A Bit of Knitting

Super Mario Mushrooms made for my brother for christmas. Cute, eh?

Winged Tattoo Heart paperweight/stuffy/doohickey - this was a baby shower gift for a former coworker/friend. She loves tattoos and hopes to become a tattoo artist someday so this seemed the perfect gift for her and her first bambino. I love this one and will probably make myself one with a different inscription at some point. The wings in the pattern are to be knit and felted, since that isn't easy wool-free, I cut them out of regular white felt.

This is a variation on the Monteagle bag from the newest Mason-Dixon book. I love this bag but I did have trouble getting one of the stitch patterns into my head, so at one point I just started doing a simplified stitch version instead. I also used the seamless cast-on Kay suggested on the blog. It was a little tricky because I didn't have the appropriate needle length... next time I'll get the right size and it will be much easier.

The strap does stretch more than you think it will when you stretch out the bag to open the stitches... so stop before you think it is long enough. This was a christmas present for my mom. I want one of these too. ;-)

A Cal stuffed kitty to match the Butterkitty... this one went to my nephew for christmas. (cute photos with the baby coming soon!)
is that a cute kitten I've got or what?

This started out as a Lichen Cowl but the yarn lacked the proper stretch/give so it came out an awkward size (too big singled but not big enough to double). So I did some cutting, stitching, and added buttons.

This Tudora was for my sister for christmas. I love this Edwardian looking pattern, the cables add just that right touch.

Another Marley hat, my third. This one I call Muted Marley, with its sophisticated colors. This was for the same coworker/friend as the tattoo heart. I love it, and she said her husband does too. :-)

Gift Making Fun!

Yesterday I went to a holiday gift making workshop at the New York State Museum with my mom and sisters. It was very fun and a great deal at only $11.25 for each of us! They had stations set up around the room to make many different little gifts with almost all natural, herb ingredients. They even had a station set up with all the little cellophane bags, raffia, paper, stickers, etc. so you could decorate everything and make tags.

We made soap,

This was a goats milk soap base that I colored a pale yellow, added ground oatmeal, and a honey almond scent. I love almond scents and these smell great.

These cute little soaps use chocolate molds. I didn't make these, I think people stuck their leftover soap bits into it but nobody took it home so I did. ;-)


They had fabric to pick from and a sewing machine set up to make dream pillows. It isn't a "pillow" pillow, it is lightly filled and is meant to go inside a pillow case with your regular pillow to add aroma therapy. It has flax seed, peppermint, and roses inside.

They had candles at the decoration table to decorate with corrugated paper and raffia.


And we made a whole bunch of different kinds of natural bath products.


Bath salts - lemon, and lavendar

This bath soak was made with ground oatmeal, roses, and baking soda.

This lemon bath bundle can be used as a scrubbie in the shower - it has grated castile soap, oatmeal, lemon essential oil, and lemon peel sewn into a little muslin bag.

The body scrub has corn meal, ground oatmeal, rosemary, and castile soap.


The bath tea bags can be tied onto the bath tub to "steep" in the bath water and can be used more than once even. One has lavendar and roses and the other has orange peel and ginger root.

We also got a packet with all of the recipes to be able to make them again, and tags to copy!

This was a really good class so I'll keep my eyes out for future classes at the museum.

Top secret projects!

I have been knitting, for real. I just couldn't share it. But now I can! This

is the baby kimono I made for a future bebe! Two of my very good friends are expecting a lovely little one coming this September. And I was happy to be the first to give them a baby present.

This, I can't take much credit for at all - I only made one boring Grandma's Favorite patterned square and other people made all the gorgeous squares. But isn't it (a wedding afghan for other wonderful friends) beautiful?

not the best, complete picture - the thing was huge!

We spent this past weekend at this wedding and bachelorette party and just having wonderful fun with wonderful friends. It was the best weekend in a long, long time. :-)

Another secret project was for the wedding as well, embroidery instead of knitting this time. Using the Sublime Stitching iron-ons I made them a pirate pillow

and two pirate tea towels

this one is my favorite

I've used a lot of different Sublime Stitching iron-ons over the past five years or so and they are really great. There's really no other option for cool, fun iron-ons! They also work great - they say one iron from each design is all that's guaranteed but I've used them multiple times. Even if it gets paler it just needs to be dark enough to stitch over!

