Scarves and More Scarves

My Christmas gift projects started out with a scarf for my daughter. A couple of months ago, I mentioned to her how I was tired of knitting with thin yarn and yearned to make a project with thick, chunky yarn. She quickly let me know how much she'd love a long scarf made with chunky yarn. How cool was that?! One of the knit groups was meeting that night and it was the perfect opportunity to get started. I left home a little early, equipped with several sizes of thick, chunky knitting needles, and stopped in at the local Michael's store,where I picked up a couple skeins of Wool Ease Thick & Quick yarn in the color "Spice". I went to meet up with the knit girls and quickly got started. The ladies were such a great help! I kept trying different needle sizes and scarf widths until I finally found the right combination that we all felt would work out just right! I knitted for over an hour and realized that two skeins might not be enough. I dashed over to Michael's to grab another skein, hurried back and kept knitting. The next day, I decided I might need one more skein and went back to buy the last one in that dye-lot. It turned out that I didn't need that fourth one but I was happier to have too much than not enough. I love how it turned out and my daughter does too. She's been wearing it everyday since Christmas!


Three skeins, size 17 needles, and 20 stitches across seem to have been just right. The garter stitch texture is wonderful! And, the length works out really great to wrap around her neck like she wanted. I haven't measured it yet but it's reallllly long! She ran upstairs on Christmas night and hung it over the loft wall...


I knitted this scarf with some gorgeous Bernat Rockport yarn that I had in my stash (about 170 yards) and I used size 13 needles. I cast on 12 stitches and knit it in garter stitch.


It's a long and skinny scarf and it looks great wrapped around the neck and hanging long in the front with a white shirt and blue jeans.


The colors and textures in this yarn are yummy! It reminds me of ice cream and fruit. I love the fluffy nubs of white. So pretty!


I made this one for my niece, Sophia. She is in middle school and her mom told me that her favorite colors are pink, purple and green. Imagine my delight to find yarn with all three colors! I used two skeins of Loops & Threads Charisma yarn from Michaels. I used size 10 1/2 needles, cast on 17 stitches and knit it in a knit one, purl one rib.


It's soft, squishy and so cute for a young teen. The acrylic yarn is suprisingly nice and will work great for machine washing.


I crocheted this scarf for Sophia's little sister, Lucy. She's six and her favorite colors are pink and purple. I had a little trouble finding yarn with those colors that would be fun and pretty for her age. I finally found a skein of Red Heart Ltd Kids Multi in the colorway, "Playful". I forgot to note what size hook I used but I ended up chaining 13, turning, making a single crochet in the second chain from the hook and continuing on in rows of 12 single crochets. I tried several different hook sizes and every size twisted! I've never had this problem with all the single crochet scarves I've made in the past. But, I tired of trying and seeing no change and decided to just go with it. I've decided to call it the "Magic Swirly Scarf"! lol...


I discussed this twisty problem with a knit/crochet friend. She had never experienced this problem either. Since it's acrylic, blocking probably wouldn't have helped. But, I kinda think a six year old wouldn't care...in fact, maybe those swirls are kinda neat!


It lays flat when it's folded...


The stitches and colors sure are cute!...

A Shower of Shawls

I sure did catch a case of shawl fever this year! I think I'm up to 12 in 2010! The three most recent shawls were made over the past few weeks to give as Christmas gifts.

I made this one for my mom. The pattern is the South Bay Shawlette. I crocheted it with an "I" hook and one skein of Knit Picks Stroll Tonal yarn.


The colors are pretty but this skein was horrible! I will never buy this yarn again! It was filled with bad spots...knots, breaks in a single ply, little lint pills, etc. It was a frustating to have to keep cutting the bad spots out, reconnecting and then having to tuck in all those ends. I don't remember how many times I ran across bad spots but it was enough to dislike the yarn! The skein was supposed to be 462 yards but after all the breaks, I had much less than that! I do love how it looks though. The colors are so pretty!


We've had a lot of stormy, dark days. So, good lighting has been a rare event. That explains the dark photos and differences in color between them. Here's a close up of the shawl I made for my mom...


