Helping You Out

I am making a good go of working through my stash. Unfortunately (really it is fortunately), I continue to add to the stash. I cannot resist a sale on yarn. I know someday I will need that exact yarn to knit with.

I have been eyeing this pattern, Helping Hat,  for a bit. It seems like every time I reach into the stash, I pull out a striped yarn. For cables I want a solid. When my hand returned with this one in its grasp, I knew this pattern's time had come. It is a great pattern. Well, actually it is three patterns in one; each one having just a little bit of difference in the cabling/ribbing section. I like the way this version turned out. The pattern was easy to follow and to remember.As soon as my hand finds more solid yarn, I plan to knit up another version. 

Our Final Game of the Season

Saturday, we saw my beloved LSU Tigers play. It will be the last game we will be able to make this year. I have more surgery coming up and kinda have to play the next couple of weeks by ear. Watching my boys play was the perfect way to spend the day. I forgot my phone and camera, so I couldn't take a picture at the game.

What I didn't forget was my knitting. I love having a piece of mindless knitting. I did not miss a single thing and was able to knit the whole time. I am a lot slower than when I get to look at my knitting, but this gives me two loves at the same time. Add that to the Tiger's sweep of the series with Kentucky and it was all good.

A Royal Wedding

It must be a girl thing to love weddings. I remember playing "wedding" with my friends and fantasizing about how our weddings would be. From the dresses, to the flowers, music, and food, it was all fun to think about. When there is a royal wedding, you get to see all of the fluff and pageantry at its best. I remember vividly when Charles and Diana were married. I closely followed the events preceding the wedding. Someone was going to be a princess and I wanted to watch. She was my age. How cool! I woke up in the middle of the night to watch the ceremony and discussed it with my friends. We all loved it and had hopes of adding some of the parts of it to our weddings someday.

Fast forward almost 30 years and Charles and Diana's older son, William, is married today. I knew I would want to watch the wedding, so I stayed up and knit. I loved watching what the people wore and all of the crazy hats (Yes I am talking about you Princess Beatrice). I loved the moment when Kate stepped out of the car and we finally were able to see her dress. I especially loved how they played a fanfare when the Queen entered the church and watching her while everyone sang "God Save the Queen". My favorite part was when the bride and groom left the church in the open carriage. Everyone waved and cheered. All weddings should be like this.

I thought back to the day when I watched his parents marry and how I had dreams of my own wedding and marriage. A lot has happened in those 30 years. I am now married to my prince and have my own princesses. Sometimes our lives don't take the paths you think they will take. If you are lucky, it will take you right where you want to be. I am one of those lucky ones.

She Treads Lightly

One of the things I am trying to do this year is broaden my knitting techniques. These fingerless mitts have a lateral or Vikkel Braid. It could not figure out how to do this braid at first, but after looking at a couple of videos and picture tutorials, the light bulb went on. As usual, I was making it harder than it really was. I like how this braid looks. The Linen stitch adds interest too.

Technically, I finished these mitts on 4/29. I stayed up all night and watch the Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding. Since I wanted to blog about the wedding on 4/30, I chose to post these the day before since I never went to sleep between the two events.

Guess Where I Am

Cara and her friends have a great time together. It seems like every weekend something is going on and they get together. This weekend the Louisiananime Convention was in Baton Rouge. They had to go. Cara and her friends spent weeks planning their costumes and such. She ordered a wig and costume off of Ebay. The wig arrived in time, but the costume did not. I drove Cara, Twix and Lyuke

up there where they met up with Sydney and Caitlin. I brought my Dr. Who scarf, found a good spot and sat back to people watch. There were some sights to see. So many interesting things to see. I positioned myself right where the participants would come and go from the events. I didn't know many of the characters, but I did recognize a few. My favorite was a guy dressed up as Captain Jack Sparrow. I can never get too much of Captain Jack.

