And Life just SMACKS you in the face!

The Amanda Hat! I made this in less than a day for Rachel for Valentine's Day. It looks lovely and she wears it often. She said "A hat. Awesome" When I gave it to her. Made me smile



It was an easy pattern to follow, though I did not follow it completely. I used size 9 needles. Did the second pattern repeat for two rounds instead of three, and did not do the garter rib rows and that hat fits just perfect. That is one of the things I love about knitting, you can make things to fit you~!

Here are the next socks I am working on. From Sensational Knitted Socks, the garter rib. Using size 2 circulars, I cast on 56 stitches, did 8 rows of 2 x 2 ribbing. Then a total of 20 pattern repeats for the leg, used 28 stitches for the heel, ding 29 rows. Picked up 16 gusset stitches, twisted them, then began the decreases. Did 38 rows for the foot.

I think the colors in these are so cool, they remind me of the circus!

Life really knows how to smack you in the face, year after year after year. I can't even talk about what has happened, but every year I keep saying "Next year has to be better......" I've been saying that for three years , no four, now.

Finished Objects and those in Process

Here are the socks that I have chosen to knit instead of the Friday Harbor socks that just weren't working for me. The top picture is of the finished sock, except that I finished while I was away from home and I STILL can't kirtchner stitch without the directions. So I had to place the stitches on a cable needle and a DPN to hold them.




I have decided that while the pattern is Twin Rib from Sensational Socks, in Opal Owl 6 ply, that the colors look just like dad's dog Dingo, so these will be my Dingo socks!

With this pair of socks, I am trying something different. I am doing the ribbing and leg in size 3 needles, then for the heel and the bottom of the foot I switched to a size 2 for that part and kept the size 3 on top. I wanted to see if I could make a tighter heel.

Here are a couple of pictures of Rachel wearing her sweater. I am still not that great with getting good pictures of my knitting with the camera, so I can't figure out why the top of the sweater looks wavy, but it's not really.

We had to pin down the color sides.

Here is the Tychus hat that I made for George. This was a fun knit and I will probably be making more in wool though not acrylic. Great pattern for stash busting and it will fit many sizes.

Here are pictures of my Cozy, from the KAL I am doing. Boy! What a bear! I had to rip back a number of rows in the beginning. So once I finish one complete repeat I put in the life line. This is the first time I am doing something even close to lace and it's not easy. I love the yarn though. This is the Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool. I know I will use it again, but I'm not sure on what.

Also I know I will knit this again, with a thicker weight yarn. The pattern actually calls for Aran I believe, but I think I will use Worsted.

If you're cold, put on a sweater. That's what they're for. Brenda Dayne from Cast On

No pictures today.

I just love that quote. I hope Brenda doesn't mind that I've used it. I call her Brenda like I know her, personally. She does the Podcast "Cast On" that I have found on iTunes and have been listening to ALL the back ones for the past several days. I tell you, these podcast things are almost as addicting as Ravelry has been. But atleast with the podcasts, you get to knit while they talk! And listen to some really great music. It is like having a knitting friend in the room with you and having a conversation. It's really great.

Finished objects! I have a few of them. I finished Rachels top down raglan. I did take some pictures, I just haven't loaded them yet. It fits her wonderfully and she even wore it to school yesterday, which was such a compliment to me that she wore the sweater I made her. It is such a great feeling when you make something for someone and they just love it and wear it!

I also finally, found a pattern for a hat for George. It is Tychus and I did it in acrylic. He's a kid. It was a super simple pattern. Would be/will be a great stash buster hat as you use two skeins of yarn, different colors, and use the yarn doubled throughout. It ends up being a thick warm hat. I only did four repeats instead of the five suggested by the pattern,which makes this large enough. I tried it on, Rachel and Matthew tried it on and it fit all three of us just fine. For the last row, instead of doing the last MC set, I stopped at the CC with 36 stitches, at the suggestion of Patchworkjester on Ravelry, then bound off and seamed and pulled the yarn through the last two loops. This way the striping sequence stays in order. I do need to learn how to wrap my stitches though. The pattern says you don't have to, and really you don't because they are hidden, the holes, in the hat, but I would like to see what the difference is. I started the hat Wed. evening and finished it last night while watching the original version of "the birds". What an awesome movie. Still love it every time I see it. Alfred Hitchcock knew what he was doing. And the scenery! WOW!

Today is February 1st and I will be casting on Cozy, for the KAL that I have joined on Ravelry. It is the first time I am using this elsebeth lavold Silky Wool yarn. I am really excited about this. I purchased the yarn with this shawl in mind and I guess you could say this is my first lace type project. Even though it is not lace weight yarn. But, it is a new yarn for me and that is one of the things I menioned I wanted to do this year, knit with yarns I never have before.

Remember, if you're cold, put on a sweater. That's what they're there for!