A new FO and Some Snow! (hey, I'm a poet!)

As part of my birthday present, hubby bought me some Cascade heathers wool yarn from the closest LYS (which is still quite a haul away from us). I know I said this in the last entry but just wanted to recap.

The plan was to make a hat and maybe some mittens. I got started on the hat the day after my birthday, the 25th and finished it on the evening of the 26th. I knew we were expecting snow on Monday and Tuesday. I was so hoping that this would be a real snow. We had yet to receive a real snow and I was jonesin' for some.

The pattern I used was called the "Bubble Wrap Hat" and was pretty easy. I picked it because it had some "give". I have what I call a "chunker head". You can find the pattern for free here on the author's blog. I should definitely add her to my blog list.

Without further ado, here is the finished hat!

I like it a lot. It's warm although it only covers the tops of my ears which is fine. If I would have made it too much longer, it would have gone over my eyes! I really need to block this sucker, I guess but I'm not sure how. I don't have anything round and as big as my giant melon. Hmm.. I am afraid if I wear it too much in the meantime, I'll stretch it out beyond fixing. Of course, this isn't acrylic so maybe not?

I did take some pictures of our snow. We ended up with about 4 inches of the stuff here in Missouri but places south of us got more snow and other places south got inches of sleet with their snow. Yuck! Here are some nice snow pics~



Not much of the snow was actually staying on the trees. Pity





















Out my front door!





















Sun shining through the trees!

















Happy Knitting! Stay warm everyone!

Happy Birthday.. with yarn!

Today's my 32nd birthday. Yesterday, my husband took me out to dinner at this excellent "mom and pop type" pizza restaurant. Homemade crust on the pizzas and homemade mozerella sticks. HAND ROLLED so good. After that, we went to this little yarn store. I got two hanks of cascade heathers yarn.
http://www.cascadeyarns.com/cascade-220.asp the color I got is 9453 on that page. I'm going to make a hat and maybe mittens if I can.

I messed up my 2-at-a-time socks by being cocky. I said "hey, I don't want to finish these practice socks. I think I've got the concept". I frogged the practice ones and started up with my Patons sock yarn. In about oh.. 5 minutes it was frogged again and back in my knitting basket and I haven't attempted the 2-at-atime since. It's just so hard to keep two balls of yarn straight especially when it's small weight sock yarn and both balls are the same color argh.

WIP: 2 at a time Socks!

I finally got time to pick up the book "2 at-a-time Socks" that I got for Christmas and start reading. This week had mostly been devoted to making face scrubbies and various cloths for my Etsy store so this was a welcome change.

At first, I thought the method of two socks going on one long circular needle to be cumbersome, confusing and complicate but I think I've finally started to get it down. Currently I'm working on the "practice socks" at the beginning of the book. I'm just using Peaches n Creme cotton yarn since this is just practice and I had the yarn laying around after making cloths. I took a picture of my progress. I used a different color for each sock since I'm just learning.


Has anyone reading this blog tried this out? I think it's also called "magic loop". The needle I'm using here is an Addi Natura Size #4, 40inch circular. I have a feeling once I get to the heel and gusset, this is going to get a heck of a lot harder.

What to do with acrylic yarn?

When I first started knitting, I bought a bunch of cheap yarn. I was new and innocent to the yarn world and did not know there was a difference in yarns. My newbie knitter brain said "haha.. look at all those suckers paying more for yarn when I can get a giant ball of it at Wal-Mart for less than 4$!.

That all changed a few years ago when I ordered a kit from Morehouse Farms. The yarn was the softest wool and it made such a nice scarf. I felt the items I made with the cheaper yarn and was sad because they felt so rough and scratchy compared to the wool. Around the same time, my mother wanted me to make her a pair of mittens. We went to Michaels and she picked out the yarn. Of course it was a cheap variegated acrylic yarn. I made the mittens and was proud of myself. The problem was that every time my mom wore the mittens, they would increase in size. Washing and drying them didn't help, they didn't shrink. Poor mom looked like she was wearing oven mitts at one point. I also made a pair of socks to wear around the house that had the same problem. I got so discouraged that I've never made another pair of mittens and mom still wears her giant ones.

I guess that happened because you can't block acrylic. I'm surprised at how much acrylic yarn the craft store has knowing that you can't block it. Now I have tons of acrylic yarn. I've been making swiffer covers for etsy with it. I also have some random wool-ease yarn and some weird acrylic blend yarn some person gave me. This leads me to my set of questions for the day.

1: How do you make mittens and socks that don't "grow on you" (is it the acrylic yarn that causes this?)
2: What can I do with acrylic yarn?
3: Do you guys have any nice mitten pattern suggestions?
4: can I use Patons sock yarn to make the mittens?

Introducing DOMO-Kun!

An online friend of mine asked me last week "could you make me a domo case for my new Mp3 player?" I said "probably" and got to work knitting test swatches. This is the first pattern I've ever completely made up myself. I know Domo is a simple guy but I was still as proud of myself as I could be. I showed my friend Diane the pictures of the Domo case and she was excited. She told me I should definitely sell some of these on my Etsy store. I'm not sure if people will know what the Domo guy is. They will probably look at it and say "ew, that thing is ugly!" I even added a button and flap to the back so your phone/mp3 player won't fall out and a small hole in the top of the case so you can thread a cord through it if need be (like for headphones on the mp3 player). I actually made one for myself for my cell phone. For some reason when I look at this domo case I think "omnomnomnom" and laugh. I know. I'm a dork.

My Christmas Knitting Gift Haul!

I had a really nice Christmas and got many nice gifts. Mixed in with my normal gifts were a couple of surprising gifts. I received the Mason-Dixon Knitting book and the 2 at a time socks book. I've already gotten myself a long circular needle off of eBay. As soon as I get a stock replenished in my Etsy store, I'll be knitting some socks! I had purchased some patons stretchy sock yarn on sale at Michael's right before Christmas. I've never used the yarn and I'm wary of any sock yarn sold at Michael's since most yarn they sell is acrylic and not blockable. It just amazes me how many brands of 100% acrylic they sell.

How about you guys? Did you guys get any nice knitting gifts?