Bribery

I design the newsletter for our MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group at church. This is my second year doing it and I've decided this year that it is much easier to bribe others to contribute content than it is to write my own. And what better bribe than a cute zippered pouch!

Fetching

I've been on a knitting kick lately. It has been cold and rainy here (it even snowed yesterday!) and thus, perfect knitting weather in my book. These are one of my finished products. Fingerless gloves from the Fetching Pattern. Found via Ravelry of course. This was my first time attempting cables - they are so fun and easy, I'm not sure why I haven't tried them sooner. Each glove took about two days (not constant of course, just when I could sneak in a few rows.) These were knit using Patons SWS in Moss, which is a wool/soy blend. I thought the yarn felt nice and soft, but once I got one done I knew it was way too itchy for me. Luckily my mom really liked them so they are now going to be a Christmas gift for her. Not a very good surprise, but I hope she enjoys them just the same!

One of my favorite things about this pattern is the 4x1 ribbing. I'm not very experienced with double pointed needles yet, so I always end up with a weird gap between needle breaks. But this pattern was thought out so well that the pearls in the ribbing end up right wear the needle breaks would be making them seem truly seamless! The thumb on this pattern was a little tricky. Ravelry to the rescue! I searched the forum posts for help on it and found this link. (Moron note - probably obvious to everyone else, but when the pattern says use waste yarn so you can remove it later it would be wise to use a contrasting color yarn so you had some chance of locating it again.) Once you give it a try it will be easy as pie, trust me. I'm already working on my second pair - this one to keep!

Thankful Journal

I'm hoping we can start a new tradition in our family with this project. It is a Thankful Journal. I decorated 10 pages - 3 for each of us to share something we are thankful for and one page for a family photo. Sydney was very excited to work on it. She has a Bernstein Bears book about counting blessings and loves to list all of her blessings. It usually is the first thing in sight, or some obscure thing that pops into her head. But you can't argue with toilet paper and orange juice being a blessing, right?

Progress

Hi there! I'm back, you didn't know I was going to be gone, but now I'm back. Last week seemed to get away from me somehow. Lots of activities, company, and a trip out of town sucked up all my blogging time I guess! In between all of that I have been working on some projects. Several knitting projects and some Christmas gifts, but I can only share a few of them...blogging around Christmas is so hard! I want to share everything, but too many surprises would be ruined. Anyway, the picture above is my work in progress pile. Any guesses as to what all those things are? :)

button-tab hat in extra small

Just got back from the Pumpkin Patch where Sydney got to try out her new hat. It definitely got the stamp of approval. I made it using this pattern, with the intentions of making myself a hat. But somewhere along the way I totally screwed it up and it became small enough for Sydney. Wish I could tell you what I did, but I honestly don't remember. I can tell you though, the hardest part was picking the button!

a little yellow house with a little pink door

Yesterday a miracle happened - my house was clean, dishes done, child sleeping all at the same time! Woohoo! So I spent some time working on a gift for a special little girl using this tutorial.

I worked on it some more after supper and had it done before I went to bed. I love those kind of projects - done in a day with supplies I had on hand.

And of course, Sydney has requested one for herself. She wants hers to be a red bird house. Personally I think making this as a bird house is a great idea. Add it to the list I guess!

Autumn Trees

Simple Autumn greetings.

Simplicity in Gray

Over the weekend I was inspired by this post by Amanda Jean. The simplicity of the quilt was just perfect. I decided to go for it, with my own twist. I started out in my stash of vintage fabric (I keep it separate from the rest of my stash.) Then things just went from there! Here is the top...


(Wow, the camera really shows off the wrinkles doesn't it! Sorry!)

And a close-up of the patterned fabrics. The back is going to be more of the off-white fabric, with some piecing worked in somehow. Now I just need to get some batting and decide how to quilt it!

Kimono Sweater

I've been working on several knitting projects. The weather is just right for getting me in the mood for it I guess. I think I have become obsessed with Ravelry too. You've been there, right? If you knit or crochet you must go there now and sign up. It might take a couple days to get your invite - but it's definitely worth the wait! (And it's free!) Tons of free patterns, advice from other knitters, I could go on and on.

Anyway, I knitted this very simple sweater/vesty type thing for Sydney. It is a wrap around kimono style sweater that was knit all in one piece from the bottom up, then folded in half and stitched together. Super easy, maybe even too easy, it could have used a little more shape. But it's cute, quick and very warm.