Thank you Ron!

Ron nominated me for Best Homeschooling Arts Blog award over at Spunky's.

I nominated Knitting Iris for Best Homeschooling Photo Blog.

Christmas List revisited

On November 10 I blogged this on the Christmsas Gift KAL
"I'm starting out saying I will knit:
13 scarves
2 hats
2 pairs of mittens
1 pair of leg warmers"

At that point I had 5 scarves finished. I now have 10 scarves completely finished and 4 scarves all but the fringe. I have 3 more balls of highland thistle to be knit. The extras are for a fund raiser.
I've started Vintage Velvet for my husband and have 1/3 finished.
I have the yarn for a raspberry scarf of unknown pattern and a blue cashmere of unknown pattern.
I've made 0 hats.
I've made one pair of mittens.
I've knit 10" of one leg warmer.
Will I finish for Christmas? I think I can, I think I can, I hope I can!

There are 112 of us...

...insane holiday knitters, that is. I am really enjoying this KAL. Even if you don't want to kal, you should check it out. In the preholiday frenzy, more than one really nifty pattern has been written and shared.

Totally 100% FINISHED!!

 

Now I just need to make another. 

A Bucket full of Christmas

 


It probably should be labeled a bucket full of insanity. There's some cashmere for my husband's aunt's scarf, 7 balls of Highland Thistle to be knit and much, much more. The finished objects in there make it seem a little less overwhelming. Of course, there are a few more projects scattered about that aren't in the bucket. 

Vintage Velvet

 


It's a reversible cable scarf from Scarf Style. I'm using Andean Treasure doubled in mystery to make it more manly. It's for my husband for Christmas. It's maybe a quarter of the way knit. I had to stop and order more yarn. The knitting gods were with me and Knit Picks sent the same dyelot. 

One-tenth of a pair of leg warmers...

 


I need to knit a lot faster! They are made from Knit Picks Decadence using a pattern from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. 

Warm Hands Update take 2

 


These are completely finished. The pattern was from Knit One, Felt Too. They have an inner rib cuff that you sew on after they are felted. I made up the beading design myself. 

The dragon sweater is almost finished...

 


I just have to finish the neck. Hopefully, I will be able to do it tonight. 

10 scarves finished!

 
 
I've finished 10 scarves so far. I have another 7 to knit out of Highland Thistle and I have a new idea for a pattern. I'll post it if it works.

Warm Hands Update

The mittens are completely finished. They have both beads and an inner cuff. The pattern from the mittens was from Knit One, Felt Too and I winged the beading pattern.

Picasa is feeling a little bit ill. I had to try again in a later post to get the picture. I didn't want to make our lovely hostess of warm hands fool around with it so please go to the Warm Hands Update take 2 entry.

The Sad tale of the dragon sweater

 


I posted this picture yesterday and blogger ate it, AGAIN. I'd say the new picasa updates has a few bugs in it. Anyway, the sweater will not go over my son's head. Fortunately, it will fit a younger son and I have to knit another. I spend a lot of time cursing a certain knit designer and book publisher. The gauge correct, the measurements are all correct. The sweater does not fit the child with the measurements it should fit. It fits another child. The big question... When these books are published with 25 different versions (gauge vs size) for each pattern does someone test knit them and try them on a person with those measurements? I think not! 

Highland Thistle Scarf Pattern

1 Skein Highland Thistle Yarn (Hobby Lobby exclusive) knit on size 15 needles. (I use bamboo)
Cast on 12 sts.
Row 1 and 2 Garter stitch (I always slip the 1st stictch for a nicer edge)
Row 3: knit 1st st and double wrap rest (It will look like you have 23 sts on the needle)
Row 4: knit 1st st and drop the wrap across. (you will have 12 sts again, tug gently to line up the sts neatly after you knit the row)
There are 34 repeats followed by 2 rows of garter st and a loose cast off.
There are 11 pieces of 12" fringe on each end.
You can do 33 repeats and get 12 pieces of 12" fringe on each end.
You can also do 32 repeats and and get 24 pieces of 8" fringe on each end.
I can knit this in slightly less than 3 hours. It costs $2.66 a scarf when it's on sale and $3.99 when it's not on sale. I love knitting this yarn. I have never found a cheap yarn I have enjoyed knitting with before.
Dimensions: 5 1/4" wide and longer than 60"

The dragon has been knit!!!

