Sponge Bob

This is probably my first full-on design! I created it using a picture I downloaded, and am fairly pleased with the results! I think it really looks the part.

Creatures

Meet Sheldon. Or at least that is what he is know as by the greater knitting population. He is his own character though, and differs by the others through my addition of a tail. Turtles have to have tails, don't they?

I made Sheldon out of some left over worsted weight yarn that I had. I like how the colors came out. I can remember catching turtles when I was younger and admiring how all their shells had slightly different patterns on them.

Sheldon is a great adventurer, and he is very versatile. Here are a few of the things that Sheldon has enjoyed doing since his creation

• Visiting the Local Granite monuments.

• Smelling the flowers.

• Cooling off in the shade.

• And he also found some time to catch a few rays.

Ahhhh... the life of a turtle

Hopefully he can protect me from this other creature that ventured into the house a few evenings ago.

The Summer Shrug

Summer Shrug

I have been working on this shrug off and on for some time now, in between my other "projects." I decided to make this after completing a halter top that I knitted (and changed slightly of course) form a vintage pattern I found online.

I felt a little "bare" so I picked out this shrug from Drops Designs to try my first lace pattern. It was interesting to knit (not at all boring) and once I got the pattern down it was pretty easy. Although, if someone looked closely I am sure they could locate a few mistakes.

They look nice together, but the shrug also works quite well on it's own.
Wearing it with a contrasting color (ie white) makes the pattern a bit more obvious. I have yet to wear the halter in public, but Have received compliments on the shrug already!

Modern Dinosaur

I was out walking the dog the other morning, and I saw a lizard I had never seen before! Looking it up online I narrowed it down, and believe that this is what I saw:

A Regal Horned Lizard.

Truly beautiful... in a dinosaur-ish way.

The Wedding Gift

June 28, 2008
Dan & Dorie

I have known Dorie for as long as I can remember. Our families made yearly camping trips to the coast of Maine together during our grade school years. I wanted to create something special and personal for Dorie and Dan's wedding gift. Of course, my first ideas were quite ambitious (matching sweaters) and as their wedding date approached with unbelieveable speed, I started to downsize. Maybe matching vests. More time flew by... and I thought even smaller; Mittens! (I did get some strange looks knitting mittens in the summer in Arizona)


I started coming up with ideas of what to knit on the mittens (spurred from the scarf and hat I had knit my father for his birthday last winter). Of course I had to have the date on there somewhere, and their names (Luckily they have short versions of their names which fit nicely into the pattern- more on that later). Then I began to think of a symbol that I could create that would span both mittens. Yin and yang are two complementary qualities, and one of the basic themes that underlies the yinyang symbol is harmonization; ensuring a constant, dynamic balance of all things. I also remembered that Dorie practices and studieds yoga. The yinyang seemed to fit perfectly.

Choosing the colors was easy. Red is the color of happiness and prosperity, and their invitations were red and ivory, leading me to believe that these were the colors that they had chosen for their wedding. The red I chose was a slightly more on the wine color side, but I liked how it complimented the ivory better than a brighter red. The ladies at my local yarn shop were ever so helpful in finding just the right colors, and they were so excited about the project!

The pattern gave me a bit of difficulty. First, I spent a few hours on excel creating the pattern for the images on the mittens. Then I started with one of the white mittens and using a fairisle pattern knitting in the round applying my adaptations. It came out way too small, and the red was visible through the white where I had carried it in the back. So I thought of using the intarsia technique I learned and used on the John Deere sweater. The only problem is that to use this technique you have to knit flat. So I modified the fairisle pattern I was using, and meshed it with a couple of other patterns I looked up online, and voila! I had a mitten that took a bit more effort to make (I knit each a front and back to each mitten and then sewed them together), but I really liked the results. One downfall.... I had 3 more to go!

Their wedding date came and went, but I knitted on... isn't there some unwritten rule (or it may be written somewhere) that you have up to a year to give a wedding gift?

Here's to Dorie and Dan and a wonderful life together.
Hope that these keep you warm in the winter!

Leggings

Leggings

My sister put in a request for some leggings in mid winter! Now it is spring, and the weather is getting warmer... maybe there will still be a few cooler days/evenings in Utah where she will be able to enjoy them.

I completed one legging in stockingknit stitch and when I tried it on it was WAY too big! I had knitted a golf club cover a year ago using this spiral rib pattern and thought it may be fun for these. So I knitted away, and really liked the results. It was much more snug than my first attempt, and quite cozy. Then all there was left to do was to knit the second to match. Not a difficult pattern, but the first one that I have designed myself! After wearing these for a bit to take some pictures I really started to warm up to them. Maybe I will have to knit a pair for myself, despite my husband's claims that they are "dorky."

John Deere Sweater

The John Deere

The journey for this sweater began in December when I took an intarsia class (also known as the color block method) at a local knitting store. I really enjoyed learning this technique! There were many childrens sweaters on display that the instructor had done: a giraffe, ladybug, penguins, etc... so many ideas! But what pattern to pick? Who to make it for? When to start? What colors to choose? All the standard questions that come to a crafter's mind when they find a project that they want to attempt.

My cousin's son is 2 and LOVES trucks, tractors, and pretty much anything with wheels. Being the perfect age and residing in a cold climate this time of year, Matthew was the perfect candidate for this sweater! Knowing of his love for vehicles, I thought that I would knit him a tractor sweater. Then the search began to find the pattern, and after a couple weeks I finally came across this one at The Naked Sheep. Now to choose the colors.... Well, the tractor HAD to be green and yellow (when I thing Tractor, I think John Deere). I loved the sample picture of the red background, but Matthew has been blessed with red hair and I thought that the beige color would look better on him. Once I had the supplies home I began on the front. What fun! Watching as the pattern evolved row by row (sometimes disappearing when I had to un-knit due to a miscount) I was spurred on to finish it quickly.


