and join round.

Making finger holes:

With color A, half double crochet into bottom loop(inside of glove) of previous row and chain 3.  Attach with slip stitch across the inside of the glove, into the bottom of previous row just like other side, chain 2 and slip stitch into top stitch of inside of glove.  Half double crochet over the chain just created from one side of glove to other for 3 sts and slip stitch into top of glove on original side.  Slip st next 3 stitches from left to right then repeat whole process 2 more times and tie off.
Row 29.  Using color C, slip stitch across top of glove and tie off.


Finished project should look like this:

Mixed Creation

I've been tinkering around awhile with the idea of something made with both knit and crochet.  I was finally able to come to an agreement that I just needed to start it and then make up my mind while doing it as usuall. I started a regular glove ( I lost my last fall gloves and wanted some with the same brown/orange and green color scheme) with brownKnit & Crochet Combined: Best of Both Worlds 2/2 rib knit with some larger needles ( my smaller ones were still engaged in the end of my last project!) , size 9, and made it the regular 13 rows of 32 sts and bound it off in rib.  I then sewed the seams together and started to crochet the row I casted on with orange yarn.  Of course by the time I finished the glove, I had definitely done my share of ripping rows and changing patterns and colors but was satisfied with the resulting project!  Now to finish the other one!

If you are interested in this kind of art, you can find a book like this one on Amazon.

Love to Help

I had to make an early trip to Walmart this morning.  Along with all the groceries at the check out I had a couple of peaches and cream fall colors of cotton and a pkg of darning needles.  "Kimberly", the check out woman started talking about how her sewing machine was broken and she couldn't hem up her shower curtain.   She had taken it to the sewing center and they wanted $50 to fix it!  I reminded her that it would be easy to hem by hand to which she replied, "I'm too lazy to do that", probably meaning, I work all the time and don't have the energy to do that when I get off.  She then talked about making her husbands shirts and pants and her own maternity clothes when she was younger and still had children in the house.  Reminded of how my own mother used to do this for everyone in the house, I found myself wanting to help this woman.  I have 3 sewing machines and could certainly loan one out.  I ended up leaving my phone number and name with her and told her to call me and I would loan her one.  She was so surprised that I would help her!  Have we really come down that low in this world that people would be surprised at someone wanting to help out?  That's really sad.  Well I have decided that I am going to make more of a point to help others needing it this year!  Maybe I will add some new friends along the way too!

New Shopping Conquests!!

I love wandering around the Mission here and finding treasures.  Today was definitely a day for treasures!  I found 4 Boyds circular needles still in the package for only 99 cents!  I have been needing some too!  I also found a bag of yarn for  59 cents and about a yard of charcoal fleece that I have some plans for making ...wait for it...fingerless gloves...noticing a trend?  Ok...so I am just a little addicted to these things but who doesn't need a set of gloves Huh?  At any rate, I have had this idea on my mind for a little bit and also on my to-buy list so I was very glad to see some also for just 59 cents.  Next week, after I come out of the school is starting for my 5 kids, coma , I will have lots of fun creating!  Yay!  Can't wait till next week!  What is your next project?  Are you excited to start anything new?

Alpaca wool mix fingerless glove

I really love this new charcoal alpaca wool blend!  This is the first time though that I have experimented with cables and it was surprisingly simple.  I made these flat as I didn't feel like messing around with 4 needles yesterday : P   I realized halfway through that they would probably be a little tighter with the cable and being made from a wool blend.  However, they didn't turn out too tight.  My 12 year old is wearing the one in this photo and still has circulation..lol...   I came up with the idea for the stripes after seeing some leftover scraps from other projects I have worked on recently lying in a pile on the floor by the yarn basket.  I really like the stripes best on the back without the cabling, though.  The top by the fingers is just rolled but was a little tighter around the thumb and stayed put.  Whatever happens, someone's hands will be Very warm this fall and winter!   If you are thinking of trying out cables for the first time,  Amazon has a few books on the subject---

New gloves knitted a few weeks ago

This is one of the new fingerless gloves I have designed and knitted recently.  Made from royal blue acrylic, brown cotton and citron acrylic, they have a rolled top over fingers and the thumb.  I experimented with ridges made with either 2 knitted rows or two purled rows according to the look.  I also made a little v in both sides as a thumb hole and used an invisible verticle seam to put the thumb together with the glove.  I will be selling this pattern soon on etsy so let me know if you would like a pdf copy.

Learning to knit (or improving your knitting skills)

For years I tried to learn to knit from a book with no luck.  I finally wised up and used the internet tool YouTube.  What a great tool to have for anyone wanting to learn practically anything!  I was soon casting on and knitting and purling all day!  Although YouTube was great for the minor things, I soon realized that searching all the listings for specific knowledge was not so fast.  I started looking out for instructional manuals and recently hit on an outstanding book called "Teach Yourself Visually Knitting" !  From this book, I have added the following skills: knitting in the round, cabling, how to pick up dropped stitches, how to increase and decrease stitches in almost any situation,how to unravel,etc..  In addition to being the best how-to book I have seen (and now happily own : ) ), it was the best $25.00 I have spent so far on crafting!  Try it out for yourself and let me know what you think!  You can find it online at Amazon with the link to the left.

A New Project!

I decided to take a side jaunt into JoAnns today to see if my change would stretch into a few needles, some yarn and a couple of other needed items for knitting as well as a sheet of foam for a new mouse pad(which works great and was only 69 cents!). Not too many sales going on for the yarn that I wanted...I can never find enough charcoal color...but at least the hooks and needles were on sale for 25 % off. Getting to the counter however, I noticed a girl behind the counter ( I say girl but she has been an adult for at least 2 years...vanity, thy name is woman...) that I previously taught in church when she was about 13! She waves me over and says that she will give me a discount! Yay!! Got 40% off on almost everything and was Indeed able to stretch my change! I have to admit, God is always in the middle of everything! Now to get busy knitting in the round this time with my new double pointed needles...I am thinking to start my learning off with just gloves, then move on to hats and maybe...much later...socks. : )