The Thingies

I went on a buying jag when some of my favorite yarn went on a very good sale. Now I am on a quest to use it up. I like this self-striping yarn. The colorway is pretty and looks great in a hat. I wanted to see how it looks on a pair of fingerless mitts.

This pattern, Malabrigo Hand Thingies, is perfect for this yarn. It knits up almost like stockinette, but the slipped stitches add a bit of interest. The mitts were a little tight for me, but perfect for Robyn. I will knit up this pattern again and add a couple of stitches to modify it for me.

Snips and Snails

Since the first baby hat went so quickly, I decided to do another one.

I see a lot of these stocking cap type hats on Ravelry and they look fun and easy. That is the direction I decided to take. It really is a variation on the rolled brim hat that I made incessantly in '09. It turned out cute. It was fun to knit this one.

I have just about decided to reopen my Etsy shop and sell some of my knitting. The jewelry will still be there and Robyn would be selling her knit animals and sewn treasures. I need to play around with it a little, but I am just about there.

Raspberries and Chocolate

Lately baby hats have been catching my eye. I joined a handmade sellers group on Facebook and many of the members are "hookers" meaning they crochet. They make some of the cutest baby hats. It has been a while since I made a baby hat, so I thought I would head in that direction.

I love the color of this yarn. It makes me smile. This jester style hat is so cute on. I made one a while back for one of Gina's granddaughters. It is a perfect style for this yarn.

It's All Good

We found some more tickets to an LSU baseball game. This time we were in far left field. They were ok, but I like the ones from the last game the best. It was a good game. LSU's pitching needs to pick up and fast. They also have been leaving runners stranded on base. This one was a close one with the Tigers holding on at the end. The last several games they have lost it in the 9th inning, but this time Matty Ott was there for the save. Yea. I love this game!

Where's Dean Street?

Here is is. It is just what you were waiting for...another cable hat. Yes, I am still on my cable streak. I have had this hat in my queue for a bit and it finally made it to the top. I don't really knit then in order of my queue, but it was finally chosen. Sometimes when I look at my queue, a pattern just reaches out and says "knit me". This one did. I had the option for knitting a rolled brim or a ribbed brim. I had never done a rolled brim that had anything other than stockinette for the rest of the hat, so I wanted to see how that would look. I like the look. It gives it just enough interest to make it stand out. I like a rolled brim anyway, so this really worked for me. The cable was the same one used throughout the hat so I could continue watching Dr. Who on Netflix without the fear I would forget the pattern. (Robyn introduced Cara and I to Dr. Who and I have been on a roll watching seasons 1-4 on the computer. I can see why they were so upset when David Tennant left the series.) So...there you have it. Dr. Who and knitting. The perfect duo.

P. S. I am working on a Dr. Who scarf. It is my "car knitting". I leave in the car and work on when I am waiting at doctor's appointments, car line, restaurants, etc. Someday you will see it here :)

Fetch These

"Fetching" is one of the most popular patterns on Ravelry. There are over 17,700 projects listed and tons more have it in their queue. It is easy to see why. It is a lovely pattern. Nice cables that twist toward your thumb and the 4x1 ribbing gives it a different look from many of the other fingerless mitts. I did feel the need to play around with the thumb. I like a thumb gusset. It doesn't pull the knitting out of shape like many of the other types of thumbs do. Sometimes I get a bit of a thrill that I feel accomplished enough to be comfortable modifying a pattern to suit my needs.

I used some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran that I had bought for another project. I loved knitting with this yarn. It was a good choice for these mitts.

Jesse's Boy

I could not help the name of this hat. The pattern is called Jesse's Christmas Hat. The name Jesse always reminds me of the song, Jessie's Girl by Rick Springfield. Since the hat was knit with a guy in mind, I changed it to Jesse's Boy. This hat, like the Who's Claudia, has that prefect mix of cables and ribbing. It was fun to knit and would look great on a anyone. Yup. Another great pattern.

