progress on projects, TIPS

Got vinny's raglan knit pullover sweater all done. had started it very late afternoon on sunday.

plan to work on gregs sweater now in between laundry.

also a few tips i've learned: used to watch knitty gritty where jackie howell showed how to wind up a ball of yarn so it'd not roll all over the floor but the yarn would come from the center of the ball of yarn. picture should show that you hold back to the side the start of the center of the yarn and continue to wind the yarn into a ball, holding back on that starting end as that is what you'll be using when you start your project. I really like this method as many times i'm making mittens at the same time -from two different balls of yarn and want the same exact length for each. same when making two sleeves at the same time. and again when im making Barbie doll slacks or sleeves. this method is excellent when traveling on a plane or in a car, put the yarn balls in the magazine holder in front of you and you won't have to worry about the ball of yarn rolling down the plane aisle to the back of the plane.

to start, wrap yarn around a few of your fingers, keeping the beginning end off the side at all time.

continue wrapping the yarn into a ball by rotating 1/4 turn after 10 wraps. you can see the beginning end off to the top left.

end result is a ball of yarn that you can pull from the center and not have it roll all over the place. This method is also excellent for use with a self striping yarn when you are attempting to make 2 sections start at the same point in the dye process.

another tip is a landline, it's when you're working with a complicated pattern, like lace and if you drop one stitch you have to start from the very beginning. what i do in these cases is string a piece of contrasting color yarn through the stitches and leave the string there for 2-3". then make another landline. When i made the lace curved shawl i had about 5 landlines every inch or so and it was a time saver as i had to rip back to that point several times.

progress on irish fisherman sweater

you can see this is still on the needles as i work on it. got the one diamond done now and hope to have more later on today. it's lightly snowing outside so the lighting is just right=don't need the inside lights on at all. you can see from left to right: lobster claw pattern, diamond and the honeycombs, encased between right twists. i had recently viewed a hardbook of my moms about cables and found a pattern there for a braid cable. i actually put some on the hospital booties til we got a letter that they prefered just the regular knit patterns. i also would make for them a white bootie(mitten) with a red heart on them. wish i knew why they stopped wanting those as well.

jaunts around town

went to gregs mom today to do a few things for her and noticed 2 women sitting in the main sitting room crochetting. we went over to talk to them to learn one is heavily involved in knitting/crochetting locally for the senior center. told her of the work i do for my local center. i think gregs mom was going to go get her crochet work and go sit with them for a bit. she was always complaining everybody was busy on weekends and there were no activities when we find these 2 just sitting there crochetting away. one was working on a crochet scarf, another a ripple crochet afghan. the projects they had worked on they give to a local woman and she gets them packaged up and sent to project linus or other ones. strange how one center is into the needlearts and the other has nothing but what comes from outside.

Irish fisherman, knit, gifts, thanks, charity

greg (my husband) has decided that in his air conditioned office (Year round) that he needs another sweater especially for the winter. so i got the measuring stick out and it's a size 47 with 50 around the waist. Easy to incorporate that into an irish fisherman knit sweater. the pattern shown here is a diamond and the honeycomb center stitches. hope to have it done for our wedding anniversary feb 4.

this part of the pattern of the above sweater shows the seed stitch edging to the right hand side and the lobster claw stitch, then the diamond patterns.


making front and back at same tim so no issues with different lengths.





took wrap around sweater all apart, started, restarted it but kept the sleeves alone and finished. thought if i made the sweater with front and back at same time i'd not have such an issue with the lengths of the pieces. well then i gotta figure out exactly where to put the sleeves as these are drop in and not set in sleeves. and i'd lose the pockets that i really really really want in the sweater. so after 3 rows im gonna re-re-restart this sweater again LOL

these items came in a box from marie. I had seen she was running a contest at her website-you had to guess how many cookie sheets she has in her house. being a christmas cookie baker i could relate to her blog talking bout thousands of cookies done within a weeks time. LOL well i dint guess the right number but the first person optted to get a dozen or her cookies. so i got the hand dyed yarn, woohoo for me! this came at a critical time for me this week as i didn't win either of the 2 lion brand contests i had spent hours on entering them. also heard back from caron yarn and a few other ones that they had enough sample knitters but would keep my name on their lists. This package means i was RAK'ed. (Random act of kindness) I've often heard of what others get in their boxes when RAKKed.
Recieved a nice card along with Marie's business card and url's of where the yarn is sold. Also a special soap for the yarn. didn't really read the back of the package in detail. there was a plastic container but you couldn't see insude unless you opened it cuz of the waxed paper. wow chocolate biscotti homemade. let's just say i had a few bites BEFORE dinner and I'm so glad i did LOL Thank you super much Marie! Her links are: http://www.solarbrations.com/ or http://www.novicki.org/ and her blog is at: www.needleloca.blogspot.com

received this thank you card from the church in bristol for the prayer shawls we had made for them. because of this recognition by thanking us my mom and I will probably continue to make more for them, because they are most appreciated. A lot of the other charities we do/have done work for never say thanks or recognize the time we've put into some things we've made for them after years of working with them.

