train trip accomplishments

Ok, so I made these in November on my train trip to San Francisco.  I even took the photos then.  But now I'm cleaning up my desktop, so voila!

A giant cowl, with giant yard.  Kind of odd looking, especially as it ends right at the fullest part of my breasts, but it's warm.

My new favorite hat.  It's really soft.

A mobius wrap.  It's how nerds stay warm.  If anyone can explain to me why Blogger sometimes doesn't give a crap how I want my photos turned, I'd love to hear it.  This was rotated and saved six months ago, but apparently Blogger is too good for that.

A small grocery bag. 

All of this was the perfect level of brainless knitting/crocheting for staring out the window at the incredible scenery.

R2D2 Hat

Rowan is a fan of Star Wars so I decided to make him a Star Wars hat for Christmas. It has six R2D2s around the hat. I found the charts on Ravelry and made up the hat pattern. I think it looks pretty cool. So does Rowan, and that's more important.

Socks

I have been making a lot of socks. They are amazingly comfortable. They are a portable project. They don't involve carrying around bulky wool in the summer. They look cool. They are knit on tiny needles that make me feel like a super strong bad ass when I break them mid row.

I hope to eventually have several pairs. I want to be able to wear hand knit socks every day at work.

Christmas Ornaments

I decided to make Christmas ornaments to use as bows this year. They knit up quickly and look very cute. I am a little sick of making them, so I'm going to take a quick break before I get back at it next week.

Lace Scarf

I'm new to lace. If you're into an intricate pattern and like working with size three needles, this is for you. If the people in your life enjoy hearing "I'll help you just as soon as I'm done with this row", this is for you. If you like knitting for hours and making 11 inches of progress, this is for you.

I gotta admit, I love the finished project, but lace isn't for me. Give me bulky weight yarn, size 10.5 needles, and a stockinette scarf or a simple rib. I don't want to think when I knit.

Sigg Koozie

For about a year Stimmel has been asking me to make him a koozie for his sigg bottle. I finally made one. I used a basic koozie pattern and added 12 stitches. I also did 10 rows of 2x2 rib on both ends. I think the next one I make will have more stripes.

wool soakers

So I've read all about how great wool soakers are for cloth diapers - wick moisture, breathe, don't leak you'd think they do, (and my favorite:) don't need to be washed. They go over the cotton diaper, which actually does the pee catching. They're supposed to be much cooler. And since I hate the heat and project that onto my children, I wanted to try them. I knitted two different ones to try them out.

The orange one I knitted in natural wool and then dyed with kool-aid. It was the first time I've done that, and the results are pretty uneven. Of course, that could be because I only bought 3 packets of kool-aid, then decided I needed more and found four really old ones in our cupboard. They weren't really powder anymore, but they were still orange. Don't tell Chris I used all his kool-aid. He saves it for when he's sick. Because that's healthy.

Here's the before and in-process. It was kool-aid and the microwave. Way better than the RIT dye on the stove, if you ask me. Or nasty real dye.

So far I like them, but maybe it's just because they're cute. Here's a gratuitous baby butt photo.

mittens blog

I posted a blog about mittens on my personal blog. I'm too lazy to blog twice, so if you want to read about them click on "mittens blog" which is a link to check them out.

Dishcloth Hat

Since I never finished Brinda's dress (she doesn't like dresses, plus I lost it...I have the pattern and the needles. No dress.), I decided to make her a hat. She had one like this, but all acrylic. And my mom trained me well - I can't handle acrylic.



So I made her a new one, in stash cotton (ok, it's dishcloth cotton). She loves it, and wears it inside all the time. It fit her when I first made it, but she loves to pull the ties down until she can't see, and now it's a bit larger. (There is an upside to acrylic, I guess.)

Pretty Scarf

I haven't had much time to knit this semester, but I did manage to finish a scarf for myself before the end of the winter.  I bought the yarn on line, and didn't realize quite how purple it is.  Luckily the scarf took over a month to finish, and by the time I was done with it I didn't mind it.  The pattern was very intricate, which made it a project for watching TV alone.  When I tried to knit with people around I had to tear out rows.  