I didn't love the yarn so much. It was called Barley and although it was a brand I have used tons of times, this yarn was more "rustic" in that it had small threads of a different type of yarn that would shed quite a bit. I don't think I'll buy it again even though I love the color.

Who's Claudia?

Ever since I learned how to do cables, I love knitting them. I am drawn to patterns that have them crisscrossing back and forth. This pattern is perfect for what I like. One, it is a hat (one of my favorite things to knit) and two there are cables. A twofer. The cables give it just enough interest that I need to pay attention somewhat and the ribbing part after the cables are complete, let me do some mindless knitting. Claudia is the perfect pattern for me.

Hair Today (and it better still be there tomorrow)

Mom and Cathy wanted to know how my hair was coming in. The back has the most and the front and sides are lagging bit behind. What surprises me it the curls. I had read about people having chemo curls, but I didn't think I would get them. I have never had a curl in my life that wasn't chemically produced. Yet, I have them now. I find myself playing with them and of course I am enjoying having hair again. Still not loving the gray, but I am learning to accept it. It is still too early to think about putting color on it unless I like the color orange. I have never liked orange, unless it was juice.

Please forgive the wonky angle of the picture. It is not so easy to take a picture of the back of your head.

I Love a Good Waffle

Here's another pair of fingerless mitts. Yup. Another one. They are fun to knit and go quickly, so therefore I knit them. This one was a test knit of "Waffle Mitts". The pattern was easy to follow and they turned out cute. I went through my waffle hat phase a while back. These mitts would go well with one of those. Hummm...note to self...hat + mitts.

Proud of My Girl

Tonight was the induction for the National Junior Honor Society. Cara was one of the inductees. Phillip and I are so proud of her. She was not too happy about needing to dress up a bit, but she looked beautiful and grown up. I kept remembering when Robyn was inducted and thinking about how quickly time had passed. It didn't seem like it was 5 years ago. The ceremony went very quickly and soon the kids were free to mingle with their friends and leave.

Bravo, baby girl, bravo.

Azaleas

The weather has gotten warmer and the AC is now on. The flowers outside say it is spring, but the temperatures say summer is close at hand. Ok, pollen. I have had enough of you now!

In Flower

I don't like knitting from charts. I don't think in symbols as well as in words. I know it makes the pattern longer having to write it all out, but it is how I need it to be. I have been wanting to make this pattern, Lotus Hat, for a while. The way the stitches are designed to decrease down to the wonderful pattern at the top is genius to me. That design took some mad skills. I put the hat in my queue and every time a looked for a project to start, I would go back to it to see if anyone had posted they had written out the chart stitches. Nope. Lotus Hat kept getting pushed back further and further down in the queue. A couple of days ago, something just clicked. I was ready to give charts a shot and this was the project I wanted to try them on. I don't know why I was so bunched up about this. It turned out to be easy. The charts were simple and well written. I think charts are like math. I have a built in negative response to them and kinda shut down instead of giving them a try. I am eager to give charts another chance now. This hat pattern made me a believer.

Sweetling

I have a queue of fingerless mitts to keep me busy for a year. I love all of the different stitch pattern and looks each one offers. They are a quick and addictive kind of knit. Those who knit socks say the same thing about that passion. I don't have the desire to knit a huge project like a blanket or a sweater. Give me these fast and lovely knits like hats and fingerless mitts and I will be happy.

This pattern, "Sweet Life" was fun to knit. I love how the honeycomb pattern doesn't show itself right away and then there it is. It is the type of stitch pattern that looks complicated, but isn't. I modified the pattern a bit be making the palm area stockinette instead of ribbed. I love how they turned out.

These are #11 in my 11 fingerless mitts in 2011 challenge. I made it!

