Shamrock Knits

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.

Thank you Easter Bunny... bawk! bawk!

I hope everyone had a great holiday. My family went to brunch at Drury Lane. I ate three meals in one sitting. LOL 

Last week at knit night, Kathy was looking through Crochet Today and I saw this crochet egg pattern. They were pretty cute, so I thought I'd give it a shot. The original pattern calls for a styrofoam egg, but since I gave these to my niece and nephew, I opted for batting. I put the pink one in Ava's Easter basket and the blue, green, yellow striped one in Colin's. I used leftover Cottonese yarn in this quarter's Project Spectrum colors. The bunny is a ceramic piece I did a couple of years ago.

For Colin

I finally finished the Steggie dinosaur toy for my nephew Colin. This is Kat's pattern and I started crocheting it in August. I needed to finish the head, but it was put to the bottom of the pile and I forgot about it. This was also done is leftover Cottonese.