Dollies

More Wee Wonderfuls kitty and bunny dolls.

Dishcloths!

Stash busting! Here are some Mason-Dixon Ballband dishcloths made of odds and ends.

Noro Scarf

My father-in-law has a big birthday coming up in January, so I knit him this Noro Stripes scarf. It's a pattern I've been wanting to make, and I've amazingly never knit with Noro yarn before, although I love its colors!

To decrease itchiness, I chose Chirimen yarn in color 1, which is a yarn made mostly of cotton with some silk and wool. CO 31, size 6 needles.

January Hat

The yarn is Vintage by Berroco (acrylic/wool/nylon).



Adding to Paul's knitted hat collection, in January 2010 I made a Knotty but Nice hat from knitty.com. Check out the snow! This is a "man's" pattern, but I think it would be equally lovely for women. I made it a bit longer than the pattern called for.

And More . . .

I made a Mason-Dixon baby kimono for parents who don't like a lot of pink for their little girl, so I added a green silk ribbon. The pink circle on the front is a paper label.



I made sock monkeys for my two toddler friends! They are two years old this year.

Present and Past Projects

This is a hat I've been slowly working on for a while, the Trilobite pattern from knitty.com:



I recently completed some doll clothes that I cut out in August 2009. These are sleep sacks that tie in the back for 16-inch baby dolls. The flannel fabric was purchased as remnants. Very sweet. The one on top has a baby Strawberry Shortcake print and the bottom one has a bright pink, tiny flower print. I hadn't sewn with bias tape before this project. It was an adventure. They turned out OK, some of the seams are not very sturdy.



This wedding cross stitching project was my big project for five or six months. The pattern is "I Thee Wed" by Blackbird Designs. The thread is hand dyed and the cloth is linen. I had it framed at the Nashville shop where I bought the supplies, The Stitching Post, and they did a great job showing me matting and framing options. The glass is UV protected, so hopefully this project will be displayed for a long time! It is personalized with my and Paul's initials, and the date of our wedding. It was on an easel near the guest book at our wedding!

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.

20-minute Row

I gave this hanging towel as a house-warming gift.



Newest and greatest M-D dishcloth pattern: the Linoleum Dishcloth.

Here I am, knitting on the couch. Dodger is nearby but not in the picture.

I'm half way through chart 3 of 4. It feels like I'm very near the end, except that each 400+ stitch row takes about twenty minutes, and I'm still adding stitches. I'm glad there is no deadline. The feathery pattern is beautiful.

Progress

I've discovered a new ballband dishcloth outlet--mop covers! I made these for my friends Candyce and Andy.

I've also made a lot of progress on my Icarus Shawl. I started the fifth and last repeat of the first chart. The rows are now so long they take almost fifteen minutes each to complete!

I bought some new circular needles for this project--Addi Lace Turbos. They work great. I am loving the soft Malabrigo yarn too.

Poem

"Poet Opal Blaisdell Lenox hints at the very real person--all knitters can relate--beneath the idealized veneer of another Victorian knitter:

Milady, at the open window, sits

With countenance serene and look demure,

Her downcast eyes contributing allure.

The blush upon her cheek that glows and flits,

Adds glamour that demoralizes wits;

And waning sun with touch so light and sure,

Makes of her hair a golden halo pure.

But modestly, Milady simply knits,

Intent upon the swiftly rhythmic flash

Of gleaming needles that is never stopped--

While world and I adore her beauty fair.

But now I rise and quickly close the sash,

For I have noted that a stitch is dropped,

And World--you must not hear Milady swear!"

Quoted in Susan M. Strawn, Knitting America: A Glorious Heritage from Warm Socks to High Art (St. Paul: Yoyageur Press, 2007), 26-27.

No fudging

I've learned the hard way that if I goof on this shawl that I can't just fudge the next row and keep going--the mistake really shows up. After making mistakes two and three, I bit the bullet and unknitted back to the first mistake. It felt like a huge amount of unknitting but was only five or six rows. I just hate UNknitting (or "tinking"; that's "knit" backwards).

However, I am pleased with the results and have pledged to inspect each row after knitting in the hope that I will catch any mistakes before I've knit an additional several rows. So far, so good.

I really love this yarn and the color is kind of washed out by the flash here.

More dishcloths: a reverse miter dishcloth, great for using up half balls of cotton yarn. I almost ran out of binding-off yarn, whoops. The stripey yarn is Peaches N'Cream Fiesta, and seems to be the brights and pastels of Fiestaware.

The ubiquitous ballband dishcloth with green, red, and yellow yarns in the background. Very fun!