Off the Hook

Finished the knitting & now ‘off the hook’ with the crocheted border complete

All this needs now, is a little bit of ribbon, to weave through the eyelet design.  Tried to find a dusty, cornflower blue, but there was nothing even close.  So, pale blue it is.  This is the same design as this one.  Can’t seem to get more than one of these in the shop.  They are so lightweight, they work with car seats and strollers, and pretty enough to work well for baby pictures and christenings.

As soon as the ribbon gets here, this blanket will be ready for pictures and then it’s all ready to head to a new home.

Treasury Tuesday

My Blackberry Salad Baby blanket is included in this Merry & Bright Treasury!  So many fun ideas, such great artists.  Enjoy!

‘Merry and BRIGHT’ by valsart2000

Bears Christmas Watercolor I… BarbaraSzepesi… $25.00	Blue Neckwarmer, Buttoned Sc… sailorgina $20.00	Colorful bracelet – rubber b… BlackRedDots $15.00	Purple Summer Fashion Croche… ChichiKnots $42.00
Sale RARE Vintage WIZARD of … LemondropTreas… $36.00	Rainbow and yellow beaded wr… ChromaticityDe… $22.00	Dog Coat Lime Green and Turq… RockinDogs $34.95	Miniature Spool Necklace. Co… MintMarbles $26.00
Triesta Canvas Print, Signed… Inspireuart $75.00	Purple Happy pendant-Sterlin… CyKLu $25.00	Bright, Vivid, Wooden Tulips… LoudWaterfallP… $26.00	Vintage Train Case – Hot Red… iasVintage $30.00
ON SALE handmade necklace, o… FindingBrooke $12.80	Bright Colors Baby Blanket B… StitchKnit $65.00	Fingerless Gloves Purple Ora… BZfingers $19.50	Flower Princess Red Girl’… PrincesaAnasta… $18.00

Treasury tool supported by the dog house

 

Bright Baby Blanket

Finally caught up enough to get back to a project I started ……….oh, let’s say last spring.  Could have been earlier, but it’s done now, so who’s counting the months.

not your typical baby pastels!

 

I saw this on Pinterest and started gathering up yarn from “the stash” right away.  Even though stripes aren’t something I normally do, this just started calling my name!  I started in and loved it in spite of all the ends that were accumulating!

I’d love to see other color combinations if anyone has completed one of these.  I’m thinking I’d like to do another, but keep the colors in the same family……….  Of course, I’d like to see pink to burgundy, with maybe some lavenders thrown in.  What do you think for colors on this one?

One drawback to the project, at least for me, is that it’s a stay at home sort of event.  With so many skeins of yarn in my project bag, this one does not travel.

 

Just Listed: Yummy Yellow Baby Blanket

Just cast off this yummy baby blanket.  Knit in a basket weave pattern, with a seed stitch border on all four sides, this was a fun knit.  Easy to knit, no pattern necessary, all one color…………..so much to like about this.  Lightweight, really soft and a washable acrylic yarn.    See additional pictures here in my Etsy shop.

The down side of finishing a project like this, or these fingerless mitts I completed yesterday is that I need to search for some new projects!  Decisions, decisions!

 

A Crocheting Milestone!

There is progress, after all the hours & hours of single crochet stitches…………..   This is the custom order baby blanket, with the main part of the blanket FINISHED!  There are what seems like hundreds of ends to weave in & finish off……….plus, some cross stitch additions to the design……………oh, and the name of the baby added to the side of the truck.  So, it isn’t technically finished, but I’m still flyin’ fairly high, just knowing the single crochets are now done!

Custom Order Baby Blanket

I couldn’t even figure out how to take a picture of this project!  It fills up my cutting table! 

I might even have some time to work on other projects pretty soon!  I have been crocheting for months it seems; the custom order Christmas stockings and then this baby blanket.  Other projects have taken a back seat.  Can’t wait to get to some knitting or sewing…………..and I don’t want to take on anything with single crochet stitches for………….oh, years & years! 

 

 

Progress that Deserves a Picture!

Agreed, this doesn’t look much like the picture/pattern yet, but it is moving along!  The stripes are the border at the top of the blanket, then, there are miles of single crochet in white, prior to adding in the fire truck design off the chart pictured here with the beginnings of this blanket!  Picking up some speed now on this one, I think it’s because there is now enough of it to hold on to.

 

The other custom orders aren’t to the photo shoot point yet.   Only so many hours in a day here!