Pancake Day

I was reading on one of my message boards that Mardi Gras is also known as Pancake Day in some places. It is a day to use up all of your rich foodstuffs because tomorrow begins Lent. Pancakes are a great way to use up your mild, eggs, sugar and other yummy treats. Cara had a couple of friends spend the night, so making pancakes the next morning was a great breakfast idea. I made some plain and some with chocolate chips. You can guess which ones went first. My plan was to take a picture of of the pancakes cooking, on the plate ready to eat, or of the girls enjoying their breakfast. I didn't have the time since I was like the Little Red Hen around here and no one showed up until it was time to eat. I forgot to take a picture after that and only remembered when it was time to do the dishes. They were good and were quickly done. We might need to do Pancake Day around here more often.

Hold That Tiger

Phillip and I drove up to Baton Rouge to watch the Tigers take on Princeton. My Tigers were 11-0 and I was looking forward to making it an even dozen wins. We had great seats we found on Stub Hub and we invited Danny and Marie Jane to watch the game with us. I brought this hat to work on during the game in hopes of knitting in team colors would add some mojo for our players. It didn't work. My boys lost by a point. I think Phillip put the kabosh on it by saying the "If we played Princeton 20 times we would win all 20." Yup. Let's blame it on that.

I'd Rather Have Tea

Well now I am back to knitting fingerless gloves. I truly have no one to give them to at this point. I will keep them and use them as a jump on my Christmas knitting. This pattern is called "Cafe au Lait Mitts". They have a great texture to them and are very fun to knit. The yarn, Simply Soft Shadows, has been discontinued. I love this yarn. It is so soft and has wonderful color changes. I bought all they had at Hobby Lobby when it was on clearance. I will be sad when it is all gone.

These are fingerless mitts #10 in the 11 fingerless mitts in 2011 challenge.

Lucky Me

It was time I knit a hat again. I found a great looking cable hat and gave it a go. It is called "Lucky & Hat". I love how the cables decrease down at the top. The designer took a lot of care to get it to look just right. I love knitting cables. I was so afraid of them because they looked difficult. They just look difficult, but they are so easy. I am not fancy enough to knit them without a cable needle, but I will knit cables anytime.

So Comfy Cozy

I found yet another great free pattern for fingerless mitts on Ravelry. The pattern is called "Cozy Thermal Mitts". They were oh so easy to knit and fit great. This is another one for the "I'll make these again" list.

These are fingerless mitts #9 in the 11 fingerless mitts in 2011 challenge.

Gilly and Jacky

I am having so much fun lately with my test knitting. This in another pattern I am helping to knit and check the pattern for the designer. I haven't done a slip stitch pattern in a while and was looking forward to this one. It gives me the opportunity to do colorwork without all of the pain of stranded colorwork, like I did on the mitts You Are Here. I LOVED this pattern. It was fun to see how the variegated yarn would knit up and how the colors would present. Some yarns have long stretches of color. Others not so much. This particular yarn looked great. It changed quickly and added lots of color changes to the mitts. I have some more yarn I want to try with this pattern. You will be seeing this one again.

This are fingerless mitts #8 in the 11 fingerless mitts in 2011 challenge.

Now Anne Needs a Waffle

Kat's sister, Anne, lives way up there in Wyoming. I love Wyoming. It is so beautiful, but cold in the winter. She came down for a wedding and could not get over how it felt colder here. It is as they say "the humidity" I guess. Kat started knitting her a hat, but could not get into it. I offered to take it over and knit up a hat for her poor sister's head. This is the finished product. I love the Waffle Hat pattern. It is good and stretchy and looks interesting.

It's That Time Again !

It's time for LSU baseball! Woo hoo! I loves me some baseball. The season opener was last night and we have a 3 game series with Wake Forest. The weather was perfect. Not too hot. Not too cool. The seats were great as well. The Tigers played well and won the game. Two homers were hit by the Tigers, one by JaCoby Jones and this one by Mikie Mahtook. Mikie hit two last night, so he is on a roll. I look forward to going to more games this season. Go Tigers!

