well it's been a very long time since I blogged. I've decided to give it another try. At the moment I have become addicted to knitting mittens, which is odd as it's the middle of May.  It would have been better if I had started making them in Oct. My life has it's own time delay. I blame work, it started when I realized the fall flowers have already started arriving. It also means the the dreaded season of glitter will be here in a few weeks. Oh well, I have to go finish making the thumbs on this latest pair of mittens.

Merry Christmas

     Well it's December 25 and I've already started planning for next year. I've spent the last few weeks knitting and crocheting like mad because as usual I've left most of it until the last minute. You know how it goes, you think you have lots of time left and then life gives you a slap and reminds you just how long it takes to knit a pair of mittens or crochet a hat.
     Any way I've decided on three things for the new year
     1) to learn some new stitches
     2) to make at least one generic type gift a month
     3) to make something from one of my many books once a month, this means that once I make a pattern from a book it goes back on the shelf until next year.
     4) to blog more.

     This month I'm learning the star stitch, I'm going to make a wash cloth using it, 2 things done. Learned a new stitch and will have part of a gift for next year. Lets see how it goes.

I like this, just sharing.

   While on a break from my current project I decided to make a hat.Seems simple enough, I love making hats. I learned something today from that decision, read the pattern first, do that before casting on.  I am not fond of doing ribbing, I mean on a scale of 1 to 10 it rates around a 2, necessary but tedious, Why am I telling you this, well the hat pattern I picked has a ribbing for the band. It  is  knit   lengthwise,  186 rows of ribbing doesn't sound like a lot until that is until you spend several hours knitting and discover you're only half way done. Plus you slip the first stitch of every row, so on top of knitting k2 p2 for several hours I also spent time redoing rows when I forgot to slip one and knitted it instead.
   Finally finished the band, then read the next set of directions, pick up x number of stitches, no problem. Wait for it, the next row said inc in every stitch across, really? By now I have too much time invested in this hat to quit. I will emerge victorious over this hat however someone will be getting a lovely hat for a present because by the time I'm done I will heartily sick of this hat.

 

My plan to knit something from every book I own has had a small setback. It's all Chapters fault, really it is, I needed to order a text book for one of my sons and while I was online I found this. Seriously how could I resist, it's brilliant. Now I'm off to pick a zombie for my very own.

I'm Stuck, not literally, just creatively. I need to have more than one project going at all times, which means I need to pick at least one more book to work from. But which one???? Decisions, decisions, oh and I need to be able to make it using stash yarn. I need to set a few hours aside to do this, in the meantime I'll make a hat.

book 3
So I made a pair of slippers, I now have warm toes and have picked the next book to work from. Winter is coming and I need to make Lily a new sweater. Lily is my dog, she runs the place. Sometimes she lets me be in charge, sometimes, not often. She is never thrilled about her sweaters but she's a small dog who loves deep snow. The sweater is practical, the added decorations not so much. Once again I discovered this book was not listed in my library. I have no idea of what I own.

                                              

This is Lily