Feeling Froggy


There are some days I don't feel like getting anything done. You know those days where you would rather stay in your jammies all day? Now that I have cut the amount of hours I work, I have time to get a long neglected list of things done both for the house and knitting. I have been working on the blankies (not really-they are UFOs in waiting right now), a baby gift, one pair of socks that have been on the needles for a year (that is disgraceful) and the newest project that I am lovin'.


The more urgent project was started and almost (99%) finished within a few days. I was supposed to attend a baby shower for a co-worker and waited until the last minute to get the gift done. I had a conversation in passing with her one day and I got inspiration from our conversation. Since she doesn't read my blog-forget even knowing about it, I will post my pictures for the project.

My co-worker wanted a hat and booties for the baby to come home from the hospital in. She is due in December. Okay, the search was on. I bookmarked at least 10-20 baby hats in my Ravelry favorites and then viola, it came to me one day. The co-worker's husband is an avid bicycle rider. He's a chef like his wife but he has a passion for riding bikes. There is a local bike shop here called Fat Frogs. I am not sure how he is connected to the shop; maybe just a customer but it gave me a great idea.

Frogs. The baby needed a frog themed gift. I searched Ravelry and guess what I found?? Yup, I got myself a pattern for a frog hat, no scratch mittens and some very simple booties. Not sure if any of them will fit but she can use them for as long as she wants and then give them away. I thought the gift would be good for some laughs from the daddy. So here are my efforts.

First the booties. These are the simplest booties and the are knit in one piece and have to be sew up. If I have time I might make some more complicated booties but for now these are it. I haven't done my finishing yet as you can see from the ends hanging down.


Next are the "No Scratch Mittens". These are every bit as easy as the booties but they are done in the round. So quick to make and they are cute. I made them in green too so they will match everything else.
Last but not least...the hat. This is the cutest part of the whole ensemble. Just too cute.
What is a frog without the eyes???
I have not sown on the eyes yet. I have to either find or purchase some fiber fill to put in the eyes so they sit up on the head when they are put on. I will sew too little slits for the nostrils.
And the finished product...is still not done. Hopefully I will feel motivated here shortly. I will post it when it's done.

Warm Noggins

Warm Noggins
I have no idea how all of this started but I have been knitting preemie caps ever since the Olympics. I know it's a combination of needing a quick knitting "fix" and wanting to burn some yardage in my stash. Now I have passed the point of no return. I have been looking at some many preemie hats on Ravelry, that I feel like I am adding fuel to the fire.

I started with about six or eight patterns that have been perfectly fine for the last few years I have been knitting them. Now all of a sudden I have realized that knitting the preemie hats is my opportunity to learn new skills and hone the old ones. What could be a more perfect way to achieve so many things at once?? Let's run down the list.

1. I get quick satisfaction
2. I am using up yarn that has been sitting in my stash for over three years
3. I am helping a charity which helps the more defenseless of us all; babies
4. I have been dabbling in two color knitting for the first time since I failed to learn in a class almost a year ago.
5. I have found some cable patterns to practice my cables with.
6. I am learning the technique for a "joggless" stripe.

Not so bad, eh? So here are what I have made. I am still going away at it because I think I have about 10 more skeins that need to be knit up. I am not sure I will knit up all the skeins of baby yarn or not but I sure will put a dent into them. I will do my best to list the needles, yarn and patterns. There are just so many, so if I miss something just let me know and I will edit my post to correct my oversight.

One of the simplest pattern came from the Preemie Project site itself. It's called Rolled Brim Hat. It's super easy and makes a really cute hat. I did modify the top a wee bit. When you link to the pattern you can see that the top of the hat can have a "top knot" but I did a pom-pom instead on a few of them. Instead of knitting the last six rounds to form the stem for the top knot, I just took a Chubi needle and put them on a 4 inch tale and pulled them tight to close the top hole.

