craftiness in the new year

My friend Colleen told me about this little project, a case for my earbud headphones, so I sat down and made a couple. It's great!

Back when I did that trip to Calgary last year, I purchased this orange yarn. Michael was so hesitant to let me knit him socks, but he finally let me and fell in love with his first pair (made back in 2009 from yarn he picked out while we were in Germany). He fell in love enough to request that his next pair be burnt orange.

Here they are! That little patterning that you see is from the Yarn Harlot. She called them Earl Grey. I had a small design error (the stitch pattern was supposed to run all the way up the leg, but I had prego brain and messed it up), but Michael was fine with them the way they were, so I left them (otherwise I would've had to frog almost an entire sock). He calls them his Barbed Wire socks. I'm sure the Yarn Harlot would get a little chuckle out of that.

Baby Blanket

I've decided to turn my passion for knitting into a tradition and knit a blankie for each of our kids.   

Little Schultzie's blanket is being knit while we truck, so in keeping with that, I hunted for a yarn shop somewhere along the way in our travels that we could get there in the truck (so it had to be close to the interstate), and we found one in Janesville, WI, The Dragonfly Yarn Shop.

It took less than two weeks to knit! Amazing what all that driving time and DK yarn held double can do to help a project cruise along. It's Leafy Baby Blanket, which Michael and I picked out. He also helped me pick out the yarn. I wanted to find something gender neutral, it was between this yarn (Madeline Tosh merino DK in 'magnolia leaf') and some other delightful squishy yarn that was aqua, blues and a little bit of purple. I'm glad Michael talked me into this one because I think it's absolutely amazing.

Here's the finished product, all blocked and ready for snuggling!

another round of FO's

I had a card making day with my friend Melissa. I managed to produce a few cards in a couple of hours.

Then I made a diaper sleeve at the request of my cousin. Who was tired of having diapers jump out of her purse when she was pulling other things out.

A make up bag. Seriously, this has got to be one of my favorite things to sew right now. Thanks Colleen for the inspiration!

  

Mittens! To go with the lovely floppy hat I made for my sister.

Some FOs

Me testing out the hat before I wrapped it.

My sister modelling her new hat.

A mail sorter!

Ugly stocking I made when we first got married.

Beginnings of new ones:

Christmas Place mats:

That's all for now!

ferns & leaves finished!

this is minutes off the needles, before i wove in ends or blocked it.

again pre-blocked, but i couldn't wait.

i forgot to take pictures of the blocking in progress, and keep wanting to take pictures of it on my neck, post blocking, but for some reason I only imagine that I do it and the pictures never seem to be on my camera, or downloaded onto the computer.

I give up.

Maybe one day I'll get lucky and there will just happen to be a picture of me wearing it and you'll get to see.

ditto this

I read a knitting blog called The Yarn Harlot. She's funny, and occasionally she says things that totally echo my own thoughts. If you have the time, please do click through and read it.

In knitting news in my own life, I finally finished Sofia's dress, which you can see in the previous post.

I've also finally finished a few little cozys that I now need to felt. My ipod nano, the cast iron frying pan cozy and another ipod touch cozy. Which was finished, but I asked Michael to bring me the bag that it was in from the other end of the house. Sadly, the project was on the table, and the ball of yarn it was still attached to was in the bag. He didn't notice this. The project stayed at the far end of the house, and the bag arrived with a trail of yarn behind it. I had cast off and pulled a long loop through, but my scissor was no where to be found, so I just left it. When Michael walked away the loop came loose and the cast off edge unravelled and then several rows of the knitting itself. Sigh. I threatened to make Michael learn to knit just so he could repair the damage, but it didn't work.

I also have to finish a pair of phentex slippers. These have a deadline, let's just say it's a guilt deadline. I traded hand made things with a friend, and I have my hand made thing, she's still waiting for these.

