Practice Makes…A Little Better

A few days ago, I finally learned a little bit of knitting.

I shared this pic showing what I learned at my craft group. Deb H taught mom and myself. I messed up the ribbing that night, just wouldn’t click.

Tonight I sat down with that same beginner swatch and did some more knitting. And I figured out the ribbing!

After that piece, I decided to practice casting on again, my knitting and purling (dislike purling) and more ribbing. And I got “daring” with the ribbing.

A small bit of basket weave, just a little. Does it show in the picture?

I think I can now add knitting to my craft “resume”! Beginner of course, haha

 

eta: That’s my husband’s thumbs you see holding down that knitted piece.

Another Crocheted Market Bag

Finished my second crocheted market bag tonight. I altered the pattern a little more for this one, making the bottom a little bigger.

I love the colors in this one!

Last night we had our monthly craft group. The agenda was for the knitters to teach the crocheted how to knit. Two sticks are definitely harder than one hook! I think I did decent with the knit rows and purl rows, but ribbing just…doesn’t make sense to me. Yet.

Today, I started a third market bag, this time using Serenity Garden yarn by Deborah Norville in the color way of Earth. Loving the colors in this so far.

I have the last few squares to attach on the Building Blocks blanket then the border and that one will be moved to the “finished” list!

Now if I could only move more off the WIP list before adding more to it!

Crocheted Market Bag

Why did I do it.

Why.

I have projects that NEED to be done. Such as the Building Blocks blanket in my last post.

So of course….I started something new! A crocheted market bag by Whit’s Knits. If you have a Ravelry account, you can see it HERE. If not, follow THIS link instead.

The pattern calls for linen yarn (which I don’t have) and a D hook. Since I don’t have linen yarn, I decided to use cotton yarn instead, an old ball of Sugar’n Cream in the colorway of Americana Ombre, and an I hook. I don’t know if that’s the issue, but I’m ending up with a bigger and bigger circle rather than a bag.

I double checked. Then triple checked. I’m following the pattern correctly.

Anyone else try this pattern before? Does linen make the difference?

Edit to add: I frogged what I had made so far and started over, tweaking a few things on the original pattern.

End result:

Building Blocks Blanket (WIP)

I’ve been hard at work on another baby blanket, this one using 8 fun and bright colors.

Spring Green, Pumpkin, Turqua, Amethyst, Blue, Hot Red, Bright Yellow, and Heartfelt. All by Red Heart.

The ‘dark blue’ in the photo is actually the Amethyst. My phone will not show purple for some reason.

I’ve been crocheting tiny granny squares, small granny squares, medium granny squares, and a few large granny squares.

I cannot show the layout fully yet as I want it to be a surprise for the momma-to-be.

But here is a sneak peek:

All tails from making the squares are weaved. Now I just need to arrange all the squares in a way that I like, then start joining the squares together. Right now it appears to be shaping up to be around 33″x33″. With the border it should hopefully end up 36″x36″ which is perfect for a new baby.

I have roughly three weeks to finish this. Plus about three other projects all due around the same time.

Spring has Arrived 2013

All the windows in the house are open. It’s 70 degrees outside. The sun is shining.

Spring, that fickle season in Michigan, has finally decided to arrive.

My Japanese maple is budding:

My lilac tree is showing signs of life:

And the spring flowers have picked up their pretty little heads to say hello:

What a gorgeous day today!

 

(please ignore the debris/dead limbs in the flowerbeds…this is the first really nice day we’ve had so I haven’t had a chance to clean them all out yet).

Electrified Fabric

Some days, my car just cannot pass by the local fabric shop, Sew Crazy. Seriously! The car forces me to stop there! You’ve had it happen to you too, right? Fabric and/or yarn shops must have some sort of car trap set up. Or remote control on our cars.

Today, the Mazda pulled into Sew Crazy’s parking lot, threw open the door, and tossed me out onto the pavement. Three honks which told me that I “had” to buy something. So I nodded, dusted off my jeans, and went into one of the most fabulous places. The ladies who work there are great.

And the fabrics. Oh my.

Two new purchases today. First up, a pretty golden autumn leaf pattern. This one caught my eye when I first walked in and around the corner.

The picture really doesn’t do it any justice. But I have some fabrics in the stash that I think will work well with the golden colors.

The second piece of fabric, man once it caught my eye, it then caught my breath! Gorgeous doesn’t even describe it. The picture can’t even come close to showing how great it is.

I know, I know, where’s the picture already!

And a little closer up:

Drool worthy? I think so!

Clamshell Pattern swatch and a Sneak Peek

Sandra over at Cherry Heart just recently posted a new pattern called Clamshell.  Absolutely gorgeous!  She wrote up a great tutorial with tons of pictures.  While I love her use of colors, I decided to do more of a contrast using just two colors, black and white.  Right now it is just a test swatch, so I could see how the pattern worked, but I have a different project that I …Must…. Finish… First! (I have to keep reminding myself of that fact…).

 

 

The pattern is not too difficult as long as you pay attention to where you are at in your crocheting. She lists the pattern as Medium Difficulty.

 

 

A sneak peek at my project that I Must Finish (not necessarily in this layout though):