On The Needles

Meet Lillian.

I am so easily influenced by others.

Mickey Depre  shared a link this cowl on Facebook the other day

and the search was on.

Here is a great article about the designer, Don Waalen-Radzevicius.

Each of his designs has a family back story.

Lillian has 2 sisters that will probably be living at my house soon.

Anne and Margaret.

How's that progress for not going to start anything new until Greta is finished?

The good part is that the yarn came from my stash.

I'm using Felici Sport Yarn from Knit Picks.

Great progress was made on Greta.

I vowed to knit at least an inch every day and so far, so good.

I have several shows that I record, 

so each morning I watch one or two and knit on Greta.

What's on your needles?

See great projects at Patchwork Times.

On The Needles

Last week I pulled out my Greta Vest and started working on it again. I haven't worked on it since April!  I've made some pretty good progress on it.

We went to the beach for a few days last week and I thought for sure I'd  have lots more knit on this but with the clam digging, running around and relaxing, I didn't even open the box.

I did make good progress on my latest to go socks. I wound more yarn from the second skein into a ball so I could sort of match the stripes. I took forever to find the repeat.

Rivel Cardigan is being sewn together. Hopefully front band will be started this weekend.

I can't wait to see what everyone else is working on. Check out On The Needles at Patchwork Times.

On The Needles

My socks are not cooperating with the yarn pooling challenge.  I thought for sure once the gusset was finished and I had decreased the stitches a bit more, the Sweet Georgia yarn would pool.  No. But it is doing something a bit interesting. It is striping in long sections.  See the heel? On the other side is a different colorway of stripes.  It's doing the same thing now in the foot section.

The Prince Henry sock on the left is going to be unknitted and I'll start over. I think the needles are too big for this yarn.  I also think I am going to do a ribbed leg instead of plain jane. I'll concentrate on Sweet Georgia first and get those finished.

I've been working on my Greta vest.  I like how it is starting to take shape.  I am going to work the armholes on this pretty soon so I can take those stitch holder pins out before I snag something major with them.

One thing I discovered about working all 3 of these projects this week is that I rather enjoy working on more than one thing at a time. Maybe it's working on the challenge or the changing of needle sizes from vest to socks or maybe it's just my lack of concentration with one project. I don't know. Whatever it is, it's working for me as I've made a bit of progress on all 3.

On The Needles

I was so excited to start my socks for Judy L's Pooling Sock Yarn Challenge.

I'm so disappointed.....

there is little to no pooling.

I LOVE this yarn though!

Maybe it will pool after the heel.

I should knit all day to find out for sure. 

I made myself sew the zipper in Ernie's vest.

He is happy he can wear it now. 

I'm happy is finished!

He teased about wearing it to work.

Silly Man! That's NOT gonna happen!

Now he wants one with sleeves!

Sweetie, we call that a sweater

and no, that's not gonna happen either.

Unless I can make him a sweater like this one. 

The Flower Sweater is sooooo close to being done.

All it needs is buttons.

I'm making a special trip to town today to shop for buttons.

She tried it on the other night and is trilled.

You'll have to wait to see the whole thing until she can model it for you.

It will be worth the wait. 

This sweater is so darn cute, it makes me giddy!

See other great on the needles projects at Patchwork Times.

On The Needles

Not much has changed since last week.

(Not even the photos.)

 The Greta vest has a few more rows added.

3S Shawl also had a few more rows added.

I'm hoping for more quality knitting time this weekend.

See what others have on their needles at Patchwork Times.

On The Needles

A day late and $5 short......that's how my week has been.

I couldn't resist, I had to cast on for the Greta vest.  The yarn I am using was from my friend's mom's stash. It is some yummy wool and will look great with most of my wardrobe~~jeans and t shirts.  I took it with me Thursday and knitted my way north to Puyallup to SewExpo.  On the way home, I got some serious extra knitting time while we sat in traffic for over an hour.  I even said "Yeah traffic jam, I just hope it isn't an accident."  It was, I felt bad for saying yeah!

The 3S Shawl is coming along too.  I work on this one during tv time. I saw both of these patterns on Denise's blog at Justquiltin.  Between her and Judy L, I will never run out of things I want to knit.  Oh and at SewExpo, the yarns......it was all I could do not to drool on them. I even found some mink.  But I left it all there.  I'm trying so hard to use what I have.

Notice both pieces have a little lavender pin on the round stitch marker.  That is to tell me that is the right side and on both pieces is the increase row.  My brain needs these.  Works for me!

I'm linking up with Judy L's On The Needles post from yesterday.  Now I feel almost caught up. 

On The Needles

I get to work on the 3S Shawl full time now. 

I just might have this finished before the birthday rolls around.

Working full time on the 3S Shawl means the vest is done!  Well not totally, wearable done, the knitting it done.  There are a couple ends that need to be woven in, a zipper inserted and blocking. (Or do I block first then insert the zipper?) It fits him really nice, it's toasty warm and he is excited to wear it.  I set down some rules though.  It is never, ever, ever to be worn to work!  NOT EVER! He has plenty of vests to wear to work.

