Girls Hat and Mittens

I finished the baby girl hat and mittens. I put the flowers on them and love the finished look. All I want to do is say awwww!

Baby Hat & Mittens

I have two friends that are both expecting in the next couple of weeks. One of them had her shower yesterday. Since we are in the middle of winter, and I was still in hat mode from Christmas I made hats and mittens for them. Shayna is having a boy, and Kari a girl.

I decided that I wanted to use a little stronger colors than I noramlly do. I used Debbie Norvill's Serinity sock yarn. It is super fine, and so I doubled it. The hat and mittens took one skein exactly. Nice! They are so small. It is hard to remember my kids that little anymore.

I borrowed a baby doll from Shayna's daughter to model. It is a little smaller than a newborn, but they look really cute. The other set is done, but I want to put a crocheted flower on the hat. As soon as I do that then I will post the picture

Little Butterfly Sweater

I am finally getting around to posting the picture of the sweater that I made for my other niece Victoria. I am calling it Little Butterflies. I did the butterfly stitch on the whole thing. The band and collar are garter stitch. I was really lucky and found some cute little pink butterfly buttons to set it off.

The collar was my attempt to make a peter pan collar. As you can see it didn't work, like I wanted it to, but not too bad.

I have started a couple of new projects. I have two friends that are having babies in the next couple of weeks. The first one is having a shower Saturday. I am 95% done with her gift, but can't say anything about it since I am not sure if she reads this blog. She is having a boy, and the other friend at work is having a girl. I am doing the same thing for both, but making them masculine and feminine of course. I will post pictures Saturday after she opens her gift. I think it is turning out darling.

Knitting Resolutions

I have so many things that I want to do this year. Here is my list of resolutions. Not necessarily to be done in this order. LOL

1. Finish my scrapbook/knitting/sewing room and finish moving in.
2. Help a friend finish two projects. (We are trading services. I love that!)
3. Make my 2 hat and scarf sets for my new coats.
4. Start on Christmas in Feb. (I actually have yarn for one of the projects that I am going to do.)
5. Finish the sweater that I started for myself. (I got the back, right front and 2/3 of the left front done before Christmas.)
6. Subscribe to a knitting magazine. (Just waiting for payday)
7. Learn a new technique. I am thinking about entralac. We shall see how the year goes.
8. Make 3 baby gifts for friends that are expecting all before March!
9. Start and finish the dress scarf that I have planned out of expensive yarn. (I have started and taken it out twice!)
10. Take a digital photography class. (Hopefully, I will take better pictures of my family and my handwork for my blog!)

Catching Up

I started knitting right before Thanksgiving and that is almost all that I have done since. I knitted for almost all my gifts this year. I have loved it, but I am definitely starting earlier this next year. I went to work, made dinner, did the shopping and knitted.

I made up my own shorter version of the "8 Knitted Days of Christmas"

8 handmade hats,

7 handmade scarves,

6 baby booties,

5 ideas for the new year

4 mailed packages (almost)

3 kids sweaters

2 new books

1 scrapbooked picture

I did stocking/watch caps for my DH, boys, nephew, DD boyfriend and brothers. My DD saw them and wanted one too, so I made her one. Here is a picture of a couple of them. We went and hiked in Zion's Canyon the Monday after Christmas and they really came in handy. All the guys said they were really warm. I did them double stranded. The one on the bottom right corner is DD's. She only wanted single, but it was a marble looking yarn, and so it still kind of looks doubled.

DD's boyfriend is really into hunting and fishing. Even though it is still in the 70's down in Phoenix when you hunt you are up in the mountains. I made his hat and scarf set double stranded and in camouflage. He seemed to really like it.

I asked DD if she was a scarf kind of girl. It is to warm down there for winter scarfs, but I thought a dress scarf was a maybe. She said yes, that they go well with office casual. I asked her what color and she said that she wanted something metallic, either silver or gold. I scratched my head over that one for a while, and then came up with this. I bought gold, silver and black crochet thread and combined them into one strand. I did the new drop stitch pattern and this is how it looked. She really liked it and I was really pleased with how it came out. I am thinking of doing one for me in black, silver and maybe red.

Cool Batik Scarfs

Back in April, when I went to a local quilt show there was a lady at one of the booths knitting. Of course, my friend and I being knitters had to know what she was doing. It was a really cool looking scarf. She wasn't knitting it out of yarn, it was out of batik quilting fabric. She told us how to do it, and I really wanted to try it. I decided to make them for the ladies at work and for the knitting group gift.

This is the one that I did first. I cut the strips and 1" wide and it was too much. It still came out okay. I loved the colors. It was really ironic that the one that I could picture these colors on was the one that one it. Everyone liked it.

That gave me a little more courage to do them for the ladies I work with. I made the strips on these only 1/2" wide on the same size needles. It was a little more flexible. I also made them a little more narrow. I forgot to take pictures before I gave them away, but they brought them back and I got 2 out of the 3. This one is black with pinpoint red polka dots on it.

This one is shades of purple. The one I don't have a picture of was ocean colors. Aqua, blue, purple and spots of yellow and orange. I would like to make one for me out of a soft chambray. We shall see. I had to borrow a rotary cutter to do these. I couldn't find mine. Maybe I will find it when I finish my knitting/sewing room????

My First Boutique

We went back east to visit my DH's family for Thanksgiving. 2 hours in the airport and a 6 hour flight both ways. I worked on items for my first boutique. We have one at work that part of the benefits go to a charity. I didn't do a whole lot. I kind of wanted to see how it would go. I think I did pretty well for the first time. I sold almost half of what I brought. I did pot holder and dish cloth sets, baby booties and some santa hat holiday pins. I'm not sure if I will do it next year, but it was fun.