Finished

Yea! I finished my last three squares last night.

Jessi

Our cat, Jessi, checking out one of my knitted squares.

Two more squares done

Whew. I've discovered that I'm really not a very good knitter. I can do the stitches okay, but the concentration is where I struggle. Keeping track of rows and counting stitches. Arrrggh! Sometimes I feel like I'm spending as much time going backward as forward. These were finished late last night.

This one was very simple, but I was winging it on the pattern, so it took longer than necessary.

This is called "Shingle Stitch", and involves knitting and purling into the back of stitches. Not hard, but it took me awhile to get into the counting groove.

A new craft for Mia...and maybe me

I'm trying to get Mia into felt crafting, as an introduction to sewing. Felt is so easy to work with, and there are some great ideas online for things to try. Here are a few I found.

                                             Of course, I HAVE to try this one!

Anyway, I tried some, using cookie cutters as patterns, and it's really quite fun!

Baby afghan squares

The baby shower is going to be Monday for my co-worker and his wife, so we've decided to try to get this afghan finished by then. That means between yesterday and Friday, I need to complete 6 squares.
Nobody at work really purls much, so I feel compelled to add some pattern to the squares I do. And it's actually a great way to practice some new stitches. But because of the time constraint, I've got to stick with some basic tried and true stitches. I worked all last night on it, and got 2 squares finished. I had some trouble with one. Apparently I got interrupted and got off on my pattern. I had cast off, and then realized that it did not look right. UGH! I tried something that I'm terrible at, and try to avoid at all costs - I ripped out, back to where I was before the mess-up, and started again. I was shocked that you can't even tell!

I really should have gone another row on the chevron one, but I didn't, and I'm not ripping it out again!

Sorry about the dark pictures - with flash you can't see the pattern, and without flash, they are dark, and the color is definitely prettier than this. Kind of a light teal. 

Some oldies

I took a few photos on Sunday of some of my older handmade ornaments, before we took down the tree.

(Sorry for the blurry picture.) This is a little caroler boy I knitted back in 1985. We had just moved to Brevard, NC so my husband could teach. It was a year before I found a full-time job. For Christmas that first year I bought yarn and knitted ornaments for gifts. It was the first I had knitted since I was a child. I did not like being so poor, but I have fond memories of those low-stress days spent knitting.

The caroler girl. I don't know if I'd attempt these now - so many details!

Another blurry picture. We made these last year in the children's class I help with at church. I remember my mom making these with us when we were kids.

Crocheted paper clip ice skates. Love 'em! I made a bunch one year for the attorneys and staff at work, and a couple of years ago I made a bagful for the kids in class at church. We were studying about heaven, and talking about what we planned to do there. I invited them to come to my ice skating planet. I've never ice skated, but it looks so fun, I can't wait to get there and learn. If I tried it now, I'd fall and bust every crackly old bone in my body!

I'm trying something new

A month or so ago, my mom and I went to a fiber fair that was in town. There was a ton of roving, and needle felted items. There were lots of cookie cutters, for sale, and I had no idea why. But the needle felting intrigued me. Once I Googled it, I realized the cookie cutters are used to make shapes when felting. This year I plan to try some needle felting. I've gotten a couple of single needles, and just purchased a 4-needle tool on Amazon. Here's what I've done so far.

 My first effort. A kind of button shaped item, made inside of a round cookie cutter, and the dove was another little cookie cutter I have.

These were a combination of techniques. The large balls I made by loosely needle felting some roving onto styrofoam balls, and then wet felting them by hand in the kitchen sink. I'll try needle felting on them later, except maybe the marbled one. I kind of like it as is. Mia, my 10-year-old, wet-felted the little balls. I think she's getting into this --- I can hear her in the other room needle felting away.

Someone at work is having a baby, and a few of us are knitting squares for an afghan, so I need to work on those for awhile.  I've turned a couple in already, but I'll post some pictures if I find a cute stitch to try.