Shamrock Knits

Cheers!

Happy St Patty's everyone!

I've been working on a few different projects over the last couple of weeks. One of them is not the cable socks. Some people have second sock syndrome. I have turning the heel syndrome. I'm doing them both at the same time on one circular needle. I don't know what my hang up is, but I just didn't feel like doing the short rows for awhile. They're in my bag in case I ever get the urge.

A friend at work's been trying to adopt for almost a year now. A couple of weeks ago, she got the word that she'll be adopting a baby boy. I'm so happy for her. We had a shower for her at work last Thursday. I made her a knit hat in a simple 2 by 2 rib. Betty from my knit group made the pom pom for it. She's the best at those.

I also made this blanket. It's machine knit with rows of single crochet trim. I used Red Heart Sport that I had in stash. Gotta love that. This was the blanket that I was going to make my nephew when he was born, but I had issues with row counting and seaming. I think this one looks much better now. It's made on my mid-gauge LK 150 machine. The strips are made separately and seamed as the next strip is knitted.

Here's the progress on my vest. I'm finishing the second front and then have the back to do. We'll see how it turns out. I really like the colors though.

Which came first?

In my case, it's the egg. Last year, I crocheted eggs for my niece's and nephew's easter baskets. This year, they're getting these adorable chicks. I used Red Heart and Cotton Fleece. The pattern uses felt beaks, but I didn't want to do that because my niece is about 14 months old. The beak on the pink one is a little distorted, but at least it's safer. I love how these came out. They're really adorable. On Ravelry, someone also crocheted feet as well.

Happy Dance!

Woo hoo! I'm so excited. I finished my Cozy V Pullover and it actually fits! Of course, I don't like the picture, but I love the sweater. Voila!

I'm also wearing my invisible braces in the picture. I've had them for about a week now. They're not too bad. In a few weeks, I'm supposed to have "buttons" put on some of my teeth. I'm guess this helps with moving the teeth better and is probably going to be a little painful at first. The initial projection is to have them for 6-7 months. Both my dentist and I thought it would be longer, so we'll have to see how it goes.

When I was in Minnesota last week, I worked on a present for my "old" boss. These crochet cupcakes came out pretty cute. I think it was the beads that did it. I found the pattern here. She has some really cute patterns.

My life

Robin tagged me in a recent meme last Saturday. It's taken me this long to think of something. This is 10 things I've done that others may have not. I was trying to think of things in terms of that "mass amounts of people might not have done". LOL

Here goes:

1) I'm a CPA and MBA. I feel like I've been a perpetual student sometimes. I'm always taking classes to learn new knitting techniques. Maybe that's why I've felt in the past that I haven't made many FO's.

2) I've worked at the same company for 18 years. I started as a part-time teller for a bank, when I was in college. I then moved on to Assistant Manager, Trainer/Internal Auditor, Staff Accountant, Branch Operations Manager, back to Accounting for Instore branches, then Consumer Lending Functional, and now I'm back to Retail Reporting. I can't remember when I became a Vice President, but I know it was by 30.

3) I'm a collector. Over the years, I've collected shot glasses, glass paperweights, nutcrackers, tea pots, and first edition, signed hardcover fiction. Some collections are now gone or dwindled. I only continuing on the signed hardcovers now. Since I've been knitting, you could say that I'm collecting yarn and knitting books as well, because my stash seems to be ever growing. :)

4) I a machine knit, hand knit, crochet, and sometimes bead. I haven't done as much machine knitting lately, so I need to try to do more of that. I also want to try some chain metal bracelets. I bought a book at Michael's recently and there's a bead store in Lisle that has some gorgeous metal jewelry. They have classes there, so I'll probably sign up for one soon. (see, perpetual student)

5) I have a tattoo. One of my sisters gave us a family cruise right after her divorce was final. She got her belly button pierced and I got my tattoo. I'd been thinking about one since I was in college, but the opportunity never presented itself. I have a small shamrock, of course, that cannot be seen even if I have a bathing suit on.

