I Must Be Crazy

After the Kitchener stitch nightmare, I had to sooth myself by buying some new yarn at A.C. Moore. Yeah, I just spent $90 on new yarns! And you know what? I do feel better! :-D

Kitchener Stitch Nightmare

okay y'all. i'm a little upset so this post will be brief cause i don't want to talk about it!!! anyways, i was working on a beautiful sock-slipper for my friend for Christmas. i'm already late with the present. i'm already in a rush. i get the first sock done and i decide to go ahead and use the Kitchener stitch to close the toe, cause the sock is pretty bulky and nothing else will look right. but i don't have knitting needles. no problem, i'll follow the directions on the http://www.loomknittinghelp.com/ website, which gives direction for how to do a Kitchener stitch right off the loom. but i get confused. and i loose track of which way i last put the needle. and a few loops fall of the peg as i pass the yarn through them. and my yarn is too short so i have to do a knot to to attach more yarn. which makes the yarn a b$#%h to pull through. and what do i end up with? a big tangled mess of a seam that looks NOTHING like the Kitchener stitch and a ruined sock. i was so upset i almost cried. back to square one.

My Alternative

i really need to get some stitch markers. i was working on some sock slippers for my friend while watching TV and i kept on getting distracted and messing up the ribbing on the cuff. so i thought, i'll just add some rubber bands to the pegs to mark them. only problem, i already had the project on the loom and the bands need to be put on first! so whats a girl to do? get creative! i used some paper clips instead! hey, it works for me! cheap and effective! i'll probably get real stitch markers later, but for now, this is what i'll go with!

Love this hat!

so i made a hat for my boss. she never wears a hat on her head and its getting pretty cold around here! just today the temp is 2, wind chill -17! so i decided to use the lions brand wool ease chunky. i kind of made up the pattern as i went along. i actually got about halfway done and frogged it and started over again. i love the way this hat came out!!! i can't really remember the pattern too well, so i'm gonna try to write the pattern down now on my ravelry page before i forget it! i made it on the green loom. it ended up being just a tad bit too small for her, she squeezed it on her head and said it was okay, but i know it would be uncomfortable to wear for a long amount of time.





here's a close up of the ribbing i did on the brim. i used a cable cast on for the first time for this. i really like the way it turned out!



i haven't thought of a name for this hat yet. it kinda looks like a balloon to me, so i might go with something like that for the name. i wish i was more experienced with the wedge way of finishing a hat. i did a gathered bind off cause thats the way i'm most familiar with, but i think it would have looked much better with a smoother wedge top. nothing would have aggrivated me more than to try something differnt and ruin the hat at the last stages, especially when its a present for someone else and i'm on a time line. maybe i'll try this again for fun and try doing the wedges instead next time.

The Never Ending Sock!

so i got my beautiful wonder sock loom from dalooms a few months ago. i went out and bought some nice sock weight yearn and i started using it. i didn't want to bite off more than i could chew, so i decided to start with a baby sock. a nice small project that i could (hopefully) get finished quickly. at first, it was VERY hard to use the loom and i was ready to give up. but after getting through the first ten rows or so, it started to get much easier and things started picking up. now, i have the sock to about where i want it to start the heel but i'm stuck. or more accurately, i should say, I'M SCARED!!!!! i'm terrified of taking the loop off the peg and then trying to get it back on. those pegs are super tiny and the space between them is even tinier! i put so much work into this itty bitty sock so far, and it would kill me to ruin it now! so what have i done with this sock over the past month? the answer is NOTHING! its been sitting on my coffee table, unfinished and untouched. i'm frozen. anyways, here are some pics of what i've got done so far:






i'm still working on my christmas presents now and that baby blanket, so i haven't had the urge to mess with this sock. but i don't think i can put it of for much longer...

The Never-ending Blanket

My friend was pregnant some time a year and a half ago, and i thought i'd be a great friend and make her some baby hats and a blanket. i got those hats done. they're in the slide show. but this bleeping blanket is still on the loom. that baby is now going on 8 months and my friend is pregnant with her second child!!! so i'm really gonna try to get this blanket done this time around. how embarrassing would it be if it isn't done in time AGAIN?!the issue is, i'm doing it on the longest of the knifty knitter long looms. so it takes forever to do a row, and even if i get ten rows done, you can hardly see it cause the project is so big! in addition, since the blanket has been on the loom for over a year, the loom is misshapen from the project and one of the pegs is unstuck and keeps on coming out when i knit!! its driving me crazy!!! but i think i'll do this. i'll finish off the ball of yarn i have now. then i'll have a small rectangle shape. the color is the same green-yellow of the baby sweater and hats. i'll get some all yellow yarn of the same weight and make like 4 smaller squares and 2 skinny rectangles and mattress seam them to the blanket around the outside of the rectangle!!! i might even do a different stitch on the smaller squares and rectangles for some visual interest! this way i'll be doing smaller projects that i can get done in a day or so and see progress happening!
here's a pic of what i've got done so far on the blanket:


And here's a "sketch" of what i'm thinking of doing:

Some stuff I've made

just some pics of other things i've made in the past.