The next pattern is one I got from here. I am just crazy about this pattern. It is so simple and has allowed me to play around with two color knitting and now with the "joggless" stripe. I am still perfecting those two techniques so I think I am going to have to knit more of these! The possibilities are limitless! Boy have a I had a ball with these little beauties! This pattern is very easy too and it makes a cute more textured hat. I think it's more feminine that masculine but it still looked good in blue. Lastly I made one of these because I thought it was too large for a preemie. I will include it in my box to the Preemie Project and tell them to use where needed but I think it's too large to use for a 1-3 pound baby. I haven't been around a baby in so long I am not sure how large their little heads are. The yarns I have used are Plymouth Yarn Dreambaby D.K. and Sirdar Snuggly Fair Isle D.K. I have other baby yarns but haven't knit anything with them yet. I am planning to but want to knit up this other two brands first before starting something else. My needle sizes range from US3-US7.

I am still knitting on the hats and will post more as soon as I have more new patterns printed off and in place. I am still excited about doing these!

Mission Accomplished (part 2)

I am so excited that I signed up for two groups in Ravelry. I was starting to get a tightness in my chest thinking about working and trying to knit a scarf, spin eight ounces of unknown fiber and then knit a cowl with it. I don't usually set deadlines for projects but for the Ravelympics that was required. You cast on during opening ceremonies and then have everything done by closing ceremonies.

This is my second time doing something for the winter Olympics. The first one was this. I was so excited that I made it! I gave it away but it was still such a thrill for a pretty new knitter. I thought I had been knitting longer than what I thought, but guess not. So I think that I should make this an event from here on in every time there is a winter Olympics whether or not it's with a group like Yarn Harlot formed or Ravelry. Either way, it is a challenge either with time or a skill. Fun, fun!

My second challenge was to spin a declared fiber and then knit it into something.
I picked a project and then tried my best to match the type of yarn the original pattern was knit in. It was sock yarn. I have never tried to spin that small before so this was a challenge for me. I bought a tool months back that would help me gauge how thick I was spinning. It's such a basic tool, but it did the trick when the directions were read and followed. Yes, I followed the directions. You know that is so unlike me but this was the Ravelympics you know!

The tool that was used to help me gauge my spinning is called a WPI Tool Kit. It's such a simple concept and works like a very basic charm. This my first time using the tool. When using the tool, you wrap the yarn around and around to measure an inch. There are four one inch marks on the tool. Then there is a card the helps you determine what kind of yarn you have just spun. I was shooting for 15-18 wpi (wraps per inch). That category is called sport yarn. I managed to get 12 wpi. I thought I was going small but guess it wasn't quite small enough. I still need way more practice getting small. I have heard from other spinners that once you've gone small, it's hard to make fatter yarn.

So I got 412 yards from the eight ounce of roving. It was WAY more yarn than what I needed to make the Good Luck Cowl. The most important part is that I finished it! My assessment is that I need to spin a wee bit tighter and this roving wasn't really the perfect yarn for this project but it turned out okay.

While I was knitting it I started to get panicky. It was looking kind of small. When I cast off I ran into the bathroom and tried it on. It fit. I have a short neck thank goodness? So it's done and now it needs to be wet and blocked. Here is my favorite model showing it off.

So with my finished Robin's Blue Egg Hat and now my newly completed Good Luck Cowl, I am ready for the snow they are predicting this week. Oh, goody!

Revving Up for Ravelympics

I have been laboring over what to knit for weeks and what Ravelympic groups to join. Don't you know that I would finish other projects (UFOs) and then be left with time to kill until the official cast on time. This can make a compulsive knitter nuts. No sticks and strings in my hands? What do I do while avoiding laundry and housecleaning? Look for a small project to whet the knitting appetite but of course!

