Nessie!

I have made this pattern four times now. Two were given away, and the other two have gone missing with all the moving. So, now I have a cute little purple Loch Ness Monster, to live on my desk. 

Pattern: Loch Ness Monster by Hansi Singh

Yarn: Knit Picks Comfy Fingering (held doubled)

Rainy Day Socks

 I started these socks when we had some record rain fall and flooding going on.



It took me "24 days" to knit them, but really over half that time I just sat and looked at them when I stalled out on knitting the legs.



Pattern: Water Cycle Socks by Tami Sheiffer
Yarn: My very own hand dyed sock yarn!
Notes: I changed the cuff to just be plain ribbing instead of the fold over picot cuff in the pattern. I need them to be done and ribbing is much faster.

Snowflake Hat

 My first completed project of the year! A lovely snowflake hat for me.

If I have to wear a stupid hat when it rains, at least I can make it a pretty one!

Pattern: Snawheid by Kate Davies
Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll in Sapphire Heather and Undyed

There are some wonky places, two handed colorwork is not what I am the best at. I guess that means this hat was good practice for me. 

15 Projects

I found this group on Ravelry that is 15 projects for 2015. They have some different themes, 15 pairs of socks, 15 hats, 15 sweaters, etc. I am going to do 15 projects of whatever type strikes my fancy. However I am setting the rule that they are 15 projects for myself. Out of the 20 knitting/crochet projects I completed in 2014, only 1 was for me. I don't have the numbers on the sewing projects, but I know those wouldn't be in my favor either. So, I feel like having a “selfish” year. :)

I have a few things I would like to do but the rest will probably just be spontaneous.

1. Pomme de pin Cardigan - I bought lovely yarn for this one, just never got around to starting it.
2. something pretty - Ordered yarn to start this. I want to do one square a day until it is done.
3. Celestarium - I love this so very much.
4. Something from lalylala. They are adorable. I keep saying I am going to do one and then not doing it.
5. Gloves. I badly need some. Probably these ones or these ones.
6. I should probably make myself a hat. I hate hats but it rains a lot here, and my coat doesn't have a hood and umbrellas are inconvenient sometimes. Done!
7. Sew myself a new purse, I have this fabric and this pattern waiting to be made. Done!
8. The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery Story Time Sampler cross stitch. Decided I don't like it. Need something different.
9. This fun Firefly inspired cross stitch.
10. Paper Pieced Hexagon quilt for the living room.
11. Socks. Done!
12. Nessie Done!

13.
14.
15.

I'll have to update this post again as I decide what other things I am going to do. I am also hoping that putting this on the blog will help hold me accountable, so that I actually get it done.  I am also going to add the projects I complete over on the sidebar.

Rainbow yarn

Aubrey had been asking for some rainbow socks "Please Mom? With pink instead of red." So I complied and bought some yarn.

And made some socks:

And some more socks:

And then a little monster:

It all ended up pretty adorable! But I do have to say I am a bit sick of knitting rainbow stripes now.

Rainbows in Winter

I love it when a pile of yarn, the picture in my head and a page full of scribbles,

Starts to come together into the cutest sweater ever! See the scribbly paper back there? That is my "pattern". 
This first one is for Sierra, it will even have cloud shaped pockets. I can't wait for it to get finished. And then I am going to make one for Aubrey too. And Ivyn might get one with the pink and purple removed. I might be sick of stripes by then though.

Kitten Mittens

The other night Aubrey was saying that her hands were cold and asked me to make her some mittens. I guess I have trained her well, since her first instinct was to ask me to make her mittens instead of buying some. :D I gave her some pattern options and she picked out these cute kitten ones:

© knitting by hand

Then, I asked what color she wanted and just about died of shock when she said purple! She would live in pink if I let her, literally. She wore a pink skirt, tights and top the other day. SO. MUCH. PINK.

They are coming along nicely, the only thing I have "changed" so far is to use two strands of yarn instead of one. One strand seemed a little thin at the recommended gauge, and I want them to be toasty warm.

(No, the baby boots from the other post aren't done. Finish one project before starting another?! Never!)

Creative Process

I have this problem, whenever I try to work from someone else's pattern it ends up looking something like this:

Notes, squiggly lines, and different numbers. lol Apparently I just can't leave things alone, I like to think that I am "making them better" I think the truth is just that I am making it more complicated. All I know for sure is that the squiggly lines up there are turning out to be one super cute baby bootie. :)

Fall Fiber Festival

Yesterday we headed off to the Fall Fiber Festival. It was my first time at one and it was pretty neat. Lots of pretty yarn! I was too busy looking at the yarn that I forgot to take pictures of it, oops! But I did take a couple pictures of some other stuff around the festival.

There was a sheep dog competition that was running all day:

And a sheep shearing demonstration:

And of course all sorts of cute fiber bearing animals like sheep:

And goats:

Alpacas:

and Llamas:

And even Angora Rabbits (which I couldn't get Sierra to move away from so I could take a good picture. lol):

I didn't end up buying much, it was hot and humid and I guess that put me out of the mood to buy yarn.
I only bought one lonely hank of pretty yarn from Morning Moon Alpacas:

100% alpaca and so squishy and soft! Destined to become a baby sweater.

And then I got this awesome yarn bowl from Anna Branner's Cloth n Clay.

It has a face on each side:

And various places you can string your yarn through so it doesn't roll all over the place while you knit.




I also grabbed a cute little lamb from the same booth:


It was a pretty fun day all in all. I just wish I would have bought more yarn. :P

Knitting?!

I actually started a project that isn't cross stitch! I found this awesome shawl on Ravelry:

(Picture from here © LAylor13)

See? Pretty!

I pulled some yarns from my stash and well, lets just say that the first go around did not work, at all, not even a little bit.

So I tried again:

Ah! Much better! And even did a little swatch this time to make sure the colors were going to play nice together.

Aubrey looked at the swatch and said "Mom, you made my (littlest pet shop) kitten a blanket! That's so nice of you!" and grabbed it and ran off.

I am very excited to be making this shawl, it has been WAY too long since I have had a desire to knit anything! And, yes, knitting a shawl when it is 95+ degrees and humid outside is probably a little crazy. But at least I will be prepared for fall?