What I'm working on

This pic is 8 of 9 projects I have going right now. The purple thing in the top left corner is the beginnings of a 7" x 9" crocheted rectangle for a blanket that Sybermoms Craft forum members are putting together. The purple/white/blue/green thing next to it is a raglan sweater I'm knitting for Hannah, using Bernat Cotton Tots. The Green sock at the top is sock #1 in the pair I'm knitting for my best friends Christmas present. I'm using the shadow Box pattern from Knit Socks! The project to the right of that sock is another hat for Hannah. I'm trying to make this one a little more difficult for her to pull off of her head. The pink under the hat is a baby blanket for my niece's Christmas present. I have been making progress on it, but it's slow going. The black in the middle is what I have so far of the socks I'm knitting for DH. These socks are the Classy Slip-Up pattern from Knit Socks! The Blue/purple on the left of DH's sock, is my very first attempt of knitting a sock on 2 circs. These socks are for me. I'm using Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport yarn in Bucks Bar and the River Rapids Socks pattern from Sock Bug. And finally, the dark pink at the bottom is the beginnings of a Shedir(found in the Knitty special breast cancer awareness .pdf.) I Don't have anyone in mind to give this to, I just fell in love with the hat and I've been wanting to knit it for quite a while. The one project I have going that is not pictured is an Irish Hiking Scarf that I am knitting for BIL's Christmas present. It isn't pictured because I left it upstairs in my room and I don't feel like waiting for Hannah to wake up to go get it.

Hats for the Brats

My kids aren't really brats, (well, at least not ALL the time..lol) but the title sounded cute. This past week I knit up 2 hats, one for each of my boys. The green hat I 'winged it', I saw a hat with a similar stitch pattern in a store a while ago, I let my 4 year old pick the colors, I decided on the striping as I went, and above is what we got. For the blue hat I followed a pattern in Stitch & Bitch, leaving off the devil horns/cat ears. I used Knitpicks Wool of the Andes for both hats, The green hat is Grass and Snickerdoodle, and the blue hat is Stream.

Needle Addiction

It would seem that my addiction has moved from yarn to needles. I went to hobby lobby earlier today and Just for the hell of it bought a set of size 4 Dpn's and a set of size 5's. I then went to my LYS and picked up two sets of size 3 circs (16" and 24") and a 16" size 7 circ. Then, I was just reading my email and I saw a free shipping code from JoAnn.com so I just used it buying size 2 circs (16" and 24") and a 24" size 7 circ.

8 sets of Knitting needles. 1 Day. I have problems.

Finished mom's socks!

You can see some laddering on the right sock, but hopefully blocking will take care of that. But the knitting of mom's socks is FINISHED!!! Yippie!

I have two other pairs of socks in the works, Dh's and a pair for my best friend. Dh's are going to be slow going, and I need to loosen up on my tension because I have two small cuts on my right index finger from tightly holding and sliding the fingering weight yarn. Oops. I also still have the baby blanket (metal needles are not friends to my hands), a scarf for BIL, and hats for the kids working right now.

I MUST be insane.

Seriously. I MUST be insane. What was I thinking when I decided to knit DH a pair of black socks with fingering weight sock yarn and size 1 needles? If nothing else, this is a refresher course in why I hate working with really dark colors. It's damn near impossible to see your stitches clearly! Especially, with these damn tiny needles.

However, I am starting to love this pattern. It's the Classy Slip-Up pattern in Betsy McCarthy's Knit Socks! book. I am using Knitpicks (of course) Essential yarn.


And, below, VOILA! Hannah's sweater is finished! Woo-Hoo!! I love how it turned out. The buttons are wood, handpainted DragonFly buttons that I found at JoAnn's, And I don't want to, but I'll admit to using cheap-o acrylic yarn. It's Carron, so at least it's a lot softer than that Red Heart stuff.

