Progress!

A couple days ago I shared a picture of a previous knitting project. It showed the pattern, Pine Forest Baby Blanket by Ingrid Aartun, that I was going to be knitting again in new colors. I have a few inches done now in the blackberry colorway by Caron in Simply Soft Worsted which to my eye is a lovely old fashioned rose pink color. I will be doing another in the blue in the picture and Caron calls that color Blueberry. Finishing these gets 4 skeins out of my stash except for the little bits I expect to have left over. 

I have plans for the scraps too. I want to make some neutral colored hats, black, gray, navy and brown, with accent stripes of my leftover little bits from these blankets and so many of my other projects. I don't think I will ever run out of things I want to make. Most creative types are like me I think. Let me know in the comments if you always have a list of projects that will last longer that your expected lifetime like I do. I would love to hear from you!

Back with more again soon. Take care and stay cozy!

A New Baby Afghan Started

In my determined quest to knit only from stash and to use up the supplies sitting for years so that my craft room is not so overwhelming and cluttered I have started knitting a new baby afghan. So far this year I have finished 3 of these and now baby blanket number 4 is underway using a pattern I have made once before. Below is a progress picture from the first one in a lovely green. The pattern is a free Ravelry download named the Pine Forest Blanket. 

I have plans to do 2 new ones in Caron's Simply Soft which I also used on my first blanket made in this pattern. They will be in the fruity named colors of Blackberry and Blueberry. I only have 2 skeins of each color so gauge is important this time because the pattern calls for 600 yards and 2 skeins gives me 630 yards to work with and I am in no mood to play yarn chicken. With that in mind I found that to get the same size as the original I needed to go down to a size 6 needle instead of the size 8 the pattern called for. Doing that needle change gives me a blanket that is exactly 26 inches across as the pattern says. 

Pictures will be posted on another day when I have made more progress and am in the mood to take pictures. In the meantime you can check out the pattern on Ravelry or click on the pin I created from the pattern page and embedded here and then you can see more of what I have pinned. Just a warning I pin food, lots and lots of food.

  

Back with more again soon. Take care and stay cozy!

A Finish and a New Project Started

I finished my blue and white mini shawl. I say mini because it is really more like a triangular scarf. This piece was knit in garter stitch. I love garter stitch when I want to create a fabric that feels squishy. I think this is a very versatile shape to knit. If you wear the point in the back you have a nice accessory to keep your neck and shoulders warm. Is it just me or do you know that sometimes that is all you need to feel comfortable and keep you from tensing your shoulder muscles and getting sore? If you wear one of these mini shawls with the point in front under your coat on a blustery winter day you can keep the wind out and stay nice and cozy while "walking in a winter wonderland".

So moving on I have started a new baby afghan. Have to have something on a hook or needles at all times. It is how I get through life without hurting people. LOL. This is the third time I have made this pattern and certainly won't be the last. This time the yarn is a cheerful, sunny, you just gotta smile yellow. The pattern for the knit Free Sunny Baby Blanket can be found by clicking here. I like this pattern for its ease. It makes for great tv knitting. I also like solid rather than lacy patterns for baby blankets. This is so that little fingers and toes don't get caught. 

My triangle mini shawl all done.

Rows and rows of squishy garter stitch.

The next project (a baby afghan) cast on last night.

I have to end with a rant. I had a new version of blogger show up last week. It may be older than that but I didn't post for a couple weeks. I hate it. formatting with pictures stinks. I can't easily arrange text and pictures like I used to. Setting up labels for posts is not as easy as it used to be either. Before you typed your label and a comma, next label and a comma and so on. Now you are supposed to be searching labels. It is just clunky and wrong. Look Google, I do like learning new things, I really do but I don't see how you have made things better so I want to learn them. What are the wonderful benefits of this new design. These changes kind of remind me of Etsy and some of you may know exactly what I mean.

Back with more again soon. Take care and stay cozy!

New Project

I found myself wandering through stores in Riverton Wyoming this past weekend. Kmart was having an end of season blowout with winter things for $1.99. I found some tops and a jacket. Some of them are what I would call cute and some just basic tops but for that price I chose to pick up a few. I am notorious for not wearing an apron and getting spots on my shirts while cooking. For the price I paid I don't care.

Across the main road from Kmart is a Walmart. To kill time and pick up some things I went there too. They carry Caron's Simply Soft Yarn which I wanted to look at. As you may know each year I make a baby blanket for the local hospital to give to the first baby of the new year. I figured it would be a good time to get that started and done because I plan to be a busy shop owner come this fall.

I found a color that I thought was cheerful and neutral. Raverlry helped me find a pattern and the knitting has begun. Here it is so far.

Have you started any new creative projects lately? Share your stories with me.

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