The Newest Knit-Wit!!

Miss Nanette came by & just happened to be dressed in just the right colors to model this precious lil hat & scarf combo I made!!

Sassy & Delightful!!

These little sweethearts are now sold out! Watch out for new stuff to come!

More Mardi Glam!!

Today I put the finishing touches on this lil sweetie! I knitted her on size 10 (US) needles, using the black Lion Brand homespun & Bernat Baby Blankie Yarn that I used for her sister scarf in a previous blog.

Now available on etsy:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/122888952/black-beanie-with-mardi-gras-inspired

Super Ball Weekend Recap

Yes, that baby blanket is still up on those round needles. I'm thinking I may rip it all back & restart as a single strand.

Anyway, as you may have seen on Facebook, the blessings have been plentiful! An old friend from my home town saw my Amazon Wishlist post for a hanging torso mannequin & guess what? She got it for me plus an extra surprise that should be here soon! The torso mannequin (AKA my new boyfriend, Gary) is a great display item:

Saturday, I got a ride to Lowe's to purchase some lighting for my space at the Market & afterwards my Homegirl Stacey came by for Crafty Saturday night accompanied by "Jacques Brel is Alive & Well & Living in Paris" onna DVD player. She was sewing a dress for Gallifrey & I got started on a black scarf with Mardi Gras colored ends:

I cast on 11 stitches with a combination of Grey Lion Brand Homespun Yarn along with Bernat Baby Blanket Summer Day Yarn & knitted that in straight garter stitch for 15 rows & then I did the body of the scarf in Black Lion Brand Homespun Yarn, slipping the first stitch, to create a braided edge. You will notice that I lose almost 2 inches in width when I dropped the Bernat yarn out of the piece:

Super Ball Sunday was a night at the Frenchmen St. Art Market for me & unfortunately it was not the extravaganza I had hoped for. In fact, I didn't even make my booth fee back, & my Bitter Knitter identity briefly took over. However, I was blessed with a ride from one of my fellow Marketeers with a minivan so I didn't have to be trying to deal with Taxicab Madness at 1:30am!

I am thinking I will be making a ton of stuff in the coming days with this Mardi Gras colored yarn to prep for the big day, watch this space for more deets!

I have to rush off to my Job now, but I'll be posting this scarf (& many others) on Etsy later this evening.....


Thanks for reading!!

A New Beginning...& an Ending...

OK so this post's title is going a bit far. Yesterday I decided to make another baby blanket (yes I do make stuff besides hats & scarves---admittedly not much, but I digress) but I decided I wanted to try something new--Circular knitting needles! (If you don't know what that is, Google it, I'll wait)

For the baby blankets I've made in the past, I followed a very simple pattern: Cast on 80 stitches using a size 16 needle, knit 7 rows, then transfer to size 6 needles & knit 7 rows, repeating until reaching desired size (AKA until I ran out of yarn), Cast off from the larger set of needles.

This lovely ribbed effect  on this 28" x 33" blankie/throw the result:

I made this ^ (and the 2 before it) on long, straight needles, and it took forever! Plus the needles were very full &  hard to work with, taking me about 20 mins or so to finish a row, to say nothing of how heavy the thing was. After 3 days of working on each one, my hands were feeling the pain, so I looked up some internet videos & decided to finally put the circular needles that I have to good use! However, since I can't do anything simply, I decided to try my 1st project on circular needles with a double strand of yarn, as seen here:

I started working on this around 5pm, ripped it back after the 1st couple of rows because I got the yarn all tangled up. For the 1st 7 rows on size 11 needles, I was thinking WOW this is so easy!! 

Then I had to transfer the work onto these lil bitty circular needles I have (no number on them.) I did about 3 rows and this was the most tedious thing I have ever done. I definitely started to get the hang of it, but I don't really think I'll be finishing this particular project for a while. This is what it looks like right now (and probably for the foreseeable future LOL):

I only included the yarn balls in the pic so you could see how much work I have left.

So the "ending" I mentioned in the post title is because today I started (and finished) a lovely commissioned piece for a friend & colleague of mine at the med skool:

It measures about 2" x 66" and is composed of a triple thread (Royal Purple Velvet Chenille, Amethyst Chenille & Black Eyelash).

I am posting the scarf on etsy as a "made to order" item, but the finished blankie/throw can be all yours if you follow this link!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/122413041/pastel-green-blue-white-ribbed-baby