I made this shawl for my sister-in-law, Michelle. I chose black because it's her favorite color. I used an "I" hook on this one and two skeins of Knit Picks Sroll solid black yarn. Here it is during blocking...


I really like how it turned out! And, I'm really happy that she loves it! Yay!


It looks so elegant in black.


When I block these shawls, I've started doing extra pinning on the edges. I love how much prettier they're turning out.


I made this one for my sister-in-law, Kim. She likes purple and I think she was pretty happy with this color. It's another South Bay Shawlette (can you tell how much I like that pattern?!).


It's also crocheted with an "I" hook. I used two skeins of Knit Picks Stroll solid in the color, "Duchess Heather". I know, it's hanging on the front of my dress form...it seemed like a good idea at the time. lol And, besides, I was in a hurry. I blocked this on Christmas eve and on Christmas morning I blow dried it some more to be sure it was nice and dry, un-pinned it, photographed it and quickly wrapped it. Talk about last minute!


I love the different shapes in this pattern, depending on how you look at it. The hole patterns look like flowers. The sections of double crochets look like mushrooms or little tropical huts. So cute!


I did get burned out on crochet shawls a few months ago and it seems like I'd be reallllly burned out after doing three in just a few weeks. But, believe it or not, I'm not! I'm actually thinking of starting another one. Theyr'e sooo much fun! :-D

Signs of Christmas

We really enjoy making gifts. And, lucky for us, our family seems to like receiving them. We've even been told that when we don't make them, they miss it. How cool is that?!

We've made lots of different things over the years...baked goods, flavored olive oil and vinegar, gift baskets, quilts, crochet and knit items, wooden toys, etc, etc.

Three of the gifts we gave this year were signs made of wood. My husband and I come up with the ideas and designed them, he cut out and sanded the wood, did a lot of the painting, and I painted the letters.

We made this sign for his aunt and uncle. They love spending about half the year in Idaho and when they're home they can't wait to go back. So, we thought they'd enjoy this. Hubby even made a metal arrow for them to move as the time gets closer to leaving for their summer destination...


This one was made for my husband's grandma. She's almost 90 and still plays bunco regularly. I think she's been playing with the same group of ladies for over 20 years! She loves her sign and can't wait to show the ladies when they meet for bunco at her house in a couple of weeks...


This one was for hubby's grandpa. He's 90 and loves his beer! We saw a sign with this saying on it and thought it was funny. He doesn't drink this much but we thought he'd enjoy it...

Meowy Christmas

We had a nice Christmas but I can't believe it's over already! It always comes so quickly and is over in a flash! I started working on my Christmas projects a couple of months in advance and all of a sudden Thanksgiving was over and it was time to decorate. Lucky for us, we have our very own kitty supervisor to make sure we do everything purrrfectly...


We set up our faux tree this year. We like to put it on top of a half wine barrel (fitted with a board inside, a couple inches down from the top edge). It looks great, adds height to the tree, and makes it easy to pile presents around the tree.

I found out that the drummer stool my daughter uses to play her harp also works great for putting lights on the bottom part of the tree. What a back saver!

I seem to have recovered from the bad case of scrooginess I had for a few years. Yay! I really got into the gifting spirit and made most everything we gave. My husband helped out and my daughter made lots of gifts too. It made quite a pile around the tree...


Duchess even supervised the card making...


My snowman cards had a simple look but they were a little labor intensive! I made templates to trace and cut out 40+ snowmen, scarves, hats, carrot noses, and shiny stars. Then, I had to glue all the pieces on and write a greeting in each card...


The greeting says, "Wishing You a Merry Christmas and a Bright Shiny New Year!". They were fun to make but took a lot longer than I had planned. I finished in time to give some cards out but I still need to address envelopes for the ones that need to go in the mail.


My daughter's cards look much more complicated but they were super quick and simple. She used ready made cards, cut rectangles of pretty glittery blue paper, cut rectangles of pre-cut snowflake sheets of paper, glued it on and wrote greetings inside. She was done in a flash! They're so pretty and she even coordinated her gift wrap with the cards (that's what all the blue packages are under the tree)...


Duchess loves Christmas! She hangs out for decorating, gift making, and even sleeps under my daughter's Christmas tree for a little while each night...