What I'm working on

Okay, here's what I've currently got in the works. The top pink is a baby blanket for my niece Morgan's Christmas Present. I'm using the Baby Fern Stitch dishcloth pattern from The Dishcloth Boutique. I haven't made much progress on it since my last current projects post. What can I say, I've been getting lazy about this blanket and I'm hoping that by posting about it again, I might feel the need to work on it more. You see that dark blue thing you can't see the detail of? Well, that's the beginings of an Irish Hiking Scarf that will be a Christmas present for my BIL, Ricky. It looks great, however that deep blue color just dosen't photograph very well. The project on dpn's with the self striping yarn is sock #2 in the pair I'm knitting for my Mom's Christmas present. And, finally, the cream colored sweater on the bottom, is a top down cardigan I'm knitting for Hannah. I need to finish the body and then I am planning on crocheting the button bands on. I can't decide on the buttons, though. I have these really pretty dragonfly buttons, and I have some round purple shell buttons. Both would be beautiful with this cream yarn.

I need ideas

I have found myself, yet again, dreaming of opening up my very own LYS. This is something I have been dreaming about doing for about a year now. Realistically, I wont start doing this until my youngest is in school full time, so I've got a few more years of planning and dreaming ahead of me. But, in the meantime, I'm having a blast researching (yes, I'm a geek) and planning. So, my fellow yarn addicts, what do you love the most about your LYS? What would you love to see in a LYS? What is your dream knitting environment? Any ideas for a store name? Come on, I need INPUT people!...lmao

Hannah's Hat

I wanted a quick project to do this past weekend, and I need to knit winter hats for each of the kids, so I knit up this hat for Hannah. It's a basic hat. The yarn I used is Knitpicks Wool of the Andes. The main purple color is Violet, and I used the Asparagus and Rain scraps from my moms booga, with some snickerdoodle, for the stripes.

Finished Booga

The Pic is a little dark, but here's the finished Booga Bag I made for my Mom. It's going to be her Birthday present. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Last night I started a pair of socks for myself. I'm using a basic sock pattern and some Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport yarn in Bucks Bar. I am absolutely in love with this yarn. It is so soft and the colors are really beautiful.

Waiting to dry

I know I promised this one would be done a while ago, but I kept putting it off. Then I said 'fuck it' and waited to felt it until my moms booga was ready to be felted So I could do both at the same time.

The Sophie Bag for my sister, Dawn, Is FINISHED! Well, almost, it's still wet. It usually takes 2-3 days of hanging around for my felted bags to dry completely. I will be giving this bag to Dawn for her Christmas present.

Below is a pic of the Booga I made for my mom. It too is drying. This was an experement in making the booga larger. The pattern calls for CO 34 and K34 rows, and the sides are done in the round for 64 rows. I just picked a 'magic number', 20, and did a CO 54, K54 rows and the sides were 84 rows. I think it's a great size. Now I need to wait for it to dry so I can put the strap on it.

One Sock down...several to go

I finished one of the socks in the pair I'm making for my mom's Christmas present. I love this sock. I want to keep it for myself, so It's a good thing my mom's feet are bigger than mine & the sock is too big for me.

As far as socks go, I have the other one of this pair to knit, I need to finish the pair for my friend Sarah, I need to finish the blue baby socks, I want to knit a pair of socks for my niece's Justice, Laney & Morgan, and I also want to knit pairs of socks for Dh and I.

Booga for my Mom

The knitting for the bag part of the Booga I'm making for my mom is finished. All that's left is to knit the I-cord for the strap and felt them. My mom loved the booga I made for myself, but wanted one bigger. Un-felted, it almost completely covers the top of the 18 gal storage tub I keep my yarn stash in. My almost 6 year old ds can sit down inside it and have just his head poking out of the top. I can't wait to see this felted.

So Many Projects, So Little Time (and yarn & money)

I need to disconnect my internet connection or something. Whenever I get bored, I look through free patterns. I keep seeing so many beautiful things, and I NEED, I mean really NEED, to make them. OnTheEdge on Sybermoms posted this link, I MUST make this dress for my dd. Then, I looked and Alisage on Sybermoms posted that the Fall Knitty was up. I need to make the Arisaig & the Josephine. Not to mention all of the beautiful things in the archives section I want to make. I found Sock Bug this morning while looking for some more sock patterns. I AM IN LOVE.


I need to get a job to support my habbit.

