JC Baby Blanket

I am crocheting my fourth baby blanket in the Lion Brand Marbled Baby Throw pattern.  I love that pattern!  It is easy and you can totally zone out and it's all good.

This time this blanket is for a friend at work.  She went out on maternity leave and she will be due back really soon, so I really need to get on the horn if I want to send it to her before her return.

I am using Loops & Threads Impeccable (100% Acrylic, 128g each) in Clear Blue, Soft Fern and White.  While I am working with it, I am not loving this yarn; it is very stiff.  I am used to doing this large project with Berroco Comfort and that is relaxed and not so much strain on your wrists to get it out of the skein and to manipulate.  I wanted to save a few bucks (in case I never see this gal again; who knows, she may love staying at home and quit her job at work.  It would not be the first time I have seen this happen after the first child is born).

There is Razzy, helping me crochet.  Yarn attracts the cats, no doubt.  I ended up using one whole skein of each color and a little bit from a second skein. 

These types of blankets relax the more you wash them.  Acrylic is not the softest yarn, but it is sturdy.  It can withstand lots of wear and tear.

It will be nice to have a little blanket to cover either mommy or baby during those late night feedings or a nice square to lay down for the baby to hang out on the floor.

This was a simple granny square thing, around and around.  Perfect project for a beginner crocheter and a perfect project to use up scraps of yarn.

Arm-Knitting

Yup, Arm-Knitting!

I made an arm-knitted infinity scarf for my friend for her birthday.  Vince's daughter showed me a YouTube video of arm-knitting and I was like, "Huh?  I need to try that!"

 

The tutorial I like is this one:  Vicki Howell

 

You need at least 2 skeins of bulky or super bulky yarn.  You can also use multiple strands (about 4) of worsted weight yarn.

 

In my project I used 2 skeins of Vicki Howell's Sheepish Stripes in Punk(ish) and 1 skein of Red Heart Boutique Sashay in Boogie.

Sheepish

Sashay

 

As you can see, I have a purple theme going on here.  I bought the Sheepish yarn but I had the Sashay in my stash.  The Sashay you are supposed to make this ruffle scarf with, but I never got around to it.  This project is perfect for it.

 

Basically, with arm-knitting you are using your arms as the knitting needles.  This creates a very large gauge knitted item.  The concept is the same as knitting, really!  I had to watch the video a few times and practice the cast-on and did a few rows, then I took it out and started "for-real."

I am in the midst of doing it above.  See how large the gauge is?!  It's huge! 

Above is the knit side.  Below is the purl side.

The green you see in there is the Sheepish self-striping yarn.  It has the purple and green in there.  Love it!

Here it is finished.

You can also double it.

And, of course, me wearing it (got to try it out before you give it away!

Very Cozy!!

I'm also knitting these for Relay for Life (in addition to the Coffee Cup Cozies).  I will post more about it in my next post.  Clearly, everyone will want one! :-)

Ice Cream Cozies

For the ladies at work, I wanted to knit them all an ice cream cozy.  I had previously knitted one and gave to my friend and she loved it!  Here is that post:

• Ben Ice Cream Cozy

I have 6 ladies at work and I assume they all love ice cream.  Perfect!  I started out by buying a bunch a different, vibrant colors of yarn at Joann's:

 

I chose Deborah Norville's Everyday Soft Worsted (100% Acrylic).  The colors I went with were, clock-wise from top:

• Electric Green
• Aubergine (Purple)
• Baby Yellow
• Wild Blue
• Neon Pink
• Snow White

Here are the finished cozies:

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Once I was done knitting those, I decided to make 2 more, one each for Vince's daughters:

 

 

 

When I gave my work friends their cozy, I also had a cooler full of pints of Ben & Jerry's ice cream.  They each got to pick out their flavor.  I will do the same for Vince's daughters.

 

I do still owe the friend I originally knitted one up for at least one more.  She has two daughters, so, I will probably knit up two more.  These make the best gifts!

