A bunch of new pictures!

Mini Uggs! I have been wanting to knit these adorable baby booties ever since I first saw them, but I don't have any little bitty ones in my life right now. However, I mentioned them to Vicky and showed her a picture, and right away she wanted a pair for the shop. We put them by the checkout yesterday and everyone thought they were the cutest things! I am also knitting up another pair for her nephew who will be born soon. Poor yarn shop owner...no time to knit....very sad thing indeed. She sure keeps me knitting away though! (not that I mind, not one little bit...)



Here's the tote bag after I did the needle felting. I think it turned out pretty good for my first attempt.



A few washcloths I knit for Kim's bridal shower. I thought the first one (yellow) turned rather big, so I scaled it down (pink) which then was just a wee bit too small. The green one is "just right" and I'll make up a few more in that size. I am not using the cotton chenille as suggested. Instead I am using the wonderful Araucania Nature Cotton. SOOOO soft, and I love how it is spun thick/thin and so has little nubbies as you knit. I love the feel of it and the texture when it's knit up. The colors are great too. These will have a B&BW soap with them as shower prizes.



This past weekend I knit up a pair of fingerless mitts with the small amount of yarn that was leftover from the Sheep Tote. I basically made up the pattern as I went along and (after a few false starts) was pretty pleased with how they turned out. Mistaken Rib cuff and around the fingers, and a K1 P1 rib on the thumb hole edge.

So glad it's done!

Phew! I'm so relieved to have this project done. It seems like I knit on this bag forever! I stopped counting at 20 hours. I still need to do the needle felted sheep on the other side where there is no pocket...that will be the front. I'm glad that at least I enjoyed the yarn...the colors and feel of the yarn were great. It was just a lot of boring rounds to knit the main part of the bag. Plus, when knitting the pockets (by picking up along the bottom edge and knitting upwards) there was a lot of weight on the needles at that point being held up by a small amount of stitches. But...it's DONE and on display at the shop to advertise the upcoming class. I'll probably go in today or tomorrow to do the needle felting to finish it up.

The scarves from the last post are both off the needles, and waiting for fringe. The Alternating Elegance scarf is going to get a beaded fringe after all. Unfortunately nothing in my bead stash (which has got to be in the hundreds of thousands of beads)were the right colors, and even by going to the biggest bead store in the area I still had a hard time finding just the right colors. But I think I came up with a combination that will be a nice finishing touch for what has turned out to be one of my favorite projects in a while. The Stained Glass scarf has its black edges crocheted on the sides, and I am working on some "funky fringe" that is going to definitely be different! At the same time it will be used as an example for my "Embellishments" class coming up. I'll be glad when both of these items are completely done, though it does feel good to have freed up some needles. My Denise cases are starting to fill back up. I had so many things going at the same time that both cases were pretty darned empty. LOTS of UFOs around here, but I'm going to work on remedying that problem.

New Scarves

My mom had surgery on Thursday which meant 10 hours of knitting in the waiting room at the hospital. (She came through the surgery fine and is recovering nicely at home). I got a lot of knitting done on the felted bag I am working on for the shop (sample for upcoming class) but needed something to alternate with all that boring "round and round" knitting on the bag.

Here is the Alternating Elegance Scarf from The Little Box Of Scarves. I am using Fiesta Yarns Rayon Boucle and Gelato Ribbon in the Vanilla colorway. It's turning out so nice. I cut the pattern down by one repeat in the hopes of being able to squeak out 2 scarves from the yarn. I will put the second one on consignment in the shop and if I sell it, it will pay for mine. It was a splurge that I really didn't need to make the week after Christmas, but it was the last skein of boucle in that colorway and I couldn't take a chance of not getting it. Right?



I accidentally left the Alternating Elegance scarf at the shop when I stopped in to show it off on Friday and everyone who saw it fell in love. The pattern is so cool, the yarns are to die for. Such great colors (some of the other colorways are really awesome, but I liked this one because it reminded me of the beach) The Gelato is especially yummy. It's like butter through your fingers. SOOOO soft. The scarf is going to have a lovely drape, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to dive into my bead stash and figure out a cool beaded fringe for it.

The other thing I brought along to work on (each project went through the rotation twice at the hospital) was my version of the Stained Glass Scarf (also from Little Box of Scarves). The pattern calls for Noro Silk Garden and another worsted weight black, and larger needles. However, I have been wanting to do a scarf with the same Trekking yarn as the socks I have in the works, mixed with black, and this pattern seemed to be just right. I increased the stitches to 32, and am using size 6 needles, and the black I am using is Nature Spun sport weight. This picture shows the front and also the very cool pattern emerging on the back side.



Once finished, I will add some black to the outer edges to hide the fact that one side has just the Trekking yarn on the edge and the other side is the black and colors being carried up the side of each other. Somehow I think this pattern could have been written so that the black carried itself up the sides. If I ever do another one of these scarves, I will figure out how to do that. And I will use a worsted weight yarn. And bigger needles. This scarf is taking forEVER! However, the Alternating Elegance is going pretty quickly. The 2 rows that make up the fancy stitch go quickly and POOF you've knit an inch.


I ordered and received the book Crazy Heels and Toes recently and am anxious to start trying "Queen Kahuna"'s methods. I really think I'm going to get a lot of use out of this book, and highly recommend it. Her ideas break out of the box when it comes to sock knitting. Not that I have that much experience with socks, but I love her ideas that are different than any sock patterns I've come across so far. The fact that you can knit a gusset without picking up the edges of a heel flap sold me right off. The book is chock full of pictures for the visual learners out there. Very nice self-published book.