The Super Secret Project!

This is gonna be long so I will try to be as entertaining as I can but I am starting to realize I might not be the best at that. Some of the blogs out there really have me in tears they are so great!

Ok so you have waited for pics! (I don’t even know WHO is out there but I am going to pretend everyone in the free world has been waiting with baited breath to catch a glimpse! HA!) First off let me say that my friend Heather who I knit this for is a VERY close friend. A fellow knitter so I knew I just had to find the RIGHT projects!

I decided on a Popover hat with an adjustable band.....

The hat was so much fun and really pretty simple to do….I could see making more of those at some point. After searching for two days for the colorway of Cotton Tots in the pattern design I e-mailed the designer only to find out it was HAND-DYED Cotton Tots. Grrrrr…..Designer was not pleased that the publisher failed to mention that as well.

Note to Designer: I am really anal in my knitting still. I like to use the exact yarn and colorways I find in a picture so I KNOW what it will look like. If you are asked to submit a design PLEASE can you use a yarn that one can go out and buy? Pretty please? Someday I won’t be so apprehensive but there are others like me. I know because I have asked!

Thanks!
Greatful Knitter

And a Patchwork like blanket made with triangle/kite shaped pieces. After having finished the blanket, the pattern is now ingrained in my head and is now reserved for Grandchildren which is WAY off in the distant future! At least it BETTER be!

I started knitting the Triangle/Kite pieces on January 4^th and I finished seaming on Valentines Day. 6 weeks total. My kids were fed, they had clean clothes and they we re clean.....um...not much else took place!

96 of these:

Each one took me about 30-40 minutes depending on interruptions, what was on TV etc….I was able to do anywhere from 3-7 a day….7 on cold icky Saturdays…..But they were really easy and if you are teaching a beginner a great way to teach decreases!

Fill a shoe box:

I had to change boxes after I started. I don’t know what I was thinking with the toddler size
9 box! This was the biggest box with a lid without buying one that I could scrounge. My family was a real cheering team too. Every night they would say “How many did you do?” “Do just ONE more!” They watched nightly seeing it all come together. They watched with me as the box got more and more full.

Take up and entire Dining Room table - good thing we never use it!:

Now I may be considered anal about this but I

really didn’t want a “pattern” to it and I really didn’t want 2 of the same color touching. As it is I can see a slight pattern but I got clos

e to my goal! I even did an Excel spreadsheet and did auto fill on the boxes with different colors to try and get it right….as it was, once I got it on the table I still needed to do some rearranging.

Knit piece by piece and row by row:

The SEAMING! Goodness I was stressed about this part. I have never seamed anything before. The pattern calls for a crochet edge to seam them. So I called expert knitter Anne and said HELP! She said no problem! However as the dates to finish were looming near we were having a bit of a scheduling issue because lets face it, she’s in St Louis, I’m in Illinois, we both are moms of active kiddos…..both with new pups….all that combined leads to BUSY. So I tell myself, that I really want an invisible seam and all that I could discern was that the crochet seam would not be. I really wanted to do the mattress stitch because I just love how it came together. I told myself “You can do this! You have self taught almost everything you know –except socks….TRY it what’s the worst that could happen?” So I went to knittinghelp.com and I have to say that is the BEST site to learn just about anything you need to know regarding technique. Watch ed the streaming video a few times and voila! I did a happy little dance!

It took me about a week to do all the seeming and then you have a ……

Finished blanket!:

I just really love the “patchwork” effect of this blanket. Reminds me of the quilts our grandmothers and their mothers used to make from play dresses and kitchen drapes….this

would be a PERFECT blanket to make much bigger for a daughter getting married I think, using leftover yarns from your projects as long as they are about the same weight of course. When you finish a project, make a triangle or two …stick in a safe place….

This blanket measured about 40x 60 when it was done…I think. Its hard to remember.

Stats:

576 ends to weave in!

Almost 1 mile of Yarn

About 10000 stitches

It was the biggest project I have done but I knew from start to finish this was THE blanket to make.

The look on her daughters face is just priceless to me!

Heather and her daughter, Alyssa!

Inch by Inch, Piece by Piece

By this time next week my BIG project that I can't even SHOW you will be done! I will have this massive post showing during and after pics....I can't wait to show you! It's my biggest project yet and I have learned so many new techniques.

I am anxious though to finish my Jaywalkers and start another pair of socks for DH! I got him some beautiful yarn from Moutain Colors.

Here are some pics of some friends who got together a couple of weeks ago for dinner.....

Myself, my friend Maura and Tracie - fellow knitting enthusiast! *wink*











Melissa, Heather (who the stealth project is for), Victoriah, Leslie, and Katie (the one who started us all knitting! LOL)








Cindy ( Tales of Yarn, and awesome knitter), Simone, Christy and Angela

SO I know it's been forever!

I HAVE been knitting! In fact I have been knitting like a fiend....in the car, at home, at the coffee shop, I literall am dreaming knitting....why you ask? Because I am on a stealth knitting project for a dear friend and when I envisioned it, I assumed I would have until Early-Mid March to complete it and then wham-o the baby shower was moved up an entire month....SO I am scrambling.. my kids are doing the math....."you need to do this much today mom and every day to finish", my husband is doing the math....."You are gonna teach us all to knit to finish aren't you?" LOL The time it would take though to TEACH them would be wasted when I could be knitting....It IS a labor of love though.....after the shower I will post LOTS of pics to show my journey!

The little bit of knitting content I can share is that I have boughtt about $85 in yarn since the new year (not counting the above mentioned project) and seriously I think I am sick. This is on top of all kinds of yarn I have stuck away in closets....but now that I am really buying all this "Fancy awesome pricey" yarn, the old stuff just sits.....LESSON LEARNED! LOL

I am grasping at straws but I might try to find reciepts for some of it.....

Here is my latest purchases!

More sock yarn! I got the Regia and the stripes from The Loopy Ewe..... Mountain Colors for DH....Trekking XXL for me.....Malabrigo for a good friends baby....I had her go back for one more skein since I found the perfect set to make.....The purple is Louet Gems....I really like the feel of that and I want to make some socks for hanging out in the house! Since Kirkwood Knittery was having a special opening sale, if you spent $50 you got to pick a blind skein out of a grab bag....I knew it felt good but I wasn't sure just how good.....Inca Alpaca!! Very excited at the options there!


Other than that, just trying to stay warm in this frigid air....all the winter blah without any of the winter fun! Snow! Dang it I am so ready for Spring!

Happy Knitting!