A little bit of Knit

Knit Dishcloths

I started these yesterday afternoon while I waited for DD's bus.  I'm surprised I've gotten the first one done already.  Seems practice does add to your speed.  These are dishcloths.  I've always had this on going problem of the towel sliding into the sink or worse onto the floor as it dries, so as the slightly long and skinny dishcloths, I made for DH for Christmas, seem  to slip less, I went the extra step and knit pearl stitches into the center stripe.  I'm hoping they will provide a bit more resistance against slipping.

I took the picture with the little pearls down as they don't show as well as the knit side.  What do you think of my little loops at the end?  I've been putting those in at the end of my dishcloths lately, it doesn't take any extra work and I feel it makes them a bit more versatile.  Not to mention now they can hang from the loops to dry!  LOL.

This yarn is another cotton ball because the cotton is so nice to work with and provides a nice texture when knit.  This little pair will be off to my neighbor's as a just because gift and of course because she lent me the use of her iron for me to alleviate my quilting itch, shh don't tell.  I bought the yarn when we were out shopping together the other day she liked the green and I thought the blue made such a fresh blend I couldn't resist buying it.

In case you're wondering I have cut the strips for the triple border of my Tropical Waves Quilt, but I am waiting on my new iron - due from Amazon on Monday!!!  - before I proceed further.  I will be so glad to have an iron in the house again and that's from a person who hates to iron.  How did I get here?  I actually liked my neighbor's iron so much that I bought the exact model she lent me.  I'll tell you all about it after it arrives.

A Box of Knitting

Today I started and finished the final blue dishcloth, all that knitting all at once and my hands are protesting a bit, next time I knit I'm back to a little at a time!

These will be joining the wrapped presents awaiting their debut under the Christmas tree.  They are made with 100% cotton yarn and all have a loop at the end for hang drying.

Dusting Girl

This morning my daughter told me she wanted to dust something, so I have to show this photo I took of her dusting.  She looks so grown up, at least to me.  Her school is having a pumpkin decorating contest and even though I tried hard to convince her to use other mediums she stood stoutly by her markers.  That is until I suggested using glitter for the inside of the mouth.  Yes those are my beloved PeeWee Glitters.  I think next time I'm at the store I get some of the "kindergarten kind", so I don't panic quite so much over the sheer volume it's taking.

Pebbles

I myself have been busy.  I mentioned a while back about buying a darning foot for the Elna because it's such a good little machine and the brother is clearly the rebelling teenage sister.  I found a great deal on Ebay for a Big Foot to fit Elna and it arrived a couple of days ago.  I quickly caught up with the quilt-a-long by doing zigzags, these ribbon candy wiggles, and I did pebbles because I've done loops before, as you can see I struggled the most with those.

Ribbon Candy Loops

ZigZags

Then I still wanted to quilt and as the machine was loaded and ready to go, (the spirls hadn't posted yet) I went on to sew over the lines the the butterfly.  I'm having a bit of trouble with getting the tension just right as I've never freemotioned on the little Elna before, and I feel like my stitches are way small but these by far were my best tracings in the history of my attempting to trace.  I just love how it lifts the butterflies.  Connecting them I have use alternating loops as though the butterflies are flying to each other.  I'm not certain how much the quilting should be filled in.  What do you think?

Butterfly freemotion trace

My Christmas kittens are all done!

I finished up my little Christmas Kitties last night, you know the ones with the crazy button eyes?  I only added one loop at the corner for hanging to allow them to keep their bit of whimsy.  They make me smile every time I look at them.  The pieces are cut and machine sewn.  They they are flipped and ironed.  I hand stitched the faces.  I hand stitched down the white sock patches.  At my DH's suggestion I ran a thickness of four cotton threads through the needle, then I made the big obvious stitches both in green and the a line of gold which is more subtle at the bottom of the top white ruff. When I had the kittens attached to their stockings I felt the desire to machine sew the stockings down to the background fabric, but I resisted and hand stitched those down too.  So if you don't see the stitches they simply aren't there to see.  I love these two little cats, but I have to admit I crumbled up the template pieces I used and threw them away.  I can't imagine willing myself to do so much handwork, it's lucky my tendonitis didn't flare up.