 

What is your favorite Ben & Jerry's ice cream??  Share your thoughts in the comments!

 

Mine is Chunky Monkey (Phish Food is a close second) :-)





Braided Towel Rug





Merry Christmas!

 

For Christmas this year, I wanted to make my sister something.  I had an idea for last year, bought the items to make it and then ran out of time.  This year, I uncovered the items I bought and convinced myself that I had enough time to make it and just do it, no more excuses.

I got this idea from a blog called Sisters of the Wild West, with a project called Braided Towel Rug.  Pretty much the project is a braided rug made with towels.  So, I bought 3 different colored towels, a green, a beige and a yellow towel.  I washed them and then cut them into strips.

 

This sounds easier than it was.  This made a complete mess.  I will soon show you...

Cutting the towels require you to trim off the seamed edges.  Then cut the towel into about 1.5" strips.  Well, let's just say that this project is very forgiving and you can be 1/2" to 1.5" and still be okay with it.

Cut into strips, each towel.  Depending on how big you want this rug, depends on how many strips you will use. 

Each towel yielded about 19 strips.  Because the towels are terry cloth, the loops in the towel get trimmed and make a complete mess.  Utterly miserable!!

This was generated by a shake down of each strip to separate the cutting colors after cutting into strips.   My cutting mat was not too pleased with the after-results either:

I did use a rotary-cutter.  The rotary cutter left behind all of this in the cutting mat.  I had to take my fingernail and scrape the mat.  Not too much fun, but it was a quick task.

 

First, you take one strip of each color and sew them together.  Next, start braiding the three strands.

 

When you come to the end of the strands, you then sew the next strand onto the end of the braided respective color.  You do this for several strips until you have an extremely long braid.  You then start your rug forming.  To form the rug you take the initial sewed strips (the beginning) and start forming a circle in itself:

In order for you to keep everything together, you will need a needle and button thread.  Button thread is thicker and will hold-up to tough wear-and-tear.  So, sew the inner braid to the outer braid of the inner circle. 

 

I made a long braid and then started the rug.  When I got to the end of the braid, I then sewed on more strips and braided.  Continue in this fashion until your rug is the diameter you would like it.

 

I wanted to make a bath mat sized rug.  I only used about a quarter of the rug strips.  It took me about 2 hours to wash and cut the towel strips.  Then another 4 hours to braid and sew the rug in a circle.  No joke, it took awhile.  Plan for this to be a half day to full day project.

I was pleased with the bath mat size, no too shabby!

I almost used a full spool of button thread on just this bath mat.  Buy a few spools, just to be on the safe side. 

Here it is complete.  I like it!!

The cats liked it too.  I left the rug unattended for a few minutes and I come back to them snuggling on it!  I should not be surprised by this. 

Ahhh, the rug feels nice under my bare feet.  I hope that my sister enjoys it too.

 

Merry Christmas!!

New England Patriot's Beanie

A friend asked me to make a few hats for her son.  I had made her daughters a few hats in the past years, so they must have gone over well, because she is asking me to make more.  I love knitting for someone who will use it! 

 

Her family is a real sports-loving family, Patriot's, Bruins, Red Sox...all of those and probably more, I just don't know.  I decided to knit her son a New England Patriot's inspired beanie hat.  I looked online and this is one that I found:

I got this!  I went to Joann's and bought 3 skeins of yarn:

A navy blue, gray and dark red.  All of these are Lion Brand Vanna's Choice (100% Acrylic).  Perfect yarn for washing a ton of times and still holding up.

 

I adopted a pattern from one of my magazines for basic beanies and figured out when I would need to change colors.

I started with a k2, p2 ribbing for the brim.  Then just straight stockinette st, then started the decrease for the crown right after the last red stripe.

 

I then topped it off with a navy blue pom-pom.

It's finished!