Now I will start shopping for some alpaca yarn for the next one.  But not yet.  My Greta vest is next.  After I work on the crochet afghan for a while.  My Sticks 'n Strings 2013 projects are coming along nicely when the vest is done, it becomes finish number 6 for the year.

Visit Patchwork Times to see other great projects.

On The Needles

I cheated on the vest this week with the 3S Shawl.

I didn't get the left side complete but I made some darn good progress.

This is so close to being ready to put together that I plan to dedicate

my knitting time only to this until it's finished.

As much as I love the shawl and want to work on it,

I have to remain faithful to the vest.

If I don't, it will end up hid away in the knitting bag. 

I don't want that.

On The Needles

After my disappointing knitting fiascoes one and two this week, I am making very little progress on the vest front. Life interrupts our normal sometimes and mine was interrupted!!  But all is well now and slowly coming back to normal.

I'm planning hoping for more knitting time today and this weekend and if luck is on my side, I can show off both fronts next week.

What's on your needles??  See other great projects at Patchwork Times.

3rd Time's A Charm

Yesterday was the great pull out the knitting and try again day. Wow, that kind of sounds like it was a special day.  It wasn't.  Not only did I pull out the knitting the first time, I did it again last night.  Whoopsie number 2. The right front half of the V was so messed up.  I didn't know if I was coming or going as in decrease on not!

I got all the way to 2 stitches left to decrease and decided it was just not right so I told Ernie to watch this as I pulled the needle out yet again.  No fear this time, I just pulled it out of there like I do it all the time.  OH BOY!  I pulled it all the way back to the beginning of the V and started again-3rd time's a charm?!?  I made pretty good progress and now I think I know what I'm supposed to be doing.  Notice I said I think I know.....

Blurry photo alert...

Today is Grandson Elliot's 7th birthday.  Hard to believe but true.  Last week we went to the Northwest Ag Show. The kids love it there mostly because they can climb on the tractors and pretend.  Elliot loved this Kubota loader/bobcat thing and wanted to take it home with him.  Look at that happy, happy face.  I love you big boy! I hope your day is super special.

Darn, Darn, Darn!

Friday and Saturday nights, I knitted and knitted and knitted on the vest.  This morning I decided I was going to sit down and finish the right side.  I get it to the length I need and look at the directions to make sure.  That's when I really read the directions.  I needed to have 36 stitches on my needle and I had lots more than that.  I skipped over a whole section of decreases.  Whoopsie.

I marked where I needed to start the second decrease pattern.  10" need to be pulled out. So I took a really deep breath, blew it out slowly and pulled the needle. Then I pulled yarn and pulled yarn and pulled yarn.

A few months ago I would have been afraid to even try to pick up my stitches and would have pulled all the yarn and started over.  But not today.  I carefully pulled out the last row and picked the stitches back onto the needle.  Now I will knit and knit and decrease to my 36 stitches just like the directions tell me.   I see a little TV between laundry loads.

I told myself, no big deal, I was just practicing the pattern.  There's no crying in baseball or knitting.

On The Needles

This morning I woke up wondering--how did it get to be Friday again so fast?  And where is January?  Is it just me or is time zooming by?

I continue to work on Ernie's vest.  This is the right front.  It is 8 1/2" wide, I have about 10" more to finish the front.  This is a size XXL.  It stretches a lot! It just looks so funny.  I'm trying really hard to work on it every day.  But it's getting harder...

... the vest isn't pretty.  So I wound 2 skeins of Imagination Hand Painted Sock Yarn into cute little cakes.

This is pretty yarn. The color is Wild West.  I know I shouldn't have but I did, I started the 3S Shawl for DD3's birthday gift.  Thanks Denise for showing me the perfect pattern for my Denise/DeeDee.

I didn't have a car project since finishing my scarf so I pulled out the afghan bag and kitted myself up more granny squares like I did here.  I've had really good passenger seat time this week so I made great progress on these 15 squares. I have been working on this project off and on--mostly off--for over a year so it's time to get it done!

What's on your needles?  See great projects here at Patchwork Times.

On The Needles

Yesterday I really, really wanted to cast on a pair of socks.

But I didn't.

Instead I cast on the right side of Ernie's vest

and started the ribbing.

That was after I finished the back!

WootWoot

What this means is that I have spent lots of time knitting.

Lots of time!!

See other fabulous On The Needles post here at Patchwork Times.

On The Needles

I started Ernie's vest.  

He want's a vest made from alpaca yarn but he has to wait.

I want to make sure this will fit, it's what he wants,

but most important, will he wear it.

This pattern is a freebie from Universal Yarn.

It's an easy design and is knitting up pretty fast.

I finished my scarf and grabbed some yarn to try out Potluck Mittens.

I saw these on someone's blog and cannot remember where.  Sorry.

They knit up super fast with size 7 needles and acrylic yarn.

Now I want to find some nice soft yarn and make another pair.

2 more finishes bring my total for Sticks 'n Strings 2013 to 5.

I'm sure that will slow down now that I'm on to big projects.

See other great On the Needle Projects 

here at Patchwork Times.