wrap around sweater, almost done

start of the sleeves

sleeves are done now

now to sew it together and make some inseam pockets.

wrap around sweater

got 2 fronts done now. i will work on sleeves next, they are 3/4 sleeves but i'll be making mine longer.

got plans to make my grandson a pullover sweater -hes bout a size 3 now - waiting on the measurements. also got measurements to make my husband an irish fisherman pullover.

didnt win either the knit nor crochet a pattern a day calendar for next year so i guess the designs are still my own. wouldnt have been so bad if they had commented on the pocket irish fisherman scarf that they adored. i entered 2 lion brand contests: had to make a slideshow tutorial for one of the contests.

progress on unfinished projects

was looking through a bunch of old patterns i had saved and ran into a bunch of old catalogs that i was getting ready to toss out.

wow this is the model i had made for plymouth yarn, i found it in the patternworks catalog, its made out of encore worsted weight yarn. very easy and fun to make with the self striping yarn.

also worked more on the counted cross stitch lighthouse picture, think c. gave me like 3 of them-they were probably free samples she had received from a crafters club. had greg blow up the directions so i could see the differences between the reds.

wrap around sweater, irish lace squares

the wrap around sweater, it shows the seed border. now realize the 2 fronts are just about as wide as back as they cross over in the front so it's gonna be a long process to just finish that up.

have 8 irish lace squares done, am thinking i probably have enough for an afghan or 2 shawls, not decided what i'll do as i've done one of each of those allready.

snow has finally come for this year, woohoo

the norfolk pine is covered, pinecones are on tthe ground allready.

and my scarf is being modeled by newly made mr. snowman.

finished up hospital booties and now to work on the counted cross stitch before more irish lace crochet squaares.

Ongoing, finished projects

Here's the fan and feather knit afghan for the order i got that goes along with the baby layette.

baby layette finished






worked on more booties for the hospital and more squares for irish lace shawl.

Charity, layettes, infant afghan, Barbie items

Here is a picture of what I've been working on lately. Light blue booties for the hospital, they resemble a long mitten, but they fold em up about 3 times over so they won't slip off the infants hands (so they dont' screatch theirselves) and/or on their feet.

Also notice a picture of a yellow and white coaster. Its' one from annies daily site that i saved and thought i'd best get to making some of them. Also the gray barbie doll clam basket and rake and clams. It's for an ongoing book I'm making with my designs of just Barbie doll things, NOT only clothes but a lot of accessories.


Above picture shows fan and feather pattern for theis infant afghan. I also have made a layette from it, for an order I received from Ziegler Magazine for the Blind. It's called TLC from Coats and Clark (red heart) baby /sport weight 5 oz sizes. Bought at least 7 not thinking/realizing they are that big, was assuming all ombres are only 3- 3 1/2 oz. So I might have a bunch left over. If so i'll make another outfit and put that in my moms shop to sell on the island or the craft show. Its called baby pritn and is mainly white but have some spots of the baby colors.

instruction video, scarf crochetted

read through one of my crochet digests today and found a link to do an instructional video and enter into 2 contests by doing so. so i crochetted up a scarf with the yarn i had just bought at michaels yesterday.

finished scarf, the yarn color is called seascape ombre by bernat berella 4

also worked on some light blue booties for the hospital today.

check ou the instrucitonal video and maybe you can enter the contests:
I just finished documenting my Instructable and thought you would like to be the first to comment on it. Link: http://www.instructables.com/id/crochet-scarf/

http://www.instructables.com/id/crochet-scarf_1/ is slideshow contest

Hospital knit booties

worked mostly on hospital booties. got 8 done for now.

coat hangers, trivet, knit

This probably doesn't resemble anything to you LOL The items to the right are coat hanger covers.

Item to the left is a trivet. There are 2 sections that I will sew together. They work well for putting a hot pan on before it's placed on the table.

here are the finished items: trivet and coat hangers. When the knitted/crocheted material is around a hanger the clothes won't slipp and fall off the ends.

Also finished these shawls and a stole:

afghan and shawl done using irish lace, crochet

finished irish lace afghan

finished irish lace shawl

gonna do another one, have just enough yarn left to do a stole type shawl

half way done with this black knit shawl