 

And, the BIG news of the day here…………Fall has begun here in WA state.  I had to get into my sock drawer today & don a pair of my hand knit socks!  No more bare feet & sandals for months!

More Than Busy Here

Right off the bat, here is the pile of “parts” for the Christmas Stockings for the custom order…………

I don’t want to know how many ends there are to weave in.  Starting to assemble these in the AM, when I’m my least cranky.  I’m going to tweak the non pattern, as the green band that is supposed to be picked up after putting the sock together.  I want to make the band, embroider the names while the band is a flat piece, then seam it up and attach it to the sock.  Sounds easier and I’m betting no one but the original crafter would know the difference.

Next on the list is a completed baby blanket.  Not quite a blanket, but I don’t know what to call something this size.  It is a 30″ square, if I don’t stretch it. 

I do love this.  It started out as a bit of work to show the basics of a granny square, to a beginning crochet class.  I couldn’t rip it out, I loved how it looked, as well as how it felt!  And, the little size??  I think it is just right for wrapping up a little one.  The size that will get used……not something that is too big.  This will fit over a car seat, or stroller………..and it is just the right size to become the special blankie that goes everywhere with the toddler!

And, just to prove I haven’t been wasting time here……….I’ve finished this Infinity Scarf/Cowl yesterday and got a few pictures of it this evening.  Yummy yarn, slubby, thick, thin………..pink and a gray blue……  I do love how it turned out.

Both the blanket and the Infinity Scarf are going to be in the Etsy shop within the hour (barring any disasters here)

This week end has been busier than most, as I added in a 2nd foster kiddo…………just for the weekend; to give his foster family a break for a couple days.  Today was filled with cooking and even a bit of canning.  One batch of green tomato mincemeat, which is to die for in small little tarts!  Ohhhh…….with a cup of tea………..

Finished off the evening with homemade pizzas, made to order!  Yummy!  One of these days I should take the camera to the kitchen!  As much as I hate to cook, I do like to eat yummy food.  And, I do like to see that the food served here is the best I can come up with.  Tonights offering was just delish.  If I wasn’t so tired, it would have tasted better. 

Closer & Closer

I’m still moving at a snails pace, but this evening I managed to get 2 items listed in the shop.  My total is now at 92 items.  My goal has been to list 100 items and I’m getting so close I can see it!   I can’t believe it when I think back to December ’10, and the meager little bit I started with.  I have learned so much, and made so many friends…………this is just the most fun I’ve had in ages!

Here’s the items I added this evening………….

I promise I’ll get this young ladies name to give credit where credit is due. She makes my hat look fantastic.  What a stunning young woman!   This is the hat from Boutique Knits, a great book I just had to have.  I’m knitting the 2nd one of these now, for several reasons.  First off, it is a super fun knit.  Some projects are just OK, others are interesting, some I learn new things from and this one seemed to have it all.  Knitting the ruffles first, then knitting them together……..and around the band.  And, at that point, picking up stitches and creating the actual hat!  The other reason, is that this is going to be the first Give Away I’ve participated in.  Details will be coming……..

 

This is one of the baby blankets I’ve been working on.  See it here.  I love this pattern, as it is truly an easy knit.  I can work on this one while concentrating on something else.   Affectionately called my idiot knitting!  It’s different, as it is constructed on the diagonal, starting with just 3 stitches in one corner…………..and knitting outward until I decide it is big enough…….then, decreasing back down to the last corner & 3 stitches.  Done on larger needles, this ends up being one of the softest things I have ever felt.

Thanks to Rachel at nomarkatall for the great pictures.  What a difference a photographer makes!  She also has the patience of a saint, as it took me weeks…………..no, probably months, to get her pictures onto my computer and then try to get them onto Etsy.  Confession time:  I had help.  It is true, I can knit.  I can sew.  But, all the other stuff……….I need some big time help.  (thanks to Peter, with Peter’s PC,  my new best friend!)

 

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Create Something Daily Challenge:

Today was an odd day.  One client cancelled, to re schedule next week.

I did learn alot today, thanks to Peter!  He is going to assist with all things computer related here, until I can’t absorb any more!  (that might happen pretty darned soon!)

Worked on Client V’s order, to be picked up tomorrow.  2 more pieces to finish.  Hoping for a couple hours in the AM.

Cut a friends hair………creating with an entirely different medium!