She's such a great little girl that helped make our Christmas purrfect! :-D

Creamy Cables

I saw a pattern on Ravelry a few weeks ago that I instantly fell in love with and had to make. It's called "Cranberry Sauce" (the original was made with red yarn). I love the look, the chunky yarn, and I love knitting cables. I just had to make it...even though it required the purchase of two new pairs of circular needles in sizes I didn't have!


I'm not in love with the results though. The yarn I used worked fine but it smells awful and it's really itchy...even on my head! It was Bernat Alpaca. The color was just what I wanted and the price was great but I'll never use this yarn again! I might make the hat again though...but, definitely, with a different yarn!

Pottery Invasion

My daughter is finishing up her second year of college, already! It's hard to believe it's been that long since she graduated from high school! Anyway, one idea I shared with her when she started college was to try and take a fun class each semester to lighten the load, reduce stress, try new things and have a little fun. She tried it out right away and has done it ever since. Her fun class this semester has been ceramics. She loves it and is pretty good at it too.

Being as the semester is ending, all of her projects have been coming home. And, they've been taking over the kitchen counters. Check out her teapot...


All the required projects and much more...cups, bowls, vases...


What a great set of mugs. I love the blue color and twirly handles. They feel really nice to hold too...


These bowls are pretty cool. She's calling them "Utah Bowls". One of them chipped before firing. So, to keep them looking like a matched set, she chipped the rest, smoothed out the edges and gave them a beautiful orangey glaze. They remind us of Utah and Arizona landscapes with the red/orange soil and hills. Pretty! We enjoyed eating some delicious beef and barley in them a couple nights ago for dinner...


She made some other great stuff but I can't show it all because some of the things will be Christmas gifts. Maybe I'll be able to post them after Christmas. :-)

Fabulous Fall

My blog has been pretty quiet the past few months. My life has been very busy and I kind of lost my blogging mojo. However, I think I feel the mojo returning. Yay! What have I been up to? Here it is in a nutshell...well....sort of...

This Fall has been pretty fabulous, for the most part. I've gotten my yarny mojo back and have been knitting, crocheting and even spinning! I'm excited that a lot of the gifts I'll be giving this Christmas will be hand made. I still have several gifts to make but I feel pretty confident that I'll be able to finish in time. I'm still working on making Christmas cards and that'll be a bit of a crunch to try and get them finished and in the mail before Christmas...better late than never though! :-)

We've had an unusually cold and wet Fall here in SoCal. That has been wonderful in many ways. I've been able to wear my shawls and scarves! And, it was cold enough to give us Fall colors like we almost never see here. I've been wanting to capture the gorgeous reds, oranges and yellows with my camera but the most brilliantly colored trees seem to be along the roads when I'm driving and there's usually no place to pull over or I don't have my camera. The colors are breathtaking though and I'm soaking it in and enjoying it as much as I can and for as long as I can. We do have a bit of color in our yard. Here's our fig tree...Salsa likes it too...


The rain we've been getting has allowed us to turn our sprinklers off a LOT. That has had an amazing impact on our water bill! I'm sure our lemon tree has been enjoying the rain too. I'm so excited about how many Meyer lemons we're going to have this year. Check this out...


Life hasn't been all fabulous but I'm hoping for fabulous outcomes...my parents have had some health issues the past few months. My mom found out that she had bladder cancer. The good part is that the doctor feels he got it all out during surgery and applied a chemo treatment during surgery that he feels pretty confident will keep it from coming back. She'll have regular check ups to be sure. My dad found out that he has a heart problem, atrial fibrilation (I think that's what it's called). The way I understand it is that the top two chambers of his heart aren't beating correctly. This can cause blood to pool up in those chambers and put him at a higher risk for heart attacks and stroke. So, he's been on a roller coaster of meds and dosage adjustments to try and get his blood thin enough to prevent stroke and to try a treatment that would shock his heart back into a normal rhythm. This has become a challenge for the doctors to find another blood pressure medication for him that will work with the blood thinners and still keep his blood pressure in a normal range. When a loved one is ill, it's already hard, but having two ill can be a little stressful...especially on days when I've had to take both of them to the hospital. I'm hoping they'll both be doing much better very soon.

