May 20, 2011

More works in progress... with a different needle variety

I am still working on cross-stitch and needlepoint stuff... in the background of this incredibly fun and speedy thing called knitting.  But, I'm not getting very far.  In fact, I thought I was further on the tea-cup one.  *sigh*

Anyhow, this is what I'm up to.

Cute Zen Butterfly:
Ya know, I had a plan for this at one point.  I was going to have an incredibly Japanese-ly decorated kitchen.  I no longer have this plan.  Now what on earth am I going to do with this when I finish?  No idea.  So it's being worked on S.l.o.w.l.y.  Very very slowly.  This is my progress... not even finished the butterfly, let alone the background.  Ya know, I like cross-stitch, maybe I should dedicate some time to it in the near future.

Trio of Teacups:
Yeah, so I've FINISHED one teacup, but haven't started the other two.  Oh ballz.  That sucks.  I thought I was further than that... I thought I was about halfway done the second teacup!  That makes me super grumpy.
Anyhow, progress to date is such.
Swinging Christmas Snowman:
I got this pattern from Mary Maxim.  It is super super cute and was a lot of fun.  It was my first attempt at needlepoint (I think that's what it's called) and I learned a couple of interesting things 1.  Cut the pieces out of the plastic canvas immediately before you start sewing them so that you don't work on the wrong side of the piece only to find out later that you've done such, and have to take everything out because the canvas is NOT SYMMETRICAL!  2. Make sure all of your stitches go the same way.  It looks stupid otherwise.  Cross-stitch is VERY forgiving this way.  and 3. Figure out which colours are which BEFORE you start stitching.  Now, this is very obvious.  This is something I should know and something I always do.  However, this time, I was tricked by the colours on the package.  Looks like someone else decided that the colouring should be done differently and here I am trying to match colours up and thinking "that's not dark enough to be the dark blue colour, it must be this..."  which was NOT true.  I ended up having to go out and buy another ball of yarn to finish this thing.  Sadly, now that I'm done the stitching work, I have not put the darn thing together.  It was like I went "YAY!  I'm done" and put the whole thing on the shelf.  I know there's no rush to finish it up as it's nowhere near Christmas yet, but still.  The snow JUST went away here and I'm not feeling overly fond of anything related to snow at the moment, so this will probably stay shelved until I get my Christmas decorations out - or until I decide it's taking up too much space in my craft room.

May 15, 2011

Works in Progress - afghans

In an effort to force myself to finish some of the projects that I've been working on for some time, I'm going to start posting a few of them on here at a time.  I figure if I post that there's something in progress, it will give me a little motivation push that I need to finish it.  Hopefully.  (key word, right?)

AND... with no further adieu...

I mentioned I was on an afghan binge.  These are the rest of the afghans I'm working on...

Zigzag blanket
This is actually a baby blanket pattern.  I liked it so much I decided to make a "full-sized" blanket.  Sadly, this was pretty much when I first started knitting... and like so many other projects that came afterwards, I had lofty intentions and no idea how to make them reality (ie. I doubled the size of the blanket... woops).  This blanket is likely going to end up large enough to cover a queen sized bed.  This is why it's taking me so very long to finish... and, well, the pattern is rather repetitive and somewhat boring... the thing is huge already, but I still have a full ball of yarn let to use up.  BUT... I love it... the pattern is easy-ish, but still pretty... I'm just stalled.

The entirety of the blanket.  That ball of yarn is about as big as a grapefruit.

ZigZag Detail
Johnny's Camo "Granny's Attic" afghan
So, this pattern didn't end up making a big enough blanket.  I posted that I was nearing completion on this monstrosity some time ago.  Sadly, when I laid all the squares out to sew it all together, I found that I was lacking, probably half a blanket.  This one isn't going to fit a bed, but it needs to be large enough to swaddle a full-grown person - comfort is key, right?  So, back to the proverbial drawing board... and I started making more squares... and now I just need to tuck in ends (which I SERIOUSLY hate doing.  There are so many ends in this pattern!) and finish sewing it up.  This blanket is probably the nearest to completion of all the WIPs that I have - and yet, I still can't drum up the motivation to finish it.  I'm slowly plugging away at tucking in ends... I get a few squares done a week... or, rather, I WAS getting a few squares done a week.
I must admit, I am rather pleased with how this blanket is turning out.  It's beautiful, but with all the end-tucking and huge number of squares required (the pattern calls for 48, and I ended up making 99), I think I would have to admit to a loss of sanity prior to starting another one of these.

Current status.  The neat pile has the ends tucked already.  *sigh*
The glorious detail.  Love the way it looks.
Rainbow baby blanket
This is one of those "new fun" patterns that caught my eye while I was working on afghans.  Verdict?  This one is going to get shelved for a while.  I can't figure out how to put all the lovely weave sections together.  I WILL figure it out though, but don't look for completion of this one anytime soon.

Quite the non-traditional baby blanket colours.

May 9, 2011

Circles / squares earthy afghan

I'm on an afghan binge!  I'm finishing up afghans and blankets that I've been working on for years and I'm making some new neat patterns while I'm at it.  Sadly, the new neat patterns tend to get the attention rather than the patterns that I've given up on for oh so very long... but... I am REALLY trying to clean out my stash - or at the very least finish the projects I've already started.  This is usually my lofty aim, but I'm a bit of an ADD knitter/crocheter and I go... "focus... ooooh... that looks fun! I'm going to do that...."

On that note, here's the first finished afghan from the binge!  And... you guessed it - new neat pattern!  I found it on ravelry.  I was just looking for something cool and funky - you know, different than the average granny square afghan.  It's purdy.  I used Vanna's Choice yarn in Rust, Olive, and Barley.

Ignore the crochet hook sticking out of it.  It's done now.
 I really like how it turned out.  I mostly finished it in a lovely weekend at the lake.  Isn't that terrible?  It was still snowy out here though, so you'll have to forgive my working through a weekend at the lake.  :)

The only issue I have with how this turned out is that I'm not particularly good at sewing up the squares.  It's a little bumpy on the edges, but otherwise, great afghan!



May 6, 2011

Faux cable socks!

So, I am way behind on my posting.  That is mostly because I keep forgetting my drive with all my photos on it at work.  Ooops.  I have really got to stop doing that.  Anyhow, another good excuse for forgetting to post a lot is that I've actually been working on a lot of projects recently (yay me!) and ones that get finished sometimes... :)

So, I bought a whole bunch of sock yarn from Mary Maxim not that long ago and I thought I would just go nuts and make lots of socks... and, well, I finally finished - A pair.  Guess I'm not going to be a sock knitting machine.  Oh well... I'm trying.   This pattern came with my lovely sock yarn, so I don't think it's actually available online... my bad... but I'm really happy with how they turned out.  It's a faux cable pattern.  No actual cable crossings, but all the effect of cables. 


I'm still trying to wrap my head around how to not make things ladder on dpns without putting a hole in my index finger (aka knitting too tight).