Thank You

I want to say thank you for the yarn and needles. I love the yarn. I am not sure yet what I will do with it. I am admiring the knitted shawls seen on this blog and I may attempt make one.

February project finally!

We found out that the husband's nephew and his wife are expecting a baby girl in June. I have been in love with Anne Hanson's Rosebuddie blanket since she released it and waited to see what the sex of the baby was going to be before I decided on a gift ot knit for them.



It hasn't been washed and dried yet but it is still really pretty. :)
Started: 1-30-11
Finished: 2-14-11
Yarn: Berocco Comfort Baby in Pretty Pink (7 skeins)
Needles: 3.5mm for body and 3.25 mm for edging
Notes: forgot a repeat of the second chart so it is between the 2 sizes listed

Socks for me. . . .

I finished my first pair of "me" socks, they are out of "mystic river" Three Ewes Twisted in Fiber ewe shimmer. . . .I used the little leftover bits for a Chubby Chirp. (totaling 350yds)

Thank You

Here are the gifts from Susan and CP. There are two balls of each yarn, but the scanner would not readily hold them. The blue/purple/green one is Mochi Plus, and it is the softest yarn ever. That is destined to be socks for ME when I catch up on requested projects. The needles are for those socks, as the Mochi was definitely unhappy on 0s and 1s. The pink/green one is Pnada Cootn (sic) in Lullaby. It was to be socks for husband, who does not like wool ones. He objected to the color, until I said that's fine, I would knit them for Becky (requested project, in something bright). He decided he wanted them after all. They should be posted as a project in a few months, as his socks. The brown is a mohair in Fudge Brownie, which is the color of the socks I knit last year (and which qualified me for the CP drawing). No idea what they will be yet, but it is a pleasure to handle.

Project for February is well in hand. Socks for Peter's aunt, as requested. There are also some double knit mittens I'm playing with, adapting a Lucy Neatby pattern. Unfortunately the cat found them and I have some splicing to do. Ah, well, they can be March's project. I will be visiting my mother by then and she will not steal mittens, as she lives in Tennessee. Cannot take socks anywhere near there - when I go, I no longer even pack socks - she takes them out of the suitcase and strokes them, saying how pretty they are. Obviously they do not come back with me. Still have some store boughten socks for travel there.

This has been my lucky month. Never won anything before, and now all this wonderful yarn, plus I won a copy of my sister's new book, "Learning to Swim" - no, not a tutorial, but a mystery. I read the first draft of it years ago, and am curious how it has evolved. Now all I have to do is get husband signed up for Medicare and son (boomerang kid) moved out on his own. MIL's ashes are not going to be spread till summer, and then I can enjoy retirement.

Thanks again, aj

Purple Shawl

I was asked to test knit a shawl. I have tested 3 other patterns for this designer so went with another. The shawl is yet to be named. It is worked bottom up. Interesting to cast on so many stitches and end with 3.

Feb 2011 KAL...Done!

I made this hat/scarf/mittens set for my son's classmate. I'm sorry I didn't photograph them all together, but he was in a hurry to give them to her as they were finished. The model is quite a bit smaller than the girl who received them, but I did make the scarf waaaay too long! (I improvised the pattern.) It's a good thing I had roughly a metric ton of that pink wool in my stash.

Hat Start

Hat Done

Pinkies up! Scarf Start

Scarf Done

Mittens Start

Mittens Done

February Fair Isle

A couple of years ago my husband was on a trip to France. He was sweet enough to hunt down a yarn shop and bring me back three skeins of sock yarn. Two skeins were Bergere de France Ch'7 (black and orange) and the third was Opal. I pulled those out for this month's KAL and combined them for my own Fair Isle pattern socks. Instead of trying to match the patterning by starting the Opal at the same spot on both socks, I decided to start them randomly and let the socks be a pair, but not exactly the same. I gave last month's socks away, but this pair I am keeping for myself.

February KAL

So far this month I finished two pairs of crocheted socks. It is my own design and I have my pattern up on my blog.

I also started a knitted scarf that isn't done yet. I hope to have it finished this month.