One more fabulous thing this Fall...my husband and I just celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary. We spent a relaxing and fun day together. We went for a hike, went out to breakfast, did a little shopping, went for coffee, a movie and then an fabulous Italian dinner. I still can't believe how lucky I got when I found him! :-)

Cyber Shopping Sucks!

I like shopping the old fashioned way. I like to physically see my options, compare them, maybe even touch them. I like to pick up my selections and put them into the cart. A real cart. A cart that has wheels and the only problem it might have is a wobbly or noisy wheel, or it might be a bit hard to steer. Despite a wobbly wheel, a squeek or difficult steering, it will go where I want it to, when I want it to, and it will only hold what I put into it. Then, when I decide I've found everything I want, I can place the items onto the sales counter or checkout stand, watch it being rung up, be sure prices ring up correctly, see the total and make my purchase, knowing that I have everything I want, nothing more, nothing less, and leave with it in my hands.

These days, even though we have big stores with lots of stuff and even lots of little shops, the things I want aren't always available. So, to get these things, I have to resort to cyber shopping. Ugh! It's something I don't enjoy. It's hard to compare items...all the back and forth and waiting for screens to change is annoying. I can't touch the items and I have to hope that the colors I'm seeing on my screen are somewhere close to the actual color the item(s) will be when I recieve them. Then...there are computer glitches!

Right now, I need some yarn to make Christmas gifts and have not been able to find what I want...despite numerous trips to yarn shops and craft stores. I kept going back and hoping that, miraculously, the yarns I wanted would appear. No such luck. I knew I could get what I wanted from Knit Picks but kept putting it off because I hate cyber shopping. But, Christmas is getting closer and closer and I knew I couldn't put it off any longer. So, to the Knit Picks site I went. What a mistake to do it yesterday though...on "Cyber Monday". Duh!

I kept trying all day to get their site to work and it just kept locking up. I think lots of other people may have been procrastinating on placing their orders too. The site finally started working late last night and I carefully placed things in my cyber cart. When I finished making my selections, I checked and re-checked my cart multiple times. It all looked good. I had bought just enough yarn to get free shipping. I then proceded to check out. Across the top it said something like, "items previously put into your cart have been added". Huh?! What was that supposed to mean? I checked and re-checked my cart again and it all looked good. So, I entered my credit card number and made my purchase. After that, the site didn't give me a screen with a confirmation number, order number, what I purchased...nothing! It just went to a screen that said my order has been placed. I hit the "back" button to see if I could find find an order number or something and a screen flashed for a couple of seconds and then went back to the one that said my order had been placed. But...the total on the screen that flashed was a lot more than what was on the screen of what I had purchased. Hmmmmm?! Could it have been those "previous" items that I couldn't figure out?

I called the 800 number but they were closed. I waited and kept checking for the order confirmation that the site said would be emailed to me within an hour. Hours later...nothing! My only option was to call them at 5am this morning when they open. I set my alarm, got up at 5, stumbled downstairs, checked my email and finally had that confirmation. There were multiples of yarn I had chosen. Ugh! I called up and was able change my order. Whew! I got through in time before it was packed and shipped. But, wait! The new total she gave me didn't seem right. I called again and she said it was the shipping charge. Oh...hmmmm?!...ok. I said "thank you" and I hung up. But...I had worked hard to make sure I ordered enough yarn to get free shipping! I started tapping away at my calculator (still sleepy....it was very early!) and realized that the amount was wrong on another yarn...there were only two balls instead of three. I called again to fix it but this time it was too late and it would cost more than that extra ball of yarn to ship it and I might not even get the same dye lot. Argh!

And...I thought I remembered Knit Picks operators being friendly and warm from previous orders...or was that was another store?! Regardless, they weren't very warm this morning...either it was because it was early or lots of other people were calling to get their "Cyber Monday" glitches fixed too.

