Purple Elephant Parade

Hello....anybody out there? I'm still here. I'm not baking like my folks in the south with their 100 plus days of summer - but it's been pretty warm and the weather is amazing!!!!

Like any other nutcase knitter I am knitting blankets in this heat. But not because I'm cold or have new cousins coming - I like the challenge of working a pattern and ripping it out. (Ok not the ripping part) Anywho...my newest challenge is....drum roll please....Elephant Blanket.

I am now a steek lover!!! if you havent tried it go for it! Throw pattern intimidation out the window and just go for it. I know i know - it's easy for me to say now but I too was a pattern coward.

I'll upload some photos as soon as I figure out how to get them off my phone...

Dotty

Happy 4th y'all!!! So I am almost with Dotty! Whew! I just have to do the binding. Making the cut was really scary but you know what? It didn't fall apart! Way easier than I thought. If you ever feel like you want a challenge but arent sure if you can do it - this pattern is found in the second Mason-Dixon Outside the Lines book. It's called Dotty. The pattern they wrote was not as complicated as I made this one. My mods were as follows:

1. Cast on double the size of what the pattern calls for
2. Used a cotton blend yarn (Lion Brand Cotton Ease)
3. Had lots of cussing sessions for dropping stitches in weird placed (ok not really)
4. TRUSTED the pattern to do what it said it would do
5. Had fun and love the outcome!

Give it a try - it's very easy to do!

What are y'all working on?

Quilting Bug

Look what MamaC gave me!!!!! It's a great looking sewing machine. And why did she give this to me? Because I've been bitten by the quilting bug!!!!! I found myself missing my Granny and was looking around to see how I could feel closer to her. Quilting was one of the many things that she did well. Lawd have mercy I miss her peach cobblers! Whew.....I digress.

Quilting is something that I figured I could try to see if my creative genius (tee hee) would continue to flow with. I am finding that the older I get the more I want to create things with my hands. I want to make gifts for people that will last longer than the fleeting moment of a gift card. Anyway - my first attempt with be something simple. It's called the Plus Quilt. MamaC and I will definately have some fun working on this one.

Choosing fabric is just as hard as choosing yarn for a project. I won't even tell you about the millions of choices and patterns. It's definately gonna be a journey. I won't however be putting my knitting needles down anytime soon.

The Blues!

The Blues!, originally uploaded by missthg.

OMG!!!! This here pattern has given me the blues!!!! You know the kind...my dog is dead and my woman done left me blues. I have ripped back and re-knit from the beginning about 60 eleven dozen times!!! The pattern is called Prairie Blanket by Oat Couture. If you have any tips please share. I consider myself to be a pretty good knitter, this made me feel like I couldn't count. Could read, couldnt tell a knit from a purl...UGH!!! Maybe I'm just not ready to knit it yet...yeah that's the ticket!!! HMPH!

Baby Dotty

, originally uploaded by missthg.

Ok I'm just on a knitting roll!!! This is the Baby Dotty Blanket - or my version of it from the Mason Dixon book Knitting Outside the lines. It's a start. We shall see how long this one takes...

Bookman is finished!!!

I finished the Bookman Blanket today!!! I cant wait to give it as a gift. As soon as I figure out how to load more photos I will. This blanket was easy to do. If you can knit and purl - you can do this!!! Do not let the pattern intimidate you!! If you are on Ravelry - I do have more photos there. This is my first finished project for 2011!!!

Pattern: Bookman Blanket by Megan Bayonet. This pattern was found in the Interweave Knits Holiday 2010 issue. It's also listed on Ravelry.

Bookman

Bookman, originally uploaded by missthg.

This is the Bookman Blanket coming along. I have two more tiers and I will be finished with this one! I can't wait until I'm done and can take some of those drapey photos like the original!

Bookman Blanket

Hey Y'all!!!! It's a new year and with a new year comes new projects! Ok I have a case of starteritis - and I'm not trying to control it anymore. It's just what knitters do. I have started working on the Bookman Blanket for someone who's birthday is in May in my family. And I am crazy enough to have started two of them. One is doubled and the other is single yarn. Both are made from cotton ease one in white and the other in lime green. I don't have photos to show yet as they are both coming along quite nicely. The pattern is found in the Interweave Holiday Knits magazine as well as here on Ravelry.

This is the copy in the magazine. Mine is not quite there yet - I'm on row three...

I didnt use the yarn from the pattern because well....I have too much yarn already and decided to shop from my stash. I found that I have enough to do both blankets and can't wait to see how they knit up. I'm just hard headed enough to do the larger size pattern. These squares are huge!! I had no idea that 40 row 20 stitch squares could be so big!!!! I will definitely take some photos later to show you what I mean.

The pattern is not hard at all. If you can knit, purl & pick up stitches you too can enjoy the joys of entrelac. I recommend using stitch markers when knitting the letter portion of your version of this. Photos to come later.

What are y'all working on?