But then there was the prospect of knitting a plain back... how boring! Of course, even though I had committed to following the pattern (see previous post), I couldn't resist adding some of my own personal flare! I downloaded a photo of the John Deere logo and drafted up my own stitch pattern to knit the logo on the back. I think it came out pretty well, at least you can recognize what it is! Then I knitted a little arm band on the right sleeve with the JD initials just to complete the whole John Deere theme. I did stick with the stitch pattern this time, just played with the colors.

Now just to pack it up and ship it off to it's new (and hopefully proud) owner. I can hear him now...

" I want my tractor sweater!"

...or maybe that is just my imagination getting carried away.

For those of you who have requested or are interested in the Pattern, please see the John Deere Stitch Pattern link on the right of the page under "Patterns".

Sweater for Baron von Schnauzer

It's been rather cool here lately, and I thought Baron (or "Mr. B" as I nicknamed him almost 3 years ago) could use a little help keeping warm. I did pretty well adjusting the pattern I found to fit his chest/front legs, but got a little carried away with the length. Oops! He was a bit resistant when we put it on him, but after a couple of hours he looked comfortable, and even a little warmer :-) !




I even got the colors right so that they matched his bed! I was thinking about a superman one for Haloween ;-)

THE SHRUG

The pieces of the Shrug have been put together and it is far from perfect. Regardless, it is really fun to wear something that I created. I got many compliments and a lot of awe at work last week when the Shrug made it's debut. I definitely LOVE the color!!!! I am thinking about adding a button, latch or pin of some kind to keep the front pieces together. When I do this it pulls out the small "bubble" that is there. I guess I should not have altered the pattern, but for some reason I like to deviate from what is asked for. I do like the differences I made to the ribbing, it gave a little flare around the edge.

I have learned a couple important knitting lesson from these last two projects:

1. Follow the pattern (and this includes knitting a swatch to check your gauge), at least until my skills evolve to the point where I can start designing my own.
   
2. Measure, or know the measurements, of the subject you are knitting for.

Lessons I am sure that all knitters know, but for those of us who are eager and stubborn it takes a little longer.

Morning Visitor

This morning, while sipping a cup of Green Mountain coffee, I glanced out the window and saw that we had a visitor. She was laying in the back yard, casually chewing some of the grass which has sprouted since the last rain. I quickly grabbed the camera and took a few pics through the window (hence the glare). She stayed for about an hour until a fellow deer came by and they set off together for greener pastures.










I have decided to work on a project for myself; a shrug-cardigan. Here is a pic of where I am at with the sweater so far. I have finished the right and left sides, the back and 1 and a half sleeves. The sleeves have a fun cable and bobble pattern on them. Cables are much easier than I thought they would be. I actually had to rip out half of the second sleeve this morning! :-( When I looked at it I noticed I made a terrible error in the pattern- probably sometime while I was watching TV and trying to knit! I am not the best multi-tasker. (You are supposed to enjoy un-knitting as much as knitting. I am not sure I am there yet.)
I am using a pattern form the web site: www.kintty.com you can see the original pattern here. I really like this site, there are tons of fun free patterns with excellent photos. Stirs up all those creative juices! There are a couple pieces from this site that I have in mind for future projects.

Besides that, all is well in AZ! The weather is great, the Barrett Jackson car show is in town, and the Super Bowl and FBR Open (although I believe that it changed it's name) are right around the corner. Lots of things to bring lots of people into town and make lots of us locals make lots of negative comments about a lot of crazy driving!

60th Birthday Gift

My dad celebrated his 6oth Birthday this past December and I decided to make something unique for him. I knitted this fair isle scarf using a number of different patterns, some homemade, some taken from other patterns. I started the pattern knowing that I wanted to reference the year of his birth. Hence, I decided to put "EST. 1947" (established 1947) on the bottom of the scarf, with his initials "JSA" above. He is an avid cross country skier so I thought that he would love to have snowflakes, fellow skiers, and trees draped around him. Then there are the hearts. A daughters love for her dad.


I had so much fun knitting the scarf I thought I would make a hat to match! This was his Christmas gift. (Poor guy, he has had to live his whole life with a birthday a couple days before Christmas. Talk about being gypped!)

They were both a hit, although he did express the desire to hide the "EST. 1947" section from view.



This Christmas was pretty mellow. I decided that this would be a year of homemade gifts. The hat for my dad, a club cover with hearts on it for my mom (sorry no photo of that creation) and then I finished up an afghan that I had been working on sporadically for years and gave it to my sister. This is from the night of it's completion. I guess I was worn out from all those granny squares! When I put them together I set them at a diagonal so that the edge of the afghan is a jagged line. Well, she seemed to love it! I am sure that it will find it's place in her home. Chris expressed some worry about the blankets ability to provide warmth due to it being full of holes. Sometimes it is more about style than warmth!



After Christmas I felt like I was missing something without a project to occupy my hands. I did a little research and I started on a great little sweater pattern I found for some friends of mine who just had a baby boy. This is "the not so baby yoda" sweater. You can find the pattern here. Finished it today! Now to pack it up and ship it off.

So, what's next? I have a couple projects in mind that I would like to do, but it is difficult to decide where to start. So many ideas... so little time.

New Adventure

Most people may not find that creating a "blog" is adventure, but to me it is. All this open space to write and post whatever I want, and to share all the thoughts that come to my mind.... well, maybe not all my thoughts. :-)

Here's to the beginning of a new adventure!

Let's try adding a photo... It worked!

This is an image of my favorite day in 2007!

Now I will attempt to post this whole thing and see what happens...