Birthday gifts for another granddaughter ...

I finished the backpack pocketbook using Lion Brand's Jiffy yarn pattern for my Granddaughter, Brandi's birthday. She'll be age 15 on September 19, so I thought a knitted backpack might be the "in thing" for her to be carrying. By the way, the link takes you to both a crocheted and a knitted pattern. I did the knitted one as you see. I'm also including a beaded change purse [purchased in Florida] with a crisp $10 . Money's always a hit!

I had given each of the other 5 girls a crystal also. The oldest got one inside a necklace, so for Brandi I'm including a clear quartz with it's own little bag ... to wear as a charm around her neck if she liked. I made the bag! It's done in Tapestry Crochet ... my 1st project of this type. Came out pretty nice, I thought, so I've started another tapestry crocket pocketbook for myself.

Happy stitching everyone!

the first of many socks

little red sock, little red sock...

proudly presenting the firstborn of my rib-and-cable socks. more on my blog, but just wanted to share the excitement!

hope everyone is having a splendiferous summer. how's the knitpicks buffet going? any hits or misses?

KnitPicks Buffet #2

For those of you who took samples, here are the yarns I brought to share yesterday:




Those are, from left to right:

Top Row:
- Sierra (Cinnamon)

Second Row:
- Radiance Wave (Hazelnut)
- Decadence (Tan)

Third Row:
- Andean Treasure (Embers)
- Ambrosia (Fog)

Fourth Row:
- Palette (Red)
- Panache (Coal)
- Suri Dream (Lilac)

Knitpicks!

Woohoo! My knitpicks order came in yesterday. I am very pleased. I will be bringing and sharing my sample balls of:
- Palette (fingering weight for fair isle)
- Suri Dream (super bulky brushed alpaca/wool/nylon)
- Sierra (bulky wool/alpaca blend. Nice and basic)
- Decadence (loosely-twisted bulky alpaca)
- Panache (bulky alpaca/cashmere/silk/merino)
- Ambrosia (sport weight alpaca/cashmere)
- Radiance Wave (wavy-textured worsted alpaca/silk)
- Andean Treasure (sport weight baby alpaca)

Will follow Danielle's excellent example and post some pics tonight, as a reminder of which is which.

If anybody has a ball winder they'd like to bring, that would be great.

I'll also be bringing color cards for:
- Palette
- Andean Silk
- Andean Treasure & Sierra
- Suri Dream
- Elegance
- Ambrosia & Panache
- Twirl
- Merino Style
- Decadence

Jessica
http://jessdr.blogspot.com

charity blankets

After I showed several of you my new afghan blocks book and discussed my baby blanket project ideas, I know a few of you got excited about making afghan blocks as a way of learning new skills and using up stash. Well, I just wanted to let you know of 2 charity blanket projects that are seeking squares, one national and one local.

The national one is coordinated by a blogger in South Carolina named Annie who writes the blog Knitty Gritty. Her project is the Afghan Project in Memory of John Glick. Some of you might know the blog At My Knit's End, written by a Massachusetts knitter with left-leaning political tendancies! Kerstin, the author, is a knitblogger who has really encouraged other bloggers to get their voice on the internet and who has supported newbie knitters and knitbloggers. I think she also organizes the Knit New England webring. She recently lost her brother in a tragic car accident, so Annie is hosting a knit-along to create a blanket to send to his family as well as ones for charities in his honor. Annie will collect squares through October 15th. This blanket will be made of squares of WOOL and WOOL-BLEND yarns.

The other project is the more local Boston Knit Out project. Their blankets will also be donated to charities. Squares will be collected at several LYS's and assembled at the Knit Out in October. They are accepting knit or crocheted squares in WASHABLE WOOL or ACRYLIC.

Just thought I would share this info. If any of you are in need of scrap yarn for either one of these projects, I have some I would be more than happy to share. I heard tell of a group member (ahem, Jessica) who only has a "mini-stash". I guess that makes mine a mega-stash, as it is currently spread out in 6 different storage containers. But, again, that is a story for another post.

