WIP's of the week

I am pleased to announce that I finished the back of my leaf cardigan, and I'm onto the left front.  You can even see most of one leaf in the picture.  Hurray!!

If you are thinking to yourself that it looks very small--you are not alone, I think it looks TINY!  I know there will be quite a bit of ribbing added on, but I still think this is going to end up pretty fitted.  At this point I'm choosing not to doubt and just go with it.  

Lastly, I made some progress on the girls sock, hurray.  I think after this I'm going to have to try socks with a pattern, because I find them incredibly boring!  Next to it in the red is the bottom end of Chubby Chirp.  I've already finished one I'll show you on Friday.  So cute!

The other day I went on Amazon and checked out their list of Top 100 most popular free ebooks.  I like very little more than I like free.  I ended up downloading about 6 books, which makes me happy.    Last night I started reading Ketchup is a Vegetable and other lies Mom's tell Themselves by Robin O'Bryant.  I was pleasantly surprised, it is really funny.  However I just went to the website to pull this picture and it is no longer free.  What is up with that???  There are other good ones though, so if you haven't before and you have a Kindle, check it out!  Another thing you should check out on a regular basis is the Kindle Daily Deal.  Bargains to be had!

Here's where I share my crafts:

Pirate Costume on the cheap

A week or two ago my girls got invited to a pirate themed birthday party.  "What fun!" they said, "With what costume?" I said.  So we put our heads together and came up with two pirate costumes, for very little money.

First, I made them each a skirt.  I didn't have any pirate themed fabric in my stash, but I did have heaps of this red with white stripes.  So that is what I used.  I used a pattern I already had, but seriously, a girls skirt with an elastic waist has to be the easiest thing to make.

Next I made them each a pirate vest.  For this I bought a meter of red velvet fabric on Ebay.  It cost £3.70 including shipping.  I used a free pattern, from leila & ben.  Super easy pattern, though it only went up to 5T so I had to make it a bit bigger.  They are red velvet on the outside, and more of the fabric I used for the skirt as the lining.  Buttons are from my stash.

For the head we just made a simple head scarf out of the extra red velvet.  These were just cut into long rectangles and tied around their heads.  I let them pick out leggings and shirts, I like them to have some say in what they wear. 

Their swords are very old--check out the curve!

Happy Friday!

I don't have any FO for today, so I'll share a little bit of funny with you instead.  This made me giggle, I hope you enjoy it too!

Continuance

No, you aren't having deja vu, these are the same three projects from last week.  I've made progress on all of them, and I'm enjoying the blanket the most.

It is almost impossible to see the designs.  Sigh.  Sorry about that.  I've just finished the 4th block and now I'm having doubts.  I was planning on doing 5 blocks long, but even for a throw blanket I'm not sure it will be long enough.  And I'm not sure I'll have enough wool.  So.................my thoughts are:

1) Just keep on going, hope for the best, and order more wool if need be.  Maybe extend it to 7 blocks long?

2) Frog it.  Perhaps alternate colours in a checker board fashion, maybe all the plain stockinette blocks in a different colour?

3) Stuff it in a bag and forget about it until next winter and decide then.

Any opinions?

I've also made progress on the back of my leaf cardigan.  I'm thinking I should focus on finishing the back so I can start the fun stuff on the front.  That's my goal for the rest of this week.  I'm also now at the point where I can start the heel on the girls sock, so that's good news.  It looks like I'm just as slow at small socks as I am with big ones, oh well.

Lastly, the wool arrived that I ordered for a top secret project.  You won't see it again until a FO Friday after I've gifted it.  Fingers crossed it all goes according to plan!  I seem to be a big fan of Araucania of late.  This one is called Lauca and is 80% wool, 10% camel, 10% silk.  Little bit of heaven in my hands.

On to books!  I just finished an awesome novel, the Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.  It was so compulsively good that I just devoured it! It has magic, love, a circus!  What more could you want?

I always think it is hard to start a new book right on the heels of an excellent one, but since I had two library books at the same time and I only get two weeks for them, I had to!  I'm about 6 pages in to The Far Country by Nevil Shute.  In my opinion you can't go wrong reading a book about Australia, and I loved A Town Like Alice, so fingers crossed!

Hopping Here:

Mishmash of Craft

I finally finished my first pair of socks!!  Here they are:

I have to say, they are pretty comfy, and I'm rather pleased with my first attempt.  I used Ann Budd's book Getting Started Knitting Socks, and she not only commented on my socks on Ravelry but invited me to join her group Budd's Buds.  What a nice lady! 