Since I am trying to do a serious stash down I went right to the source of all of my efforts. I found a ton of single balls of yarn that needed to be knit down. So I picked this project to work on while I watched the clock until cast on time. The worst part of waiting was knowing that we would be on the road while I was waiting. It's hard to pick the right project for a road trip. I didn't want to over pack but pack enough knitting supplies that I could have anything I needed for a knitting emergency at my finger tips. So one small one ball project was perfect.
Here is the perfect short-term project while traveling. This is the Knit Baby Hats 1 by Sandra Huffines. It was knit on #3 dpns with 60 stitches. I found two half balls of yarns in a zip lock bag; Plymouth Yarn Dreambaby DK and Sirdar Snuggly. I don't know which yarn is which and at this point I don't suppose it matters. I just wanted to knit. So I did and when it was finished, it was perfect timing for the opening ceremonies of the Olympics.
It's a wee bit blurry and the lighting isn't great but it's still a finished hat. It satisfied my need to knit, be a short and quick knit and it will be donated to yet another great cause sometime this year. I just love it when a plan comes together well... My model was another spare ball of yarn that was in the zip lock bag. It was probably between the size of an orange and a grapefruit. I think the pattern said it would fit between an 2-3 baby. I am not such a good judge of those kinds of things but it doesn't matter as long as it goes to a baby who needs it.
Then the opening ceremonies started and I cast on my project! Here is the pattern and the beginning of my swatch. I cast on and then measured the width and decided that it was outside the measurement specs set down by the OFA. So I went down to size 7 needles. I am using the rest of my Caron One Pound skein.














I made good progress while the opening ceremonies. I haven't done cables in years and years but found that they came back to me quickly. This Irish Hiking Scarf is super simple for anyone who is a beginner at cables. I really didn't remember how easy cables were until I got a good mojo going. It really was like riding a bike. I have made great progress over the weekend and am very pleased so far. I hope who ever gets the scarf likes it as much as I do so far. It is a bit stiff so I think I am going to wash and dry both scarves to soften them up a bit. I will post the finished project once it's done.

Treading Water

I thought I was going to hit my knitting stride in 2010 but it has not turned out that way. Between working and trying to purge my office, I have not done nearly the amount of knitting I had thought I would. I have been working on the same project as has been seen here many, many times in the past few years. I so love this pattern as is evident of how many times I have knit the Mary Scarf. Now I am just knitting now to knit down my stash.

I joined a group called 5K Stashdown because another Ravelry friend mentioned it. I thought it a bit silly but when I sat down for 2 1/2 hours and started an Excel sheet with my stash inventory; I was mortified. I always knew in the back of my mind that I had a lot yarn, but I didn't know I HAD a lot of yarn. I am up to item #98. That doesn't mean that I only have 98 skeins, but different kinds of yarns and colors. Some of the catergories I have listed have 7 skeins, so I have more than 98 skeins of yarn. Say what? No, it can't be. I have only been a knitter for five/six years and there is no way that I could have bought that much yarn. Really?


I have still yet to tackle my closet. I have bags in the closet that are for sweater knitting that I have yet to inventory. I am dreading that. It only reminds me that I have been overly free in my spending for my hobby. I used to laugh and have self righteous thoughts about those who had storage sheds with yarn in them. Not anymore.

So to help relieve myself of some of the "yarn burden," I have been knitting on several projects at once. One of the projects was for a co-worker who admired my fingerless mitts. I told her that if she bought me the yarn I would knit her a pair. So she did. She purchased one skein of Homespun yarn. I let it sit on the diningroom table for a while until I could get motivated to knit the mitts. When they were done, I was happy with them and I think she liked them too.

They do look rather plain but when they are one someone's hands they do look so much better. The pattern is rather simple which gives me courage to step up my design selection for the next pair.
I had to try them on before taking them to work. I don't think they look so bad. Homespun is rather bulky so they are very warm. I took them to work and then my co-worker modeled them for you.

Notice the chef's jacket. That is the co-worker at work trying on the gloves.

I used the same pattern for these that I used in the first pair I made over a year ago.
There are the palms. The whole pattern is basicly a ribbed pattern with a thumb hole, which I had never done until I knit my first pair, which I gave to another co-worker. Then there was so much left over yarn, that I knit her a hat.

I took the hat to work for her to put a button on. I sadly did not get a picture to show you the hat but she did promise to bring the hat back and model it so I can take her picture. Stay tuned for more!

