Happy New Year!


May 2013 be filled with everything you love & treasure. :)  For me, that's lots of knitting & quality time with family & friends (especially my lovely Husband).  :)

Christmas Mittens

I have dubbed this year's Christmas as "Mitten Christmas" because the majority of the knitted gifts this year have been mittens.

Shayne's mittens


Shane (my youngest model)'s mittens


Nolettes mittens (x2) - pictures to come

Etsy shop mittens


& out-grown mittens (now hung with love on recipient's family tree).


I'm nearly mitten-ed out!  I guess it's time I started working on next year's "theme."

Did anyone else notice a "theme" in their gift-giving this year?

Baby Fever?

Not quite.  More like baby clothes and crafting fever.

Patterns at the top of my queue (aka, after all my Christmas-crafting is complete): basic baby socks, baby sweater (or this one) & maybe these for something fun to try.

Plus a Treasury to collect "Cute Boy" ideas:


So if you know anyone pregnant or who has a new addition in their family, send them my way. :)

P.S. dishcloths make great washcloths & hand towels (coming soon) as burp cloths!

Christmas Crafting: Knit Gifts

This year I loved the opportunity to knit a bunch of gifts for the some close family friends. Here are just a few of the knitted gifts they received:

Mittens

He modeled his pair and I made a few pairs for the shop.

Hand Towels

This was a host gift to a very close friend of my husband's. I made this the weekend we stayed with them.

Washcloths

One of many custom orders for co-worker gifts. I always love seeing the colors come together!

Hand Knit Socks

This beautiful variegated blue sock is one of six pairs in progress. These will be a post-Christmas gift.

More Mittens

The latest gift, fresh off my needles are these adorable little mittens for my cousin's daughter.  I made them start to finish on Christmas Eve.

More to come as we celebrate with other family members.  :)

Merry Christmas!

I promise I'll be back soon with pictures of all those knitted gifts I've been hinting at.  I hope everyone had a very fun & heart-warming holiday with new memories to reflect on.  :)

messy christmas living room

A Few *Cough* Lazy *Cough* Days Off...


= lots of finished projects! :)  (with pictures to come)

I finished two set of mittens!  One in gold & one in navy blue.


My first-ever child's soaker "longies" are now finished and awaiting their drawstring.

I have a surprise started that has been making beautiful progress thanks to my newest show: Call the Midwife.


Watch Preview on PBS.

Has anyone else seen it?  I caught the first episode as a re-run on PBS during the week a while back and finally came across it online.  The second episode sure is heavy on the emotions.  I think I may have to take breaks between each one if they continue to get so deep.  

What are your thoughts on the show?  

Baby "Longies"

A peer of mine from high school asked me to make a couple pairs for her baby.  I have to start off with admitting I had no idea what these were by their name until I did a google image search. 

Tad-da!  They are just knit sweatpants! (+100% wool to be absorbent as soakers).


So for my first pair & experiment, I'm using Patons Classic Wool in Aran with US size 2 circular needles, 104 stitches.  I'll keep you posted on a developed pattern once I have a better idea of what I'm doing. :)


I'll be fitting these to the children I babysit since I don't have any of my own & my friend is in North Carolina, so I can't use her child, either.

Finally got passed the short rows in the bum (for bulky diapers)
& am experimenting with a kitchener-stitched crotch.

So if you have any advise, suggestions or wisdom on this kind of pattern, please leave it in the comments.

Sandy & More Mittens

I found frost in the garden bed & on my car this morning!

I hope everyone is fairing well during this hurricane.  I count myself among one of the lucky ones; we only had high winds (up to 40 mph I believe) and are forecasted to have rain through Wednesday (starting last night).  Anyone else ready to hunker down and start living off-grid? ;)

>>Which reminds me of my husband: while we were watching the second season of The Walking Dead, he said he wasn't worried about us (if a zombie apocalypse happened) because we'd have the big farmhouse with a dairy animal, chickens, hunt meat (maybe keep a few pigs/rabbits), can from our veggie garden and make all that we need (aka, what we're working towards now!).

But today's hurricane gets you thinking about what you would do if the apocalypse happened NOW, rather than later when you're all prepared...  Anyone else?

At least our hands will be warm...

1 medium child's pair, 2 smaller child's pair,
& 1 adult pair.

Now that I've started to commit this 3-year-old's mitten pattern to memory, I've started my first color set.

"Seafoam Green"... great, bright color for kids, right?

Thanks for all the well-reception.  They will be in the shop later this week!