Purple Kangaroo and baby too!

They are done! I finished the Mommy Kangaroo a few days ago and wrapped up the baby today. The 2 year old loves Mommy and has been dragging her around the house since I gave it to her. She's been sleeping with the Mommy in or else next to her bed every night. I'm glad she likes it. I gave her the baby today and she's tickled pink with it. I expect both will be carried around the house a lot. Here are some photos of Mommy by herself and with her baby:

 


















And here are two close ups of the baby:

I'm glad they are done. The seaming on the baby was tough because it was small. I did the best I could, and the 2 year old loves both Mommy and baby. Now to finish up two projects that just need to be sewn together, which is why they aren't finished yet. I hope I can get them done in the next few days so I can just take my two sock projects on my vacation with me. Cheers!

Picture Day!

The Beaded Scarf:

I finally got around to blocking this scarf. It was incredibly easy to block - I just wet it and pinned it to my blocking board. A few hours later it was flat and dry. I can't wait for fall to come so I can start wearing it! Here it is, all finished:

The Garden Plot Dress:

I am really proud of how this turned out. I got it all blocked and sewn together in a day. A tip for anyone doing this - block the skirt first, then sew the side seams. The directions say to sew then block but it was so much easier to block it first. Here's a pic of it in the blocking stage:

And here is the finished dress, modeled by the happy recipient:

Yes, those are toys around her ankles. She discovered yesterday that she can slip the soft rings from one of her baby toys on her ankles and has been parading around the house with them on all day. They jingle when she walks. It's a nice accessory for the dress, eh? :)

Here's a few more pics of the dress:

 All in all, this was really easy to do. The lace might seem intimitating to a beginner, but the chart is actually really easy to follow. I only found one mistake in it and I was able to compensate for that. There is probably a correction for it out there, but since I was able to make it work I didn't bother looking for it. The bodice was easy to do - you knit part of it in the round and you do a 3 needle bind off for the shoulders so there are no seams to sew on it. The only seeaming I had to do was the two side seams of the skirt and I was able to do that in a very short time. If you know a little girl who loves dresses, I highly recommend making the dress!



Update on WIPs

Finished Projects - pictures soon!
The Nutkin Socks - they turned out slightly loose but I like them. The yarn was a bit rough at first (Fibranatura Yummy in raspberry) but as I worked with it I noticed it softening up some. I think washing them will help soften them up more.

Angry Birds - I've also been doing a bit of crocheting lately. I made not one but two pigs and one cardinal from the Angry Birds collection. I'm not a big fan of crocheting although I will do it when there's not a knit pattern for something I want to make. I probably could have converted the pattern to knitting but I was in a hurry to get the green pigs done for the kids' Easter baskets. They loved that the Easter Bunny brought them 'Happy' and 'Bob', their green pigs. Now I'm working on a second cardinal. I have to make two of everything otherwise my 2 year old and my 6 year old will fight over them and that's never good. :) It will be fun to see what they name their cardinals.

WIPs:
Garden Plot Dress - I've made some progress on the dress for the 2 year old. It's slow going with the bobbins but it's simple enough that I haven't messed the lace up too badly...yet. Lace isn't one of my strong points, so it takes more of my concentration than usual.

The Dreaded Beaded Scarf: - I've also managed to finish 4 full repeats of the beaded scarf I'm working on. The first repeat was tricky but now I've gotten the hang of it and it's not so dreaded anymore. It's one of those 'long term' projects. :)

More Socks! - Since I finished the Nutkins I cast on not one but two pairs of socks. Since I made a single Angee sock (Cookie A) before and liked it so much, I cast on a pair of them using some beautiful yarn that I lost the ball band for. I have no clue what kind of yarn it is but it's knitting up nicely. I've also cast on a pair of Artichoke socks in some cool yarn from Liberty Yarns.

As I listed out all my projects I realize I've been a bit of a short-attention span knitter lately. It's fun but it sure makes it hard to complete anything. I just love using all the pretty yarn I have. :)

Staggered Squares Blanket - Done!

I finished the Staggered Squares Blanket last night and I love how it turned out. The yarn is so soft and squishy and the pattern gives it enough texture that little fingers will enjoy touching it. The 16 row pattern was very easy to remember after a few repeats - I got to the point where I didn't have to look at my pattern anymore. It lays flat and has nice straight edges, all without any blocking - my favorite kind of pattern! It will be delivered to the mommy-to-be on Monday. I hope she likes it.

Here are some pictures of the finished blanket:
First, the whole blanket:

 And a close up of the pattern:

Now that the blanket is done I can finish up my mismatched socks tonight. Just have the toe decreases and grafting to do on the second sock. I love finishing up projects because it means I can start new ones. :)

Saturday Morning Hoodie - Finished!

I finally got the buttons sewn on to my Saturday Morning Hoodie. I decided not to do the button loops at this point. My stitches are loose enough that I can slide the buttons through the ribbing stitches to fasten the sweater. I may end up adding the button loops but at this point I like it how it is. I've worn it a few times now and no one's run screaming from me, so I guess it looks okay. :)

I did take a picture of it, although it's a horrible picture. I need to find a good model to show it off for me.