6) I'm a clutz and bruise easily. Not a good combination. When I was little, the doctors used to question my mom about every bruise. I've vowed to have a party the day I don't have a bruise somewhere on my body. It hasn't happened yet.

7) I've had lasik surgery. Without my contacts, I was blind. Now I can see the clock in the morning, go snorkeling or swimming without worrying, etc. It's great. The surgery was a little freaky, but I'm so glad I did it.

8) I'm getting invisible braces. I just had the molds done and now waiting to get the braces made. Even though I'm 38, I want to get them for myself. Hopefully, they'll help with my TMJ a little.

9) I have a 300-disc DVD player. My original intention was to put all of my DVDs and all my CDs in there. When I put my DVDs in there, there were 100 (including the extra DVDs that come with some movies). I decided I'd see if I can fill it up entirely with DVDs. There are about 250. I don't buy as many as I used to, but I'm going to take the supplemental discs out of there and see how many are just movies. I guess you can say I collect movies as well!

10) I send care packages to deployed soldiers. I've been doing this through Books for Soldiers for about 3 years now. During the holidays, I try to send more care packages and hold drives at work. I try to send a couple care packages a month.

Knit Out at Cathy's

Lisa had asked for a picture of the reversible cable throw after it was fixed. I just took a picture of the nasty cable area. Kathy was so nice in helping me that day. Thanks again Kathy!The problem cable is the middle one in the picture.

I've also worked a little more on the Cozy V Pullover. I've joined and started knitting in the round. I haven't tried it on yet, so I'll probably do that before I go any further.

Also in the picture are a snowman and tree stitch markers. I couldn't get a close up picture that was in focus. I need to get a new camera soon. Cathy made them for me on a recent knit-out we had at her house. Here she is giving Kathy a spinning demonstration.

The spinning wheel (and the handspun!) was so pretty, I took a closer picture. I have no intention of learning how to spin by wheel or drop spindel, but I can admire.

This picture is Doree and Lucia watching the demonstration. Betty was taking pictures herself at the time, so she's not in the picture. The crochet ripple afghan is a gift that Kathy made and brought in for show and tell.

I'm sure Lucia made the sweater she's wearing, which was lovely. We were all admiring her crochet hat that she bought. We were trying to figure out the pattern so we can do it ourselves. Kathy said it looked like mosiac crochet. I think that basically means that you carry the yarn and work it in througout the rows. There were three colors, so it makes for a thick and sturdy hat.

Back Again

It's been really hectic for me lately. I still have another month or so, but I feel like I've come up for air a little bit. I've taken a new position at work, but until there's a replacement for me, I'm still doing my old job. So basically I've been putting in a lot of hours at work and haven't been doing much else.

However, I did finally finish the crochet star afghan. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I haven't checked, but however many skeins I have left of this yarn will be donated. I think making 3 blankets is enough. I don't know what I was thinking when I bought all of this yarn. I do like how each of them turned out though, so it wasn't a waste.

I was also able to repair all of the holes in the reversible cable throw. I wasn't feeling the greatest, so Kathy was kind enough to help me with the largest hole which had dropped stitches in the cable portion. Thanks a bunch Kathy!

I've also started a new project. I'm working on the Cozy V-Neck Pullover from Fitted Knits. I'm using Suri Merino, which has more of a halo than I'm used to. The yarn is really soft though and I love the color.

I have WIPs!

I've had a  stressful couple of weeks, but I have been knitting. I haven't been happy with my camera lately either. So, for an update on my projects. Yeah, that's plural. I have multiple projects going on. I feel like a grown-up knitter.

Reversible Cable Throw

I finally received the yarn from discountyarnsale this past Monday. I haven't taken it out of the bag yet, but the color looks close. I should be able to start working on this throw again. I'm going to alternate the skeins of yarn in case there's a noticeable difference in the color. But even if there is, it's just a throw and it's not a gift.

