What have you been doing lately?

Not reading. My creating has taken over my life and every moment of free time is spent crafting (mostly knitting) and not reading. I am still in 2 book groups plus need to do the reading for the book discussion groups for the homeschool group. So books on CD are my best friends!

There is an explosion of babies lately, the common denominator you are my friend. If you are my friend you are probably pregnant or past childbearing age. So I have been making lots of little baby gifts, trying not to break the bank or take up too much of my crafting time is a hard line to walk...why can't I just go buy something cute? I don't know, I just can't do it. I must give handmade baby gifts. The other thing I would like to give as a gift are copies of Signing Time but they are $20 for 1/2 hour. I just can't swing it for all the pregnant people I know.

I have just finished a cute little hat that was a royal pain. I am finishing up a baby bird and booties. I am almost finished with my new slippers and have re-cast on the frogged Sunshine sweater. I am still working on the stash bustin' curlers. I am planning a fabulous baby blanket for one friend.

I foolishly took on a commission to do a few quiet book pages and I need to do some sewing.

savings online

I needed some cotton-ease one skein of many colors. Joann has it priced at 5.99 per skein! For cotton and acrylic??? So I looked at Joann.com and was suprised to see cotton-ease priced at 3.99 regularly and on sale for 2.99. I did the math and the yarn with shipping would be more than buying one skein at a time at the store with a cupon. Happily I thought to look online and found a code for free shipping! So 6 skeins of cotton ease are on their way for only 17.94!

Lace woes

This is Sunshine by LilyGo. I am not diggin' it. I have been planning this project since May. I ordered Tidepool Heather Palette for the project from Knit Picks and when it arrived it was not this nice pretty heathery blue green shown on the website or the catalog but dark teal! So I put off the project because I was not happy with the yarn. Then at Christmas I visited Camas Creek Yarn in Kalispell and spotted this perfect shade Summer Sky from Cascade 220 Heathers. The project was revived. As soon as I was done with my Hip in Kashmir I cast on Sunshine. I did a gague swatch (yay me) and began. The seed stitch went fine but I am really unsure about how long it is - will it be too big. Then as you can see things are not going to well for the lace. The top bit in the picture is much too big, something went wrong. I would just carry on but this is on the top of the sleeve it WILL be noticed. And the more pressing problem. I think I need to use smaller needles. The fabric is too transparent, my underclothing will show anywhere there is the slightest stretch That is planned for in the lace but not acceptable everywhere else. I am not a great knitter. I am already using worsted when DK is called for. I don't dare change the gague. My gague swatch was just right what havoc will smaller needles bring?

This is it, the finished skirt. Striking isn't it? I am very very pleased with this.
It is a little too long. Before I blocked it, it was just the right length. Blocking removed all the bumpy bubbles and I guess they took a lot of inches. It is still a great skirt and if I pull it up high it fits fine.

My hips are hip in Kashmir!

It's done, it's done, it's done! Finally thousands upon thousands of stitches later my Hip in Hemp is finished. I can't wait to wear it. It is blocking now...foiled by Portland and its wet winter air, this could take forever.
When I first saw this pattern in the summer 2007 - Knitty I barely gave it a second look. It just didn't appeal to me. This fall I saw this post on Craftster by Lauruk and I said that skirt is for me!

I went to Joann just to see if I could find any yarn of the right weight that struck me for this project and Sensations Kashmir in turquoise, lime and black fit the bill perfectly. I was hesitant to use a felting wool because I am notorious for shrinking things but I did it anyway! I had to add several rows (3 stripes) to make it long enough. I am short so I was suprised at that. I also held off on the lace stitches for several rows because I didn't want that much of my leg to peek through.

I stared in mid to late November, had to take most of December off for Christmas gift making and holiday fun, and finished today. Last night I was binding off at 2 am and I just couldn't stich another stitch so I had to go to bed with half of a bind off left! This morning I finished the bind off, wove in the ends, sewed in the elastic and blocked it. Then I took pictures and squealed with delight.

3 little bulky purses

I made these three fabulous purses for Christmas. They each have suprising linings. The Green one is mine and the red ribbon was just for Christmas, now I need to think of another color ribbon to use.

I used the Cable Seed Stitch Purse pattern by Sue Olsen.