Lesson learned...never shop on cyber Monday or any other day that the website I'm shopping on keeps locking up. And, if it says something weird like, "previous items have been added"....call them up before making the purchase...even if they aren't showing up in the cart. I've never had a problem before but I'm sticking to shopping the old fashioned way as much as I possibly can! It's so much better, I know what I'm really getting, what it's really costing before I pay, and I can walk out with it in my hands, ready to use and enjoy right away! And, besides...real carts are a lot more fun!

Now...I'm wondering...with all the shopping going on yesterday at Knit Picks...will I get my yarn in time to make all these gifts before Christmas?! I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Something Special for Wesley

One of my knit friends is about to have a baby boy...Wesley! I'm so excited for her and her husband! As the special day approaches, we decided to have a little shower for her. I wanted to make something and I wanted it to be unique...something she wouldn't get a dozen of. I searched on Ravelry for just the right pattern and fell in love with the Owlie Sleep Sack. It's so cute and seems like a genious idea! I love the owls!...I've been wanting to make the sweater that has these owls around the neckline.

I made this with a washable, dryable yarn (a must for babies!), Bernat Satin. I think this green is pretty and it might go with the colors they like and chose for the nursery. It took a little less than one skein for the sack. I thought about making an owlie hat but thought that the owls on the sack would be enough. So, I knit up a basic little hat with a rolled edge to match the top of the sack. It was a fun project and oh-so-cute! Here it is with a book inside to make the owls easier to see...


It seems like a baby would feel so safe, snuggly and warm in this little sack and it can't fall open like a blanket could. Here it is without the book...


I also gave them this adorable pair of booties that I bought at a yarn shop. A local lady knits and sells them. It looks like they're made with sock yarn. I love the colors and the shape...


Here's a side view...

Shower Flowers

One of my knit friends is about to have a baby boy and we decided to turn this week's knit gathering into a baby shower. We've been busily making gifts (more about mine in the next post). A couple of us decided we needed some extras for the shower. So, she brought a balloon and she asked me to bring flowers. I wasn't sure I wanted to bring real flowers and an idea popped in my head...I wondered if I could use baby socks or washcloths to make flowers?! The idea was so exciting that I had to go for it!

I didn't find any socks that I would work but I did find a set of little washcloths that I liked. I also bought some paint to match the green on the washcloths as well as ribbon, a fancy piece of textured card stock paper for the leaves, a vase, and some shredded blue paper. I painted bamboo skewers for the stems. I folded the washcloths into thirds, turned down the top edge toward the bottom corner (on each end), placed a skewer inside near the end, and rolled it into a bud...


As I neared the other end, I folded it over to hide the edge. I then tied ribbon tightly around the bottom of each bud to hold it together and tied a pretty little bow.


For the leaves, I made a pattern, cut out one for each stem, punched two holes in the bottom of each, made a slight lengthwise bend in each leaf (to give it more dimension and a leaf-like shape) and slid a leaf onto each skewer...


I put shredded paper into a glass vase and arranged the buds. I cut the ends of some of the skewers to make some shorter so I could create a more pleasing arrangement. I then packed a little more shredded paper around the edges to hold the stems in place. Here's the result...


I'm really happy with how it turned out. The buds are so cute...


This project was fun, inexpensive and, unlike real flowers that will wither, these flowers can be put to good use.

Katia

I finished up a weaving project a couple of weeks ago. It's a scarf I'm calling "Katia", after the yarn I used, "Katia Colibri". I knitted a shawl/scarf with this kind of yarn about a year ago but in another colorway. The results were beautiful! I saw on Ravelry that someone had woven with it and I knew instantly that I had to give it a try. The colors and texture changes in this yarn are fabulous and it's so much fun to see how it all comes together in the finished fabric. I wove it in a simple plain weave with 12 ends per inch and used three balls of yarn, 669 yards.


The thin parts of the yarn create some sheerness..


The thick sections of turqouise and lime green add softness, color and texture...


The finished scarf is 8" wide by 92" long, including 4" of fringe on each end...


It's plenty long enough to drape around the neck and shoulders nicely...


I'm really happy with how it turned out.


I love this yarn and have seen a couple of other colorways that I really like. I would love to play with this yarn more...but...rumor has it that it's been discontinued. That won't stop me from dreaming about it and watching for it whenever I visit yarn shops! :-)