It's been a while

Well so much for knitting in the summer. It seems I've been unable to get any knitting done since my youngest DS became mobile.  He is a monkey! Climbing on everything it takes everything I have to keep up w/ the boys & keep DS2 out of everything. The first thing he does when he sees yarn is start tangling it up so needless to say my poor yarn has been in hiding for a while.

So here we are officially in fall & I am finally back to knitting & preparing for the craft fair at my work this year.  This is a very large craft fair that they have done for years & years.  I know a few people I work w/ that participate in it each year & they always sell out.  Some of my other coworkers are very interested in purchasing what I make so fingers crossed I will make money at this one.

I have knitted up 3 wallets that I have to felt & sew in the linings I hope to have my next post cover a wallet & a purse I've felted & lined but for now they are still just WIP.
I have also knitted up two pair of fingerless gloves .    The pattern is one I found outside of ravelry but it is on there. I follow this blog called "A Friend to Knit with"     This pattern is called Toasty very simple, quick & easy.                          
                                                                    One set in Red

& one set in Brown

I'll also be making another set in gray but this is all I have for now.  I am planning on quite the list of items so hopefully I am not being to overly ambitious.

I hope to start blogging more regularly as well but again it all depends on what time I can sneek away.  I did manage to get very organized this spring. I got my circular knitting needle organizer case from Namaste for Christmas & My DH got me my KA interchangeable needle set.  He also picked me up a plastic tool box that is working very well for organization as well. I will try to post some pics of that & another post on what I just learned about the differences in 4/medium weight yarn.

Hope to talk to you all much sooner than last time. :-) Happy Knitting!

Feeling Intimidated...

So I've been AWOL for quite sometime when it comes to knitting. I have been getting a few knitting projects in here & there & I still have to finish the post I started about the goodies I got for Christmas: My interchangeable needles & Circular needle case. So Yes now I'm realizing it has been over 6 months since I've done a post. WOW!!

So just yesterday I finally started my classes I sent away for to become a Certified Knitting Instructor. I need to double check & make sure I haven't passed the time frame already for completing the class. I feel like I don't know how to knit at all. LOL!!! I am so intimidated.  By the end of this class I will have designed a sweater & knit one too.  It is asking me why certain stitches do what they do & why is it important that they do that. I am like I don't know I just knit what the pattern tells me to & don't ask questions. LOL!  I guess I need to be prepared to answer questions about why if I am planing on ever teaching a class. 

In addition to my class I am also planing on participating in the Craft Fair at my work in Dec. This craft fair is very large & always does very well. So I am trying to make list's of things to knit. A friend I work with that does the fair every years thinks I need to focus on Purses & wallets but I need to sell them for around $80 to compensate for materials & time.  She thinks people will pay it & I will sell out. I have yarn for 3 purses & so I think I will start with those & then maybe some other new items. :-)

Fingerless Gloves

This project is honestly about 7 years in the making & here is why.....  As a newly married woman who learned to knit about a year earlier I wanted to take on another project besides washcloths & scarves so what did I choose? A set of fingerless gloves for my DH. So DH & I went & picked out some worsted weight acrylics yarn. It took me quite a while to get them done but I did it only to find out they were to big & bulky for him to wear. :-(  I was so sad I spent back then literally months making these & they are useless. So fast forward to the next winter. I decide that I am going to pull it all out & roll the yarn back up & remake them. I only ever got to pulling them out I never remade them. YEARS go buy & every winter I tell him I need to remake his gloves & every winter it never happens. Well with all the the gifts I was making this year & how my knitting seems to have taken flight. I thought I am REALLY going to make them this year & we address the problems w/ the previous ones & decided to get new yarn.

So off to the craft store we go & he remembers that the worsetd weight yarn was way to thick. He is using these while he flies RC airplanes & he wants to be able to feel his transmitter(aka controller) thru the gloves. So what does he pick out?????? Sock Yarn.  So I found a pattern for gloves from Patton's that used the exact sock yarn we got & size 2 DPN. SIZE 2!?!?!  I have never knitted a project w/ needles that small. Size 3 yes but never Size 2's. Well I started it while I was also knitting my SIL purse & all the hats for Christmas so the first glove took me over a month cause I really rather work on hats w/ chunky yarn & size 10's then super fine weight yarn w/ size 2's. And because the last pair was to big I had him doing test fits on them every couple inches. The second glove I did in only a few days. I am proud to say that they are a major success & he loves them.  They only took 7 years but hey at least I got them right this time. ;-)

12 Hats for Christmas

In my family we give presents to all the "kids", ages ranging from 6months (my baby) to 18 years old, presents. Well w/ maternity leave from June-Oct money was a little tighter than normal. So I decided to order allot of bulky yarn from www.joann.com & make all the kids hats & heck while I'm at it I'll make two extra for the family gift exchange.  This was a grand total of 12 hats & all this while I was also knitting my SIL purse, which she loved BTW. (see my previous blog "For the love of Felting" for pics)

So I ordered 8 skeins of Lion Brand Wool Ease Chunky yarn & started searching for Chunky hat patterns on ravelry.com.  I had to improvise on a few but here they are:

This pattern was called the "Man Hat" I made it for my 18 year old Male cousin. I also made a 2nd one for the Adult family gift exchange & my Dad ended up w/ it & I never thought my Dad would have wanted a hat from me. I've only ever seen him wear one when I was very young but he seemed very excited & please w/ it. My DH has also put in a request for this hat. It is such a great pattern & turns out thick & warm.

This next one was a little tricky. I found a slouchy hat pattern that was close to the hat from Hot Topic that my 14(I think) year old cousin.  The pattern had the same spacing between the ribbing but was for a slouchy hat not a Barret like the Hot Topic one. Well once it was knitted it wouldn't slouch AT ALL, EEEKKK!!!  I guess my chunky yarn was chunkier than the yarn they used. So I started to brain storm & decided to turn it into a Barret.  I put it around a plate & sprayed the top w/ water knowing my yarn was 20% wool that if I added some heat to this equation it should(hopefully) shrink the middle together enough that I could make this work.  & here is how it turned out.

This next was was a Barret patten I just made up as I went.  I used 3 sizes of knitting needles because when I started it I thought I had DPN's in a size I didn't have. So I CO(casted on) the stitches w/ size 9's  so it would be tighter around the head then switch to size 13's to make it bigger & looser w/o having to add stitches & then finding out when it came time to decrease no 13 DPN's I used size 11's LOL!



Here are the most perfect Snow Hat's!  I made them for a brother & sister who are 6 & 3. (again I am guessing at some of the ages)

Here are Father & Son hat I made for my BIL & my nephew only to figure out at the last minute my nephews hat was way to small, so sad.

I also braved a cable needle for this first time EVER!!! I have always been so afraid of them & now I am able to tell all you knitters out there to fear not it is super easy!  Wish I would have know that years ago.  This hat was for my 12 year old cousin & I made the same hat in red for the adult family gift exchange & my SIL (same one I gave the purse too) ended up w/ it & she is very happy w/ it!



In addition to these 10 hats I made one for my FIL that I forgot to take a pic of. And I made one for my other SIL & started one for my newest niece but didn't get my nieces done after I realized that my nephews was to small, from the father & son hat set. So they still need to get them from me.  I took the Dec 22nd -26th off from knitting. I have actually purchased some knitting gloves by Lion Brand that seem to help w/ the wrist & arm cramps allot!  Come the 27th I got the itch that only my knitting needles could scratch & I am just finishing up my DH fingerless gloves. Look for them in my next blog! :-)