Knitting Olympics

What are they you ask? A very cool idea that was started (if I have all my information correct) by the Yarn Harlot during which knitters sign up to start a project during the lighting of the flame during the opening ceremonies and... ready for this? Finish it before the flame goes out during the closing ceremonies. That is 17 days. 2 1/2 weeks. Am I crazy? Maybe. My project(s)? A pair of socks for each member of my little family. The really hard part. I will not spend any money to do it. I will only use what I already have in my stash. And while I do have a lot in my stash... well yarn has become something of a compulsion for me. (As might be evidence that for my birthday next week all I want is yarn, or yarn money.) Add into this craziness the general melee that is being mother to three small children who think they need to eat more than once a day, and that I will be also helping to sew a wedding gown and two flower girl dresses... Oh well, too late now, I am already signed up and committed. So cheer me on like we'll be cheering on our Olympic teams. I am really looking forward to watching the Olympics with Jacob, he is mesmerized by extreme athletic displays. Brian, well he really likes to watch the ice dancing...

Caite's Birthday present...

This is my cute little sister, Caitlin. And now you can see the mitts modeled by the hands they were made for.


I had just enough yarn left after knitting the mitts to crochet these three little flowers. At first I thought I would attach one to the wrist of each mitt, but when I eked out a third flower I decided they would be much cuter grouped on a hat. And I was right!


Her birthday isn't for another month, but I had toyed around with the idea of giving them to her early because it is winter now. In another month she might not really need them until next winter. I had her try them on for size and she begged me to give them to her early. That made the decision easy. So Happy Birthday Caite! (even though it isn't until next month...)

On and off my needles...

A sampling of current and recently finished projects...


A simple raglan sleeve sweater for Evie. It is the same pattern as the first sweater I made her last year. She was wearing the purple one the other day and it just looked so stinkin' cute on her I decided to make another one. I am really liking this yarn, it makes me think of cotton candy. Yum.


If you are thinking these mitts look a little big for Evie, it's because they are. I just needed a pair of hands to model them... but after seeing how cute they look on her... well, I might be making her a pair in the near future.


They are a birthday present for my sister. And I am not giving anything away because she picked out the yarn and requested mitts of some kind. So... Happy birthday Caite! (Maybe you'll get them a little early so you can use them through the end of winter.)


Oh my, what's this? Something not girly? Crazy.

Poor Jake, he definitely gets the short end of the stick when it comes to crafting around here. There has been an imbalance of hand knits in favor of the girls, so I got down to business and turned out a nice sweater vest for him to wear for church. I let him pick the yarn and at first I was a little worried about the color. It is a deep, dark aqua. But it really grew on me as it started to take shape on my needles. I was also having an awful time finding a pattern that I liked, too plain, too boring, too complicated, ect. So I combined two patterns, a basic vest with well written directions, and another to get the pattern of purled diamonds. I love texture when I am working with plain yarn.


I am not sure how I feel about this twirly skirt. I love it now that it is done. But I hated the amount of plain stockinette knitting it required, and I don't like knitting with cotton. And it was a lot of pink... although I did like watching the color changes. But it took me as long to knit the bottom tier as it did to knit the first three. I do love the finished skirt, but it wasn't one of those projects that I thought, "That was fun! I am going to knit that again."


So to end on a happy note, another skirt! I found this tutorial online and just had to try it.


One pair of old jeans, some scrap booking templates to get the flower and leaf shapes, and two hours later we have an adorable new skirt! And even better it was totally free! The jeans were given to me by my grandma and I already had every thing else. Gotta love a free project. I will definitely be making more of these, I am thinking hearts or stars would be really cute!