Hat-A-Rama

Hat-A-Rama

I am not really sure if that is a word but it should be. I have been having a blast knitting little hats that I have found for free on Ravelry. The first hat I knit was not from Ravelry but from a book. It was for my little nephew Zachary and it was a smashing success. I knit two; one for Zachary and one for my brother. I never did give my brother his hat but Zachary got his and he loved it. He loved it so much that I have been told he would scream, "My hat!" whenever someone at day care would try to take his hat from him. I was totally delighted that my first hat for Zachary was a hit. So since that one was a success I decided he probably has out grown his first hat and now he needs another one.

So I knit this one and he will get it in the fall. I will be knitting two; one for Zachary and one for my brother.

This is the Candy Corn Hat from Ravelry. I have a co-worker who has a glass candy jar that sits on her desk every day of the year. In the fall she says she buys up all the Candy Corn she can and keeps the jar filled through out the fall and well into winter. So when I saw this hat on Ravelry, I cracked up laughing and proceeded to knit five. Yes, I said five. I knit two adult sized hats and three children sized hats. One adult and one child went to my co-worker and her three year old daughter. I will be leaving my job here shortly and wanted to be sure they got those hats for the fall. Of course one adult sized and one child sized hat will go to Zachary and my brother. I thought about waiting for Christmas but decided that I needed to send them in the fall instead. So they are ready to go! How's that for thinking well in advance??

I have been on such a roll with the hats that I decided that I needed to make Zachary another hat that would drive my family nuts. It's this one...

This is just a tease...here's another one...
Here is the pattern...from Ravelry that I liked the best. The name of the person who created the original pattern is listed on the above link. The person from Denmark made the hat closest to the clown fish that I could find pictures of on the internet. So I did my best to copy partly from the internet and the pattern. I am not sure how close I came but I am sure that Zachary will think it's the real thing.

These are the photos from Ravelry that my friend Romelda printed off for me to use as a guide. We are both knitting the same hat. So I used these as a guide. I loved the way she made extra fins for the hat and made the fins about the same length as the strips of orange on the fish. We shall see how it turns out.

Here it is...
I have a styro head that I purchased from a local beauty supply store for less than $5 and it's perfect for modeling!

I loved how the hat turned out but hated weaving in the ends with all the color changes. I am in the process of making another one with smaller needles to how that will turn out. Ravelry is a great source of patterns if you can't afford a whole book. There are some really generous designers who post their patterns for free. Thanks to all!

Not a Copy Cat
by Vickie
While away for Christmas vacation I brought knitting with me to kill idle time in the airport and while visiting my son and his wife. For some reason, Orbitz gave us a layover in MN for eight hours and I knew that would be prime knitting time and I was armed and ready! I took some 1824 cotton yarn to make this hat again. I am going to donate them to charity so thought since I had the time and it wasn't too complicated a pattern I would be able to get a lot done. Turns out I only got two finished, but I did get some other important knitting done instead.

My son has never asked me to knit anything for him. I did knit a wool scarf (he picked out the yarn) two years ago and I have never heard that he has ever worn it, except on this trip to AK. I flat out asked if he ever wore the scarf and he said yes that he had worn it to the Christmas party for his work recently. While we were watching TV he asked me if I could make him this hat. I said no, but maybe I could come up with something like it. Since I already had a hat pattern with me I figured that would give me a place to start.

So the son wanted to go to a local sporting goods store and lucky me there was a local yarn shop (which I will talk about by name in a later post) right next door. What are the odds?? So I went in there and looked around at the different yarns and didn't find anything on my own. The person working in the shop showed me some yarn I had never used before so I mulled it over and decided it would do well with the pattern I had in mind. My son came over to find me and these are the colors he picked out for his hat.
I have never knit with Llama before so these would be perfect. It was soft and very easy on the hands to knit with. I used 100 stitches for the base of the hat. The largest baby hat that I had was 80 so I more or less guessed that 100 would be a good start. I also went on the Internet and looked at other hat patterns to see what their stitch count was. 100 was the average amount. So 100 it was.

