A Little Knitting

This turned out to be a dilly of a cold. I still feeling icky but better enough that I'll go to work tonight. I don't want to miss another day.


More than anything, colds wear you out. I didn't have much energy but I did get a few rows knitted, as you can see in the picture. I also did a little sewing and crocheting--very little. All I wanted to do was sleep. I'm starting to feel like that now but I'm determined to fight it. For one thing, no Dayquil today. I don't know why, but that stuff makes me loopy. I think it's the guifan--whatever. I can't pronounce it, let alone spell it.

I'm going to link to "Just Something I Whipped Up" over at "The Girl Creative." Check out all the awesome projects our fellow bloggers have posted there!

http://thegirlcreative.blogspot.com/

Somewhat sick today

Got a stupid cold. I actually left work an hour early last night. I'm only in the first stage of this--worn out, sore throat--so I've got my fingers crossed (not really, or I wouldn't be able to type) this is just a mild one and will be gone soooooon. I don't want to miss work tomorrow. I need the money, LOL!

I kept up with my creative efforts today. Did about 20 more rows on the knit scarf. I'll post a picture another day. I switched to a diamond pattern for a few reps, and am now doing the 'middle' of the scarf in a simple garter stitch. If I keep doing fancy stuff that requires constantly looking at the book to keep up with the knits and purls, I'd never get this done.

I did a little bit on some mittens I'm making.

I also started sewing another knit top. Debbie J. was nice enough to comment on my 'talent' last post but she (and others) don't see all my mistakes. Trust me on this, nobody on Project Runway has to worry about anything.

The burgundy top is finished, except that it stretched a bit in sewing on the binding and is kind of wonky. I may just pretend I meant to do that, LOL!

Needless to say, my mistake was in not putting stay-stitching around the neckline. I was certain to do that with the new top, so I hope this one will come out better. Either way, I'll still have 2 new tops to wear this fall.

Shirt WIP

It's hard to tell from these photos, but this is a very light weight rib knit in a burgundy color. It has a seam down the front that is shirred at the bustline, which gives it a nice fit. I've made several versions of this shirt.
This time I'm adding crocheted flowers! There are places around blogland that teach you how to make yarn from t-shirt fabric. Basically, you cut strips and then you stretch them as far as you can. This particular knit stretched beautifully. As you can see, I've made two flowers. I might make a third. They will be hand-sewn onto the shirt. I just have to do that and finish the binding around the neckline, then the shirt is done.
I often ask myself why I don't work with knits more often. No buttons, no zippers--what's not to love?
Oh, and the Target bag...it just makes it easier to slings on and off the mannequin. (Her name is Sunny.)

Redo!

I've known basic knitting for years, but in the process of wanting to do it more often (and better) I've recently learned two things:

1)You always have to finish on an even numbered row or you'll keep switching wrong and right sides.

2)It's not a good idea to listen to music while knitting, unless you're really good at it. I ended up ripping all the rows out from my previous attempt and starting all over. I concentrated on my counting, rather than singing to Christmas Carols (yeah, in August--but this will probably be a Christmas gift). As you can see the zig-zags are much nicer!

I will probably do a few more rows of the seed before I switch to another design. In this case, you do purl stitches here and there in the rows. I don't know if you can see that.

This yarn, btw, is Lion Brand "Baby's First," which is 45% cotton and 55% acrylic. It's very soft. In fact, it almost feels (to me, at least) like cut up felt. Of course, real felt is mostly wool!

It has a 'ply' of about 7 strands, so I have to be careful not to 'split' the yarn. But I think this is going to be a cushy scarf!

Knitting Today

I've been trying to get back into knitting a little bit. Here's a scarf I started today. It took me an hour to knit about 20 rows. (Seriously, are there really people out there who can knit a pair of socks in an evening?)

This is a "Chevron Seed" motif. Maybe you can see the zig-zags. I made some mistakes. Maybe it isn't such a good idea to listen to music while knitting--throws me off count!

Actually, this looks better in real life. I think I photographed the wrong side, LOL!

Anyway, I'm not doing this motif for the whole scarf. I'm going to switch to something else for the next 20 rows. I have an old book by Reader's Digest that is a big volume about crafting, with sections on knitting and crochet stitches. I just have to find ones that will fit with the 24 stitches across I've chosen for this. It's not a wide scarf, so it will probably be a gift for a child. I'm mostly doing it to practice.

Next blog post I'll try to show one of my sewing projects.

New Baby Blanket

Welcome to my New Blog! Why the title? Well, it's not that I have 1000 projects going on--it just feels like it. And if you add up every stitch and every snip of scissors or loop on a crochet hook, it's probably pretty darn close to '1000 points,' LOL!

Today I want to show the new baby blanket I am making. If you want to see my recently finished one, you'll have to check back on my old blog, "Sorta Frugal." I'm not making it for any particular baby, but it is always nice to have something on hand when the need comes up.

Just FYI: if you never saw my old blog, I am a mother of 4 adult children. My daughter is only engaged so there are no grandchildren on the horizon just yet.

Okay, yak, yak...the top photo shows the back of the blanket. The stitches in front are making ridges in the back, and I want a blanket that lays flat. So I'm doing a single crochet connecting the last row to the row before, crocheting through the loops rather than under them.

The bottom is, of course, the 'pretty' side. It consists of rows of single and double crochets alternated with front-post-triple crochets. In the triple crochet row, I alternate 2 regular FPTCs with 'braids.' Basically, that means you skip one of the posts (which are a double-crochet row, btw), do two FPTCs, then cross back to the one you skipped and make a third FPTC.

Trust me, it's not as complicated as it sounds. Nothing I make is complicated. I'd rather make things that are somewhat easy and put the effort into better quality materials.

I hope you enjoyed my first post of my new blog. Come back soon, okay?