Some progress

Actually, I have knit quite a lot since my last post, but I haven't been very good at taking pictures and posting on my Blog. As for my goals... One of my goals for River City Knitters was to knit a Fair Isle sweater this year. When I wrote that down, I was thinking of a sweater for me. A couple of months later, I was thinking about knitting one for one of my 11 year old granddaughters. By June, I was thinking about knitting a Fair Isle sweater for my 4 year old great granddaughter...now, well, we have to dress a teddy bear for our Christmas charity project, so I'm thinking my bear will be wearing a Fair Isle sweater! Can anyone say "downsizing?" I have knit tons of scarves with some railroad yarn and I am happy to say that I think that I have knit the last of it. That is a major stash buster. I'll post the pictures on Ravelry soon and post them here also. I've knit about 12 Fair Isle hats for charity and one for a Christmas present. Which reminds me, I have to have at least one Christmas project per month in my Christmas box...which I have done. I need 12 charity hats turned in and I have done that also along with 3 baby blankets. I needed 20 items made completely from stash yarn and I have done that also. So...maybe Alina will get her Fair Isle sweater after all...but then, I have a spider sweater to knit for Eli, and a shrug for my daughter and Fair Isle hats for Travis and Jessica...it looks like I will be knitting to the last minute after all.

I did it!

I set a goal of knitting 23 hats and finishing 23 UFOs for Christmas and I made it! I'll be grinning for a week over this! Of course, I have added more hats now. I had my granddaughter try on a hat for my grandniece and it looked so cute on her and she loved it, so she now has that one and I am making another for my other granddaughter and I still have the one for my grandniece to do. I should get them done by Tuesday. I am going to post a photo on Ravelry on as soon as I can download them. The hat looks like a Russian hat with some Plymouth Jelli Beenz yarn at the top and Flutter Fiber eyelash yarn for the main part of the hat. I did these in purple, but I am going to try some other colors. They are so cute!

I also knit another earflap hat and have a request for another. I might have to be a lot more careful in choosing the people I get to try on these hats...so many of them end up with my sample! Not really:) It's nice to know that they love the hats and want them for themselves. That's music to a knitter's ear. This Christmas I ended up making 3 more earflap hats and 3 more Russian hats along with another scarf as requests.

Now I am going to have to make up some more goals, but I think I am going to just let these counters stay for a while to remind me of how good it feels to achieve my goal:)

Pictures from Summer Knitting

I taught Eli, age 8, to knit this summer and she finished a scarf for her mother, some coasters for her daddy and the red yarn is for a trivet. When we watched some movies, she went and got her knitting just like her grandmother, great grandmother and aunt:)













I've had these socks in my UFO box for a long time. The first one worked up quickly, but I made a mistake on the second one and couldn't remember where I put the pattern.






I finished the Crayon sweater for Charles and had enough yarn to make one for Addie also. They're bright and colorful and made a big hit, even though you couldn't tell it from Charles expression. I have two more of these sweaters left to make.



Here are some chemo caps I made. I have made about 12 of the ribbed ones, but only one of the 2 color which is what I really wanted to practice this summer(two-handed stranded knitting). Right now I am looking for a truly jogless seam. I do intend to keep working on the stranded hats this year until I am proficient.
Crayon Sweater

What projects are left?

I'll get photos up as soon as I find that charger cord, but here's what is left:

1. Baby vest - started for Charles, got off count somewhere and couldn't fix it. Now I am making it for Jonathan.

2. Lavender fluffy sweater for Addie. This one is just lacking the sleeves. It just got put on a back burner for a while - no problems.

3. Knit red coat for 18" doll - sew together

4. Knit blue coat for 18" doll - sew together

5. Knit green sweater and skirt for 18" doll - sew together

6. Red ruffled baby sweater - sew together

7. White baby sweater - sew together

8. One green hunting sock

AM I SEEING A PATTERN HERE???

Knitting Eli's sweater

I feel like I have knitted this sweater at least 3 times. The yarn is soft and lovely to work with, but counting rows and measuring has been a real challenge. I finally ended up sewing the sweater back and fronts up to get the bind off for the armholes.

That worked and then I started looking for yellow buttons. That was a joke! I finally began looking online and met with some success. It was certainly cheaper than driving all over the state.

Eli's sweater

I am still working on Eli's sweater. I broke my rule and have ripped this sweater out twice. Since Eli picked out the yarn herself, I can't just keep on knitting it for whomever it will fit. I seem to be having trouble getting things to fit. I work a stitch gauge every time I start, but I must be changing my tension a lot when I actually work on the sweater. Things keep getting either too big or too little.

I decided to knit the sleeves in the round on double pointed needles. I hate to sew things together and hopefully I can figure out a way to do this all the time. This worked perfectly, but the sleeves seem to be pretty big. I think I might have to set this aside and wait until she can try it on.

Sweater for Eli

I'm starting a new sweater for my granddaughter, Eli. We went to a knitting store in Williamsburg and she picked out a bright yellow yarn for the body of the sweater and kelly green for the trim. It's a darling pattern and should go very well.

It was fun watching her in the store. I think she is going to be a knitter. She looked at the yarn "respectively...with the kind of look that knitters get. She was compelled to reach out and touch the yarn and when she made her choice, she really looked all the possibilities. I'm going to be going to Virginia in the summer for two months and I am going to try to teach her to knit then.

The Camos are done

Well, all the camos are done. That means 4 of them...a green one for Jacob for his first hunting trip, a desert one for Charles...he's 3 and his dad and brother are in the National Guard and wear the tan camo, and 2 pink ones for Addie and Eli. All the kids look so cute in them. If I can get my camera working, I'll take some photos.

Now I am trying to figure out what to knit them for Christmas. I have been thinking about Arans for Eli and Charles. It seems a lot of work for a little one, especially Charles as he is the youngest and nothing gets passed down from him, but I love making them. It's wonderful to see the pattern to develop under your hands and there is enough going on in the pattern to keep you interested...or rather, it keeps me interested. There are times when I just want to knit something mindless, but most of the time, I want a little challenge.