Project Updates

I've been busy lately and haven't had much time to sit down and update my projects. Life is crazy with a 6 year old and a 2 year old! So, without further ado...

Saturday Morning Hoodie - I pretty much finished this. I just need to make the button loops and sew the buttons on when they arrive in a few days. I ordered some cool ones from Knit Picks that should be here in a few days. I like how the sweater turned out, although I probably would go up a size if I was making this again.

Staggered Squares Blanket -This is coming along nicely. I haven't found any more knots in the yarn (and yes, I probably just jinxed myself again). The yarn did pool strangely at first but now it seems to be more random but there's not much I can do about that. The pattern is very easy to remember and the blanket is coming out nicely. I think the mommy I'm giving it to will really like it.

I've got a few more projects going on now that the sweater is just about finished. I'm working on a beaded scarf. It's tedious to work on it - beads, purling through the back loop, bleh. I did order myself some nice sharp needles to help with the purling through the back loop. We'll see how much they help. Maybe one day I'll fnish it. I'm going to try to work on it 30 minutes a week so I can get it done one day. :)

I'm also working on a pair of mis-matched socks. I made the first sock with yarn that is beautiful shades of teal, aqua, and blue. I like how the sock turned out, but it was a total pain to knit - either there was something wrong with the Cookie A pattern or I did something wrong (that's most likely what it was) but I had to do some creative knitting to get the pattern to work out right. I decided that one sock in that pattern was enough. I'm making the mate with the same yarn, just using a different Cookie A pattern - Angee. Hopefully this second sock will go better than the first!

Well, I think that's all for today. Tomorrow - you want to learn to knit socks from the toe up? Come back tomorrow and find out who can teach you!

Combat Knitters

This morning as I was browsing through the Washington Post, I came across this article about women stationed at a NATO hospital in Kandahar, Afghanistan who have banned together to form a group called Combat Knitters. They are brave women serving our country overseas who find time to knit whenever they can, and pass their skills along to those who wish to learn. Take a minute or two and read the article about them here Combat Knitters Article and there's another story about them here Fibre Space. They also have a group on Ravelry. I couldn't find an address for where to send donations to the Combat Knitters directly, but I'm guessing the nice people at Fibre Space would be happy to help anyone interested in donating yarn and needles to the Combat Knitters.

To the Combat Knitters, and people serving in the military both here and overseas, THANK YOU!

Saturday Morning Hoodie

I like to have a few projects going on at once. Socks are great because they are easy to throw in a bag and take along on trips. I also like to have a larger project going on to work on in the evenings when I'm watching hockey (another love of mine).

Back in January Lion Brand Yarns sent me an email telling me about their sweater knit along for the Saturday Morning Hoodie. I had just finished a top-down raglan cardigan using their Wool-Ease Chunky yarn (http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/1194.html?noImages=) and was looking for another cardi to work on, so I decided to give it a go. Here's the link to the pattern: http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/70084AD.html?noImages=

The pattern is described as an 'easy' pattern, good for beginners. Now, I've been knitting for 5 years now so I consider myself an experienced knitter. I got my yarn (Wool-Ease Chunky) and got started on the back - no problems there. When I got to the left front, I ran into problems. The directions were confusing and as I found out when I checked out the group on http://www.ravelry.com/ they were wrong. It would have been nice for Lion Brand to make sure the directions were correct BEFORE they sent out an email about the KAL. Thankfully the changes to the back of the pattern didn't affect me.

So, armed with new directions I gave the front left another try. STILL CONFUSING! I had to watch another knitter's video about the front and how to do the pockets. If I was a new knitter and didn't know about Ravelry, I would have tossed the whole thing in the trash. After getting everything straightened out, I was able to finish both fronts as well as the hood. Last night I cast on the 200 stitches to do the ribbed edging that goes up the front, around the hood, and down the other side. Hopefully I'll have it finished in about a week (I switch projects from night to night). So far, I like the way it looks but there are definitely some things I'd change.

What, you ask, would I change? First - I would have done this whole pattern as a top-down raglan. I haven't met anyone who likes seaming, especially with thick yarn like this. And this pattern would have worked top-down without any problem. Second - I would have made sure the pattern was correct before starting a KAL with it. Nothing like a welcome to knitting sweaters with an error-filled pattern. And even after they published corrections, the directions for the hood are very unclear. Third - not so crazy about the shape of the hood. It looks like you have kitty ears when you put the hood up but then, honestly, how often will any of us do that?

What did I change? I didn't seam up the pockets like it instructed but instead I closed up the pockets when I was picking up the 200 edging stitches. I figured I'd save myself some seaming work. I haven't decided if I'm going to put buttons on it yet or not. I'll wait until I'm done before I make that decision.

What did I like? I like the way the finished sweater looks. I like that it's available in a wide range of sizes. There have been many times I have found a sweater only to find that the largest size is just a few inches too small for me. I liked learning how to do the pockets, although it would have been easier if the directions were clearer.

So, those are my thoughts on the Saturday Morning Hoodie. All in all, it should be a nice sweater for spring/fall. I'll post some pictures of it when it's all done.