Moorish Mosaic, finally!

Almost immediately after it was published, I bought yarn for Lisa Naskrent's Moorish Mosaic Afghan.  Eleven months later, it is finally finished!

The only modification I made was to skip the triangle motifs intended to fill in the sides in favor of doing a few extra rounds for the border.  I love this pattern!

 Ravelry linky

Cutie Pa-tootie

Cute baby sweater, fabulous old Cider Moon Yarn.

Mr. Penguin

After about a year and a half, my knit penguin is finally finished.

This project was started sometime in 2007, and has been sitting in storage without wings or a bottom since then. Finally, I have sat down for a hour and finished this thing. I still need to take some new pictures, see how young my little one is in this picture? She's almost two, now!



And, I have a confession to make. Today during work, I finally broke down and placed an order on knitpicks to get the Little Baby Bubbles cardigan kit. It is so freaking cute, and I couldn't resist it any longer.

And, given the kit was so cheap, clearly I had to order some of their sale yarn to get my total purchase up to $50 to qualify for the free shipping. So, just shipped is the following:

1. 5 skeins Comfy Sport for the baby cardigan (680 yards)
2. 3 skeins Elegance (330 yards)
3. 11 skeins Wool of the Andes (1210 yards)
4. 2 skeins Essential (462 yards)

Grand total? 2,682 yards added to stash. Sigh. I am excited to see this stuff in person.

Weekend of Finishing

I finished three of my projects this weekend, and continued to work on the Cobblestone.

The three-year adventure making my Neverending Ripple Blanket has ended. This was a funny pattern, as I could never manage to completely memorize it. Usually, a four-row repeat is something I could handle, but I couldn't remember which rows needed an increase on the end and which rows were worked even on the end. Although I like the finished product, I won't make it again for this reason. A crocheted baby blanket should be something that can be worked without a pattern.

I finally sewed handles on my two Felted Stained Glass Bags. They don't seem particularly strong to me, so I plan on having them lined by a friend-of-a-friend. This will make the finished product just a little nicer, given they will be Christmas gifts this year!

My other felted bag, the Entrelac Bag for me, may never be finished. I am not happy with felted handles, so I need to find some other kind of strap. I love the bag itself so much, that I am just being super picky and will probably never find something good enough. So, I have decided that this will go back into hibernation until I can make up my mind. Maybe I'll get lucky and find something at Knitter's Connection?

Roaring Meg

I wanted to share a picture of the Roaring Meg I finished a little bit ago. The weather's now too warm to really get a lot of use out of it, but it will still fit her in the fall when the temperature cools a bit. This is really one of my favorite baby/toddler sweaters so far. This designer has a lot of cute stuff!

Traverse City, MI Yarn Shops

Well, I was both disappointed and delighted by the yarn shops I found in Traverse City when I was up there a couple weekends ago.

My first stop was Yarn Quest, on Garfield Road. We were greeted by the woman by being instructed to make sure my toddler didn't get into any of the yarn. I should have turned around and walked out right then, but I needed some new needles to get my minimalist cardigan started. The selection was fine, but they didn't have needles in stock in very many sizes. I was not disappointed to leave and continue my search in another shop.

The other shop we went to was much more rewarding (and stash fulfilling). We stopped at Lost Art Yarn and Needlepoint in the downtown area. We were greeted warmly and there were no instructions given regarding my Emily. We found some yummy Adrienne Vitadini Donata on clearance; I picked up 13 skeins in a bright sky blue color at 50% off. They also had my Addi's and I left the store quite happy.

At the end of February, I had 44,381 yards in my stash for a net gain of 274 yards in 2009. My minimalist cardigan should eat up a lot in March!

Emily's Super Cute Hat

The hat she will never wear! I love it!

This is the Brr Babie Beanie by CraftyRahRah with a 5-Petal Flower by Julie Armstrong Holetz. Yummy!

Turn A Square

I love these hats! So far, I have made two of them out of stash Paton's Wool and Noro Kureyon and I plan on making two or three more for Christmas.

I am a huge fan of Jared Flood's designs. They are simple, but appealing. I have a couple more of his patterns queued up, including a sweater for Bill when I get around to it.

Elery's Sweater

I finished up a super cute, super easy baby cardigan this weekend. It's a gift for Justin and Michelle's baby, expected to arrive in November. I've heard that they're going to call her Elery.

