Crazy for Knitting

I'm Back for the Moment!!!!

2009-08-17T15:56:00.000-07:00

Well, I am back for the moment!!!! I have been thru all sorts of things going on in my life, so my knitting and blogging have suffered.
The biggest thing is that my place of work consolidated, and I am unemployed for the first time in many years. At least I got a severence package, which means that I can't collect unemployment till September, but now I have lots of time to knit.

I have started knitting on my mom's afghan again, I am on strip #5 of nine.

It is a repeat of strip #1, and it seems to be getting easier as long as I don't have Star Wars on TV...(I get too interested in it and last night made several mistakes that I had to frog.)

I finally got the circular needles I needed to start on the caplet I want to make myself. I have had the yarn, Cascade Heathers, for at least a year and a half, but needed at least 36 -40 inch circs. I found 32inch here ar my LYS and bought 3 different sizes... now I have to get up the nerve to start because I am afraid I will goof up.

Fun Fur Scarf Finished

2009-02-18T15:29:00.000-08:00

Tonight, I finished Fun Fur Scarf.... I found it easy to make and I was surprised as how easy I found the yarn to knit with. I have more of this yarn, that was given to me by the lady I made the scarf for,so I might try to make a hat later on.

2 Color Scarf

2009-02-09T18:50:00.000-08:00

This is another scarf I am working on. Very simple K2P2. I liked the 1st scarf that I knittted for Special Olympics, which was the Coats and Clark pattern, so I just changed colors. I still have alot of the white left, and the claret was another project that I frogged. It was just practice knitting stockinette stitch that I started to get back into knitting with.

I have so many different colors of Red Heart Super Saver yarn, that I thought I could put each color with white and make more scarves for different charties next winter. I will probably use different patterns, but I think this ribbed scarf looks striking. I used size 9 needles and the color is Claret and White.

Lion Fun Fur Scarf

2009-02-09T18:29:00.001-08:00

This is a scarf I started out of Lion Brand Fun Fur in colors Tropical and Lava. A lady who has a booth at Traders Depot, where my friends and I spend every Sunday Knitting and Crocheting, and drinking coffee, gave us a few skeins in different colors, because she didn't have time to do anything with it. She had gotten it because she thought it would make a nice scarf, so I am making one for her. It is pretty easy to work with, using 2 strands. I am using size 13 needles and a garter stitch, 20 stitches cast on. I am about 50% finished.

My cat Slinky has recently become my scarf tester, at least while I am trying to take a picture of it. He usually doesn't bother my knitting, but lately he has been feeling his oats, and has to once again show me why he is King of all he surveys!

He is lucky that I love him so much, or he thinks I am lucky he lets me live with him.

Special Olympics Opening Ceremony

2009-02-09T18:14:00.000-08:00

I finally have time to write again.

Last Saturday(7Feb), I watched the Opening Ceremony for the Special Olympic Games In Idaho, on Ktvb.com.

I was really impressed that most of the teams, and officials wore the scarves we all made. I saw mine at least 100 times, given the fact that my first scarf was made from the Coats and Clark Pattern!!!!!

I loved the smiles all the olympians had, I wished I was there in person. but at least I got to see all 3h20m of it. My friends and I are happy to have taken part in this project, and hopefully will carry on with different charity projects in this new Knitting and Crocheting era that we now seem to be in. Knitters and Crocheters are a force to be reckoned with.

Finally Finished #3

2009-01-10T12:03:00.000-08:00

Yay!! I finally finished with Special Olympic scarf #3.

It took me awhile due to holodays and to the baking of 50 dozen cookies for christmas presents. Now I probably will wash it and send it to Connecticut, to their Regional Winter Games.

My friends and I are happy to have played a small part in these Special Olympics, and I will probably contimue with my charity knitting as well as mom's afghan and some projects for me. My goal this year is to be continually creative with my knitting, and maybe finally learn to crochet.

Knitting Blues

2008-12-27T12:20:00.000-08:00

Here it is, December 27th, and I should be knitting, but I am not.
I don't know why, but I am very depressed now, and don't know quite what to do about it.
I think it has to do with the new to me med that I am taking for my diabetes, metformin. I just started it in October, and am also taking glipizide, and it doesn't seem to be working too well except to make me depressed. So I have knitted 8 rows this week but that is all.
I want and need to finish SO scarf # 3 soon, if I could just find the energy to do so.
Also need to start on my Mom's afghan again, because I want to finish it this year, instead of 2010, which is what I told her it would be finished by.
I am sure that I will be ok, Just have to get thru this period, maybe after new years, I will feel better.

Special Olympic Scarf #3

2008-12-15T18:36:00.000-08:00

Here it is, my Special Olympic scarf #3. Well it is 40% finished, but it will get done. It is a heck of a lot easier to knit than it is to post in this blog.

I am very frustrated that I can't seem to make this blog the way I want to, I have tried typing it about 6 times now, and I keep geting all these spaces that I don't want.

This pattern is the Irish Hiking Scarf from the blog of the same name. I liked it so much I just had to knit one. I originally wanted to make all the cables white, but one white cable turned out to be much easier for me. The second photo is the back. I didn't want to carry the blue behind the white, as I thought it might catch on something, so I sort of wove it in with the white, and this is the result.

