Final projects of 2007

I needed something easy and quick to do this weekend so I made a couple scarves. The first is my mom's birthday present she requested when she saw me wear this scarf a few months ago. It's hard to tell, but there are beads worked into the scarf.





The second is a scarf I'm sending to someone from a Craftster swap.



I have a bunch of projects already planned for 2008 and I hope you'll stick around to check them out. Have a great new year!

Christmas Knitting

Christmas is over and that means, no more midnight knitting, no more lunch break knitting, and no more car knitting. For awhile, anyway. Here are this year's homemade gifts:
An Anthropologie hat for the cold Seattle winter.


Gloves Lisa gave to Wendy.


And hats for Brycie and Michael.


We had a great Christmas this year and Madison had a lot of fun opening presents. She tried very hard to open all the presents under the tree. Here is a pictures of Madison and Jackson in the new Red Ryder wagon.

My Latest Project

Here is a little teaser of my latest project:



It will soon turn into: this

(you'll have to check back later this week to see! I'm almost finished.)

Birthday Invitations

It has come to my attention that I am not updating my blog often enough. So I am going to try very hard to at least update it once a week.

This week I have been working on Madison's birthday invitations. I found this cute little book filled with different types of invitations and I decided I would make a different one for every birthday. So, for her first birthday we have the ladybug invitations.



And when you open the wings:



And for fun, here are a few things you may not know about me (and some that are pretty obvious):

1. I love being a mom.
2. Someday I want to have a room filled with yarn and books. And yarn.
3. When I knit and/or crochet, sometimes I forget to eat.
4. I met my husband in a bar.
5. I like paying bills.
6. I am addicted to free samples (www.freegrabber.com)
7. Every time I drive somewhere, I measure the distance.
8. I've never lost a game of boggle.
9. I love Christmas music.

Latest Projects

I've been so busy lately that I haven't had any time to post finished projects. This happens every year. From November 1 to Christmas I craft like a mad woman. This year I made all the babies little pumpkin hats for the pumpkin patch. And, I must say, I was very excited to get so many compliments.



I also made Bryce a little baby hoodie that Madison is modeling so well.



My most exciting project (for me anyway) is this hat. I saw a similar hat at Anthropologie for $40.00!! So I made up my very own pattern. I have seen so many things online or in stores that could easily be knit at home, but I never actually have the time to sit down and try it. I finally set aside one weekend and did it. It was not as hard as I thought it would be. I see sweater patterns in my future.



I'd love to post more, but I am in a craft fair next weekend and I have more knitting to do. If I can sell 5 things, I'll be really happy.

Baby Blanket

I am very excited to finally post a completed project. This blanket is for my brother's baby who is due sometime in November. I was very unsure about how this blanket would turn out, but in the end, I'm very happy with it. I found the pattern in Alterknits by Leigh Radford. It is worked in basic stockinette stitch with a seed stitch border. When I finally finished the blanket, it was very crooked, curled and not that pretty. I have never actually blocked anything and I didn't have high hopes. But in the end, blocking made a HUGE difference. I will now be blocking everything!!!

The blanket itself was easy to knit, the hard part for me was adding the fabric. I am not much of a sewer so that was difficult for me. I have also never used batting but it turns out that was easy to figure out.



The only modifications I would make next time would be to pick up and knit all the borders. If you follow the pattern, only the side borders are picked up and knit. While attaching the fabric there is a great edge with the picked up stitches that makes it easy to get a clean, straight line. It is very difficult to find that edge on the top and bottom borders because it seems to blend it with the back of the blanket.

Overall, I'm very excited about this blanket and excited that I have one less project to finish.

Every morning when I get to work, I get my coffee, turn on my computer and check to see of BrooklynTweed has posted anything new. Then I go through every single blog on his "favorite knitters" list and envy all of the gorgeous completed projects that have been posted.

And when I go home at night, I take a look at all the half finished projects hidden away in all rooms of my house. Since this week is premier week on TV, I will have plenty of knitting time as I sit and watch as many shows as possible. I hope by next week to have several projects to post so maybe someone will envy all the finished projects on my blog.

Blogging Again

It has been so long since I've even thought about posting something on this blog. I've been so busy making baby hats and starting new projects but not finishing anything. So I am finally prioritizing all my half finished items and soon I will be posting pictures again.

Baby Football Hat

I'm finally working on baby shower gifts. I know 6 people having babies this summer! I'm going to be so busy. I will probably be making hats for everyone, and since hats are so fast and easy, it shouldn't be a problem. My first hat is a baby football hat. I found the pattern in Itty-Bitty Hats by Susan B. Anderson. I love, love, love this book. I checked it out from the library but there are so many hats I want to make, I'm going to have to buy the book.

Fingerless Gloves

I have finally found a pattern for fingerless gloves that I really like. I had a really hard time reading the pattern, but once I figured it out, and rewrote it so I could understand it, it was really easy.

Faux Dotty Scarf

Since we've been trying to save money lately, I'm trying not to buy any yarn until I've used up most of the yarn in my stash (or until I start making a lot of money!). So this is one of the many projects I've been working on for the past month. I had five skeins, about 1/2 left of each. It's not a huge dent in my stash, but it's a good start. I loved making this scarf, but weaving in the ends was the worst part. I tried to weave as I went along, but it still took so much time. That is the only thing I don't like about crocheting or knitting. I love the way this scarf turned out and I can't wait until winter.