My son looks better with darker colors around his face and I had seen that most of his clothes were darker colors so I started with the green first. I started with knitting the first row and then knit the moss stitch to give the hat the texture I wanted and so that the brim of the hat would not roll. I knit the moss or seed stitch several inches and then decided to change the color and just knit from there thinking it would blend right in. Wrong. So you can see from the picture that I only did one band of the knitted stitch.

Then when I changed the color I realized that I had to do the whole hat in the moss stitch so that it would continue to have the texture and didn't have an indentation like the knitted band had. So it was an easy pattern to knit.

Decreasing for the top of the hat was a little bit of a challenge. I started with 100 stitches and everything came out even with every other stitch being a knit stitch then a purl, but when I started to decrease the pattern was disrupted. So I tinked it back and added one stitch at the beginning of the first decrease row. I did the decrease row in the knitted stitch and then I knit the row between the decrease row in the moss stitch. You hardly notice the rows of knitting. It did change the pattern a bit but since it was on the top I didn't really care. The hat turned out well and my son was pleased. He had to try it on about three times to see if it would fit and how long I needed to make it.

This is the hat finished. You can see that I only did a few rounds of straight knitting. Then when I saw the indentation I decided I didn't like it, so I just continued with the moss stitch.

This is my son with the newly finished hat on. The picture is a little dark because he was playing video games when I insisted hat he try the hat on for a photo for my blog.

Here is a side view of the hat.

I am pleased with the way the hat turned out with my minimal knowledge of creating patterns. It was fun and I gave my son something I think he will wear a lot. I did give him the bad new that if he washed the hat he could put it on his key ring later...I will wait for the news from him that he forgot and washed the hat. LOL!

What to knit on a plane
I am lucky enough to be able to take off about five days a year to gather with other Personal Chefs around the country. It's all food all the time, but there are times you have to decompress from calorie talk. The plane was my decompression chamber.

Going to Tucson was easy but as most travellers know there must be arrangements made in advance concerning our knitting paraphernalia. I was going to start a project that I found in a recent addition to my fledgling book collection. I was excited to try a new pattern with some newly acquired yarn. I bought new wooden needles to keep from losing my Addi Turbos, but happily nothing was taken away from me and that made me a very happy camper.

I had a goal that I have published here in the past of knitting 100 baby hats this year. I did get 25 or so done already but truly have gotten side tracked with that whole project. So to help myself get motivated to get back on track, I picked this pattern to embark on during my plane ride to Tucson. Oh yeah, and the three and half hour lay over in Dallas-twice. Don't ask....

This photo is from book, Knitted Gifts.

So I cast on right before going on the trip and could barely stop myself for going full guns on the hats. I wanted to just keep going but knowing how long my lay overs were stopped myself. I have to say, that this pattern in incredibly easy and it turns out just the way the picture from the book shows. I couldn't be more pleased. What pleased me even more is that I got two hats done and with no help from anyone. I must be improving! Okay, it was a beginner pattern, but still...

Here are my efforts. They just are so cute. I have no idea who will get them and really it doesn't matter to me. I just had fun making them and I loved the cotton yarn. This is the second project as of late that I have done in cotton. They were both pretty simple but it gave me a feel for it. DH said he likes the cotton washcloths so that's a victory. You have to take them when you get them.


Here is my effort at the baby hat. This is my second venture into knitting with cotton and I have to say that I liked it a lot, but there are two observations I wanted to mention. One, there doesn't seem to be a lot of "give" when knitting with cotton. It's pretty committed to just being what it is. Wool seems to be a little more flexible. Two, it's harder for me to weave in my end and keep them hidden. Cotton unlike wool, doesn't tangle on it self so again hiding the ends in hopes they will blend in is more of a challenge.
I have never done an I cord before and I think it turned out pretty well. Each cord was over 24" so it was pretty boring but thankfully it went quickly!
It's twins! I took two skeins of the 1824 cotton with me and I ended up with two hats one with a cast on of 60 and the other (medium size) with 70 stitches. There isn't a huge difference in the size and I have a small ball of yarn left over. I think that I will cast one the largest one and see how far my little ball and one more skein will go. It's a very quick knit. I did have to purchase size 7 16" circs which will only make my collection more wonderful. I highly recommend this pattern for a quickie baby gift for a larger sized baby. This is not a Preemie hat project but I am going to try the pattern with wool and see how it fares! Happy Cotton Knitting everyone!

