Charitable project - Special Olympics Scarves

I've always wanted to participate in a charitable knitting or sewing project and haven't found one yet but I stumbled across this one and it was perfect - 2011 Special Olympics USA Scarf Project.  This was perfect!  I don't necessarily get their color combinations, but I love the idea of us all using a common color combination  and creating unique items with that palette.  There are no listings for Kentucky (DARN!) so I'm sending mine to Tennessee.  And I love their motto, "Unity is handmade".  Let's hear it for handmade!

And I got mine done before the deadline and before Tonya!

New Year, New Projects, New Plans

It's a new year! 2009! It's time to make the most of my time and energies!

Okay, enough of that. I'm trying to record (for posterity or just my pitiful memory and need to self-promote) all of my projects. Every artist has a portfolio and I have wasted years and years not cataloging my creations. There are some beautiful things I created and now don't really remember. And how do you show your work when a client/customer asks what you have done? All of my things now have a happy home somewhere and are no longer in my possession. So here is to portfolio building. I hope to blog pics and keep a journal of items made and sold or given away.

A random call the week before Christmas was inquiring if I could make some scarves "just like the one you made me last Christmas". Unfortunately, I never met this woman so I cannot remember what I made her. It was all handled through the DH. And it was so close to Christmas I couldn't complete them. Then I received a call last week asking me to make them anyway, if I could get them finished before the cold weather was over. Thus, here we are, a week later and I have completed twin scarves in the local high school's colors. They are gifts for teachers. They are the basic team scarf that I found in an older knitting magazine. This is one of my favorite patterns. The pattern is a K1, P1, rib that lays very flat and looks good and doesn't curl. Done on my favorite "barbie" 9 needles, they went real quick. I plan to have a stock of the local high schools' colors next year.

I hope they like them.

Birthday Soap

It's a very good knitting/crafting friend's birthday and I knitted her a little something special. I found this little jewel on a new, cool knitting block called Pickin' and Throwin'. This is called a soap sweater and is made of 100% virgin wool. The wool is supposed to turn into felt. I have never been particularly interested in felting but this is cute anyway!

Happy Birthday, T!

From dishcloths to baby blankets

I love the versatility of this pattern--one of those free ones in a crafts store leaflet. It makes perfect baby blankets in a self-striping yarn from Bernat. Then change the needles and the yarn--a 100% cotton worsted weight from Peaches and Cream and I have great dishcloths. Plus, it's a pattern that is simple enough I can remember it wherever I need to drag my project along. Good thing to have when the brain goes on the fritz and just needs something repetitive to unwind.

More Tiger stuff

From the knitting department, I needed a quick baby gift for a church member. He is a football coach and I thought a baby toboggan to match his team uniforms would be cool. Or warm rather.....during the chilly fall game nights. It turned out cute although I am not sure I like the style. It is definitely modern. It was in one of the most recent of my knitting magazines.

I hope they like the colors. You never know about gifts; if the like them or not. Oh well, I tried.

My photo skills must improve!

Every "artist" needs a portfolio. Every craftsman needs to maintain a catalog of their works or at the very least, a catalog of samples of her work. I realize that. So I keep trying to make pics of completed items and add then to my "catablog". But evidently my photographic skills have gone down the toilet. The last few pics I have taken have been fuzzy and out of focus - definitely not up to my high standards of excellence! But in an effort to capture images of my work, here is one, although fuzzy. These are a pair of wristers made from Coats and Clark yarn called Wiggles knit using the Wristers pattern in the latest issue of Creative Knitting. CK is a publication I dearly love. The patterns are great and practical. I loved Wiggles but it did not speak to me until the boss wanted a set of wristers for the wife. Then it screamed out her name. She is a musician, a pianist to be exact, and has several items that match them.

One more completed project! But I managed to pick up 3, maybe 4 more projects over the weekend. I have 2 prom dresses coming up for minor alterations and an adult Snow White costume! How fun is that!

Knit nite at M's

There is nothing more fun on a cold January night than getting together with friends and having a Knit nite. Throw in a good pot of chili and you have a real party! We all got together last night and showed our skills and our completed items. We even had a fashion show, of sorts.

Its always fun to teach someone new to knit and that is what I got to do with the Princess. She was such a fast learner! She put all of us "older" women to shame. I enjoyed talking about projects we loved and yarn we hated.

I think we all enjoyed just unplugging from the rest of the world and just sitting down, chatting with friends and indulging in some handwork for a couple of hours.

Thanks, M, for a great time and I guess we probably need to thank the King for the chili!

Brazil Blue scarf
I just love starting new projects. It allows me to get my whole creative thing going on. A friend of my husband requested a knitted scarf from some yarn she found at Big Lots. I have to admit, I am jealous. This is a really nice yarn PLUS was a good price! I think it is coming along nicely. I should have it finished in a day or so. And I found another victim willing to let me convert their T-shirts into a quilt. This time, it will be high school Dance team shirts and bright colors. More pics later

Terrific Team scarf

I finally found the solution to the earlier scarf problem. In knitting scarves to sell, several people requested some in local school colors. I remember when those were a hot item to wear with your letter jacket. Evidently, they are not available any more. I tried to knit a few in garter stitch using some fancy yarns but I wasn't happy with the results. Then I remembered a pattern for team scarves in an old magazine article. I stumbled across it and made this one up for my husband. (Go Vols!) It's a simple knit 1, purl 1 rib on about 40 stitches and 24 rows per color band. All of the samples in the magazine were 2-color, but I think they can be made with a third accent color. There are 15 bands, starting and ending with the base color. Then I made the fringe 2 color instead of the base color like the samples. That's me. Never one to go by the directions. I always have to be unique somehow. That is the fun of making things by hand--adding your own personal style.