knitting is driving me to drink

Ages ago, I decided to buy someone's Lion Brand Suede that they had listed in their 'destash' pile on ravelry - despite it not being a natural fiber, I like the texture of it and thought it would be fun to make something with it. So, said person happen to have a lot in their stash - a lot of one ball of several colours, and to cut my cost of postage a bit, I bought the whole lot from her.

As it turns out, and I didn't find this out until after I had received the yarn, that she originally made granny squares out of this yarn, which meant that she crocheted one row, cut the yarn, used anothe colour for the next row etc, and the skeins she sent me was in fact frogged granny squares. The yarn had been cut to peices, and despite my best efforts to try to get my money back, I had no luck.

I've had this bag of pretty much shredded yarn for a while, and not sure what to make with it, and I hate to have to throw it away. I finally figured a good use for some of it: I knit this whiskey bottle from Son of Stitch & Bitch - Projects to Knit and Crochet which I plan to pass on to my brother for his birthday.

The embroidery was a bit of a pain but overall it looks alright. The white parts are knit with Paton's Shetland Chunky that I had left over from the vest I knit my dad a while back

friday the thirteenth

There's apparently only one friday the thirteenth this year, and this is it.

Hubby was out doing service calls, and he happened to drive through Port Dover, where all the bikers are gathered today. It's the 30th year of them gathering there, and the 50th anniversary as well. I wonder what the origin is, of bikers and Port Dover and friday the 13th?

hearts revised

I'm destined to not make the same pattern twice, I think. I've started knitting a hearts blanket from some worsted yarn I found in my office - as an effort to destash what I have - it's the pattern I used to knit a baby blanket for my cousin over a year ago. I got about 3 rows done of the large size and just got SO tired of it. So, I redesigned the actual heart part of it, so the actual heart is about 4 stitches wider and 4 rows longer; the entire pattern repeat is now 8 rows longer. In the end I've cast on 6 fewer stitche for the blanket, and with the new heart pattern it's now 7 hearts across instead of 9.

(picture shows original pattern on left, and my revised version on the right, which I think looks much better)

stash busting - turtle style!

Ok, I know - lame Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reference. Had to be done.

I just finished knitting knitty's sheldon - I wound up using almost half a skein's worth of Red Heart Super Soft yarn, between 2 colours. My cousin's having a birthday party for her one year old son on Saturday, where this guy will be gifted.

Not a huge fan of the pattern, although the end result is adorable. It's just in way too many peices, and I hate sewing. But, done nonetheless, and a relatively quick knit.

Baby Items

Well, I didn't use some of the yarn that I said I would to knit these baby items, but I was able to make them anyway. I used a yarn called Robin Aran 400, of which I have a 334 gram skein left. I obtained 2 skeins of it when my MIL came back from Ireland, and I used up all of it to knit DH's aran sweater, but I fell a bit short and was able to find a skein from someone's stash on ravelry. But, I have quite a bit of it left. So, baby items it was.

The soaker pattern is a free ravelry download (I made the small version); the hat is from Stitch & Bitch by Debbie Stoller; and the mittens are available free online (liked via ravelry).

The Great Destash 2010

Ugh, you have no idea how badly I need to destash the yarn that I have. I must have a zillion partial balls of EVERYTHING, and they've just been laying around. And, I feel so bad when going to my LYS to pick up some more to start a new project, when I know I've got so much just laying around.

So, my goal this summer is to not aquire any new yarn until I've knit up at least 1 kg of the yarn I already have. And yes, I'm going to have to use up as much of those partial skeins as I possibly can.

It's quite convenient that I just found out that a friend of mine is pregnant with her second child... so a lot of my stashbusting knitting will go to her. Partial skeins are going to make ideal baby booties and hats. She's not due until January 7th, so hopefully this will be more of a new year's baby than a christmas baby... assuming it doesn't arrive early!

I'm currently working on a pair of baby booties made from Louet Gems yarn - of which I'll make a 3 month old size, and a 6 month old size; I've got a baby sweater in transition (just needs sleeves!) which I'm making out of Yarn Bee Luscious yarn, which will wind up being a 12 month old size.

more knitting done!

I finished another pair of fetching ... this pair is for my sister in law, for her birthday in August.  She's a runner, and had said that she frequetly runs early in the morning where it's sometimes cool or cold. Well, naturally not now in the summer, but these'll work well for when autumn rolls around.

I made a couple adjustments to the pattern: there's an extra cable repeat to the bottom and top part, plus I accidentally knit four more rows than required between the thumb and first cable... which is fine, I think, since that part of the pattern is short and her hands are long.

dog sweaters!

When I posted a few days ago that I was collecting dog sweaters for local shelters, I didn't think I would get a response so quickly! But, I already received a package from Anna over at puppypocket on etsy! She included these 5 lovely sweaters and some doggie treats: which are super lovely! Thanks so much!

 

... which are super lovely! Thanks so much!

two mug cozies, finished

I just finished knitting this pair of mug cozies for my parents in law, who are avid tea drinkers. The pattern can be downloaded from ravelry here - where it also details how to adjust the pattern for a French press... but since my inlaws don't have one, the mug cozies will do just fine! I absolutely heart how these turned out, and I managed to eat through more of my huge stash of Elann Peruvian Wool! woo hoo! 

collecting dog sweaters for local animal shelters

I started doing this a bit last year, but really didn't keep up with it, I think partially because I started too late in the year. But, this year, I think I'll need to start a bit earlier.

I've got three very local animal shelters, who would gladly take in knitted or crocheted dog sweaters - one that is local to me in Mississauga, and two others that are local to family members who live within Ontario but at least an hour's drive from me. I'd like to be able to collect @ least 20 sweaters per shelter - so a total of 60 at least. Although knitted or crocheted sweaters are prefered, any sort of dog sweaters would be greatly appreciated, as long as it's warm.

The sweaters must:
- wrap around the dog's front legs. No cape-style sweaters.
- made from a warm, machine washable yarn or fabric. If it’s not machine dryable, that’s ok, but at least machine washable. Many dogs are rescued in the winter and suffer from frostbite and hypothermia, so a warm fiber content would be needed for these dogs
- fit a 60lb dog or smaller. There's no minimum size, but anything that would fit up to a 60lb dog would be ideal.
- knitted or crocheted doesn't matter, but please nothing lacey or with big spaces in them. If you're making something with granny squares, make sure that it's a more 'closed' pattern. We're aiming more for warmth rather than pretty. 
-  All sweaters must be submitted to me by September 30, 2010.

To get my mailing address, please email me at purplespirit1 {at} hotmail {dot} com ... or via ravelry - I'm knitphomaniac there.

Some examples of this size dog (up to 60lbs) can be found here and here.

Thanks. :)