Using Up Acrylic Yarn

  I found a couple of market bag patterns to crochet so I can use up the remainder of some acrylic yarn that I bought to make other projects.  The base is from one pattern that I found on youtube and the body and strap are from another market bag that is a purchased pattern, but I just made mine up because I didn't want to pay for the pattern.

   The other day I started this market bag with some leftover yarn I bought to make two teddy bear sweaters.  I finished sewing in the lining this morning.

Another Knitting Project

    I cast on my dishcloth shawl a couple of days ago and I'm loving this easy, easy knit.  It's all garter stitch with a yarn over on every row to increase.  I'm using Vanna's Choice acrylic yarn in the Linen colorway with my size 8  40" Harmony circular needles from Knitpicks.  The pattern is essentially a half of the Grandmother's Favorite Dishcloth pattern which is a perfect triangle for a shawl.

     I've been wanting to make one of these for awhile and I actually started this shawl a couple of years ago with some lace yarn held double but I didn't finish it because I made a few errors that just looked awful so I pitched the project and the yarn because I couldn't stand to look at it anymore.

   I took this picture in the middle of a row because I love the classic look of the needles with the knit fabric stretched between the two needles,




 

More Knitting

    I'm really having a lot of fun knitting these days.  Yesterday I bought some soft Red Heart Boutique Unforgettable yarn in Cappuccino colorway at Michael's for $4.51 including tax after using a 30% off coupon.  I've been wanting to make a ribbed neck warmer with a very soft acrylic yarn for the last couple of years, but I never got around to it.  This yarn is a lovely cream and soft light brown that made lovely stripes in this project.

    I cast on 100 stitches using a long tail cast on and knit a 3 x 2 rib for 7 inches.  I used size 8  16" circular needles for this project.  I like to use stitch markers to count off every 10 stitches so I can keep track of my knits and purls.  I really enjoy knitting this rib pattern.  It's a pattern I learned making a favorite ribbed hat and it goes very quickly, so I just cast on as if I'm starting the hat and then I bind off after knitting 7 inches of ribbing, it's nice and stretchy and the perfect length on my neck.  This pattern would also make a nice ear warmer/headband by knitting 4 inches length instead of 7.  It would be fun in a bulky yarn or a worsted yarn held double made with big needles.  I could make bunches of these, but I really don't need them, so I'm starting a different knitting project tomorrow.

Cutting Christmas Tree Appliques

  I have cut twelve Christmas tree appliques for my Christmas tree decoration wall hanging.  I drew the wonky Christmas tree pattern myself.   I was going to put a couple of trees on several wall hangings so I could put them all over the house, but I have decided to put all twelve trees together on one wall hanging.  I'm going to give each a brown fabric trunk, and I want each trunk to be a different fabric.  I need 9 more pieces of brown fabric to finish the trunks and it will be ready to assemble and sew up.


   Here are the twelve trees.

Miss Marple Scarf in Acrylic

    I had to remake the Miss Marple Scarf in a yarn I could wear around my neck that wouldn't itch.  I knit this pattern about a week ago (blog post here) in some wool yarn I had in my stash and although the colors in the yarn were quite pretty, the scarf is extremely scratchy.  I knew when I tried it on after it was finished I wouldn't wear it very much.   

    But I really love the design of the scarf and the name of it.  It's super cute and I knew I wanted to re-knit this fun pattern in a soft acrylic yarn that wouldn't itch.  I used a skein of Caron Simply Soft in the Bone colorway that I found in Walmart for about $3.65 including tax.

My New Shawl Project

   I've never knit a big shawl and last month I found a pattern by a designer that I like and I thought it would be a pattern I would be able to make without too much trouble.  I cast on last week.  

    Yesterday I was working on the shawl and I noticed a dropped stitch.  I tried to fix it but it was really hard because the yarn is sock weight yarn and very thin.  I'm not good about frogging my knitting by unraveling it and picking up the stitches, so I decided that the best thing to do was to start again.  I was going to frog the old knitting and reuse the yarn but the yarn got snagged together at the point where I was trying to pick up the dropped stitch and I couldn't get it unraveled.  I ended up just cutting the yarn and restarting the shawl from the very beginning.

    This is the Atwood Shawl (the pattern is a paid pattern on Ravelry) by Nicole Clark.  I'm knitting it on 3mm Options (nickel plated) 47" circulars with Loops and Threads Woolike in Denim Blue.

Cutting Scraps

   I spent some time the last couple of days cutting up the scraps I created from the fourteen project bags I made last week.  I cut the scraps up into 3" x 3" and 2" x 3" sizes.  I ended up with a lot of little squares for a future quilt project.

   I bought myself a tote bag from the Ravelry website to help support a wonderful message board.  I love the crazy artwork on this bag.

My Miss Marple Scarf

    I finished knitting this last night.  It's a free pattern on Ravelry so I can't link it here, but you can join Ravelry for free and get it.  The pattern was pretty easy, but not written very clearly.  I did manage to figure out the vague parts.

    I made this with some stash yarn that I had.  It's Patons Classic Wool in the Wedgewood colorway. I love the striping on it.  I will definitely knit this scarf again.  I think I would like this in several solid colors.

    This morning I found this super easy pattern for crocheted bows to make hair clips and I crocheted these four bows in about 20 minutes.  It's so easy.  The pattern link is here.  These will make cute pins as well.  They are about two inches wide and an inch tall.

Decoupage Doilies

   I made these crazy doilies the other night.  I didn't use a pattern, I just crocheted the center and started chaining and joining the chains.  I wanted to do something decorative with them and decided to decoupage them onto a painted canvas.

Bags, Bags, Fourteen Knitting and Crochet Project Bags!

   I sewed up all the bags I cut out a few days ago.  They were so easy, each one only took about 45 minutes to sew.  No zippers, no drawstrings, there are 4 seams and a little top stitching.  Such an easy pattern for a really nice bag that is perfect for a knitting or crochet project for me.  The lady bug bag and the Eiffel Tower bags in the fourth picture are being given away to dear daughter and a friend.

   I wanted to show the handle of the bag so the first three pictures are the bags hanging off a dowel stick.  The other two pictures have the rest of the bags laying on the table.

Sample Socks Are Knitted.

   These socks are not perfect, but that's mostly because they are made from 100% cotton yarn and the cotton yarn was a bear to knit.  But cotton yarn is a nice cheap way to make a sample pair of socks (these would fit a small child).  I really love making socks two at a time with magic loop.  I love being able to finish both socks at the same time.  So clever and casting the toes on first and getting that section grafted in the beginning is awesome.

    These are my second pair of sample socks.  I made a pair of these a few years ago when I first bought my "Toe-Up 2-at-a-Time Socks" book by Melissa Morgan Oakes.  The instructions in the book were great.  Easy to understand with lots of information on how to do increases, short rows, and knitting wrapped stitches.

      When I made these socks the first time, a few years ago I wasn't ready to commit to making a real pair of socks I could wear.  I'm ready to try my hand at real socks now.

     Here are the socks right before I cast off.

    Here they are with the ends woven in and the some of the major ladders stitched up.  I put the yellow sock on top because the heel on that sock came out better than the orange sock.  I lost my train of thought on the orange sock and didn't pick up my wraps on the orange sock and I'm surprised there aren't great big holes in the heel.  You can still see the wraps on the stitches in the heel cup of the orange sock.  Sloppy.

   These were really good practice.  I'm going to make some notes about how many stitches I need to get good fit on a sock for myself and I'll be casting those on in a couple of weeks.  I have some sewing and some other knitting to do in the meantime.