To wrap this up I give you a group of my best friends at the wedding. The lovely bride, Kate, is missing since she was busy just being married and all. And Erin, um, sorry you are totally hidden, oops. Note that I'm wearing the frankenstein shrug! A few of my friends are wearing knitted/crocheted beauties as well.

Olive You!

This craft and food filled post is brought to you by Valentine's Day! I had to make something for him (not a problem), and he had to make something for me (this was unusual)! ;-)

I made him a jar of knitted olives! They are adorable! The pattern comes from here, and some other ideas if you don't want to do a jar (taken from ravelry projects): Put a pin backing on it for a pin, or put it on a pin or something else with some curly wire etc. made to look like fuccilli pasta (Olive Fuccilli = I love you, silly!)
Sorry the picture is a bit dark but I was avoiding a glare off the jar and the label (which is metallic)
Here they are again without the jar, this is pre-felting but there isn't a huge difference. They just tighten up a bit with the felting.

He made me yarnlibrarian tshirts! A pink one and a green one, with a graffiti style font.

a heart shaped apple pie (that's a pie bird in the middle), which was scrumptious by the way, he's now the official apple pie baker whether he likes it or not
and valentine sugar cookies!
Yummy! I wish I had some more of that pie right now. And I wish I was making a few more olives, but on to a new project for now...

Broadripple socks, finally done!

I finally finished the Broadripples that I started back in August! They were for my sister's birthday and I finished the second sock with 10 minutes to spare. Just enough time to wrap them and write the care tag. Sheesh, that was a bit close for comfort!


Yes, there is a mistake half way down the foot. Shush, I don't want to talk about it.

Knitterly Gifts

I'm back! I got all of my Christmas knitting done except for a pair of socks (well, I cut a few things off the list. But I got everything that I decided I needed to do done). I got one sock done but then had to use a tiny sock stand-in for the other one. I'm knitting the second one right now. Then I'm going to sneak in the second of my pair of fetching so I can wear them at work when it is cold. After that I have to knit a belated pair of dashing for Trevor's anniversary present. Then I can knit something for myself. Oh crap, no, then I have to knit the 2nd sock of a pair for a January birthday. Then I can knit for myself. sigh. Maybe by February? The first thing I'm going to knit myself is a booga bag using this gorgeous alpaca I ordered on sale from Webs (Classic Elite Inca Print #4627 - I hope it retains the gorgeous colors when it is felted)*. I'm going to use the leather straps I got at Rhinebeck instead of the i-cord handle. Then I'll make myself a pair of socks.

Anyway, back on topic. I'll be catching up on FO photos soon, but for now I have a bunch of wonderful knitterly Christmas gifts that I received. It was the year of the knitting related present for me. (wonderful, eh?) First, the books:

I got Mason-Dixon Knitting and Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks from my in laws and I got Knit Socks! and Casts Off from my parents. I've had Mason-Dixon from the library a few times and haven't had time to make anything from it so it went on the wish list. I haven't knit any Nancy Bush patterns yet but I've been told that she's a real sock guru. Knit Socks! was recommended by somebody (I forget who) and of course I want to add another Yarn Harlot to my collection...

Then the needles:
I got a set of Harmony wood DPNs, and two sizes of Harmony wood tips with 3 cables all from my parents. This photo is crappy, if you aren't familiar with how beautiful they are take a look. I haven't used them yet of course but I love them already.

I got a skein of Sockina Cotton in a different color than the one I have in my stash, from my parents.
I got a knitting pirate style shirt from Trevor,
Lovely wooden sock blockers from my parents and the best Sock Monkey sock project bag ever from Trevor. I am in love with this project bag. It is handmade and just gorgeous. Hop right over to YarnTraveler to order one from her. She's also one of the masterminds behind Knit Map and you should check that out too if you haven't already.
Also, my mom has become a sock blocker lover and she doesn't even knit! She said she ordered herself a plastic pair to use to dry her handwash only socks on (ones I make her and ones she bought at Rhinebeck). Here's a closeup of the cute sheep cutout on my wooden blockers:


And, a bunch of other nifty stuff (all from my parents):

At the top we have some plastic pouches for the cables and tips, and some needle id tags for the options needles. Then we have a needle sizer and the little doodads that hold a pair of needles together, and a row counting bracelet. Great stuff, huh?

* I haven't gotten it photographed yet, but it is super beautiful. I got it in a few colors since it was so cheap. At least one will be for a gift, the rest might be for me.