The People Have Spoken

Thank you all for your votes!  I always find the input of others so valuable- and this time I really think we've chosen a winner here.

The 3D Argyle Blanket will be next up on the needles- I just need to get a yarn that has enough sheen.  I'd really like to shop locally for my yarn this time, although if I can't find "sheen-y" enough, I'll default to Knit Picks "Shine" which is very "sheen-y".  Hopefully I can squeeze in a LYS run next week.

Next question- GREY or BLUE?  (Vote in the comments this time!)

While I was patiently waiting your voting results, I've been knitting a few bits and bobs here, biding my time before the next big project.

Mother in Law's mystery mittens are moving along nicely.  They're still a surprise- but I can give you a sneak peek on mitten #1.

I also knit 2 more pink hats for the hat total, that brings us to 15 hats now and I can probably get at least one more, possibly 2 in the yarn remains.  (Although I may need to bring in some white to get that last hat- so will have to wait until the stash and I are reunited.)

I managed to also volunteer and quickly knit up a section for the WCOBB charity blankets.  These spooky bats seem to compliment the "Halloween" theme this blanket has.  I'm still waiting on 1 more blanket to show up, but I understand that's been delayed until further notice, so I will just happily knit on other things in the mean time.  (Hopefully it doesn't show up while we're trying to move home in 2 weeks!)

And, I forgot last time to show you the 2 finished hats I had for my dentist.  He had a little GIRL- so he got the purply-pink one and I kept the blue one for the next baby I hear is a boy.

Busy fingers around here.  I'm trying to make the most of my time because in 2 weeks, as I mentioned, we're scheduled to move home and the amount of unpacking and organizing to be done is staggering.  And, quite frankly, it's going to hold up the knitting progress a fair bit.  (Brace yourselves, Sept might be a light month on blog posts.)  Cross your fingers for us- we're really pumped to get back to our "normal" lives.

Thanks again for voting!!

Baby Blues

Well... it's official!  Baby cookin' in my friend's belly is a little BOY and I've set to work trying to decide what I'm going to knit for her expected little guy.  (Coming around New Years!!)  I need to get started on this project now in order to be done before Christmas.  And so I spent my "nap time" on Ravelry looking at all the baby blanket options and narrowed it down to my favorites.  As usual, I'm undecided and so I turn to YOU, dear blog readers, to help me choose.

Here's what I've narrowed it down to.... (None of these pictures are mine- I've taken them from Ravelry posted by other users.... I hope I'm not committing a blog sin by doing that.)

1) 3D Argyle Blanket : I've had this sitting in on my "favorites" list over at Ravelry for a looooooooooong time.  I love the look of the blanket and, bonus, it should be a reasonably easy knit.  (Famous last words...)  The key here is to buy the right yarn, that will have enough sheen to highlight the changes in the stitch enough to really show off the argyle.

2) For a Bonny Babe: This is a classic looking baby blanket.  The cabling shouldn't be too troublesome and there's a lot of seed stitch in there that this blanket will need little to no blocking.

3) Star Light, Star Bright: Another blanket that has been in my favorites for awhile.  I worry here that the pattern could be too feminine (scalloped border) and so I'd probably "dumb" the border down to make it less "girlie".


4) Alphabet Blanket:  I saw this blanket ages and ages ago and bought the book, so enamored was I with it.  And then I saw the COPIOUS charts that accompanied the pattern and chickened out.  Now I'm less frightened of the pattern and am seriously considering knitting it up.  Am I insane?

  

5) Dishcloth Farm/Zoo/Circus Animal Blanket: This would be similar in style to the "Baby Beef" blanket I knit a long time ago.  Except I would use the same pattern author (her stuff is so cute!) and knit various animals based on the theme I go with.  By using the same author, the patterns should all be around the same size and will make the 'figuring it out' portion of this blanket less challenging.  This has the potential to be REALLY cute... but it also requires the most from my brain power.

SO.... what would you choose to knit?  HELP ME DECIDE!  Vote now!  (Voting closes by Wed Aug 28th at 12:00 pm)

And lest you think you're being used just for opinions these days- behold- ACTUAL KNITTING CONTENT.

The Mystery mitten has seen some progress... although sorry- it still remains a mystery.  (The 3rd time was apparently the charm!)

And I knit another hat to work on that pink stash!

I'm expecting another charity blanket to show up today, and one (HOPEFULLY) next week.  (The blanket is delayed and I'm worried it's going to show up just as we're moving back into our house and then I'm going to hold it up.)  After that I'm going to take a charity blanket break for awhile and start focusing on my mittens and whatever blanket we decide I'm going to knit.

Looking forward, as usual, to see where your votes will lie!

Charity Week

Well, as promised the days since my last blog post have been dedicated to charity knitting.

The WCOBB blankets showed up on Friday and I immediately set to work getting them out the door.  (I hate having them sit around.)

This is "Speed Bump".  (I really like it when a blanket has a cohesive pattern through out.)

And this is "Square Dance".

I hit a bit of a snag with Square Dance and actually ran out of the yellow yarn too early.  (oops)  You're supposed to knit 6 inches in your section and I only made it to 4.  Thankfully a quick dive in MiL's stash gave me a light yellow to throw in the mix and finish my pattern.

I also finished my hat quota for the year!  Say hello to Ms. November and Ms. December hat!

There's still a fair bit of yarn to keep going on hats, so despite being done the minimum, I still need to bust down more stash in the pinks.  (I want it GONE before 2014- GONE I SAY!)  I will say this, the charity projects have really helped me bust down my acrylic stash this year.  I'm going to start a project to get rid of the red acrylic before the end of the year too, but I just need to get home first.  (More on that in a minute.)

I'm still waiting on one more blanket that should be coming soon- but since it hasn't arrived I also cast on a quick hat for my dentist, who I'm seeing this week (just for a mouth guard fitting... apparently I'm stressed....) and will be a father for the first time when I see him again.  It's a long story but I sorta know my dentist from a past life in University and we were kind of friends.  Anyways, I thought it would be nice to give him a hat for his little bundle of joy- so I'm knitting an Easy Peasy hat to give to him.

(Funny story- they actually called me to come in early this week and I said no.  Not because I couldn't, but because the hat wasn't done!  Haha!)  I feel like last time we talked he told me he was having a girl, but I might whip up a "boy hat" too... just in case.  In my experience you can never have too many baby hats anyways.

We are still out of our house, and hoping this renno will get done soon.  Sadly our "move back in" date got pushed back from the long weekend until Sept 12.  Please cross your fingers and send us mojo that we'll be back in for Sept 12.  I REALLY MISS MY HOUSE... and okay, I miss my stash.  I've been diving in MiL's stash a few times already, and well I'm sure she doesn't mind, I'd still like to get my stash cleaned out too!

I'll finish this post on a happier note... here's the kiddo and I lying around the park.  (Cute story: I laid down on the blanket while we were hanging out in the sun, and he came over, cuddled in next to me and laid down too.  It was so sweet- and one of those special "mom moments" you can never fake.  In short... it was awesome.)

Stay tuned for more projects coming soon!  (Probably a fall blanket to kick off in Sept if my friend will get back to me on the sex of her expected little one.)

Focused

It turns out there's not one, not two... but THREE charity blankets making their way to me in the next few days.  I realized that I could not focus on getting those out the door without also getting my act together and getting my other projects done.  And so, with determination and a fierce focus, I caught myself up!

Say hello to the Stripey Blanket!

Yarns: A mish mash of everything left over in my stash.  I do know there's some Koigu KPM, Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in there along with various other fingering weights.
Pattern: I made this puppy up!  Just a bunch of stocking stitch and garter stitches to pop the accent color.
Needle: 3.00 mm
Notes: 2 Rounds of single crochet border to complete the blanket.  (I am SO happy I kept the border simple, it keeps the blanket "cohesive"- more of a border than this and it wouldn't have turned out as nicely as I think it did.)

I would have thought that a stocking stitch blanket would have bored me to tears.  But it didn't.  Maybe it's because I also had something complicated going on a pair of other needles, but I reveled in the simplicity of this project.  It was so easy to just pick this up and knit.  There were no charts to consult, no pattern to remember, hell I didn't even need a row counter!  I made a strict rule with myself to weave in the ends after the 3 different color sections before starting again.  That made finishing the blanket so much easier because there weren't so many ends to make my crazy to weave in.

I'm also pleased the way the colors look, and the way I've done tiny stripes in each section.  This was great not only for stash busting, but also to add some interest to the blanket without over doing it.  MiL and I have already discussed combining some remaining sock yarns and doing some more of these great stash down projects- so there may be another blanket on the horizon.

Also say "Aloha" to the Maui Socks, started back in March on my trip to Maui!

Yarn: Knit Picks Felici in "Hummingbird"
Pattern: Sock Recipe: A Good Plain Sock by Stephanie Pearl McPhee
Needle: US 1
Notes: This is the first time I've successfully attempted Kitchner Stitch.  Repeat: I have been making socks for a lot of years now and this is the first time I've successfully put in Kitchner stitch.  Confession: it wasn't even so hard once I started doing it!  So yes... kitchner stitch on socks from now on I guess.

As a challenge to myself I made ZERO notes when I knit these.  The only time I consulted a pattern was to make sure I turned the heel in the middle, otherwise- this was done from my head.  I relied on the previous sock to guide me as to when I had done enough stitches.  It was hard to "let it go" but also, again, made for such an easy knit.  I could just pick these up and knit- no thinking about what needs to happen next.

I love self striping yarn.  I know I've said it many times before- but I stinkin' love the stuff.  It could be in the ugliest colors of mustard yellow and puke greens and I'd still be as happy as a pig in mug because I love watching the stripes come together.  My one stipulation is that I can't have mis-matched socks.  I just can't- and as usual, I've gone to great pains to line up all the stripes pretty closely on these socks.  (Even breaking up the yarns at the heel so that the pattern stays the same.)  Someday I might be able to make mismatched socks- I'm not there yet.

"Ola" Hats!  I also caught up on hats, because I really just wanted to knit new things with a clear conscious.   Below are August and September finished for the pile.

AND, after a second disasterous attempt on the mitten for the MiL (who does not have wrists the size of an elephant OR a bear...) I just set the mitten aside and knit October's hat too.

Let's not talk about the mitten okay?  Let's keep this positive.  I need to measure MiL's wrist with the latest failed attempt to see just how many needle sizes I need to go down- and so I've decided to just knit hats this week.  I'm hoping to hit the magic number 12 before the blankets arrive on Friday.  I'm absolutely going to have enough yarn to go over the 12 mark... so I'm just going to keep on going with that project for a bit.

I'm sorry for the long post.  I've been long over-due to just focus and finish these things.  For the first time in a long time, you'll be excited to know that there are new projects on the horizon.  New ideas.  And yes, I'm sorry in advance, a friend is due in January, a new blanket.  I'm really proud of myself for just getting all of this done this last week.  It feels so good to look ahead to new projects without other works in progress obstructing my view!