I am a bad blogger....but here are some FOs

Pattern: Mr. Greenjeans
Yarn: Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Azul Profundo
Started: December 2007
Finished: February 3rd, 2008



Pattern: Knitting Pure & Simple Lightweight Socks
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Potluck in Green Mountain Madness
Started and Finished: Well, I'm not going to say because a pair of socks shouldn't have taken as many months as they did! What I will say though is that they got pushed aside so I could finish other projects.



Pattern: Knitting Pure & Simple Children's Lightweight Socks (#245)
Yarn: Brown Sheep Wildfoote in Columbine
For DD - yup, they're a little big but that was intentional since I wanted DD to have some room to grow into them :)

So now I'm onto a few new projects including Ayla which is also from Knitty. Here is an in progress pic...



I'm also taking a lace class at my LYS so I'm working on a feather and fan scarf and a Fiber Trends scarf.

Basic Cable

My winter hat is done! I finished up last night and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. I read comments on Ravelry about it and with all the too-small remarks I decided to do 6 pattern repeats instead of 4. It definitely covers my ears now!



Pattern: Basic Cable from Stitch n Bitch Nation
Yarn: Lamb's Pride Worsted in Onyx
Needles: US7 and US8 Denises

I am sorry to say that poor Branching Out is in hibernation mode :( I haven't even picked it up except to steal the needles for a new project. Yes, startitis has hit BAD. I have been wanting to do Mr. Greenjeans and now it is begun! I picked up some Malabrigo Merino Worsted at Wool and Company the other day and cast on Greenjeans, well, actually Tealjeans. I am in love with this yarn already - it is soft and gorgeous!

I also picked up some new yarns recently. Fringe Knitting in Aurora is unfortunately going out of business - but from what I understand about the closing, the silver lining is that their Dream in Color yarn has gotten so popular that running the store is no longer feasible. So I went to the first day of the going out of business sale (which was crazy busy!) and picked up these:



The first two pics are Cherry Tree Hill Potluck Supersock which I love love love! The last pic is what was labeled as Dream in Color remnants. I loved the colors - greens and purples - and I'm thinking that those two hanks will make a good scarf - either Here and There Cables or My So-Called Scarf.

Oh, btw, the Namaste bag is AWESOME!! I love how roomy it is and a lot of people have complimented me on it not realizing it's a knitting bag :)

Time to get the kids ready for school...

New Knitting Bag

I am so excited! I did a little early Christmas shopping and picked up something for DH to give me. Here it is!!



It's the Namaste Everyday bag in Brick Red! I put two sock projects, a hat project and my personal stuff in it and it works out great for every day :)

So...I'm still working on my Cherry Tree Hill socks - sock #1 is done and I'm almost ready to start the heel on #2. I'm working on the gusset for the first sock for my daughter using Wildfoote.

And after remembering that I left my hat at a restaurant last spring I also cast on for the Basic Cable hat from SnB Nation.

Children's Neckdown Cardigan - done!

Wow! Could it be that I've completed a child's sweater in less than two months? Yes! The neckdown cardi for my daughter is complete! Here is the picture:



Pattern: Knitting Pure and Simple Children's Neckdown Cardigan (#981)
Yarn: Filatura di Crosa Primo in lavender (6 balls)
Needles: Denise and DPNs in US9 and US6

I really thought I was going to run out of yarn for this project. The body of the sweater ate up FOUR balls of the yarn and I was in a panic. But the sleeves ended up using only two balls so I ended up with two extra (wristwarmers perhap?)

So next up are some small projects. I have done NOTHING with poor Branching Out so I'm going to start up the 10-minute rule mentioned on KR. I must work on it for ten minutes before working on anything else.

Aside from BO I still have my Cherry Tree Hill socks, a chemo cap that I've frogged three times and a pair of socks I'm starting for DD. I also wound a ball of Hempathy for the Everlasting Bagstopper so I may be starting that as well.

Ravelry - I'm in!

I got my invite last week, I don't remember what day exactly, it's been kind of a blur! Anyhow I have been adding projects and taking pictures of my yarn since then (I'm LesleyKnits). I love how you can really see exactly what yarn you've got. And it also helped me to see exactly how long I let particular projects sit!

I had put Bronty on the back burner while finishing other things and when I went to add him to my project list I realized that I started on him NINETEEN months ago! Crazy :P He is what should have been a project easily finished in a few nights (at least at the pace I was knitting 19 months ago) but for some reason I let him sit quietly in my knitting bag.

So of course as soon as I realized how long it had been I took the 40 minutes necessary to finish poor Bronty and here he is...



This was a project I started less than a year after starting to knit and had I known what I know now I would have knit him on smaller needles, you can see the stuffing very clearly even from a distance. Oh well!

I put Bronty where my son could see him when he got home from school and he was thrilled that Bronty was finally done!

I also pulled out a sock that I started earlier this year. The reason why the sock fell by the wayside - beside other projects taking over - is that the skein got horribly tangled. I don't know if that usually happens when you have a 400-yard skein of sock yarn but the other day I sat down and unraveled the whole thing. So now I'm making progress with the sock tucked in my purse. I even worked on it today while my daughter played in the mall playground. Here it is...



I've made a lot of progress on the sweater for my daughter since I last posted. I took this picture last week but I'm now on the 2nd sleeve.

Newly on the Needles

Well, now that my son's hoodie is complete I am moving on to two new projects.

As I mentioned before, Branching Out is my very first lace project. I have completed two pattern repeats and now that school has started again I'm hoping to have a quiet house where I can concentrate! I understand now the benefits of knitting from the chart but it requires my full concentration - at least this early into the project. So here is what I've done so far...



It's hard to tell from the photo but if I stretch it out I can see the pattern forming.

My other current project is a top-down cardigan for my daughter. I'm using the Knitting Pure and Simple Children's Neckdown Cardigan pattern and Filatura di Crosa Primo yarn. It's a heavy worsted superwash wool. Here's the start of that sweater...



My daughter is pretty excited about it especially since it's "puhple" her favorite color. And this time around the sweater should have buttons and buttonholes unlike my last attempt at a sweater for this child.

Top-Down Sweater - DONE!

Yippee! The topdown sweater I was knitting for DS is finished! I love topdown design - it is just genius the way the directions are almost like a magic trick. I did end up frogging that first sleeve where the pooling occurred so it does look better now although I see some spots where there is slight pooling. But my son is happy and it's done well before the cold weather will hit!

So here it is...



Pattern: Knitting Pure and Simple Children's Tunic #232
Yarn: 2 3/4 hanks Lorna's Laces in Seaside
Size: 6-8

So next up is another Knitting Pure and Simple pattern for my daughter. It's the Children's Neckdown Cardigan and I've got Filatura di Crosa Primo in a lavender shade for it.

I also started my very first lace project. I decided to give Branching Out a try. So far it's been a little frustrating. First I cast on the wrong number of stitches and didn't notice til I finished the garter stitch border. Then I ended up with the wrong stitch count on row 7 and ended up starting over. But now I've got one pattern repeat down and I put a lifeline in. I'm going to move the lifeline every time I finish a pattern repeat. But the good news is I'm getting better at chart reading!