Mocking Bird

A friend is having a baby and I took this opportunity to knit a baby hat. I have not done one in so long. I forgot how quickly they went. This one had a great mock cable stitch. I hope she doesn't think it is too girly, because the hat is for her baby boy to come. I will use this pattern again in the future. It was a fun knit.

Since this was a baby hat, I am not counting it toward my 11 hats in 2011 challenge. It was too quick of a knit.

Choosing Classes for High School

Tonight the Class of 2015 registered for classes at FHS. My baby is starting high school next year. Time has sped by. She is so excited and ready for the big leagues. Having gone through the process once before with Robyn has allowed me to be much more relaxed about the process. I was talking to a couple of parents last night who will have their first/only one beginning high school. They looked a little worried and concerned about high school. It is a little scary. Freshmen look so little compared to the upperclassmen. It is hard to know where their classes are at first and which is the best way to get there. Going through the Mall to get to class can at times be the worst option. I plan to get Robyn to take Cara and some of her friends over to FHS this summer to let them look around and get their bearings a bit. That should help to ease some of the concern for the parents a tiny bit.

Unbreak My Heart

I have started checking in the Free Pattern Testers forum on Ravelry. Since starting to write some of my own patterns, I am interested in the process of getting patterns tested. To this point, I have tested my own. I found a pattern I was interested in testing. I contacted the designer and was chosen to be a tester. I enjoyed knitting the pattern and the mitts are adorable. I am still not sure if I am brave enough to put one of my patterns up for testing, but I am loving the two test knits I have participated in and look forward to doing more. This pattern is Broken Spiral Mitts by Stephanie Benning.

These mitts are #7 in my 11 fingerless mitts in 2011.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to Phillip. I still promise to be by your side in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, and in good times and bad. I love you.

You Are Here

The February KAL in the Fingerless Glove Fanatics on Ravelry is colorwork. I have never done knitting that requires me to use multiple colors of yarn within a row of knitting. I thought I would give it a try. There is a designer, SpillyJane, who designs mittens that make me drool. She has a fun sense of humor and that comes out in her mitten patterns. She has mittens with cupcakes, hamburgers, pints of beer, bacon...as well as some that are just lovely to behold. I was not brave enough to give the cupcake mittens a go (those are my favorite), but I did find a pair that I was willing to try. These are from her pattern, Quo Vadis. It is a bit tricky to do stranded knitting. You carry both yarns across the back of your knitting using one or the other to make a stitch. It is hard to know how much tension you need in your yarn. Too much and the mitten is tight and puckers. Too much and the mitts don't come out the same. One will be a bit larger. I seemed to err on the too little side on the first one. It is tighter than I would prefer. The second one is just right in size, but is a bit larger than the first. It may be something only I can see, but I think I did a pretty good job for my first attempt. Am I ready for the cupcake mittens? Only if someone else makes them.

This is #6 in my 11 fingerless mitts in 2011 challenge.

Dungeons and Dragons Part I

Cara and her friends love playing role games on the computer and on the Wii. Phillip wanted to share the role play game he played growing up, Dungeons and Dragons. I never played it but I heard lots of people did back in the day. The Dungeons and Dragons "party" is so popular that Cara had to have people over on two weekends to let all of those interested play the game. I love how the girls came dressed in some sort of costume. They got all into it. Cara has great friends and they are usually game for anything. Phillip was excited to read back up on the game and to create a story line for the girls to follow. They had a wonderful time.

Robyn

The pattern is done and I am happy with this one. It was fun to create and easy to knit. I have uploaded it on Ravelry and the link for it will be at the bottom of the post.

I present to you...Robyn

Needles- US size 8
Yarn- Worsted weight (pictured hat knit in Loops & Threads Impeccable)
Stitch marker
Needle or crochet hook for weaving in yarn ends

Abbreviations:

YO- yarn over
k2tog- knit two stitches together

Cast on 90 stitches. Place a marker to denote the beginning of the row. Be careful not to twist the stitches.