 

It practically fits my head, so I hope that I did not make it too big!  I will be visiting Mass the weekend that this is posted, so I will be giving it to her then.

 

Stay tuned for more Christmas knitting!

Vivien's Layette

I had scheduled a few vacation days mid November to chill and get a jump start on my Christmas shopping/knitted gift knit time.  Since I was going to be off from work, I wanted to pay my friend a visit who had a preemie baby in September.  You know what that means??  I needed a homemade gift, pronto!

 

I had crocheted a few baby blankets:

• Bata Blanket - Finish
• Bata Blanket #2

But did not have the time to crochet up a baby blanket so I chose a baby layette.  The pattern was a free pattern I found on Ravelry by Linda and here is her blog: http://clickertyclick.blogspot.com/.  Very crafty gal!

 

I chose Cherub DK Multi by Cascade Yarns in Rainbow Sherbert (55% Nylon/45% Acrylic).  This yarn to so soft and was a pleasure to work with.  One skein worked up this newborn baby layette.  I used a size 4 circular needle.

 

This yarn is so sweet!

 

I followed the pattern to the T.  I could have made it a bit longer, but it all worked out in the end.

 

 

This sweater had raglan sleeves (sleeves that are worked with no seams) and I am in love with raglan sleeves!  You leave the stitches live at a certain point you simply place them back on the needle and knit in the round to complete them.  So simple!!

 

 

The sweater design had eyelets as the pattern.  Nice and simple = fast knit.  No time for fancy-smancy lace design right now!

 

 

Stitches are live, so I placed them back on the same 40" long circ needle  and I finished the sleeves using the Magic Loop technique.

 

 

The hat was way too small.  I will make another hat for her at a later date.  The sweater did fit:

 

 

So cute and little!

 

 

I posted this pic of me holding Vivien on Facebook and everyone thought that I was a natural and/or thought that this was my baby or I should be having one!  Ha!  I like other people's baby's...I'm good!

 

After I fed her a bottle, she fell right to sleep in this position.  No boppy needed after the feeding.  I'm glad that Vivien is healthy and doing well and (on the side, am happy that the sweater fit).

 

Until next time, Baby Vivien!

 

More Coffee Cup Cozies

I have knitted a total of 7 coffee cup cozies for the Relay for Life Charity I spoke about in an earlier post:

• Coffee Cup Cozies

Here are some of the other finished ones:

I thought this one was going to look a bit dated, 1980's or something, but I really like it.  I has a nice stretch to it.  I held two different strands together.

 

I tried doing a horizontal cable and the cable pattern was too elongated for my liking.  Eh, not so much on this one.  I can definitely can improve this design.

This is my second attempt at cables and I really like it!  This is actually a cable made without a cable needle.  Very clever, I will not reveal the secret stitch just yet.  This is one of my favorites.  Since it is cabled, I can charge a little more for it.

I have made a few of this style already.  This one is cotton self-striping yarn that I had in my stash.  Each one will stripe a bit different.  It has an ombre look to it.  Very chic.

I had a yard sale a few weeks ago and here is me modeling my coffee cup cozie:

I was totally working it!

 

I bought one ball of yarn to knit more with (I will use the rest of the yarn from my stash).  It was Bernat Mosaic in Psychadelic (100% acrylic):

 

 

How cool is that?!  I think they were emulating Noro yarns, which have extremely vivid, saturated colors.  I made one with this and each one will end up looking completely different due so the vast color differences in the skein.

 

 

I made two cozies from the rainbow yarn and here is the other one:

So, they will have completely different colors.  Neat-o!

A fellow Relay for Life crafter let be use some of her Red Heart Super Saver to knit some up.  At first I poo-pooed the Red Heart, but they came out really neat.

This one is also Red Heart.  Excellent elastic memory, I do have to admit.  How fun!:

The last one I have made, then I will see how they sell, is a another cabled one:

I'm taking orders!  Let me know what idea you have for my next Relay for Life craft project!