Ravelry

I'm just now getting around to talking about Ravelry on my blog. Like many others I had no clue what it was. I just saw a lot of ladies chatting excitedly over being on the list and waiting for their invitation, so I headed over and did the same.

It took about a month and I got my invitation and am now a member under ChickMistress.

What can I say - I love the place. I can spend hours just looking at other peoples projects for inspiration. I've uploaded my yarn stash (nothing terribly exciting), done the same for my projects and I've joined three groups.

I love that I can be somewhat organized by using the site. It's wonderful. I've added a Ravelry button to the side bar that links you to Ravelry.

If you haven't joined, sign up for the invitation and come see what it's all about. There are a lot of beautiful items and patterns on this site and if that doesn't get your creative juices flowing, I don't know what will.

George's Sweater Is Done!

The sweater I was knitting for my sister as a gift to George (who is a girl by the way) is done. The skull was done using a duplicate stitch. I wasn't really thrilled with it to the point that I ripped it out 3 times before I accepted the final. I have a feeling the next two will be better. She wanted two originally and has now "commissioned" a third.

This was my very first sweater of any size and I'm just happy to have gotten through it without having any major disasters. Now on to the next one!

Happy holidays to everyone!

Sweater Update

The sweater is coming along well. I've finished the back, two front sides and am working on the sleeves which will be a breeze because the seed stitch is only used on five rows!

That's it for now. I'll put a picture of the components on when I block them (hopefully tomorrow night).

Lion Brand Eyelet Yoke Cardigan

This is the sweater that I am making at my sister's request for two little girls as Christmas presents. They are both in Cotton Ease Charcoal and will be embroidered with the a skull with a bow. She wants hip sweaters instead of cutesy.

Here's the sweater. If you click on the picture it will take you to the pattern. It is listed as easy and so far it has been. My only downer is the seed stitch which makes me nuts (K,P,K,P,K,P) but it is a pretty stitch. Fortunately it's not the entire sweater, just the bands:


So far I've done the first 5 rows of seed stitch and 5 rows of stockinette. I've got to do stockinette for quite a while so I'm going to get to work. This is the first sweater I've every done, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it comes out.

Currently on the needles

Today I started knitting House Mittens by Ruth Bendig. I'm only on the fifth row of the cuff but so far so good. These are for me, I need mittens pronto. We've got snow on the ground! Nothing like cold to spur you on with your knitting.

I've also started a bookmark using size 10 crochet thread. Such teeny tiny stitches, I love it.

My next project(s) will be two sweaters to get done in time for Christmas. I will be using the Eyelet Yoke Cardigan from Lion Brand and I'll be duplicate stitching a skull and cross bones motif on the front panel of each as requested by my sister who is giving them as gifts. She wants cool sweaters for the girls. I've found a skull motif with a bow that I think I'll use. I'll run it by the giver of the gifts first.

I picked up 5 books from the library yesterday. Four of them are Debbie Bliss baby and child books. That woman knows how to make some beautiful patterns. One of the books has patterns for adults as well and there's more than one sweater I've fallen in love with in that book. I've got a LOT of baby knitting to do. Just to do it. They are too beautiful to pass on. I just have to decide on which one to do first...and that's the hard part. Maybe I'll put them all in a hat and pull one out. Decisions, decisions.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all. I hope it is a joyful one.

We've gotten through another year of turkey deliveries. This one was a bit more stressful than others due to a theft of some of our turkeys and getting rear ended while out delivering others.

We still can't figure out why someone stole 6 turkeys from us, but I hope they bring a lot of joy to the people who ended up with them because they ruined Thanksgiving for 6 other families. As for the girl who rear ended us, I hope your cat is okay and that you have enough sense not to drive with it in your lap in the future. One thing we have learned is that we will not be delivering turkeys next year. Pick-ups only.

I haven't done much crafting. I did cast on and finish about 9 rows of a bookmark yesterday while we were out delivering. I had to do something to relax my mind. The yarn for a sweater I'm making as a Christmas gift is on the way. I know I'm cutting it close, but it is a child's sweater so it shouldn't be too hard to get done.

We are going out to eat, no cooking for me today. I'll probably throw a turkey in the oven tomorrow so we have some around, but I just couldn't do it today. I'm beat, it's been a long 6 days since we started getting turkeys ready for Thanksgiving.

I'm off to get ready for the day.

Knitting in LA

I did some knitting while I was on the plane and in LA. I did Saartje's Bootees, 2 dish cloths and started the Baby Bib from One Skein while on the plan back.

I need to put buttons on the booties and the I-Cord on the bib, but they are very cute in their interim stage.

Here are the baby bootees, I still need to add the buttons and block them:




I used the lime green self-striping Sugar and Cream yarn for the dish cloth which is very cool yarn:


Here is the baby bib sans I-Cord:


I'm missing a picture of the dish cloth I did in the self-striping red, white and blue cotton. My sister can't find it and thinks her cats have made off with it. But then again I may have given it to Shon when she took me to the airport. I can't remember, my mind is a like a sieve some days...just too much going through it.

I picked up a book today at the library on dying your own self-patterned yarns. They even have a watermelon self-striping pattern. I'm definitely going to work towards doing my own. It looks like a lot of fun. Well I've got to get some work done before I can have some fun knitting. So more later.