I've of course been working on my knitting, not to much as I don't want my DH to ask me what I'm doing but I did start another little dish cloth.  I've used this type of yarn before but never on a straight edged project so it's interesting to see it progress.  I did spend a minute dreaming of those knitting machines, but then my mind drifted to other things as often happens with knitting.

Dish Cloth Progress 3 of 4

Sunny has taken to sleeping here in the living room since we had those two or three pretty days when the windows could be open.  I think he's dreaming with his eye open about the thrill of the wind in his face.

Sunny in the window

Christmas Quilt-a-long Evening Wrap up Session 3

Let's see after lunch I kitted one of these.  My DH told me many months ago that he prefers the dishcloths I knit to the ones we buy, something about more scrubbing power, so he's getting a pile of them for Christmas these are #1 and #2 (the first one I made a month ago) and I rolled the yard to make two more.

I also made 8 items all the same that you use around the house, but I'm not posting those yet.  Yes I do feel a bit odd that I spent the afternoon of a quilt along knitting, but it was nice to sit on the couch a while and watch some of the sewing shows that had built up.

LOL!  I just noticed that the yarn ball I worked so hard to make look like a ball actually looks rather egg shaped.  Oh well.

Knitting

Do you need to do something while you sit?  I can watch tv without having to have something in my hands, but waiting on the other hand requires something.  I took out my denim patchwork out to the bus this first week while waiting for DD.  That worked out pretty well, except of course that we've been having heat indexes of 153 degrees and having a quilt on you even after the hottest part of the day has past is asking to much.

So when I was at Joann paying to much for my 4.5" square up ruler - it was supposed to be on sale 40% off but online Joann has a different idea of what's in the sale flier than my local store so I ended up paying full price...  I bought a couple balls of Lily Sugar'n Cream yarn.  If you haven't touched this super soft 100% cotton made right here in the good old USA I highly suggest you do.  It's amazing, and my hands that can't stand to touch wool love me for selecting such a soft alternative.

Currently I'm making dish cloths.  DH thinks they are better at scrubbing pots than store bought towels, so I figure I can knit out a couple and stash them for Christmas or something.

Yarn Guilt?

My sister brought over two small skeins of yarn. She claimed it made her feel guilty having it laying around. I thought she was being silly, but sure enough before very long those two skeins started making me feel guilty too. So three nights ago now I started these. I'd fully intended to make myself a couple of dish cloths, but about halfway through the first one I thought they were so pretty. I'm thinking perhaps they will be better suited as trivets for a house warming gift someday. We'll see.

Birthday Knitting

I promised a photo of Jessica's knit birthday presents so here they are. There are two boas which each measure about 33". As well as the little kisslock clutch purse. The scarves are 20 cast ons wit needle size 8, this was smaller than I'd heard recommended but it was what we had so we went with it. This fuzzy yarn is a tyrant to work with, and after the first 10 or so inches of the purple one I passed my off to my DH to finish. Of course this was after extracting a promise that he would finish both if I made a purse. Oddly, he found that to be funny.

Making a knit purse, why is that funny? Once again this was 20 cast ons, I increased to 25 total and knit till I was happy with the size, then I decreased back to 20, and knit about 10 more rows. The key to this yarn is loosely she goes. Knit the second size (I did one side in white and one in the purple... Then came the kisslock clasp. I hand sewed the two pieces together until I reached the of my decrease. Carefully I hand stitched the knitting into the anchor holes of the clasp. There are a whole bunch of them!

I wanted it to be lined so that the crazy fuzzies would only be on the outside and thereby not effect the clasp. I used a scrap of stretchy apparel fabric. The knitting has stretch so the lining fabric will accommodate more as needed also. I hand sewed the lining to the clasp. Sewing the lining second means none of the seams can be picked at messed with or pulled on, prolonging the overall life of the clutch, not to mention everything stays put while you work! Then I filled metal clasp on each side with a bit of hot glue. Be careful not to over do it on the glue or else you end up having to cut some away so it will close (as me how I know).

Last but not least my DH crocheted the shoulder strap using both yarns. He's really something else.