What I did on my Christmas Vacation...

Hubby and I had no intention of going to Texas to see our families during our Christmas break from work. We talked about it and talked about it and decided we really didn't need to spend the money and we didn't want to leave our youngest son at home alone even though he had to work the whole time. I know that the fact we have not been home in more than 18 months weighed heavily on our minds. So at the 11th hour we talked to the kid, cooked an early Christmas dinner, opened gifts and then packed up and got out of dodge.

Getting out of dodge was pretty easy, and it was just the thing we needed to be renewed and refreshed. Our timing could not have been any more perfect. See, no one in the family knew we were coming home. I never called them to tell them anything at all. I was dying! I almost broke down in Nashville where we spent the first night of the trip. I was starting to panic thinking about what would happen if we showed up and NO one was home. What kind of nightmare would that be driving 27 hours from VA to TX and they moved the party. Hub held steadfast about not calling anyone. Here is my view from the passenger seat in the van of the pyramid in Memphis, TN. I know this seems a bit odd, but who on earth came up with this idea? Who builds a pyramid in the middle of the SOUTH???? I happened to have lived there back in the late 80s when this was built and it was a big deal, but still just seemed so silly to me. I love Memphis, but wouldn't this have been better built say some place in AZ or the desert of CA? Just saying...

This is one of the south's most famous bridges. It's the bridge that is most commonly called the Mississippi bridge, but it has another name. I doubt anyone that crosses this bridge calls it this.
I am old school, and just call it the Mississippi bridge. More folks call it that than by it's other name; I am sure!

While I was on the trip, I pulled a Yarn Harlot move... (see June 18 entry)

My picture is of a hat I was working on, but it works. A while back I showed pictures of this hat that I was knitting for my one and only nephew, Zachary. Well, here he is modeling his new hat. I a matching hat for his dad, my brother. They will look goofy together!
Here is another shot of Zach and his hat. See when you knit for family, they really do wear your stuff. I will write more about my vacation and how it relates to yarn later...hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday and that 2008 will be a wonderful year for us all.

Hangin' in there
I haven't had time to post lately because I have gone nuts over these preemie hats that I have publicly pledged to knit over the next year. At the rate I am going, I will have them done well before my self imposed deadline. When I started I really didn't realize how quickly they would go. I also didn't realize how much satisfaction I would get from doing them. I think it's the fact they go so quickly so I know they will not languish on the UFO list. That fact alone brings me joy!

So here is what I have been up so since my last post. I have over 12 hats done and there is always a new one of the dpns.
First...



This is the Preemie Twinkle Hat. It's made with Pylmouth Yarn, Dreambaby D.K. This pattern can be found here. It's very easy and any beginner who can knit in the round can make this hat. It's pretty small. I think this one is done with #5 dpns.
Second is...

This hat was made with Bella Stripes from Universal Handknitting Yarns. The pattern is called Shadow Stripes Hat. I did this one on #5 dpns. It take a little longer than the basic hat pattern but well worth it. I will make it in different yarns and colors to see how they all compare.

Third is..Large Preemie Diamond Lace Hat. I did this one on #5 dpns and was really surprised at how large it was. I am still wondering it this will fit a preemie. I need to find someone with a baby so I can try it on them. I used the 80 stitches the pattern called for but after researching where I got the idea from, this person used 48 stitches and #3 dpns. I don't currently have #3s so I used #5s. Hopefully Santa will bring me the #3s for Christmas.

I wanted to show how many hats I got from one skein of the Bella Stripes. Most were done with #4 and #5 dpns. The yarn was priced at $5.99. It was more expensive than the other yarns I have been using, but I just loved the stripes and I had to have it.

So when there's a time lapse when I post, it's only because I am knitting my little fingers to the bone. Ha!