New Pattern! Getting ready for fall.

This is my latest pattern.  It"s a one piece pullover, knit back and forth, then in the round from the top down.  My patterns are very portable since they are all knit in one piece rather than several pieces that need to be sewn together.  I've had lots of ladies tell me they take my patterns on road trips or airplane trips and are very pleased at the ease of transport.  Anyway, back to the pull over pattern, I knit this in cotton (I don't use animal fibers ever, not that I have a problem actually using it, I just don't like the feel of it on my skin and neither do my kids) but I don't see any reason why you couldn't use whatever fiber you prefer, just wash according to the label.

Materials needed:
US size 6 & 8 circular needles, 32 " long
400 (500)(600) yards of worsted weight cotton yarn
Darning needle
2 stitch holders (or two spare sets of smaller circular needles)

You can purchase this pattern for a mere $5.50 in my etsy shop:  http://www.etsy.com/listing/44496247/girls-pullover-knitting-pattern 

New Spring Shirt!

I'm getting the knitting bug with Spring arriving and, well, all the new hits help ;) I made my eldest gal a nice new pink spring shirt based on my cap sleep pattern. She loves it!




She's not one for posing, hence the crazy eyes ;)



I did make some increases along the way that are not in the original pattern, and she wanted ribbed sleeves instead of rolled.

Lazy is as lazy does

You all know how much I LOVE to recycle yarn. It's pretty much the only yarn I knit with. I sometimes use my respun yarn, like if I'm selling the item, I sometimes dye my yarn, and I sometimes straighten my yarn, or any combination of the above.

I've got three kids that I unschool, so I'm a fairly busy gal with kids around me all day to entertain, micromanage (I'm working on that one) and keep fed and healthy, so I REALLY like efficient knitting. That's why I knit using the magic loop...no seams to sew up....no pieces to put together bla bla bla....well, I think I've found the ultimate in frugal, efficient knitting......




Yes, that's right folks, I'm knitting directly from my sweater stash. All I did to prepare my yarn was take the sweater apart (well I dyed it too, but thrifted sweaters come in a variety of colors so you don't need to know how to dye). It would take 15 minutes with a seam ripper and you're ready to knit! no rolling it into balls, no respinning, no setting the twist etc...who cares if the yarn's a bit curly? " Not I", said the lazy...er...efficiant knitter ;)

Now, this would not be practical of course with a huge piece of thrifted sweater (especially if you want to take it with you to knit on the go), this was just a cuff, I had already prepared the rest of the arm into balls for knitting, but I got bored with where I was on my piece so I decided to work on another part but I didn't want to break my yarn to work from the ball, so I grabbed the cuff and went right at it! Brilliant if I do say so myself ;)

Happy lazy knitting!

A New Scarf

So I've been feeling a little unfashionable lately since I don't have a super cute, skinny, floppy scarf to wrap around my neck a gazillion times. So I made one. A couple relativity new things happened while I was thinking about making one. A) I'd have to knit it flat. That's like blasphemy in my world...I mean, flat knitting, that's so 1909 ya know? But, there was just no way around it, to get the flat item I desired, I'd just have to suck it up and knit flat. I did NOT however, use straight needles, that has been deemed as highly inapproprite and is against my knitting religion and would get me one pass straight to hell. So, I grabbed my biggest circs and went right at it. B) I knit the whole dang thing in the knit stitch, or the garder stitch. That is an absolute first for me, well, not a first first but I stopped knitting garder stitched projects mere weeks into my knitting career. I love simple, easy on the eyes projects and I also love lace projects but not too lacy, so I thought that if I knit in garder stitch with huge needles and with my unspun, or flat, recycled yarn, the stitches would be open and loose enough to pass for lace in my eyes. I was right, it's obvious to even the most inexperienced knitter that this is garder stitch, I'm not denying that fact, but it's knit loose enough that it pleases me and it is my scarf after all, and I love it!

It's roughly 5 feet long.

I used about 200 yards of light sport weight, recycled, unspun, hand dyed cotton yarn from my own stash. I used US size 11 needles and cast on 25 stitches, knitting every row until the yarn was gone.