Now don't judge me too harshly, but I am not on Pinterest.  At this time in my life I feel that I already spend too much time on the internet, so one more thing is just too much.  However, I am aware of it, and I even found out how to see if other people have pinned any of your crafts.  If you don't know how to do it, here it is:

Type in the following: http://pinterest.com/source/

and then your blog address.  For instance, for my blog it is:

http://pinterest.com/source/mcgreenexperience.blogspot.com/

First of all, I was surprised and pleased that any of my crafts had been pinned.  Secondly, I was surprised that my most pinned item was the Capri Sun bag I made for my daughters teacher for Christmas.  It is also funny because this week I was working on another one, this time for my niece.

Lastly, there have been loads of fabric heart cards floating around the web for Valentines Day.  I saw more than one version.  Here are the cards I made for my two special Valentines, they were so pleased!

Check out the Blog Hops here:

Knitting Infidelity

On Monday night I finished a project that had been languishing for a bit too long.  Hurray!  However that meant that I only had one project on the go, the leaf panel cardigan I started last week.

I've made progress, namely about 4.5 inches, but it is oh so boring!  The pattern has you start on the back which is plain stockinette stitch.  You know what I'm talking about, B-O-R-I-N-G!

So I had to think up a few more projects that wouldn't be so mind numbing.  I'll do the stockinette stitch while I watch tv.  Sorted. 

I have been wanting to knit a blanket for some time, and I have an amazing block book:

I seriously love this book.  So I've picked my blocks and with some yarn I had leftover (where I ordered about double what my Mother-in-law needed to knit my Dad his Aran jumper).  I've decided to do vertical rows of 5 blocks, and to knit them in a continuous strip.  Then I can do vertical joins between the rows, instead of joining a ton of blocks.  Will this work?  I sure hope so.  Here is 3/4 of a block I started yesterday.  It is hard to see the pattern.  It is called "hourglass."

The second project I started is a pair of socks for the girls.  I have this beautiful yarn I ordered on accident (yes, I am that thick sometimes).  I am using the most basic kids sock pattern.  So far, just the cuff and a few rows of the leg.  I'm hoping I don't take as long on these as I did on mine.  I figure making small socks will help me improve.  Plus, I really wanted to use that gorgeous yarn for something!

That's all for me this Wednesday, check out the creativity here:

Hey Girl

Because Ginny makes me giggle.

Tiny Tea Times Two

Well here they are, in all their sweater wearing glory!

I made the rather silly mistake of making and giving the girls rice krispie treats right before I attempted to take their pictures. 

All was going well until I asked to take one of just Rori, since it was her sweater I had just finished.  Then I got the sad/mad face below.

And then all was well as she threw herself back into the picture in front of her sister.

Pattern: Tiny Tea Leaves

Yarn: Araucania Aysen. It is 70% merino, 20% alpaca, 10% silk

I have some of the yarn left over, and I love it.  I'm not sure what I'll do with it, besides making a few of these i-cord bracelets.  For whatever reason they really please me.  I'm a sucker for Celtic knots.....so I love the button!  The picture is rather terrible, but you all know how hard it is to take a picture of yourself.

Thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend! 

 

Whereupon I catch up on things left undone

Last year some time in the early spring I ordered myself a pattern and some yarn for a short sleeve leaf panel cardigan.  However when I told my Mom what I was up to she checked out the website and asked me to make her a different leaf themed top, to which I couldn't say no.  I gave it to her last year for Mother's Day. 

So with the baby blanket done, the girls jumpers done (I'll show you on Friday!!), and my second sock almost done (I've no steam for the sock, so it's slow going but I've finally turned the heel),

 

I decided to start on my leaf panel cardigan.  

 
As you can see, I've gotten really far.  Ah ha ha ha.  Well, it'll keep me busy for the next long while.

As for reading, I picked up a book that starts off rather oddly with a monkey telling the story, yet it is very moreish.  It is called Red Earth and Pouring Rain by Vikram Chandra. 

Click below for awesome fiber fun!

Insert Catchy Title Here

I know I'm not alone when I start a project with great expectations, then find it a bit repetitive, put it aside and only work on it now and again.  It isn't even that I didn't like the pattern--I really do.  I just got bored.  I have knitting ADD.  Well, I turned that around this week, and of course, like always, found out how fast things go when you aren't measuring every few inches.  That is my roundabout way of saying my chalice baby blanket is done!!

I had a terrible time getting a good picture of it, and I really wanted to do it justice.

Anyway, you get the idea.  I'm really pleased with how it turned out.  Then I started thinking perhaps I should throw a wee hat in with the blanket, so I whipped up this:

The pattern is Spud and Chole's Hello Baby Hat.  The yarn I just had in my stash, it is acrylic.

It looks rather small to me, but according to my good friend Google the average newborn head is 14" in circumference.  This fits nicely around the small 15" basketball I use as a baby head model, so I think my fears are unfounded.  I might make another in a different pattern because I find baby hats to satisfying.  Adorable and fast.

Hopping Here: