Working on 25 for Charity

One of my goals for this year is to do more charity knitting. I am hoping to make at least 2 items for charity each month. I have been knitting away on socks for CIC, the problem is I knit one socks and then start another pair. I cast on for the second one of this pair as soon as I finished the first so maybe that will help me in getting this pair finished. That darn knitter's ADD.







The Lone Knitter is having a blanket drive for cancer patients. She is asking for 8 inch squares, baby blankets or twin sized 'ghans for her cause. This is something that is near to my heart, having lost my Mom, a grandmother and an Aunt to cancer. I have knit a few squares and have another on the needles. I will get these in the mail to her probably by the end of the week. You earn raffle points and there will be prizes too. Next month I will try to make a baby blanket.



And Kate of Minestrone Soup is collecting fun fur type hats for the children's cancer ward in Boston. I have knit this one in Splash. I think I have a few other fun fur type yarn laying around here somewhere. It is not something I normally knit with, but I think I got some samples from TNNA last summer.






And for myself, I finished the first lace sock last night in the Claudia's Handpainted. I am really happy with the way this turned out. I will cast on for the second one soon ... probably this evening. Well that is about it on the knitting front. The youngest just walked in the door saying she doesn't feel good. I hope this isn't the start of another sweep of illness through the house. She is complaining of a headache and a stomach ache ... doesn't sound good for me. Take care all.

Socks, Socks and more Socks

We had out first snow of the season, and my feet are loving the hand knit socks . The colder weather has given me the desire to knit even more socks, because a girl can never have too many ... right! I was remiss in including the sock blockers Karen fashioned for me from clothes hangers, so I will show them off with some socks in progress. I finished one of the socks in the Irving Park Lorna's at the staff meeting the other night and started the second. I am about half way finished with the second one. And then I started another pair yesterday in some Claudia's Handpainted in the Wisteria colorway. They are moving right along. This is my own pattern, although I am sure there are similar ones out there somewhere.

And, a couple months ago, I made a pair of baby socks and was asked to share the pattern. Well I finished the socks and gave them away, and never wrote down the pattern. I have since joined a couple groups that knit for babies in the Children's Hospitals so I will be knitting more baby socks and have a pair in the works. I will remember to write out a pattern this time. These are knit with some left over Opal, I think one from the Element group. I will be making some in a sport wt yarn soon. Those little socks are so fast to knit and so darn cute.

And the last pair, Opal Fish. I bought this yarn a couple years ago, and could never decide what pattern to use. I think that is the case with the self striping yarns, I never know what to do with them other than knit them plain, and let the yarn do all the work. I am doing a simple 3 X 1 rib on these with my generic sock pattern. I love the colors in this yarn, it is one of my favorite Opals.

Well the kids are coming in the door from school and will be wanting some attention, more knitterly goodness later.

Her First Formal

My baby is growing up. And boy do they get expensive the older they get. She is going to her first formal at High School tonight. She and a bunch of her friends are going together. She is all dressed up and ready to go. I think she is just beautiful! It just makes me want to cry at the thought of how quickly they grow up.

She is becoming such a wonderful young woman.

Goodies From My Sister

I finally got around to taking pictures of the goodies I got from Karen, on Monday. We had our Christmas together then, since we could not be together over the actual holidays. She embroidered a sweatshirt for me, It says I heart knitting and the heart is a yarn heart with knitting needles in it.... I love it, She knit me a pair of beautiful socks in my favorite Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport, the pattern is the cup cozy pattern (turned sock pattern by her) from IK magazine. And some dyes, because she knows I love to dye yarn. I love it all. Thanks again Karen.



And while we were over in Cincinnati, we went to her LYS and I bought some goodies for myself with Christmas money from the in-laws. The One Skein book I actually bought for Karen, but she already had it, so while we were at the yarn shop I bought her Scarf Style and I will keep this one for myself. The sock yarn is Lorna's Shepherd Sock in the Seaside colorway and the other yarn is Sahara, from Joseph Galler in the Natural colorway, it is 50% merino and 50% camel hair and it is yummy! I have never knit with this yarn but it feels lovely.

And to reward myself for finishing my first UFO of the year, I started a pair of socks. This is my own pattern, I am knitting them in Lorna's Laces Sport in the Irving Park colorway. There is more brown in this yarn than I anticipated, and I have to say at first I was disappointed in it, the color that is, not the yarn, but it is growing on me.

Today is the Benjamin's 13th birthday, it is so hard to believe that he is a teenager now. He wanted a Jello cake, I just got that out of the oven. I need to wrap his I Pod and I Tune card, he will be happy with that. I just know he is going to want to go to McDonald's for his birthday dinner...yuck! But, it is his birthday so that is most likely where we will end up... yuck, have I said that already. Happy Birthday young man.

First UFO Finished

I finished the sweater for the youngest last night. I should have went ahead and blocked it last night when I finished instead of waiting for her to try it on. Who knows when I will get it back to do that and sew on a button on the top. She is NOT taking it off anytime soon. It is knit in the lovely Lorna's Laces Shepherd worsted in the Sherbet color. The pattern is from Knitting Pure and Simple.

We were not able to spend the Holidays with my sister and her family as we usually do, so today the kids and I are traveling over to Cinci. for a visit. They have the day off today from school. I am taking Christmas gifts along. You would think with all this extra time I have had I would have gotten my knitting done, but I still have a bag to make for my niece, I will show her the yarn it is going to be knit in. I do have her fingerless mitts for her though.

I had several singleton and partial balls of Koigu, so for my sister, I made a pair of Monstersocken. All Koigu, I used the International Sock of Doom pattern for the leg, the foot is plain, US size 1 needles. I would kind of like to keep them for myself, but I will let her have them. That makes for a lot of ends to weave in. There are 6 different colors of Koigu in these socks. I have no idea what the color numbers are. They look better in person than in the picture, it is rainy and gloomy out and I can't capture the true colors.

Also for Karen is a pair of felted clogs. I hope she will like these and not find them too scratchy as they are made in Lopi. They do soften up quite a bit in the felting process. Purple and yellow are one of her favorite color combinations, these are bright and cheerful. I like them, it is a Fiber Trends pattern. It is really a super quick knit. I am going to have to make a few more pair. I want a pair and so do my girls. I also am taking her a ball of Louet Gems Opal in sage green and a book, she picked out Scarf Style while we were at her LYS.

And for my nephew, I made a pair of ankle socks. He has hairy legs and likes his socks short for that reason. He wanted a pair that were thicker than the regular sock yarn so I knit him these in some sport wt merino. I also knit him a pair of fingerless gloves.

Well Blogger is not loading any pictures and I must be off to Ohio, I will finish this when I get back.

Added after day trip to Ohio: I came home to a screen full if pictures. They finally loaded after we left. We had a good time I bought some yarn for myself. Karen made some lovely socks for me and gave me other goodies. I will post pics tomorrow when I can take a good pictures of them. Everyone loved their stuff and my niece was even happy just to see the yarn her bag is to be knit in. I need to work on that, I am such a slacker Auntie. Off to knit.

First FO of 2007

I was hoping to be able to post one of those sweaters, but I think daughter #1's sweater has given me tendonitis in my elbow. I can hardly move my right arm. That sweater is so heavy. So the first FO of 2007 is a pair of socks for CIC. One of my goals for this year is to knit more for charity, and I am well on my way. I have 2 other pair started with one done in each pair.
I am just making up patterns as I go along for these socks. I need variety to keep interested in the project. The push this time is for socks, sweaters and vests for the older kids, age 6 - 16. This pair of socks fits my 13 year old son. Hopefully after a day or two of resting the right arm, and working just on small projects, I will be able to finish the sweaters.

UFO Spotting

No, not the ones in the sky ... the knitterly kind. You know, the ones hiding out in baskets and bins in every nook and cranny of my house. I joined the UFO resurrection 2007 Well, I am waaaaaay to embarrassed to show them all, so I am just going to post the few I am going to be working on in earnest for right now. When I get these done I will bring a few more out. Actually, I usually give up starting new projects for Lent, so this will give me a head start on that.


First, a sweater for my son. This is based on the knitting pure and simple pattern, I didn't have the yarn to get the gauge they recommended, so I changed things a bit and am doing my own thing to make it work. It fits him and he loves it, and that is all that matters. The yarn is Plymouth Encore.




And for the youngest daughter, another of the same sweater as for the son. This one is knit in Lorna's Shepherd Worsted, ( lovely, lovely to work with I might add) I don't have much left to do on these, so hopefully it won't take to long to finish them. It is just that boring stockinette st that drives me crazy. But I will finish them.




And for the eldest daughter, who had to have the yarn from H@##. There is really more done of this than the picture reveals. I knit it in the round to the armholes. It is the Lion Brand hooded sweater pattern and it is knit in their Homespun yarn. This yarn is heavy and unpleasant to work with in my opinion. I tried to talk her into something else, but she insisted she had to have it made in this. I promised to have this finished before they go back to school, so I really ought to work on it first, but the other two are so much nicer to work on. OK, well blogger won't let me load that one so I will try to add it in later. Anyway, these are the UFO's I plan to work on each day until they are done. Then new ones will be put into the rotation and I will share those later.