A Group FO

The wool stitch sampler afghan I assembled for my favorite online charity knitting group is washed, blocked, and almost dry. I'm so happy with how it turned out. It should be ready to ship to Afghans for Afghans for their Mother's Day campaign by Monday. (Pardon the messy floor of my craft room.)



And another pic, just because I like the angle on this shot:



More details can be found here.

A Little Bit of Sewing

Last week I was itching to do a little (very little) bit of sewing, so I whipped up this sock sack using this tutorial. It's not perfect, but I love it anyway. There are definitely more of these in my future. (Do you recognize the sock--or I should say yarn from the former sock--that's currently inhabiting the sack?)

Cotton Baby Hats

I knit these a while ago, but since they were gifts I didn't want to post them in case the mommy to be reads my blog. She opened them at a baby shower on Saturday, so now I can finally share pics.

Pattern: Children's Cotton Hat from Last Minute Knitted Gifts

Yarn: Bernat Cotton Tots

Needles: US size 7 circs

Mods: none

I love 'em! They were a super fast knit, they turned out so sweet, and I love the Cotton Tots.

A Little HP Fun

I don't have any knitting to show you--still knitting on the interminable sock project and several gift knits--so in the meantime, here's a little Harry Potter fun. I'm so ready for Book 7!

You scored as Harry Potter. You are a very passionate and caring person when it comes to the wellness of your friends as well as others. You're very temperamental and sarcastic, and sometimes you'll flow a little bit over to the arrogant and obnoxious side when your temper gets the best of you. But you're bold and daring and will stand up for what you feel is right with bravery. Harry Potter 78% Hermione Granger 72% Severus Snape 66% Luna Lovegood 63% Ron Weasley 59% Sirius Black 59% Oliver Wood 59% Bellatrix Lestrange 59% Albus Dumbledore 56% Neville Longbottom 53% Remus Lupin 50% Draco Malfoy 38% Percy Weasley 38% Lord Voldemort 31% Harry Potter Character Combatibility Test created with QuizFarm.com

A Group WIP

I've been working on assembling a wool baby afghan for an online charity group I belong to. Each month the group focuses on a different charity or project. Our March project was afghan squares for various charities (Warm Up America, Project Linus, and Afghans for Afghans). I volunteered to assemble a blanket for Afghans for Afghans, and members from all over the U.S. and Canada knitted 9x9 squares and sent them to me.

I was planning on just mattress stitching the squares together, but I received such a wide variety of sizes, that I ended up needing to add a crochet border to equalize things a bit. I crocheted just one row of single crochet around the largest squares and up to four around the smallest squares. Actually, I'm really liking how the crochet borders look. Having borders of the same color on each square will help tie the squares together and give a nice consistent look. Now I just need to wait for the last two squares to arrive, attach the squares together, and add a border around the whole blanket. This should be ready to ship off to Afghans for Afghans just in time to be included in their Mother's Day Campaign shipment. I didn't know about their new campaign when we started this blanket, but it works out perfectly! I just love these kinds of projects. Call me sentimental, but it makes me so happy to think of all the different hands that put love into this blanket that will warm a baby half a world away.

My First Ever EZ Project

T's Birthday sweater is done. It fits him well. I didn't have to buy more yarn (I have about 8-10 yards left of each color). I am satisfied.

Here's the finished sweater in all it's washed and blocked, yet-to-be-worn glory (the color is washed out here--it's accurate in the last two photos):



I love how the stripes turned out:





The knitty gritty:

Pattern: the "recipe" for a seamless raglan from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitting without Tears
Yarn: TLC Cotton Plus, one skein each red and navy
Needles: US size 5 and 7 Knitpicks Options
Size: 12 months with room to grow--24" chest, 9" sleeves (measured from the armpit), 8" body length (measured from the armpit)
Modifications: Changed a few things to make the percentage system work for a child--no shaping on the sleeves, a bit more than 50% of body stitches for the neck opening, long ribbed cuffs on the sleeves to allow for growth. I also didn't use EZ's neck shaping method. I just added three short rows to the back of the neck in my own manner.

This simple little sweater has such a sordid history. I had more false starts and frog and redo sessions than I care to rehash (I still am not sure why this project was such a problem for me), but I'm really happy with how it turned out. Mission accomplished!

A Little Instant Gratification

Long time no post! I've been knitting some little "this-n-thats." I knit some dishcloths for my sister at her request--a Grandmother's Favorite, a cloth of my own design using a basketweave stitch, and a Darrell Waltrip cloth:



I also knit some little coasters using a pared-down version of the Baby Genius Burp Cloth pattern from Mason Dixon Knitting. I love these! They're so simple and quick to make. Here are two of them (I actually made a couple in navy too, but they didn't photograph worth a darn--we've been having really crummy weather for shooting photos):



I have good news to report on the sweater front as well. T's birthday sweater is done! It's all washed and blocked and ready for him to wear to church this morning. It's a week late for his actual birthday, but it's still ready for Easter and for his one-year portrait. Yay! I'll post photos soon.