New Yarn For Knitting

  I'm still knitting ear warmers.  I knit up three for dear daughter in the last few weeks (gray, red and teal), but now all the rest will be for me.  I'm doing them in all the colors of acrylic yarn that I have that I like.  I will have a whole wardrobe of ear warmers in different colors.

     I was playing on Amazon one night and found these yarns, so I had to have these to make more ear warmers for me.  I love the idea of the neon colors popping up with the neutral, I just hope it knits up as cute as it looks in the skein.  Of course it's Red Heart, the gray is called Rock Candy and the black is called Licorice.

    I'll let you know how they knit up after I get to them.  I have about three colors in front of them.  I'm knitting up a light blue ear warmer right now.

Three More Ear Warmers Done

   I knitted up three more ear warmers in the last couple of weeks along with the turquoise one from the last post.  I picked out yarn for two more and I'm halfway through the first of those two.    I knitted a white one, a mulberry one and a dark blue one.  I'm really loving how I made these.

More Knitted Headband/Ear Warmers

   I knitted two more headband/ear warmers.  These are so easy to make and it makes great T.V. knitting for me.  I even took this project out and about shopping with daughter because we had to get her flu shot and I wanted something to do while we waited.  I even knitted while we roamed around the store.  I got a bunch of rows done that day.  I have two more colors of yarn picked out for this project to make a couple of more.  I'm currently knitting this on a size 8 - 16" circular needle.  I wonder what it would be like to knit it on bigger needles with the yarn doubled?  I may have to try that idea.

Knitted Ear Warmer/Headband

       I made a simple ear warmer/headband using my favorite hat pattern.  I modified it a little, I used less stitches.  I started with 90 stitches instead of 100.  Knitted the 3 x 2 rib for about 5", then I bound off and whip stitched the two ends together to double up the knitted fabric and got this.   I'm going to make more in other colors.  This would be perfect to wear under a hat on a really cold day or by itself.

Black Knit Stocking Cap

   I finished my black knit stocking cap.  I used size 7 knitting needles and Vanna's Choice acrylic yarn to make this.  I made this the same way I made my Christmas Stocking Cap.   The first post about it is here.  The only difference is the black hat is not as long as the red one.   I even put a pom pom on the end of this one.

Knitting Project and Confession

    I've been enjoying my knitting lately and thinking about sock knitting.  My One Row Lace Scarf is coming along nicely.  It's 5 feet long now and I want it to measure 6 feet.  This scarf is being knit with KnitPicks Brava Worsted in Silver colorway on size 10 circular needles.  I knit one ball of this yarn and got a little over four feet of scarf with one ball which is great to know.  A one skein scarf would make a nice handmade gift. 

   

  Here is the knitting confession portion.  I started to knit a sock last year, I think it was February.  And this is how far I got before I put it up and promptly forgot about it until a few weeks ago.  This is KnitPicks Stroll Fingering yarn in the Make Believe Hand Painted colorway on KnitPicks US size 1 (2.5mm) nickel plated circular needles with a 40" cord.

 

    I've been trying to figure out why I didn't continue with knitting this sock.  I have decided that this yarn is too dark and I can't see my stitches.  Whenever I knit a round I can't see if I'm knitting the ribbing right and I feel like my stitches are all messed up.  I will be taking this cuff off these needles and try again, but with a lighter color yarn.  I just ordered some bright yellow sock yarn and I'm hoping that will help with getting me through knitting a pair of socks.  I also bought two books to help me with my sock knitting. 

     I already have "Toe-Up 2-at-a-Time Socks" by Melissa Morgan-Oakes and I love this book.  I made a sample pair of socks two at a time with this book and they turned out pretty good, but I want to explore all the different ways to make socks.      

Stocking Cap - Better Picture

I realized that the picture I posted a few days ago of the stocking cap on the floor in all it's 54 inch glory was not a really representative picture.  Here's a better picture of how it can be worn.

Sewing, Knitting, Sewing, Knitting, Sewing, And On And On

   I don't have a lot to show for my last couple of weeks.  I've been sewing up drawstring bags for DD for her use in her travels.  She has a big trip planned next month.

    I finally broke out the fabric for my hexagon Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt to cut up some hexies to make some more flowers.  I haven't finished the third row yet, but I think if I get some more hexies made it will spur me to get that third row sewn on.

   I have also been knitting on my Christmas stocking cap.  I'm on the decrease rows right now and I have about 45 rows left to knit.  It should be done next week and I'll be sure to share pictures here.  The red section is now at about 40 inches.  I don't know if it will finish at 48" but I'm really happy with this project. The ribbing was the perfect solution to my too big hat problem.  I think I would love to have a stocking cap in every color.

   

A Little Sewing And A Lot Of Knitting

     
       I made some zipper pouches for dear daughter for her to use as travel organization.  She has a couple of trips planned in the next few months and I wanted to thank her for helping me out with something recently.  So I made three pretty quilted zipper pouches for her.   She has quite of few of these in her collection, she loves them.  This is a quick and easy project. 

        I use the Crafty Gemini zipper pouch video tutorial on Youtube for the directions. Here is the link.  The only thing I need the tutorial for is how to put the zipper in and where to add the wrist strap if I'm putting one on my bag. 

       I did not put a wrist strap on these bags.  I make my pouches whatever size I can made from the fabric I have, I just have to make sure I have the zipper that is long enough for what I want to make.  I used 12" zippers for these.  When I add a wrist strap, I make mine wider. 

      You can't really see it in the pictures but these are a very soft aqua color with tiny white polka dots.  This is one of my favorite fabrics.  I was proud of myself for giving it up to make something for someone else.  Zipper pouches are a great way to use up small pieces of fabric.

    I'd like to try to make some boxy pouches.  I found a few video tutorials for those.  They are pretty simple, you just have to box the corners which I have done on other projects before.

        I also did a lot of knitting on my ribbed stocking cap.  The red section is now 15" long.  I'm not sure I have enough yarn to get to the 48" of red that I want, but I'm going to give it a shot.  It doesn't look like much, but the white cuff fits perfectly and that's exactly what I needed.

    No progress on my hexie quilt top.  I pulled out the box with the pieces in it and I'm planning on getting started on it again this weekend.

My Knitted Christmas Hat Is Done

   I started this in April and have been working on it since then.  It's finished.  It's not as pretty as the first one I made  because I got a little sloppy when I was knitting two together to reduce my stitches, but it will do and I can wear it around the house at during the Christmas holiday.

Time To Start A Knitting Project

    So I bought some red and white yarn a couple of weeks ago.  I'm going to make myself a Santa hat.  I made one a few years ago and gave it away in a Christmas swap.  I really wish I had kept it.  I don't think it was appreciated.  So I'm going to make one just for me.  I'll be using Wool of the Andes yarn that I bought from Knitpicks.com.  I love Wool of the Andes yarn, it comes in a great selection of colors, it felts well and it's cheap.  I bought three skeins of red and one skein of  white to make my hat.

    Here is a picture of the hat I gave away.   This one was started with 100 stitches and I knit a 3 x 2 rib section in white for about 3 inches. I'll be using 16" size 8 circular needles to start.  This one was a  little too big (you can see how big it is with the white section on the neck of the head model) so I'm going to reduce that number of ribbing stitches to 80.  The red section is knit in stockinette stitch, and I reduce the number of stitches every 7 or 8 rounds.