Dishcloths for Grandma

As I mentioned in my last blog post, I noticed that my grandmother's homemade dishcloths were falling apart and she needed a few new ones. Truthfully I doubt she needs my help, she's quite an accomplished knitter on her own- but I thought it might be a nice "thank you" gift if I sent her a couple. (And okay, it was a perfect opportunity to start busting the immense amounts of crafter cotton I somehow have!) And so, I took a brief pause in my frantic blanket knitting... and knit some dishclothes.

#1- Young Love

I LOVE THIS SO MUCH! It's just SO CUTE!

Pattern: Young Love Dishcloth by Rachel van Schie
Yarn: Lily Sugar'n Cream Cotton in "Sunshine"
Needle: US size 6
Pattern Thoughts: Grandma is going to love this- it's just so adorable! The pattern really pops on this so there are no worries about her seeing what it is. The pattern author was excellent- I would definately make more of her patterns!

#2 & #3 - BALLBANDS! Is there any knitter ot there that doesn't love this pattern?

Pattern: Ballband Dishcloth as published in Mason Dixon Knitting
Yarn: Lily Sugar'n Cream Cotton in "Sunshine", "Cornflower", "Country Twists" and "Rose Twists"
Needle: US size 7
Pattern Thoughts: I love making these! I love mixing the colors and I'm always pleased with the way they turn out.

Hopefully Grandma will like her little care package I'm sending her. Would you be happy opening this up?

The dishcloth distraction was much needed- but now I need to get back to the task at hand- baby blankets. I need to get the recent blanket off the needles this weekend so I can cast on the green blanket. Remember when I stopped knitting blankets except for "really good friends"? Well- apparently all my good friends met up and decided to all get pregnant at the same tim for this fall. YEESH there are so many baby blankets to knit- IT. IS. STAGGERING. If reading a blog that features mostly baby blankets is your idea of purgatory- you may want to look away this summer. :-)

Breaking the Diet

I suggested in my last entry that I had done a little online yarn shopping recently, and in the past few days my spoils have been brightening my day at work!

First up, (although last to arrive)- my Knitpicks Comfy yarn has arrived. Oh man is this nice stuff. It's a cotton/acrylic blend- and is destined to be a blanket for a friend expecting in September. I typically knit my baby blankets in acrylic, but I decided to get something that will block out a little- especially since, (fingers crossed), I'll be submitting this blanket as my entry to the Stampede this year.

Next up, from the Loopy Ewe, I got my Knit Kit. This is such a cool little kit!! (Although everyone thought it looked like an old birth control holder from the 70's!) BUT, once you get past the esthetic, (it IS bigger than I thought it would be), it is just downright COOL.

Pictured up in front, there's a stitch counter, an emergency crochet hook, a yarn cutter and tape measure.

Pictured in back here, the scissors, point protectors and stitch markers. (I've also thrown in a darning needle) This is absolutely perfect item for the "on the go" knitter.

With all this exciting stuff in hand it's hard to stay focused on the current projects on the needles. I started mittens, (why? I don't really know...) to knit while I was in Saskatchewan this weekend and now I'm onto a n even newer project! I noticed Grandma's dishcloths (homemade by her I'm certain) were falling apart- and I thought it might be nice to send her a thank you note and a couple of new dishcloths.

I found my patterns that I wanted to make and decided to raid my dishcloth cotton stash. Um..

... there's a little more cotton yarn there than I remember!!! How did I end up with so much?!! I think I'm going to have to add a little dishcloth knitting to the agenda to "stash down." Hmmm maybe get a foot up on th Christmas knitting this year? I also need to add another pair of socks for Grandpa on the list. It turns out the socks I made him for last Christmas he likes so much he's afraid to wear them out-so he doesn't wear them! Maybe if he had something to alternate he'd wear them a little bit more? :-)

I must run- I have a cotton stash to deplete!!

Easter Knitting

It feels like the blog posts have been a lighter recently around these parts. It's not necessarily out of neglect- just out of work. Mostly I have photos of items in various states of completion, but very few pics of completed objects!! This Easter we made a little progress towards getting you, my faithful reader (HI MiL), a completion photo.

Firstly- more hats. With this most recent batch of hats, I'm nearly back on pace for the goal... I mostly knit this weekend, and hats were the priority. I made myself knit 2 hats per day off before I got to work on other projects.

Secondly- say hello to my 28thirty sweater, which is freshly cast off the needles, an upon reading this blog post, I will have (hopefully) finished weaving the ends in and have the sweater pinned up for blocking. We'll still have to wait a little while to see an actual finished photo as I'm actually one button short to sew on. (Cross your fingers that order is in soon!!) But it's good to have something else to focus on...

... Like BABY BLANKETS. OMG people the babies due this fall is STAGGERING. It is a virtual TIDAL WAVE of babies this fall. (It seems like I'm always saying that!) And so I must get to the knitting... I might have to throw a few sweaters in there! At least the Sweetheart blanket is a quick knit-- might have to do that again this summer. (Will you forgive?)

Lastly, I thought I'd show you a picture of the most recent pair of purse socks, that are seeing a lot of action over my lunch hours. (Although thankfully no one has started to complain about about how sick of them they are yet... my goal is to finish them a little sooner.) They're just plain and they're just black- I figure the will be the envy of every man in a close radius. :-)

So there you have it- we're light on blog posts simply due to the fact that I'm heavy on actual knitting. I'm crossing my fingers that there will be some exciting news around here soon. (I'm expecting not one, but TWO knitting orders to show up in the mail. One from Knitpicks- where I broke my embargo on yarn and bought some baby blanket yarn. Can't wait for that one to get here so I can start it ASAP.)

I'll be back- hopefully with some finished stuff for you next time. Until then- back to the knitting.

**I'd like to thank the Masters tournament for providing the perfect background noise to all my knitting progress. Without the Tiger and Phil showdown I would have floundered on that last hat. :-)