June Finish

I finished my hat.  And I like it so much I am going to make another in white/blue. 

When I was at this point I was supposed to begin decreasing.  The problem I encountered was that eventually my cable was too long for the number of stitches.  I wasn't worried as I had began my sock knitting on double pointed needles so off I went to find the right sized DPNs, except I didn't have the right size. 

Well, that sure didn't deter me, I just used what I had.  It did not take long before I had completed all of the decreases and pulled the remaining stitches together and the major part of the hat was done.  Then it was time to pick up stitches for the "floppy" brim and finish the hat
.

When I was getting ready to start a new row on my Spring Bloom sweater I noticed the colors lined up on the needle.  Isn't that a beautiful rainbow?  And the colors in this picture are true.

 This is where I have progressed to.  It's really funny how short this looks without the bottom band and being blocked.  I still have a lot to do on this so I was really happy to have the hat done for a June finish.

 I did laugh as I put this on the mannequin.  It is a male one and it occurred to me that I might need to bring a female one into the studio if I am going to knit garments. 

And this was a surprise today.  I received this beautiful hand made owl mug from our son and daughter-in-law.  I love well done hand made items and this fits that criteria.  Thank you Jessica and Todd, thank you, thank you.

And now, I hope everyone in the US has a great and safe July 4th.  And I would that everyone would take time to appreciate living in a free country and see it as a real privilege.  Gari

I will be linking with Patchwork Times.

Flying Needles

 Isn't this impressive?  Yes it is.  Every day I have knit on this, a little at a time, and I am beginning to see the end of the body of this sweater.  There are so many mistakes in this sweater but between the color variations of the yarn and the movement created by the pattern, those mistakes do not show (unless, of course, you are a real knitter and look very, very closely).

 Here I have folded the front over the back to show how far I still need to knit for the body.  Then I will knit the sleeves I forgot and lastly I will be knitting the button band.  I won't have this done this month but maybe July.

 Does everyone remember the large number of UFOs I talked about last week?  Well, you can now add one more, a hat.  I saw a picture of one of these hats on Gramma's Quilting Room.  I had decided I needed a hat to wear when I had to be out in the summer sun: I tend to quickly become weak if my head is uncovered.  And I especially liked that Peaches and Cream cotton yarn is recommended and I still have a lot of it from the washcloths I made at Christmas.  So here is how far I have gotten.  I am almost to the part where we decrease to the top.  And then I am to return to the beginning, pick up stitches and knit the brim.  I think this will be a fun hat to wear.\

This is an easy pattern and fun to do.  I am going to try to get it done next week.  Gari

Linking with Patchwork Times.

Dragon on the Wall

 I am calling this my "design table" and on it is a very special  UFO.

I started The Dragon in 2012 and worked on him for several months.  Then I was completely stymied when I couldn't figure out how to do the applique. 

 At  first I tried to do hand applique but I found that it was VERY difficult to get a needle and thread through three layers of batiks.  Then I decided to do machine applique.  It went OK except that the pieces crept around the background.  You can see the thread I put in to try to hold them in place.

 Now this is my new attempt to "pin" down Mr. Dragon.  I am adding pins to every tip and join.  It takes forever to put all those pins in but I really want to finish this quilt.  Everything is on the background except the additional fire; you know, "fire breathing dragon."  If I can get this top done it will push me to finish quilting the quilt that has been on the frame forever.  And maybe I will finally get on a quilting roll.

As you can see I have two helpers who are overseeing this work.  They are really taskmasters and make a lot of noise when I slack off.  With their help I should be ready to return to the machine applique and heading to the quilting frame.  Yay!!    Gari

Linking with Patchwork Times.

Knitting Progress, Needles, and UFOs

 I am really excited about this sweater, Spring Bloom.  What we are looking at is

 the back and I am currently going over the shoulders.  The pattern says to stop one side and knit the other side down to the bottom.  Well, I have never been good at following directions so I am doing both sides at the same time.  Additionally, I was following the chart and missed when I was supposed to add stitches to knit the sleeves.  So I will be adding them at the end. 

This is a close-up of when I changed to the second skein of yarn.  Can you see the difference?  I changed on the row when I bound off for the neckline.  I had written to the yarn manufacture about the differences between the skeins but the response was that they are careful.  Knowing the differences I have planned for where the differences will show up and I think it will be terrific.

Over a year ago I bought this little chest to house my ever growing knitting needles.  I have only been knitting for 3 years and have collected a lot of needles.

I bought acrylic boxes that fit the drawers, 5 to a drawer.  And the reason that there is an empty one is that I have several unfinished projects lying around. 

This is just a small number of the projects in bags.  Additionally I have at least two completed sweaters that haven't been stitched together, at least four sets of socks in various stages of completion.  How did this happen? 

So I guess I need to set some finishing goals and then get on them.  Meanwhile, the week is almost over so have a great weekend and Father's Day.  Gari 

I and others are linking with Patchwork Times.

A New Start

My swift arrived and it was so easy to set up.  I have to say that all I had to do was remember watching Louise, late of Pale Moon Yarns, and do what I saw her do.

 I remembered watching her untwist the yarn so round and round I went until it was as straight as I could get it.  Then I started rotating the ball winder and we went faster and faster and .......

then I had three perfect balls of yarn.  I am pretty sure this is hand dyed yarn because each ball is somewhat different.  The first one is soft colors, the second has a very strong yellow section and the third has a bright orange section. 

I am going to use them in that order so the back will be the softer colors with the yellow coming next and, I hope, the bright orange will complete the bottom of the front and the button band.  I am adding about 8" to the front and back. This picture is of the first 4.5".   The yarn color is truer in the picture of the balls, it is really not this intense.  Anyway, I am on my way with this pattern and should have a new cardigan before the end of the summer.

We spent a wonderful Memorial Sunday with this charming child and his really fun mother, Michelle.  He, Ryder, is our great grandson and she is the wife of our grandson, who had to work that day.  We had thought to go to the beach but it was so crowded that we spent the day at their house and Ryder played in his new blow-up pool.  Later we met his father, Chris, for dinner (no pictures because I was too busy eating baby back ribs) before heading home.  I usually don't like traveling on holidays but there was very little traffic on Sunday so we had a very nice drive.

I have been building a list of things I would like to do but so far all I seem to do is knit.  And I used to be so well rounded.  I guess I need to get back to using my time more wisely.  Till next time ...Gari

Linking with Patchwork Times.