hearth-Craft

Well, I’ve finished!

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The Pinwheel blanket is a little over 30″ in diameter plus a 1.5″ ruffle border.

I have to admit, I love the ruffle border.  I did it by kfb and then k1p1 for several rows, knitting the purls and purling the knits. That was Very tedious and took a long, long time to finish a given round. Worth it, I think. But you have to know what you’re getting into before you do it.

Needle: US 10½ / 6.5 mm
Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Encore Colorspun Worsted
3 skeins = 600 yards
Colorway 7065

The needle size was perfect for a nice drape with this yarn weight. I have to admit that I didn’t realize the blanket was going to come out so…girl color schemed - because the balls when I picked themm up showed mostly the yellow and purple colors.

I think to be fair, I’m going to do another in more of a boy color scheme sometime in the near future.

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I have a happy dance! And it’s a stitching happy dance! Woohoo!

Flip It Bit of March

 So the M was fully frogged and re-stitched correctly. I finished it up on the plane back from Colorado and I’m pretty happy with this particular month - I like the cute design of course and it looks neat and clean. It’s been such a long while since I had a stitching happy dance that I’m grinning pretty widly even though this is a small project.

As always, click on the small picture to see the full size picture.

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I did it! I spun, plied and set in the twist for my very first skein of yarn - it is ready to be wound into a ball and knitted or crocheted into a project. W00t!

This is 50% cormo wool - 50% English angora from Sam-wise, 2-ply, fine-fingering weight yarn.

It’s not pure white, since Sam-wise is a creme buck and not one of my REWs. It’s rather a very soft ecru with hints of his creme coloring. In fact, here’s a cuteness pic of him:

As always with my pics, click to see the larger version of the image.

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Joe is a young guy that has things together. He’s got a good job and the beginnings of a solid career.  He’s living on his own paycheck and owns his own car. He just bought his first home. He’s a hard worker and a good friend. He’s a big guy who works out regularly and sports hefty musculature.  And like many strong men, he’s got a soft heart.

Joe has what I like to call Knight in Shining Armor syndrome.

He falls for the girls who need rescue, the girls who have been treated badly and been betrayed, the girls who have been hurt and need someone to show them that there is kindness and warmth in the world.  He wraps them in his strength and promises to protect them. He treats them the way a girl should be treated and showers them in affection and generousity. He has a knack for thinking up incredibly romantic surprises and dream dates. He gives them unwavering dedication and doesn’t let his eyes stray. He’s there for them in every way.

Invariably, they eventually get confused and dump him for the crappy ex or the shifty eyed guy they met at a bar and go back to being treated badly by some jerk, leaving Joe broken hearted.

Seriously, Joe is an incredible guy. Someday he’ll find the right girl - who is probably not in need of rescuing but can shelter his big heart with her own soul.  He’ll be happy.  But for now, he’s moping around my office with big sad puppy eyes moaning about how his new home is all cold and lonely and empty without a girlfriend to share it with.

So my next happy dance is for Joe as a combination housewarming and birthday gift.  Something to wrap him in the warmth of friendship until he finds the right girl…or at least dates a nice girl. He’s young, I figure there’ll be quite some time yet.

 

Chelsea is testing it out for him and looks quite comfy by the way. Joe’s new living room is white walled with beige carpet and a turqouise accent wall. He’s got a sage couch in there that looks gray - so I figured the couch could do with an accent throw. However, the blankie is sufficient to cover a twin size bed or keep a big guy warmm as he naps on a couch.

The throw is made of Lion Brand Homespun in Regency. Click on the pic for a full size image as usual.

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I made the Last Minute Knitted Gifts soft drawstring pouch for my best friend’s birthday and gifted it to her this past Saturday while we were in Seattle for a birthday bash weekend with our friend Alexd00 (who was also celebrating his birthday).

I made it using Caron Simply Soft in Mint Green and stuffed it full of her favorite chocolates.

…and I forgot to take a picture of it.

Hopefully I can get her to take a pic for me or bring it over so that I can take a pic. Ah well, she liked it…

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Here’s my Montego Bay Scarf, a breezy simple pattern from Interweave Knits done in Handmaiden Sea Silk (70% silk, 30% Seacell - a derivative of seaweed) in the Glacier colorway. I knit with size 8 straight bamboo needles.

It was a simple pattern, not so mindnumbing as nothing but stockinette stitch but just mindless enough to be able to knit while watching movies or in the waiting room.  I could pretty much put it down at any time and be able to find where I was when I picked the project back up again. the pattern includes a 6″ fringe on each end of the scarf but I left them off since I’m not big into fringes. I think it looks nice without the fringe anyway.

The yarn is insanely luxurious.  The silk felt marvelous sliding through the fingers  and and the scarf feels light thrown about the shoulders. It’s a great spring/summer scarf.  I think the SeaCell aspect is nifty cool as well - it’s supposed to seep nutrients as you wear it that are very good for the skin.  It’s kind of odd and quirky in concept, but the yarn is oh so yummy.

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Here was my selfish project during the holiday season. My office building at work gets insanely cold regardless of the time of year.  Especially in the summer when I tend to wear lighter business clothes, I can slip these on when I’m in my office and not in meetings and at least be cozy.

The yarn is Artyarns Silk Rhapsody - an insanely wonderful combination of silk yarn and finely spun mohair that gives it a silky soft halo when worn.  This is some luxurious stuff, trust me. The yarn is expensive but sooooo worth it as a spoil-me item.

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Here’s Lisa’s finished throw blankie for her living room.

I don’t normally work in black - I like colors a lot and although black can provide wonderful contrast, I rarely work in solid black. However, Lisa’s living room is predominately tan with black accent pillows.  She really wanted a blanket that could accent the room as well.  So since it was Lisa and since it was her Christmas present, I made an exception and worked completely in super silky soft Lion Brand Homespun Black yarn.

It has wonderful drape and uber silky soft cuddly factor. It’s a simple pattern but so nice to the touch and definitely warm too.  She looked like she was very happy with it.

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Here’s the lacy cowl I made for my mother for Christmas. It was done in Colinette Yarns’ Jitterbug, incidentally using the Marble colorway. I didn’t plan for there to be any similarity between this gift and the other cowl I did - it just happened to be the yarn I picked because I knew my mother would like the colors. Hopefully, if my mom reads this blog she’ll know that I made this gift independently specifically with her in mind despite whatever conicidences there were.

In any case, the pattern is a lacy cowl pattern done by the same designer that did Last Minute Knitted Gifts, although this pattern was actually featured in Knit Simple Magazine instead as part of an article on the designer. I really enjoyed this lace type pattern and it is the most difficult one I’ve done to date. I figured mommy was worth the effort and she did seem to like the cowl.

Since it was Christmas Day when I took the pic and mommy doesn’t like pics too much - my little sister modeled the garment for me so I could have a happy dance pic.

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And now for a long awaited happy dance.

Here’s the Pashmina cowl from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. It’s a simple stockinette pattern mostly, that I used to teach me how to knit in the round. I gifted this to my father’s new wife. It’s been knitted using Spritely Good’s Sylph fine fingering yarn in Marble.

Daddy’s wife actually put it on sort of inside out, so you can mostly only see the purl side in the picture. But she liked it that way and I think the yarn’s hand painted coloring does everything for the look of the cowl.  It can be worn around the neck like that or pulled up like a hood.

I really love working with Spritely Goods yarn, by the way.  It’s a pleasure to have in the hands and so far all of my projects have turned out quite nicely.

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