Oh Nuts

  For all of my knitting buddies A NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS ‘Twas the night before Christmas and all around me was unfinished knitting not under the tree. The stockings weren’t hung by the chimney with care ‘cause the heels and toes had not a stitch there. The children were nestled all snug in their beds, but I had not finished the caps for their heads. Dad was asleep; he was no help at all, and the sweater for him was six inches too small. When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I put down my needles to see what was the matter. Away to the window I flew like a flash, tripped over my yarn, and fell with a crash. The tangle of yarn that lay deep as the snow reminded me how much I still had to go. Out on my lawn, I heard such a noise, I thought it would wake both Dad and the boys. And although I was tired, my brain a bit thick, I knew in a moment it must be Saint Nick! What I heard then left me somewhat perplexed-ed, for not a name I heard was what I expected. “Move Ashfor...

The pattern for this blanket is actually for a dishcloth, but I decided that I didn't want to use the pattern to make a dishcloth. Instead, I decided to use it for a blanket. Now the reason why I am doing in reverse is that a while back I had found a blanket pattern on Ravelry for a Mitre Blanket where you start with somewhere between 300-600 stitches on the needles, depending on the size blanket that you wanted to make. That was before you slowly make your way down to one-three stitches at the very end. And I tried making a blanket with that pattern once with 600 stitches and I didn't like it. So after a while I found this pattern and finally decided to give it a try. taken by me The pattern calls for you to use " worsted weight cotton yarn (Lion Kitchen Cotton or Sugar and Cream) and a pair of size 7 knitting needles," to make a dishcloth. To make the blanket I am using size 9 circular knitting needles and six skeins of Lion Brand Homespun in Pearl  and Pain...

Back in January of last year one of my cousin's got engaged and I had the idea to make them a blanket, though I didn't know what yarn or pattern I wanted to use for it. Then in the middle of February/beginning of March I was at the library across the street hanging out with the Fiber Arts that meets there every week and one of the ladies there was giving away a bunch of free yarn and in the yarn was a plastic bag with three skeins of Mainstays Home 4-Ply Worsted yarn (colorway: Mountain Top) and I took it home. After having it sit in my room for several months of the yarn sitting in my room collecting dust, I finally found a pattern that I wanted to use the yarn for, along with a skein of white yarn that I had so that it went farther. The pattern that I found was the Log Cabin pattern. It is a really easy pattern to follow and you can do it with any type of yarn. The beginning of June I started working on the blanket with the intent of having it finished by the bridal show...

Back in September, I wrote a post on one of my many knitting projects, with this particular project being a Ten Stitch Blanket that I am making from balls of yarn left over from previous projects, etc. Well, today I was able to get more yarn, for free, for the blanket so that I can continue to add to it. <---- The stash for the blanket with the new yarn added to what I still had on hand. As you can see from the picture I have a lot of yarn for this blanket, and that is not counting the couple of balls that I had already set aside to use once I am finished with the purple that I am adding to the blanket. I may have mentioned this group once or twice before but at the library across from my house there is a small cafe inside of it and once a week on Wednesdays, they meet there twice from 9-12 and 5-8 to knit, crochet, embroider, etc. And once a year they have what they call a Stitch-In and what it is is one Saturday in May, which happened to be today, they get together from ...

This is one of the easiest projects that I have done, but it is also one of the longest that I have taken to finish. This project started out as a blanket for my sister to take with her to college, but I didn’t finish it before she left (one of the squares still isn’t finished yet). Since I still wanted to use the four squares that I had already made my other sister suggested that I turn them into pillows. It took me a little while to get around to it, but I finally sewed the four completed squares together and made two small pillows for my sister and her fiancee to use in their home once they are married. I am planning on using the last two squares, one of which is still unfinished, to make either one more small pillow, with each square being a different color, or making two super small pillows out of each square, I still haven't decided yet but I will get to that eventually. They were pretty easy to make since each square used an entire skein of Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Den...

Since it's been a couple months since I last shared a knitting project, now is a good time for me to share one of the projects that I have been working on for a while. Anyhow back in November, we found out that one of my other cousin's was expecting their first, so I decided to make a blanket for the baby. When I started making the blanket I didn't know if they were going to wait to find out the gender or if they were going to find out right away so I pulled out the three skeins of pastel variegated yarn that I had and started working on the blanket. The pattern that I used is called Garter Rib Baby blanket , which I found on Ravelry, and it is very easy to work with, though there were a few times where I accidentally started messing up the pattern but caught myself in time to fix it. The yarn that I used is called 'Playground'  and the brand is Mary Maxim Baby Kashmere, and it took me all six skeins of yarn to complete it. And this is the first blanket that I ...

This knitting project came about when Aaliyah said that she had a hard time getting warm. Since we always pick a sibling to get a present(s) for Christmas, instead of getting presents for 8 people, I got Aaliyah as my person and I decided to make her a pair of hand warmers. I created my own pattern using ideas from other patterns, that I found on Ravelry. Cast on 36 stitches using the long tail method*. Row 1: knit all the way across  Row 2: K3, P3 all the way across Repeat these two rows until you reach your desired length then bind off. I made them 7 1/2 inches long. Repeat pattern to make a second one. I made these using straight needles and used the tails that I left at both ends to sew up the edges. But it is super easy to make these on double pointed needles if that is what you prefer. And I used a size 8 needle, unfortunately, I don't remember the brand name of the yarn that I was using. *If you don't know how to do the long tail cast on method, whic...

