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.