Faith's Baby Blanket

Here is the world's tiniest photo of the Baby Blanket that we presented to Faith this last weekend. This was a joint effort by several knitters. We each got to choose the stitch/pattern of our choice and knitted a strip 144 sts wide by aprox 4 inches tall. We all used Knit Picks Shine Worsted weight yarn. Which if you have never used it is very very softy and comfy. A crocheted border will get added to it next. But at least it was far enough along to gift it.

Mostly we passed the strips around, so there wouldn't be a lot of seaming, but for the out-of-towners that just wasn't going to be an option. So I volunteered to Kitchener (a.k.a graft/seam for those non-knitters who may be reading this) any strips that may need it. Turns out I only had to do 3 seams. However, Kitchenering 12 sts across the toe of a sock is way less time consuming than doing 144 sts. After the first seam took me 4+ hours, I was a little worried about what I had gotten myself into. But the first seam was my "learning" experience. I wasn't sure how much extra yarn I would need to sew the seam. I ended up with WAY too much. After taking a stitch, I had to pull the yarn FIVE times the length of my arm in order to tighten up the stitch. Well I didn't want to end up with 3 inches to go and no yarn left. Was so not a problem! Then I found out the the rule of thumb is that the yarn should be 3 times as long as the length of your project. After that the next 2 seams just flew by. They still took about 1.5-2 hours, but hey it was worth it.

I actually finished the last seam on Sunday morning 2 hours before I had to pick Faith up for the party. Just in the nick of time!

We all met a Rachel's house for lunch. And boy was it yummy. We had Taco salad fixings, Gazpacho, GF crackers, hummus, chips, cheese, Blueberry lemonade, veggie tray, deviled eggs, fruit salad, chocolate covered strawberrys, creme puffs w/ice cream, GF cupcakes. Everything was extremely yummy!

Merry Christmas To Me! Merry Christmas To Me!

My 'early' Christmas present to myself came in the mail yesterday. I'm so excited! Here it is:

It's the Knitpicks Options Nickle-plated interchangeable needle set. It comes with needles sizes 4 thru 11 US, 2 24" cables and 2 32" cables. I also bought an extra 40" cable and 2 extra needle tips in size 8 & 9. But those are the wooden Harmony needles. I really like metal needles, but I wanted to try out the wooden ones just because. I meant to play with them last night, but I got caught up in a book I was reading and didn't knit a stitch.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Mine was pretty good. I went to my Parents house for dinner. This year since there were only going to be the 3 of us (everyone else was doing their own things) we had Rib-eye steaks instead Turkey. Boy were they yummy too! Along with the steaks we had oven baked potatoes (both white and sweet), sauted green beans with bacon, cranberry relish and rolls. It was all very good.

My Mom stayed at my house that night, so that we could get up at 3:30AM to go shopping. We weren't really planning on going shopping this year, but my friend Staci needed some help. She had a list from her 2 brothers and her Mom that she needed to get in addition to her own stuff. It was such a mad-house at Wal-marts that we took turns watching each others carts while the other one went after one thing or another. It was too hard trying to get the carts through the crowds. I got most of my Christmas presents bought and only have a few things left to get.

After Wal-Marts, we headed to Lowe's for the 99 cent Poinsettias. Staci asked me how many I wanted and I told her that I tend to kill them and just give them to Mom when I get one. And since Mom was buying her own, I didn't need any. Then we headed to Menards, but the checkout line was so LONG there and Staci was only looking for one item, we just turned around and left. Then we headed to Target, Bed Bath & Beyond and PetSmart. We parted ways after that. Mom and I headed back to Niles where we met up with my cousins Tracy and Erica for breakfast and a little more shopping. I was exhausted by the time we got back to my house around 3pm. After they left, I took a nap!

On Saturday, my friend Kathy J. came over. After a quick trip to the Red Purl and Moon Beads, we spent the rest of the day chatting and knitting. I made a pot of the Tomato Florentine Soup for dinner along with grilled cheese sandwiches. I got a lot of knitting done on my Hoodie. I am now 2/3 of the way done on the body. Only 45 more rows and then I get to start the sleeves, which should be much faster to knit since there are fewer stitches. I also worked on my fingerless mitts and my pooling scarf.

I forgot to get a picture of the Hoodie, but here are ones of the mitts and scarf:

I still have to weave in my ends on the first mitt, but the 2nd one is coming along nicely.


The scarf measures 44", so I only have about 16" left. I was having a little trouble lining up the colors after I added in the 2nd skein, but I'm getting used to it now.