Back at the beginning of summer, I learned that another cousin was expecting her first. So I started coming up with color ideas to use, other than green and yellow since I had just used those colors for baby blankets. Since I didn't know the gender at the time I decided to go with gray and purple. The colors that I picked out were Lion's Brand Vanna's Choice: Silver Heather, Eggplant, and Dusty Purple. I picked these three colors because I was originally going to make a mitered square blanket (there is a pattern online for this blanket). But as I started working on it one of the squares was larger than the rest and I knew it would look bad if I kept it that way. So I looked for a different blanket pattern that I could make quickly and easily. And in my searching, I came across the Corner to Corner Blanket (C2C) and I went with it because I knew that I could make it quickly. When I made the blanket I used the Silver Heather and Dusty purple for the blanket. Original...

In the past I have used the Curly Edge hat pattern , which I have shared before, to make baby hats. And I was going to use it again to make two more baby hats, but I wanted to use specific measurements this time because I am giving both hats away as presents. The pattern that I used for these hats is  Basic Baby Hat  that I found on Ravelry, which is my go-to for knitting patterns now instead of Pinterest. The first hat I made using this pattern, I followed the sizing for the toddler hat, but I ended up using the wrong size needle and yarn because it was bigger than it was supposed to be and my 17-year old brother and I were both able to fit it on our heads. I finished it and it is currently sitting upstairs in my room. After looking through my yarn stash I found a yarn that ended up working better. Since I got it for free and there was no label, I don't know what type of yarn or what brand it is.  Since I used my size 6 needles it turned out better than ...

Last week when I was writing my post about the five projects that I am currently working on, I realized that I hadn't done a post for a baby blanket that I finished several months ago. So the pattern I used is called Cotton Twill Squares, unfortunately, I don't remember where I found the pattern for this blanket otherwise, I would share the link for it. The yarn that I used for this blanket was 6 skeins of Patons North America Beehive Baby Chunky in Quicker Clover, and there was a little left over when I finished it, and I found the yarn at Jo-Ann's. Back in January, I found out that one of my cousins was expecting their first baby, as well as a family friend, so I got the idea to make them both baby blankets. For the friend, I finished the Malt Baby Blanket that I posted about back in March. For my cousin, I made this blanket. Even though I was constantly changing between the regular knit stitch and the stockinette stitch I was able to make this blanket fairly...

Call me crazy but I currently have five knitting projects in the works, though only two of them are currently active. As I mentioned in a separate post last week, and one other time before, I said that I was working on a Ten Stitch Blanket. That is project #1. Project #2 is a Log Cabin blanket and the colors for this blanker are white yarn and a variegated blue, green, and purple yarn. Project #3 is another Ten Stitch blanket that I started over the summer, but haven't really done much with. The colors for this blanket are goldenrod and two shades of rust orange. Project #4 is a Corner to Corner blanket, and the colors for that are a light gray and a dusty purple, with possible dark purple accents (I don't know for sure yet). And finally, project #5 is a hat, in a variegated gray, white, yellow yarn. Now you are probably wondering why I am working on five different knitting projects. Well, it didn't originally start out that way. It just started out with the first...

Back at the beginning of April, I wrote a post on how I was knitting a  blanket , using the Ten-Stitch Blanket pattern on Ravelry. I also mentioned that I was making it with a bunch of different colored yarn scraps that I had. Well, the other day I pulled it out again and took it apart. What it used to look like Since you might ask why I took it apart, especially since I had already knit so far along. To start off, back in March of last year I wrote a post on how I am the queen of taking knitting projects apart. As I was working on the blanket, I did take a break to start working on two other blankets, I didn't like where some of the colors were falling. Like white against white, camo on camo, and a lot of the variegated yarns were on the same side of the blanket. Once I took the blanket apart I organized it by color. Since there were bits and pieces of the camo yarn scattered through out the blanket I put them into multiple balls so I could have the color scatt...

Since you are probably wondering where I came up with the word "pocrastikniting" I will tell you. I found the word on a reusable tote bag from Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Store , which I now own and use to hold one of my current three and a half knitting projects. Back in February, I had mentioned that I had gotten a free skein of a really pretty variegated green yarn that I wanted to use for a project. The project that I was going to use the yarn for was another baby blanket since I was almost done with the yellow blanket that I had started working on again. Of course when I went to go find more of the variegated yarn I couldn't find it. So I had to go with a different yarn. The yarn that I am using for the baby blanket is a pretty green called "Quicken Clove." And the brand is Patons Beehive Baby: Chunky. I found the yarn at Jo-Ann Fabric. When I went to go check out I saw that Jo-Ann Fabric was selling reusable tote bags as a way to go green. There were s...

