Close to Finish

 I am so excited, I am very close to being done with this sweater.  I only have 19 rows left to knit on the back.   

 These are the sleeves and as you can probably tell I have a lot of rows to knit before they are done.  I have been knitting the sleeves in the house and the body in the studio and nothing on a UFO.  I really want to get this done: I did send for yarn for the cowl I want to start so I have to get this project done and done.

No, I am not knitting this sweet child.  He is our youngest grandchild, Gus, and yesterday was his birthday.  He doesn't live close to us and doesn't know us but every time I see that sweet smile I feel kissed.

Our weekend is planned: some knitting, some quilting, some yard work, and some house cleaning.  A little work and a little fun and then the weekend will be over and back we go to knitting, quilting, teaching, cleaning, and a little fun.  We live quite an exciting life.  Gari

Linking with Patchwork Times.

Completed, Progressing, Next

I got the white hat finished yesterday.  I made it one size smaller but it still is a little big.  The only reason I have been knitting hats is to have something on my head with the hot summer sun beating down on me so size does not really matter.  

It is hard for me to finally believe but the front of this sweater is done.  Now I have to extend the back to match, knit the sleeves, knit the button band, and seam the sides and it will be done.  And I will need to block it.  (Do I block it before or after I seam the sides?)  Of course this means this sweater will not be done this summer (I am a VERY slow knitter) but I will either wear it with a long sleeved pullover or display it on a mannequin.

Now that the hat is finished I am going to start a knitting UFO project.  I have been knitting the sweater in the studio where there are no animals to walk all over me and very few interruptions so I can count the repeats.  In the house I will be knitting socks and probably finishing up sweaters.  I haven't pulled out any of the UFO bags so they will be a surprise to me but I do need to finish things so I can use the project bags for new projects.

And I do have a new project I want to start.

This is called a Tesserino Cowl offered by Louet.  I watched a tutorial video on Very Pink and think I can do it.  I love cowls to keep my neck warm in the winter and this one looks like it will do the job.  But I can't start it until I get at least 2 UFOs finished.

We are expecting to have a quiet weekend so maybe I will be able to get a lot of knitting (and quilting?) done.  Have a great weekend everybody,   GARI

Linking with Patchwork Times.

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.

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.