I made this completely out of stash yarn, scraps of acrylic baby yarn that's been sitting around. I started with the pink, then ran out of my little ball only to find out it was a different dye lot than the other 2.5 skeins of pink yarn in my stash. That's when I switched to white. I am actually very happy with the results.

I don't know exactly how much I used up on this sweater, but I'm calling it 273.1 yards based on my ravelry stash totals.

Don's Slippers

I have complete my first finished object of the month! I made the Cable Guy Slippers for Don, using the yarn I had frogged from the Celtic Tote. I love how they turned out, though next time I would make them a little shorter than called for in the pattern. That way, they would require slightly less felting and the cable would be a little more defined. But, they're great. I only need to pick up some slipper bottoms to sew on to make them a little more grippy.

I'll post some pictures once I get them taken.

This used up approximately 330 yards of my stash!

I have decided to finish the Scrappy Baby Afghan that I started a looonnggg time ago. I had decided to use up all my little bits of baby yarn, because I didn't have enough of any one color to make a whole blanket, so this is what I ended up with. I love it, but unfortunately, I still have a ton of left over baby yarn. I'm probably going to switch to hats and cardigans, because I'm sure I have enough for those.

I also decided to make this smaller for a car seat, so it will be for Chrissy and her baby due in February!

Gingham Baby Blanket

For the trip to Milwaukee this weekend, I dug out an old crocheted baby blanket that I had been working on a while ago. Happily, I have finished it and it is darling.

[I will put in a finshed picture here just as soon as I get them back - had to purchase a disposable camera to use at the zoo this weekend and decided I would use up the second half of the roll on my stash and projects].

And, my stash count is somewhat reduced by the additional yarn I used, 227.5 yards

New total = 51,338.4 yards - 227.5 yards = 51,110.9 yards

Pretty Pinafore

I finally managed to sew on the buttons for the Debbie Bliss pinafore dress that I have been working on for a very long time. It's a little big, but I love it!

Butterfly Baby Hat

A simple baby hat using a band of butterfly stitches as an accent. The pattern is written for three different sizes, newborn, 3 - 9 months, and 9 – 18 months.

Materials
DK weight yarn
Size 5 needles (the smallest hat will fit on sixteen inch circulars)

Gauge
22 stitches per 4 inches

Sizes
Small, newborn
Medium, 3 - 9 months
Large, 9 - 18 months

Pattern
Cast on 72 (80, 88) stitches and join in the round
Work in plain stockinette stitch for 6 rows

Purl next round

Continue in plain stockinette stitch for 2 (2.5, 3) inches
Begin first butterfly pattern

1. (move yarn to the front, slip 5 stitches purlwise, move yarn to the back, k3), repeat around
2. knit around
3. repeat round 1
4. repeat round 2
5. repeat round 1
6. repeat round 2
7. (k2, slip needle behind the 3 strands from bottom to top, knit into the next stitch, slip the three strands over top of the needle, k5), repeat around

Begin second butterfly pattern round

1. k 4, this is the now the location of the beginning of the round
2. Repeat rows 1 through 7 of the first butterfly pattern

Continue working in plain stockinette until the hat measures 5 (5.25, 5.5) inches

Decrease Rounds:
Size Large Only:

• (k2tog, k9) around
• knit

Size Medium and Large:

• (k2tog, k8) around
• knit

All sizes:

• (k2tog, k7) around
• knit
• (k2tog, k6) around
• knit
• (k2tog, k5) around
• (k2tog, k4) around
• (k2tog, k3) around
• (k2tog, k2) around
• (k2tog, k1) around
• k2tog around, break yarn and draw yarn through all 8 stitches. Pull tight and weave in.

Pattern & images © 2008 by Melisa Darnieder. Personal use ONLY. Commercial use, including selling items made from this pattern, is prohibited. All rights reserved.

Matching Beanies

I love this hat pattern by MK Carroll. I made one for Emily and then Bill asked for a matching one. Happily, there was enough left of the blue/purple skein to make it.

I made it in Lion Brand Cotton Ease, with a size F hook. I followed the pattern, with the following changes:

• Follow the pattern but make the first 7 rounds blue


• Follow with a round of white


• Follow with blue again, but continue the increase pattern through round 11 (you'll have 88 stitches after this).


• Continue even, switching back to white for the 15th and final rounds