 

Hopefully the little holes you can see go away when I finish sewing in the loose ends in the back. I'm pretty sure there is atleast an hour worth of sewing left. Then I have to block it, put it together and knit the crew neck. The goal is to have it finished by the end of the holiday weekend. 

A Little Girl Needs Our Help!

Megan is 7 and has been diagnosed with Leukemia. A friend is helping to put together a fundraiser. Among other things, they are going to have a craft sale. I'm going to donate a scarf or three and maybe a bag, if I can get one done by Sat Dec 10th. The info is on my other blog, hop over here and see if you can help

Scarf number 9???

 

This is Highland Thistle. My Christmas scarf knitting yarn of choice this year. I think this is scarf number 9, but I've knit so many that it is hard to keep track. 

It's a Finished Object

 

This is the bead work on the black felted mittens. They also have their nice cozy inner cuff knit and sewn in place. 

Number 9 almost finished

Scarf number 9 just needs the ends woven in and the fringe cut and put on. Scarf #10 has the first 4 repeats completed. I was so close to casting on the decadence leg warmers when there was a knitting emergency. My lastest ritual with my 3 year old is to sit on the end of his bed and knit while he goes to sleep. He's now decided that I must knit for him when he goes to sleep. He knew exactly what ball of yarn he wanted and what he wanted me to knit. He wants a green "Kirby". That would be the little nintendo character that is usually bubblegum pink. All projects were shoved aside to work on the little green guy. I need to find out where you can buy sew-on wiggly eyes. If anyone knows, let me know.

Note to family:

I haven't finished a scarf of every color yet. Still to come is a red scarf and a royal blue one. You can email me with your color preference or leave a comment. I think Mom and I are knitting two of each color.

It's another finished scarf. I've lost track of the count. This may be number 8. I've cast-on two different scarves with the Andean Treasure. I did a modified version of the Irish Hiking Scarf and the Vintage Velvet from Scarf Style. I like Vintage Velvet the best, but I think it's sucking up a lot of yarn. The jury is still out on which one will be the Christmas scarf for my husband.  

A box came today!. It's all about alpaca. This will hopefully be leg warmers for my oldest child. 

This will hopefully be a Christmas gift for my husband. 

My Birthday Box! It's a little early. My birthday is Dec 6, St Nick's Day. The Yarn Exchange has a sale. Their stuff is 20% with a coupon code. In my defense, the needles on the right are for a friend. All of the needles are 40" for magic loop knitting. 


This bracelet was included in the box. 


There was also this refridgerator magnet. That will come in handy if I have a yarn emergency. When I pointed that out to my husband, I'm not sure he thought it was a good thing. 

A close up of my seventh scarf I've made for a Christmas gift. 

Five finished Christmas scarves, all made out of Highland Thistle from Hobby Lobby. 

Two of my seven finished Christmas scarves. 

Christmas Ornaments

I was blog reading today and Trish has a wonderful way to make ornaments! I think my daughter and I are going to have to try some. I have plenty of roving from my spinning class. I have some natural that I can dye with kool-aid to improve my color range.

The brave little sock meets an uninvited house guest. I've been assured this is not the same shrew that we live trapped before. The kids are packed off with dad for a shrew release party out in the wild corn fields of Illinois.  

This is a lousy photo of some felted mittens. I still have to needle felt something on them and then make an inner cuff.  

This is another Highland Thistle Scarf. This one is in Mackay Blue. 

Knit some holiday cheer!

Alison from the has started a new knitalong. It's perfect for all of us insane holiday knitters.

Top reasons to join a holiday knitalong

1. You need to see that there are other insane holiday knitters.

2. When you compare other people's holiday knitting list to your own, you will appear perfectly sane. See, my goals of knitting 18 items is sooo.... reasonable.

3. You can show the holiday KAL blog to your spouse/significant other/mental health professional to prove that you are sane or atleast in good company.

4. Peer Pressure, don't be outdone by your fellow knitbloggers.

5. You can blog without guilt about the holiday knitting items that you are not knitting because you are blogging.

Is it all making sense now?

We dyed roving in my spinning class at the local community college. All the roving was shoved in a quart mason jar with some water after soaking for 8 hours. The instructor then had us pour kool-aid powder or food coloring over the roving. I used mandarin orange and pink lemonade koolaid. Then my roving was BOILED in the microwave. Needless to say, my wool is no longer soft even after rinsing appropriately. I believe in simmering one's wool gently.