I love to cable, and there will probably be more projects in my future, but none will be so frustrating to me as writing this blog is.

Mom's Afghan

2008-11-29T10:56:00.000-08:00

Finally, here is the afghan that I am making for my Mom.It is a Mary Maxim exclusive sampler afghan, that my mom ordered almost 3 years ago, but never did. She gave it to me in January, and I have completed 3 of 9 strips and am in the process of sewing them together to see if I need to make adjustments in the dark blue square.

I think that I knit the dark blue ones to0 long but so far I have been able to piece the squares together.

The original pattern called for the strips to be 9 squares times 7 strips, but I bought more of the same yarn and have enlarged it to 11 squares times 9 strips to cover my mom's bed.

It has been interesting, I have ripped out several times, when I forgot to mark what row I was on. and I had to knit an entire strip over again because I put the right number of rows in the first square, but put too many rows in the repeats.

This is the most interesting pattern, I think, and some what difficult, but is the one that I had no trouble with. I love to

knit cables and this is fun to do.

A very short blog

2008-11-27T09:10:00.000-08:00

Today is a very short blog! I did post a blog with pics about the afghan I am making for my mom, and I kept checking it to make sure it was how I wanted it to be, but then after I published it, it didn't turn out the way I thought I had saved it, so maybe this weekend, I will try it again, if I am not too stuffed with turkey....
I am also in the process of knitting one more scarf for the World Winter Special Olympics. I wasn't going to knit another, but I found a blog and a pattern for an Irish Hiking Scarf, and something in my head wouldn't let it go, so I am about 1/4th of the way through it. I am knitting the center cable white in keeping with the 2 colors. It looks good so far and I will hopefully put a pic here too. Happy Thanksgiving all

Diane's Scarves

2008-11-08T23:51:00.000-08:00

Today I finally have a little time to post another entry. These are the scarves that my friend Diane made for the Special Olympics Winter Games. She made them in a double crochet, and I think she edged the one on the left in what she called a lattice stitch. So this weekend I am packing all 7 of them up and sending them off to Idaho.

The has been a fun project to do, and I have enought yarn to make at least 28 more, although I will probably not make that many. I am attention deficit, so I easily forget what I have done or ordered.

Well I ordered 6 white and 6 blue from yarn collection and they were on back order until late september.

I didn't know that Walmart carried the Blue, because all the other stores around here don't carry Red Heart or very little of it.

Well being in a hurry to get started , I bought blue and white from Walmart, then 2 days later, I got the yarn from Yarn Collection, before I could cancel my order, and about 3 weeks before I expected it.

So if anybody ever reads this blog, I have extra if you would like to make a scarf and can't find the blue.

World Winter Special Olympics Scarves

2008-10-24T17:21:00.000-07:00

3 of my friends and I have finished making scarves for the World Winter Special Olympics, in Idaho, February 2009. The 2 on the left are the ones I knitted. The first is the rib pattern provided by Coats and Clark. The second is a pattern that is part of a sampler afghan that I am knitting for my mom. I liked the diagonal lines and thought it would make a neat scarf. The other 2 are crocheted by my friends, Brenda and Shirley. Brenda's scarf(Second from right) is the Coats and Clarks pattern, and Shirley's ,(right)is a single crochet. Another friend, Diane has crocheted 2, but her's will be included in another post as she is currently on vacation. We all thought the scarf project was a neat idea, and had alot of fun doing it.

My First Project

2008-10-24T16:51:00.000-07:00

This is my first project of this knitting lifetime. It is a saxon or celtic braid pattern. It started as practice , but I liked it so well I turned it into a ski hat.

my first knitting experience

2008-10-23T17:51:00.000-07:00

Hello all,
This is one of my first blogging attempts, so bear with me. I never know what to say, but since this will be about knitting, maybe I can find a word or two, to write.
I just started knitting again this past January, after a 20 year absense. I can say that this time is definately much better and more rewarding than last time.
My mom taught me how to knit and purl, but I didn't do anymore with it until 20 yrs ago, when I found a pattern for what I thought would be an easy to knit sweater. It was only 2 pieces, the top, which sleeves ,front and back was all one piece and the bottom, which was the other piece. to shorten story, bottom was knitted on straight needles, top on circular. I was proud of myself, until I tried to put the 2 together, and the bottom was much bigger than the top. I didn't know that the weight of the top on the circular needles would pull it tighter. When I tried to fix bottom, to fit the top, I got so disgusted, I threw it all away and didn't pick up another pair of needles till January.
When I started knitting again, I got a pair of bamboo needles , a book of patterns, and burgandy yarn , and jumped right in to the frying pan with both feet. Of course, I picked the hardest pattern in the book, a saxon braid. I started just knitting, and soon it turned into a ski hat.
Now I am knitting scarves for the World Winter Special Olympics games in Idaho In February. I have finished 2 scarves, and will probably do at least one more. I love the Delft Blue and White Combo, and I am glad to have such a good cause for my knitting.