Back in July I wrote a post about a baby blanket that I had started making using a pattern that I found Pinterest. I finished the blanket several weeks ago and added the three shamrocks that I had made. When I first started working on the blanket the pattern told me to do a certain amount of garter stitch rows and then do the rest of the blanket, with the exception of the border, in stockinette stitch. I thought that it was a little weird/odd that they would have you do that, though I'm sure that it would look pretty. Since I didn't see the point in that one of my sisters suggested that I keep making the blanket the way that I had been. So I did. In October or November, I can't remember, after having worked on the blanket for several months I needed a break so I stopped working on the blanket. Instead I started working on a different knitting project that I had started back towards the beginning of last year that I have been work on and off. I also made a scarf fo...

Back in August I wrote a post about how I was testing out yarn dyeing . Since it wasn't the right kind of yarn, it didn't retain a lot of the dye. Several Weeks ago a friend and I stopped in Hobby Lobby for a few minutes and we were over in the yarn section and I discovered that they were selling skeins of dye-able yarn. Even though I really don't need more yarn I bought a skein to try dyeing again. This time I tried kool-aid instead of Wilton food coloring. This time around, instead of heating the coloring/yarn combo in the microwave, I tried the dip-dyeing method. When I was looking for a dyeing method I just put it in Google and then found a set of instructions that I liked for dyeing the yarn. I used Black Cherry kool-aid, the sugar free kind, and I used five packets, and I like how the color turned out. Since I used the stove-top method for dyeing yarn it had to cool down to room temp before it could be rinsed out. At Wal-Mart the kool-aid packets are 24¢ each,...

Since I haven't talked about the knitting project(s) that I am currently working on, I thought I would bring you all up to date. Back in July I mentioned that I was working on another baby blanket . It is currently still a work in progress, though I am getting closer to finishing it. Even though I am almost finished with the blanket I had to stop and take a brake from it because I was tired of working on it and I needed to work on something else. That something else was another blanket, that was originally going to be for me, that I had started working on back at the beginning of the year. While I was working on one of the sections, I remembered that I had an extra skein of yarn in one of the colors that I was making the blanket with and I had an idea. Now I am working on making an infinity scarf using a pattern that I found through Pinterest. I started making it the other day and it looks really pretty. It is a really easy pattern to follow and to memorize. Because it is s...

Last week I shared a pattern for a hat that I have made multiple times before, and mentioned that I was working on another one, this time for a baby. As you can see from the picture, the hat is finished and is adorable!!! Even though the hat is supposed to have a curly edge, I decided to change it a bit and did a different stitch on the bottom of the hat instead. Which I think is what makes the hat even cuter. While I was finishing up the hat Rosy suggested that I add a flower to the hat, so I found a super easy pattern for a flower. Because it is such a simple pattern to follow it is easy to make multiple hats at a time. My mom wants me to make her a hat like the one I just made, though I have to figure out how to do that.

Since the cooler weather has finally arrived, YAY!! I started working on kitting a curly-edge hat. Please bear with me because I can't remember if I have already shared this pattern on here before. In case I haven't the pattern I am sharing is from the book "Kids Knitting: Projects for kids of all ages" by Melanie Falick. I have made this hat multiple times before, two times were as baby hats, and once for a stuffed animal. One of the baby hats that I made using this pattern. Since I just started working on a hat in this pattern I thought that it would be fun to share it here. The hat that I am currently making is another baby hat and the yarn that I am using to make it with is "Loops & Threads: Neopolitan." If I remember too, I will try and post a picture or two of the hat once it is finished. So that you can start making your own curly-edge hat, here is the pattern. With size 10 1/2 and 1 skein bulky yarn, cast on 72 stitches. Work in stockine...

Just recently on Pinterest I had started saving pictures of different colored yarn to my main knitting board. Instead of letting the yarn pictures get lost in that board I created a separate board for me to pin them too. Because I had started pinning a lot of pictures of yarn, I started getting suggested pins that were related to dying yarn with kool-aid and food coloring. Of course I had to start saving all of the yarn dying pins as well as putting them in their own board. After looking through the different ways to dye yarn I picked one way that I liked and decided to give it a try. It also helped that I already had a couple skeins of white yarn (The instructions can be found here ). Because it is boring and not a whole lot is going on, I skipped taking pictures of the yarn soaking in the water/vinegar. I didn't bother taking pictures when the yarn was in the microwave either, because you can't really see anything. Since I hardly ever use green yarn for anything, I decided...

The two things that I collect are knitting needles and yarn. I started my collection of needles when I was 10 years old and my grandma taught me how to knit. But I didn't start collecting my own stash of yarn until a couple years after that. For a couple years I just had the pair of knitting needles that my grandma had given me, then one year for Christmas I asked for more needles in different sizes, as well as a couple different skeins of different colored yarn. That was when I first really started collecting my stash of yarn and needles. Of course both collections have grown since then. Back in February I had done a post on the different size needles that I own. Since I wrote that post a pair of size 19 knitting needles has been added to my collection. My yarn collection hasn't changed much over the years since I started it. The collection started back in either January or February of 2010, when I made a blanket for myself. It was started because the November before...