When those are done, I think I will reward myself by starting a pair of socks from my sheeples yarn. I knit a swatch way back, thinking I would try making a striped sock, what do you think?

I'm still working on my ferns & leaves cashmere scarf.

Then there's some repairs that I'm supposed to do to Cate's summer dress (the blue on from last year). It kinda seems too late now, she's grown so much.

first camping trip of 2010

Remember that really big tent in our backyard? Well, this is the carry case for it. Not bad,eh? We didn't even have to both sit on the the bag to get it all back in there, either!

Michael and I went to Birdshill camping with our friends Chris & Allison. We had a good time, enjoyed some beach time, played games, especially crib.

Allison is also a knitter, so we girls did some of that too.

I used our cast iron frying pan for the first time and discovered that I would need something for the handle as it gets quite hot. So, I cast on for a cozy!

Here I am trying on the cozy. This is why you should always take a knitter with you when you go camping! (otherwise you might have to burn your hands, or sacrifice your favourite hoody)

commissioned knitting

I think it must've been almost a year ago that I first knit ipod touch covers for Sarah & Riley. Recently Sarah asked for a new one because hers wore out. So, I decided to go stash diving and try a felted one. I found the yarn that I made this lovely toque from, showed it to Sarah to see if she liked the colours.

The results from this experiment are in. I learned a few things about provisional cast ons and felting, and what is easier and what makes it harder, but the end result was still awesome and I finished it in one Sunday afternoon sitting on my deck from beginning to end!

I love this so much, I think I'm going to make one for my ipod nano!

may miscellany

I finished a lovely pair of socks in May. The best part: they are for me!


It's a cascade sock yarn, and forgive me but that's all I can remember. I love the colors and actually kinda enjoyed knitting a plain sock! Then again, it was one of Cat Bhordi's, so the construction was new for me.
  
While on our trip to the states the other weekend, I bought fabric. I had some time on my hands on a Friday night, so I decided to try this lovely little mail sorter project from my One Yard Wonders sewing book. It was great, easy and quick. I think it looks nice too. The following day I had a birthday party to go to and I realized that I somehow overlooked the whole gift part of attending a party, so I whipped up another one is just over an hour. Awesome! I could definitely get used to that! Knitting isn't quite that quick (although I can knit a baby hat in two hours).


We also had the honour and joy of having a sweet little baby girl named Phoebe come to visit us. Isn't she cute? It was so nice to have her and her parents over! Thanks K&P, we love you!

Doesn't a baby's life look blissful?

a field trip!

That is me cuddling with a sheep!

My knitting friend, Allison, and I planned a little day trip to a sheep farm near Inwood. It's called Sheeples. They raise their own sheep, and then turn it into yarn right there on the farm. It's kinda cool to see and touch wool on a sheep, that you might possible buy and knit with some day.

Amazing! Don't they look cool?

Michael's first pair of hand knit socks!

Ok, so Michael has been hesitant to let me knit for him, in case he ends up not liking it or wearing it (he's scared that I might get mad at him, which is probably not an unreasonable thing to fear). I knit him matching mitts, scarf and toque when we were dating and he only wears the mitts, and I do give him a hard time about that.

He is even more scared of letting me knit socks, because he might get a hole in them the first time he wears them or something equally disastrous.

In Germany last year, he found some sock yarn that he liked, so I said I would buy it make him a pair of socks out of it. He reluctantly agreed.

This is the finished product. I even managed to find an embellishment to keep myself interested and him from feeling emasculated.

Pretty nice looking socks, eh?

And Michael found out that hand knit socks really are awesome and comfortable! (I also promised not to get mad at him when they wear out.)

meeting Cassidy

One of my coworkers had a baby, and we had a little baby shower to celebrate. Michael was one of the first men to get in on the action and hold baby Cassidy.

Here's some shots of the rest of the guys holding Cassidy.

Another collage of some of the fun.

That really cute pink hat that Cassidy is wearing is one that I made!