Toss Another Dishcloth on the Pile

Mason-Dixon Linoleum Dishcloth.

SHAWL FIN!

I started knitting this Icarus Shawl in June and finished two nights ago. The bind off row took more than two hours. It needs blocking but is soft and warm. It was great to get it off the needles and see the whole thing spread out. This is probably my favorite big knitting project ever.

I also finished embroidering a sushi design on this canvas grocery bag. The pattern is by Sublime Stitching.

Beret for American Cancer Society Silent Auction

The fourth and final chart of the Icarus shawl is finished! Now I only have four rows and a bind-off row and I'll be done. The rows will be more than 500 stitches each, so that is still quite a lot of knitting.



Blocking the beret on a dinner plate.

Dodger totally thought this mannequin head was an intruder! He didn't catch on that it was an inanimate object and barked and barked. I used the same slouchy pattern, Meret, as the white beret I made earlier. My mom leant me this head--she bought a hat at an auction or estate sale and the head was included.

My Cousin Susan gave me the yarn I used for the beret, Naturally Tweed by Vero (90% wool, 6% acrylic, 4% viscose). I will enter this hat in my employer's silent auction benefitting the American Cancer Society this Thursday.

FOs

FO = finished object! Four adorable Wees.



Darlin' bear doll. The chocolately brown fabric has a nice woven texture.



Second hat of the extra cream wool yarn batch. The pattern is Meret. Great for TV-watching knitting! I made this one extra slouchy.

Many projects

I'm having fun slowly working on these Wees. Here are some embroidered faces.



A second Hermione Hat; this one's for me! I used some Lion Brand Wool-ease that's been hanging around in the stash. It's one of my favorite colors.



Yesterday I prepared some fabric (washed and dried). Almost all of this was bought as remnants, leftover pieces of fabric on sale for 50% off. It's a great deal if you are sewing little things, like toys.



Yet another project I'd like to work on: embroidery projects by Blackbird Designs. I love the old-timey, primative sampler style of their cross-stitch patterns!

Expecting Many Hats

I bought this ivory and pink yarn long ago, anticipating a baby sweater, but I don't think I had a specific pattern in mind, which is unusual for me, and probably a contributing factor to me never knitting it. I am no longer interested and, anyway, this 100% wool yarn is not washable. What parent wants that?



I have decided to do a few cool worsted-weight hat and beret patterns from ravelry.com. This is the first one, Herminone's Cable and Eyelet Hat. It looks just like the one Emma Watson wore in HP and the Half-blood Prince. I altered it a bit while I knit it, for example, I made the brim shorter (ten rows instead of sixteen).



And Dodger!

Craft Room (Slash Office)

Paul and I use the second bedroom as an office/craft room. It's great! This weekend he helped me move my very heavy sewing cabinet two feet to the right where it's much more convenient to use, and in celebration I sewed a bunch of already cut-out Wees.



I started to embroider a canvas grocery bag with a sushi pattern and then realized I needed fish-colored yarn. At 37 cents a pop, it's cheap to stock up. I really like these plastic bobbins for winding the thread too.




I finished chart 3 of the Icarus Shawl. I only knit this when I have time and enough concentration. The yarn and pattern are joys.