Crochet Star Afghan

I still had a ton of red, white, blue, and red/white/blue variegated acrylic yarn in my stash. I've been thinking about crochet ripple afghans and decided it would be a good use to dwindle the stash down. I came across this star shaped crochet pattern from Yarn Diva and fell in love with it. I started this pattern last week and worked on it alot last Saturday.

Felted Poinsetta Wreath

I've knitted and felted all the pieces. I didn't follow the felting instructions because I don't want to mess around with the floral wire like the pattern states. The kit comes with 2 different sized wire. The thicker wire is supposed to be fed through the green stem and up through 3 layers of petals. Then the top  layer of petals is sewn on and has the yellow french knots or beads. I decided that I'm going to sew the petal layers together and onto the wreath frame so they won't come off. I'm not a french knot person, so I think I'm going to go the beaded route. I haven't taken a picture of the felted petals, but here's one of the before flowers. There are a total of 8 flowers all together.

I went to Minneapolis Monday and Tuesday for work and stopped at the Yarnery during lunch. I saw these snowmen last year when I went to the shop, but now they've knit some up with the glittery yarn. Very cute. Of course, I bought the pattern for the accessories as well as a pumpkin pattern.

I also picked up a skein of Malabrigo lace and a crocheted lace scarf they had knit up in the store. It was really nice in person. The scarf pattern looks like a crocheted chevron ripple. I've passed up this lace a couple of times and couldn't resist any more. The blue is not as bright and the lighter color has green in it that doesn't come across in the picture. Very yummy.

My very last bit of news is that I'm finally on Ravelry! Woo Hoo!!! I was just sent notice yesterday. I've started keying in my stash. It has an export function to Excel which would be a great feature if I didn't already key my inventory in Excel a few months ago. Oh well, great minds and all.  I don't have a flicker account yet, so I'll have to do that and take pics of my yarn. Shamrockknits was already taken, so my ID is 'shamrockknitsil'. I didn't have much time to look around the site, but it seems VERY cool. I love that I can see all the projects people have made with a certain yarn.  A lot of my stash was bought because I liked the yarn and I didn't really have a pattern in mind. I think that search function is going to help tremendously. I'll be doing alot of surfing on the site this weekend.

Crochet Cuteness

I recently found out that a coworker is having a baby girl next month. I wanted to make something quick, so I thought about a crochet sunhat. Kathy made one for herself last year and brought it in so we could work on scaling it down to baby size. This was all done in half double crochets on siz I hook. I finished it on the bus to Threadbear last weekend, but decided it was too big for an infant. I ripped most of it out and did it again. I used one skein of kitchen cotton.

I think it came out pretty cute. Thanks for the help Kathy! The only thing I'm "worried" about is I've been reading that the colors can bleed. If you soak it in a water/vinegar mix, what kind of vinegar do you use? Will it continue to bleed after that?

Snuggles Cage Liner

I made this cage liner for the Hugs For Homeless organization about 6 months ago. I just knit a basic rectangle on the knitting machine and then put aside. Out of sight, out of mind. I finally came across it again and crocheted an edge. I think this is Red Heart yarn I had in stash. Any acrylic yarn will do because this will be machine washed and dried alot. I want to make a couple of more before I donate them. Since the last ones went to the Greyhound Society, these will probably go to a local animal shelter. You can find out which ones accept the Snuggles Project through the website.

What month is this?

Can you tell? This is what it looked like today outside my office.

On a happier note, I was curious about Dee's comment, so I thought I'd try out a crochet egg with a variegated yarn. I just used a dishcloth cotton yarn. I like how it turned out. Thanks Dee!

I think a self-striping yarn will look pretty cute too. I think it would stripe in the crochet because the rounds aren't that big. If I ever get around to making socks, I'll try it with the leftover yarn.