February Socks

Here are my finished socks for February. The pattern is Primavera Socks, and the yarn is Schachenmayr nomotta Regia Design Line Kaffe Fassett. I had knit a pair of socks for myself out of this yarn and my daughter loved them so much that I found 2 more balls (460 yards) to make these for her. I don't remember whether I had already posted a progress picture, so here are both the progress photo and the photo of the finished socks. I know she is going to love these!

Prime Time 2011 - Feb

Definitely a progress pic, before it´s too late :-).
This is my February project, a baby cardigan in a very smooth merino extrafine. 600 yards so far. Colours are completely different from what is shown: a very very dark teal and a more dark than medium turquoise.

Maybe the sun will be shining when the project is finished and colours will be true then.

Me Me Me started

Pettine by Corrina Ferguson using 2 skeins of Panda silk I won last year. :) I dyed it a light teal and someone we all know and love teased me about being in a rut with my color choices. So I branched out (a bit....) and dyed it over a couple of more times. The color is more of a blue green than this pic shows and I'm happy to say much prettier. I love working with this yarn and hope to use more of it in the future. The drape of the fabric is really wonderful. We'll see how this blocks and if it is a pretty scarf or shawlette. Either way, I know I will love wearing it.

I'm just past the half way mark of 22 points which took 1 skein. Perfect for the 2 skeins.

Avalon Socks for Fred Feb entry

Before I say anything about the socks, a big thank you for Susan's generosity: 2 balls of Panda cotton and some bamboo dpns. :) I will be making some footie type socks as soon as the yarn arrives.

Bamboo socks by our own Lorraine Ehrlinger and pattern is free on Ravelry thanks to Lorraine.

Fred loves this pattern and I've knit about 4 pair now. He prefers the plain instep as you can tell.

I made these for him to wear at the Avalon Air Show the first week in March. The colors are a blend of the American and Aussie flag which seems appropriate for showing an American plane in Oz. :)

Happy Valentine's Day to all of you up over from here down under where it is early evening now.

All mine - Me KAL

Quite some photos this time... and all for me, me me!
Hey, I can be egoistic this month, as next week it is my birthday.

One pair of socks, for me - in a little bit of lace work. In yellow - I believe there is 270 meters in this pair.

The crocheted green doily is  made out of 1 50 gram ball of bamboo/cotton mix - 105 yards.

The savings sock shown by this little critter also makes my goal clear - save some money, as I have some plans to take a study. It is an enormous sock - 50 grams of sock yarn went into this one (210 meters) 

more toys for ME ME ME

I have come up with an alternate solution to knitting 12 little crocodiles, instead I have been knitting little things from all the beautiful books I purchased over the last 2 years and never found the time to make up. Plus a small coat for the coffee press to replace the tea towel that has been wrapped around it for several years.

The cat and chameleon are from Knit & Purl Pets by Clair Garland, the octopus is from Hansi Singh's book hansigurumi. I made up the pattern for the cozy, yeah me!

The chameleon  took about 75 yards of super bulky yarn called Alaska, the cat took about 90 yards of worsted, the Octopus took 125 yards of a bulky yarn, the coffee cozy took around 115 yards of worsted. These are estimates based on weight by the ball bands, weighed on my kitchen scale pre-stuffing.

cheers, kate

Me-Me Finished

Thanks so much for my 12mo BOY prize. I found a Shawlette pattern that I will use it for. The yarn is Panda Silk DK, which is what the pattern calls for. I found it on Ravelry. Love that site!!!

Me, me, me KAL
I made the mittens I needed, and blogged about them a week or so ago. Now, the bathroom bathmat/rug is finished. It is crocheted, using two strands of dishcloth cotton. One end is narrower, because I ran out of one of the cones of cotton, and the new cone was a little thinner. I don't notice it when in use.

The rug measured about 24 x 36 before its bath. It's smaller now, but may get bigger in use. I used about 1226 yards of cotton. It weighs 1# 10 oz. It will olast much longer than anything I could buy. The store rugs keep losing their binding on the edges and cost more than the yarn I used. The only thing left on the bathroom remodel is to paint the radiator, which will wait until summer.