Current Projects

This is the yarn for the Booga bag I'm knitting for my mom. I am trying to finish it quickly so it can be her Birthday Present. The Yarn is Knitpicks wool of the andes in Asparagus, mulled wine, rain, hush, and at the bottom is mist.

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This is a Sock I'm making for my mom. The pair will be her Christmas present. The yarn is Knitpicks Simple Stripes yarn in Vineyard.

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This is the begining of a baby sock. Using the North Country Cotton baby sock pattern and Sugar & Cream cotton yarn.

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Yep, another sock. My friend Sarah loved the blue ones I made (see my 'adventures in sock making' post), so I'm making her a pair in orange.

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This is a baby blanket I'm making using the baby fern stitch dishcloth pattern from The Dishcloth Boutique. I am using Carron Simply soft yarn and I think the color is dusty rose or antique rose or something like that. I can't find the label right now, actually, I just don't want to look for it.

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Another dishcloth. This one is the DW Cloth pattern from Knitting Knonsense, using Sugar & Cream cotton yarn. Most of these dishcloths I've made, I will tie in rolls with a nice ribbon, and put them in a basket for a Christmas present for my Aunt Jan.

Yarn, Yarn and More Yarn

<- And here is my KnitPicks order. The Mist, Mulled Wine, Rain, Hush and Asparagus colors of the Wool of the Andes are going to be a Booga Bag for my Mom's Birthday(maybe Christmas....can't decide yet) Present.

The picture below is of my yarn stash before adding my most recent KnitPicks order. That is an 18 gallon plastic storage tub.

Another Sophie Bag

Both of my sisters are recieving Sophie Bags for Chiristmas this year. This one is for Dawn. I used Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in Cranberry & using a small amount of Mist on the handle. Here is Dawn's Sophie before Felting. I will felt it sometime this week. Don't worry, I will remember to post pictures when the Sophie is finished drying.

Socks

Like I posted before, I am knitting a pair of socks for me. I got stuck in the between sock slump with my socks, but I really wanted to keep knitting socks. So, I found a simple pattern for baby socks and knitted them. The pair took only a day. The pattern is North Country Cotton Baby Socks. I didn't have either size 5 or 6 dpn's, so I decided to see how big the socks would be using my size 7 dpn's. It's not too big, they'll easily fit a 12 month old. I used Lily Sugar & Cream Cotton in Spring Swirl.

More Dishcloths

Dishcloths, dishcloths and more dishcloths. I've knitted more since my other dishcloth post, and I even got Dh to knit some. From Knitting Knonsense , he knitted the DW cloth and the Dolly the Dolphin cloth. (neither is pictured) I have knitted the 'grandmothers Favorite' dishcloth you can find on several sites, plus I completed the Double Diamond Cloth from the Dishcloth Boutique, which is pictured below. I love it!

oh, crap.

Hello. My name is Jackie, and I am a yarn-a-holic. I had a few dollars to spend on yarn, so I decided to browse the yarns on Knitpicks. I think I *may* have overdone it. I went there thinking I would buy the yarn to knit a booga for my mom. But before I knew it, I was submitting a $40 order. I got 14 Different colors of the Wool of the Andes, 2 balls of the Simple Stripes sock yarn, and a set of size 3 bamboo dpn's. I had the best of intentions, and I swear at least 90% of it will be used for Christmas presents. I promise.......lol.

Dishcloths

Dishcloths. Simple and quick to knit up. This is what I've been doing this past week to keep my hands busy while watching TV with DH.

All of these dishcloths are patterns found on The Dishcloth Boutique.

The bottom left one with the green, purple, tan, and white colors was made using the King Charles Brocade pattern on pg. 4. The Bottom right one with the multiple blues, is the Alex's Cloth pattern on pg. 3. The top left one that is solid blue, is the Baby Fern Stitch pattern on pg. 3. And, the one in progress (the cream color) is the Double Diamond pattern found on pg 1. This one is turning out to be my favorite so far.

The multi-colored ones didn't photograph very well, I couldn't get even a semi-decent pic of the King Charles Brocade one, but I got an okay pic of the Alex's Cloth, below.