Cast off on the drop stitch scarf, knit with the ribbon yarn.  I’m planning on an asymmetrical bit of fringe on both ends, which should take me forever to heat seal all the cut edges.  There is an off chance it will be ready to add to the shop tomorrow.  Very colorful, lightweight, and it sort of reminds me of tie dye from the 70′s.

Knit a few more inches on a simple scarf, all shades of red……….again light weight, lacy…..would be very cute over a white T shirt, or over a ‘little black dress’.  This one will be a few more days………I want to get it long enough it can wrap around enough to look like a cowl I think.

 

Art vs. Machines

That was my problem today.  Art and creativity were pitted against cold, unfeeling sewing machines.  (specifically, my newest serger)    Remember that deadline I was working against yesterday?  Well, I just kept bumping up against the same one today.  Only worse.

The jackets were assembled when I quit for the night last night, leaving just the rolled hem edge on all 4 of them.  The pattern is unique in that there is ONLY the rolled hem, all the way around each jacket………….sleeve hems too.

Here’s a poor picture of the group of them, after I had suffered through the contest of me against the machine. I didn’t have enough energy to try to get a better shot.  Apologies all round.

I still don’t know what the problem, or problems were with the serger.  I know I always assume it is operator error, but I ran through all the usual fixes to no avail, all afternoon.  I even took a couple breaks and the dog & I went outside for some fresh air, ball throwing and gardening.  The garden looks better, the dog was happy, but the serger still refused to sew more than …………oh……….6 inches without throwing a fit.

Deciding serious measures must now be employed, I stopped sewing (left the machine on, so I didn’t have to re set it when I got back to it. ………AND, .             ……..I opened a bottle of wine as I was putting dinner together.  I enjoyed the break, the wine and the dinner.    I zipped back to the sewing room after dinner and the machine sewed up the remaining 3 shirts!  Unexplained.   I had not touched the machine.  The only thing that was different was that lovely glass of wine!

I feel so much better having these done!  Just need to press them and fray check the serger ends; which are all left as little tails per the design.

Through the day, the thought that was constantly floating through my mind,  was the difficulty machines put in the way of creativity.   Heck, I didn’t have an ounce of creativity left after trying to coax the serger into compliance.  Very little patience left either, for that matter! 

I did manage to finish up the baby afghan for a client.  I had been asked to come up with an easy pattern for her, but it proved to be too much.  I had picked out the diagonal knitted afghan pattern, with the one row that is repeated until it gets large enough, then 1 row that is repeated until it is down to 3 stitches to CO.  This seemed so simple, yet it turns out looking and feeling lovely.  I have the same blanket listed in my Etsy store.  Here is the new one, ready to pop in the mail.

And, here’s the link to the aqua blanket:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/68501602/hand-knit-baby-blanket-in-aqua

Number 47, with 48 close behind…

Yes, it is sounding just like a race.  Completed the white baby blanket last night, and managed to get the pictures taken, and edited this morning.  Love this little blanket.  Made it smaller than usual, so it is the right size for using with a kiddo in a car seat, or stroller.   This turned out very light weight, fluffy and oh, so soft. 

I had some uninterrupted knitting time later today and matched up some pale yellow yarn (which I truly thought was off white to begin with) and the new pattern for the cabled cuff.  I wanted to make the cuff out of ecru or white, to bead and list as a wedding accessory.  At this point, the pale yellow cuffs are knit.  Need to come up with some embellishment and then stitch them together.  Some ideas are picking up stitches on both edges and either adding a picot detail, or my all time favorite ……….a ruffle.  And, there is always a bit of crochet trim on both edges…..   Decisions, decisions.

Since the cuffs went together quickly, I started on the next project in line.  I had a 3 corner jester hat I had come up with years ago.  However, the thing was too big.  Aimed for an infant hat, but got something that would have fit a small adult.  Way too big.  Matched up some yarn with needles a couple sizes smaller than the original try………..and so far……..it is looking just about right.  Keep in mind, I have no infant anywhere to try this on…………and it’s been about 28 years since I’ve put a hat on a baby……..   

So, if all goes well, the jester hat will be done in the next day or so.  A fun finish to the top; 3 pieces of 3 needle bind off, and then 3 pieces of I-cord to decorate the top.  Very cute in the sample & this new version is going to be cute AND usable!

Let’s re cap;     yellow cuffs         #48

jester baby hat    #49

And, the #50???   Still not sure.  A felted bowl, or a felted clutch purse are both in line.

Better get to work, so I can finish up my 50 listings and then get back to work.  Clients orders are stacking up and last time I checked, no one was working on any of them!