Knit 3, purl 3 rib for 1 inch.

Row 1- *YO, k2tog, k13; repeat to the end of the row.

Row 2, 3, 12 & 21- *k10, p2, k1, p2; repeat to the end of the row.

Row 4, 13 & 22 - *k5, YO, k2tog, k3, p2, k1, p2; repeat to the end of the row.

Row 5, 14 & 23- *p2, k1, p2, k3, YO, k2tog, k5; repeat to the end of the row.

Row 6, 15, & 24- *k10, p2, k1, p2; repeat to the end of the row.

Row 7, 16 & 25- *p2, k1, p2, k5, YO, k2tog, k3; repeat to the end of the row.

Row 8, 17 & 26- *k5, p2 k1, p2, k3, YO, k2tog; repeat to the end of the row.

Row 9, 18 & 27- *k10, p2, k1, p2; repeat to the end of the row.

Row 10, 19 & 28- *YO, k2tog, k3, p2, k1, p2, k5; repeat to the end of the row.

Row 11, 20 & 29- *k3, YO, k2tog, k5, p2, k1, p2; repeat to the end of the row.

Repeat rows 3-11 two more times. The row number for the repeats is listed above. The next three rows will set you up to begin the decreases.

*k10, p2, k1, p2; repeat to the end of the row.

*k5, YO, k2tog, k3, p2, k1, p2; repeat to the end of the row.

*k13, YO, k2tog; repeat to the end of the row.


Begin the decrease for the crown-

Row 1- *k8, k2tog; repeat to end of row

Row 2- knit

Row 3- *k7, k2tog; repeat to end of row

Row 4- knit

Row 5- *k6, k2tog; repeat to end of row

Row 6- knit

Row 7- *k5, k2tog; repeat to end of row

Row 8- knit

Row 9- *k4, k2tog; repeat to end of row

Row 10- knit

Row 11- *k3, k2tog; repeat to end of row

Row 12- *k2, k2tog; repeat to end of row

Row 13- *k1, k2tog; repeat to end of row

Row 14- *k2tog; repeat to end of row


Cut yarn and run through the remaining stitches to close top.

Weave ends in.


Download here


This hat is hat #11 in my 11 hats in 2011 knitting challenge. I have completed the challenge, but will continue knitting hats.

Watching Out for You

One more hat coming off of the needles for Ken. This is a pattern I saved about a year ago. I love how it is knit to a point and then turned inside out and finished so that when you turn up the brim, the ribbing looks the same. The decreases at the top at a great design feature too. The pattern is called Marsan Watchcap.

Hat #10 in my 11 hats in 2011 challenge.

Square On

I decided to make a couple of more hats for Ken before he starts chemo. He seems to like the previous hat I knit for him. This pattern, Turn a Square, is very popular on Ravelry. It was a fun knit. It was the first time I knit using two colors with out cutting and tying on a new color. Learning how to carry the yarn not in use up the back was easy to learn, but I need to play with my tension some. I love how the hat pattern looks like squares once you start the decreases. I can see why this pattern is popular.

Hat #9 in my 11 hats in 2011 challenge.

The Rob

I am still test knitting this pattern, Robyn. I think I almost have it where I want it. I want to try it once more moving up one needle size to check the sizing.

Hat #8 in my 11 hats in 2011 challenge.

Super Bowl Sunday

We had a couple of people over to watch the Super Bowl. Gary, Kathy, and Ken were invited. Ken was feeling a little under the weather and didn't come. We really missed having him here. We had seafood, gumbo, and yummy chocolate treats. Kat and I knit most of the time. I didn't really pay attention to the game much. I enjoyed having the company of friends more.

Be My Sweetheart

I had the opportunity to test knit a newly created pattern. There is a group on Ravelry, Free Pattern Testers, that tests new patterns. I signed up to knit the "Sweetheart" hat. It was fun to knit a new hat and make suggestions you feel would improve the pattern. It is hard to get into a testing group. Lots of knitters scope out the forum and usually the tester slots are already gone by the time I check in. I learned some things about writing my patterns through this process. I will do this again.