Corpus Collosum Arm Warmers

Last March, when Matthew went into the hospital to have his corpus collosum completely severed, I started making these arm warmers, thinking I'd have lots of hospital time, and apparently totally forgetting that I had a child. For a while I had one done, and contented myself that there's only one corpus collosum too, until I realized that Matthew now has two (more or less...kind of). So I finished the other. They look just like corpus collosums, don't they?

In a totally surprising turn of events, I don't look nearly as cool wearing these as the woman who inspired them. But they are warm, and it's all stash wool, so that's an accomplishment by itself. And I used the magic loop knitting Sarah had mentioned, which was fun, almost making up for the k2, p2 ribbing.

Mary-Claire's new hat

Mary-Claire and I recently worked out an exchange where she helped me with a Christmas present and she got a hat. She wanted one with ear flaps, so I logged onto Ravelry to search for a pattern I am not too excited about how this hat looks, but I love how warm it is. I made the large, because it comes down far on the back of the neck. I learned a new crochet stitch for the border.

Hats for Ellie and Conor

Kathleen asked me to make some hats for Ellie & Conor. The only restriction was that they needed to be warm and cover their ears.

For Conor I went with a simple ribbed hat. A few years ago I made him a Bears hat, and Kathleen mentioned that he liked it. It may not look like it in the picture, but it is long enough to cover his ears.



For Ellie's hat I wanted something girlie. I went with a pattern that has a braid around the brim and seed stitch for the brim. It is a really pretty hat, but you can't really see the detail. Her hat covers her ears too (I tried it on to make sure), but she could not put in on all the way because she had curled hair for High School Musical Three.



I love the bracelet Kathleen made me for making the hats. I will happily make scarves for earrings. I am digging the talent for talent exchange. I think we should set up a system of craft trading.

Scrap Afghan

I always have a lot of scrap yarn around. I decided a fun thing to do with it would be to make an afghan. Mary-Claire received my first scrap afghan, but there are more scraps, so more afghans to come.

A special thank you goes out to Claire for posing with the afghan.

Bobble Head

For my friend's birthday I told her I would make her a hat. She picked out the pattern and the color. I was a little worried, as I am not a big fan of bobbles, and there are a lot of bobbles on the hat. I was really frustrated with it at first, but after a break of about a month it was not so bad.

iPod Cozy

I recently purchased an iPod. Every morning I throw it in my backpack or purse. I noticed that is was getting small scratches on it. In order to prevent further scratches, and have a cute looking iPod, I decided to make a cozy for it. It was pretty simple. CO 15, work a few rows in rib, knit until it will wrap the iPod, knit a few rows of rip, sew it up. I used size five needles and leftover yarn from Rowan's hat.

Pumpkin Hat

For Rowan's birthday I made him a pumpkin hat. It's adorable. I did not get any good pictures of him in the hat, as he seems to really enjoy taking the hat off.

I used a superwash wool from KnitPicks.com. It is really soft, and I like the colors.

It turns out that there isn't much to say about pumpkin hats. If Kathleen or Mary-Claire got a better picture it would be wicked awesome if they would post it.

Dishcloths

Two years ago when I first started knitting Deirdre was kind enough to come down to Des Moines and teach Kathleen and me to knit in the round, increase, and decrease stitches. On that visit she gave me a booklet of 16 dishcloths. I vowed to make every dish cloth in the booklet.

I wasn't able to do much this week, but I was able to knit. I made three dishcloths this week. With the cloth I finished this morning I have finally finished all of the patterns. I'm looking forward to returning to my favorite patterns, just as soon as I get more dishcloth cotton.

Leg Warmers I Made in more seasonable weather

So really I made these last winter, but there's been something of a camera issue around here (I hate taking digital photos since our stupid president forced me to take them daily - I like to skip intermediaries, and directly blame Bush for everything that happened during or due to the deployment). So here are my leg warmers.

Hawkeye Scarf

This scarf took forever. I can't decide if that is because it is knit in a k1 p1 pattern of if I just resented making it for an ex-boyfriend. Either way, it is done.