Soleil progress

Here's my Soleil-in-progress:


I need to unseam the shoulders, block, reseam, and do the crochet edging.

I wasn't particularly careful in the resizing, but it actually fits very well. If I do another, I might give it a touch more ease, but that's for the look, not the fit. I'm hoping to have it done in time for Thursday's meeting.

Other crafty pursuits

I took a vacation day on Friday and pulled out the materials from one of my pre-knitting crafts -- beading. I whipped out several pairs of stitch markers ... I made all of these in about 90 minutes.


I gave the 2 sets on the left to Crystal, who has to put up with my knitting dilemmas on a daily basis, since we share adjoining cubes. I'm not sure that this is adequate compensation for my incessant need for advice, but I hope she likes them! The 2 sets on the right are going to my mother-in-law for Christmas. The ones with the blue stars are all the same, but the stars are only iridescent on one side. The 3 sets in the middle got sent to another knitblogger to use as gifts for participants in a collaborative afghan making project she is hosting.

And, as if knitting and beading were not enough, I also dabble in some paper crafts. I'm just a rookie compared to hard core scrapbookers and card makers, though. Here is a photo album I made 3 weekends ago. We had our 7 year old niece for the weekend. As part of her visit, we made a photo album together and included all of the photos we took of her over the weekend.

This is the outside. The front and back are the same, except for the placement of the bow.


This is the inside cover. All the paper choices -- the flowers on the cover, the inside page, and the green bookcloth and ribbon on the outside -- were Jane's own choices, although we did steer her towards the green cloth.


And, this is what the pages look like. This is Jane, enjoying a snack at Ben and Jerry's on Newbury St. Note the cows wearing Red Sox hats, and Jane wearing a pink tank top I knit her over a year ago.


I learned to make these albums from my mother, a craft lady in her own right. We bought some of the supplies at the Paper Source store in Porter Square. That's where we got the flowered paper, the ribbon, and a pre-cut kit which contained the book board (cardboard like covers) and interior pages. The rest of the materials -- the pink dot paper, the bookcloth, and the glue/cutting suplies/brushes/photo corners/etc belong to me or my mom, in our stash of other craft supplies. The whole project took us about 2 1/2 hours ... and that was with the help of a 7 year old!

As much as I love to knit, I will always enjoy many other crafty pleasures!

Dutch Yarn Stash and more Socks!

Finally finished & took a picture of my first pair of socks with yarn that I bought while visiting the Netherlands in July. Of course I had to include the rest of my new found treasure...



The four on the right are Dutch made sock yarn and the rest [other than the small yellow yarn ball I got to make a scarf with] is Italian Meilenweit Cotton sock yarn. That's what I used first to make the socks I am wearing. [45% cotton, 42% virgin wool, 13% polyamid] -- machine washable. Great for Summer!

I did have to make adjustments for the stretchiness of the yarn, but it was nice to work with and I love the feel when I wear them.

I'm wearing them to the group meeting today

.... Sock makers take over the world!!

The Yarnman Cometh

I got my Knitpicks order this morning. I have all my packages shipped to work, since if htey get shipped home, they might sit in my apartment lobby for a while before I get home. I left work at 6pm last night, and arrived back at 9am this morning. sometime in between, the postman brought me yarn!

Here is the selection of skeins I ordered for all of us to "sample".


From the left to right, that's

• Sock Garden (100% merino wool; 7-8 st/in)
  
• Elegance (70% baby alpaca, 30% silk; 5.5 st/in)
  
• Shine (60%cotton/40% modal; 6 st/in)
  
• Andean Silk (55% superfine alpaca, 23% silk, 22% merino wool; 4.5-5 st/in)
  
• Alpaca Cloud (100% baby alpaca; laceweight)
  
• And, in back is the Wool of the Andes (100% wool; 5 st/in; I got the "color your own" version, same gauge, etc. as the pre-dyed).
  
• Not pictured is the Merino Style (100% merino wool; 5.5 st/in).

I will bring all of these, and (if I remember!) a ball winder on Thursday so we can all get samples of what we want to try.

I also got my Shine for my friends' baby blanket -- I'll post a photo of it on my blog for you to see!