Hat #7 in my 11 hats in 2011 challenge.

Robarooney

Robyn asked to have a pattern named after her. This is a pattern I had previous written, but had not tested it out. Here is the first test run.

Hat #6 in my 11 hats in 2011 challenge.

La Mia Bellezza

For Christmas, I knit Robyn's roommate, Alyce, a pair of fingerless mitts inspired by the more "Twilight". I am not a fan and I don't know if she is either. I just liked the way the mittens looked. I decided to knit another pair, this time making them shorter. One of the wonderful things about Ravelry is that the knitters will often take the time to put into their project pages information on how they modified a pattern. You can see what they did and then take that information to use in your project. I used two modifications on these mitts. One to change them from mittens to fingerless mitts. With the cable pattern, I wanted to see what was a good point in the pattern to stop and bind off. The other was to make them shorter. The original pattern has the mittens going 3/4 of the way to the elbow. I wanted them around 1 1/2 inch past the wrist. Both of the mods worked great. I made my own additional mod by making the palm in seed stitch. I like how the palm area turned out. If I make them again, I will play with the palm area a little, just to center it a bit more. I think they turned out great.

This is #5 in my 11 fingerless mitts in 2011.

Eight is Enough

Here is another hat from my "Ollie" pattern. I can't decide if I like this yarn or not. It is called Amazing and is made by Lion Brand. I had hoped the colors would be more vivid. Also I was hoping I would get to the blues in the yarn, but the hat was complete before I got that far in the skein. This time I played with the pattern by leaving off one repeat to make the hat fit without the turn-up at the brim. I also decided to go up a needle size to see how much difference it made in the fit of the hat. Not as much as I thought it would. It is a tiny bit looser.

I can't wait until I get a full head of hair so I can really determine the fit of my patterns. It is still not long or full enough that I would feel comfortable going about without a hat. I still get called "sir" quite often when wearing my baseball hat. It is white. Maybe I should wear a pink hat all of the time. You would think that the dangly earrings in each ear would give them a clue.

Hat #5 in my 11 hats in 2011 challenge.

Cake Baking with Shelby

Robyn came home this weekend and she and Shelby got together. Whenever they do, a cake is usually made. I love this tradition they started. Robyn and Shelby take turns choosing a cake to make. This time it was Robyn's turn and she chose red velvet. I cannot remember the last time I had red velvet and Phillip had never had it. This cake was the best so far. No mishaps or mess ups. Just yummy cake for all.

Octo-Ollie

I decided to make a couple more hats using one of the patterns I had written. I decided to see how the hat would fit if I left off one of the repeats of the "Ollie" stitch. Would the hat be too short. Nope, it fit just right. I like this fit better than the original and will probably knit it this way more often in the future. I enjoy modifying patterns to suit my needs. They are never big edits, just little ones to fit a different need.

Hat #4 in my 11 hats in 2011 challenge.

No Wool For You

I always got a kick out of when the Soup Nazi was on Seinfeld. We occasionally work in the "No ____ for you!" into our conversations. I thought these would be cute fingerless mitts to try, but since I don't have a recipient in mind, I always knit them up in acrylic. That way I know they will not need special treatment if given to someone who forgets that kind of stuff. The pattern is called "Lofty Wool Cable Mittens" and I usually change up the name of my project when uploading it to Ravelry. I try to make a play on the name in some way. So you can kinda see where this name was coming from. Anyway...I did my usual modifications to change them from mittens to fingerless mitts. If I make them again I will probably not do the increases in the palm area as they are a bit looser than I like. The rolled hem at the wrist is a different twist on the usual ribbing and I like that bit of difference.

This will be my last pair of mitts for NaKniMitMo. I was able to crank out 4 pair.