And now I feel very fashionable and can keep up with the average Miss Jones ;)



Except for my big ass nose that is.

Girl's Knitted Dress

This to me AGES to complete. Not because it's hard, just because I was busy doing other things like shopping for old stuff or playing with toys LOL. So here it is:



I used this pattern that I created awhile ago, and I just increased the stitches about mid chest. I think I increased every one to two stitches but it's been so long that I just totally forget.





So there you have it. A cute little knit dress for virtually all seasons. It's going to look great with tights and a long sleeve undershirt.

Watch me knit a shirt.

Here's the finished product:



I'm using my own pattern, based on this one.


For some reason, I feel compelled to post my progress each day. Here's yesterday's (day one) progress:



Stay tuned for day two!

Ok, so day two came and went and even though I knit like a maniac ALL DAY, I have no progress to show. I had to frog my work TWICE! that's ok though, I learned a bit along the way. I've been knitting a bit today and that's all I've got planned to do after the kids go to sleep tonight, so tomorrow morning I hope to have a nice progress pic!

Day three:



I made a lot of progress on day 3, I'm hoping to break off the arms today!

Day four:



Not too much progress went on yesterday, but some good parenting happened ;) A few more rows and I'll BO the arm holes.

The pics in the mirror are taken without the flash, this next pic was taken with the flash and the actual color of the yarn is in right in between. I just love looking at (and knitting) regular ol' stockinette stitch :)





day five:

lookin' like a shirt now!



Day six:

I'm a sucker for trial and error. This was what my shirt looked like at the end of day six:



I tried it on for giggles and it looked pretty bad. I made no room for my boobs so I frogged it back up past the arms and am going to add short rows for my boobs, then some ribbing under them then do some inc so that it's drapy and flared. I'm also going to do ribbing on the short sleeves rather then the rolled sleeve. Whew, back to knitting...

day seven:



ok, boobs are in and if all goes well, i'll be done frogging. i've added 30ish stitches after the ribbing and am doing a k1, yo, k1, bo1 pattern for the bottom. i'll take the needle up to 11 i think in a few inches :)

What day am I on? Day eight?



I really like the pattern I'm doing on the bottom. I'm up to a size 10 now and will switch to 11's around my belly button I think. The neckline isn't the most flattering, but that's the price I pay for flying by the seat of my needles ;)

Day eight:

i put my work down for a day, i'll pick it back up after the kids go to bed tonight. i did figure out how to fix the neckline to my liking thanks to my friends at ravelry!

day nine and ten have passed, maybe even day eleven, and i've only done a couple rows a day, nothing worth posting pics, I promise. I've lost a bit of my knitting mojo, but I'm confident it'll be back soon!

Found it! MY mojo, that is. I've totally lost count of what day I'm on but I'll be working hard on this today because I'd so darn excited! It's really looking good. I haven't come to a final decision about the neckline so any and all feedback is welcome :)




I've totally lost track of days, but I'm done! I'm going to wear it a bit before I decide what to do with the neckline.

Enough's enough already!

I just got stuck knitting all these shirts. The pattern is quick, easy, therapeutic, addictive and, above all else, mindless!

The basic pattern I started with is my original design and can be found here .

It's a totally basic pattern, imo, that can be modified to no end!

The socks are done!

I love them.
I'm sorry, but I like the simplicity of the heel gusset area. I'll never knit a "proper" sock again, that's for sure.

I ran out of yarn, but who cares, they totally rock! And do you know how fun it is to take photos of your own feet?


I'm going to whip up some kids socks so I can play with, and perfect the pattern, then I'll post it for sure.

Backwards loop cast on

I always use the long tail CO in all my projects. Always. Never more ye fools! Never! I really should be calling myself the fool. I teach the backward loop CO method to my friends, I've even taught it to my 5 yo daughter, who, I might add, has completely mastered it. As I CO my second sock of the pair I'm working on, I had a hankering to CO differently. I used the bakward loop method and I'm hooked. Just see for yourself how beautiful it is! It's also, easy, and super stretchy.


First pictured is the long tail cast on, with ribbing to follow, next is the backward loop with ribbing:

































You can learn more about both these methods and more here: http://knittinghelp.com/knitting/basic_techniques/