Tooting my own knitting horn

I did it! I knitted in the round and used a second color of yarn to make a stripe, thanks to the patient and generous help of my lovely friend Libellula.

This project should turn into the the Gryffindor Beret shown blow, which is for the Charmed Knits charity knit-along. All of the knit-along hats will be sent to Warm Woolies a charity that donates warm knitted items to poverty-stricken children.

I hope to complete this beret soon so I can make a beanie in the Hufflepuff House colors. Maybe I should read the Harry Potter books so I understand who or what Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs are.

You have to be smarter than the thing you are operating

A few weeks ago I ordered and received my Denise Interchangeable Knitting Needles. I was soooooo excited I could hardly wait to start new projects because I have just about every size and length of strait or round needle I need. Yesterday I decided to get started on my Charmed Knits hat. So I pulled out my trusty interchangeable needle kit and started to piece together the size and length I needed, so I thought. Well I took out the smallest length of cord and attached it to the size needle the pattern called for. Once I learned that the circular measurement is from needle tip to needle tip not just the cord, I had a problem. The problem was the length was 24" and I needed only 16". As you can imagine I was thoroughly bummed because I didn't have the needle length I needed and my happy little dream of not having to buy needles for a very long time was crushed. So needles to say I didn't get to start my new project. This morning I was still very disappointed that the kit didn't have everything like I thought it did. So I opened the kit again and stared at it and stared at it, put needles on all the lengths of cord in hopes that some magical force was at work and they would end up being the size I needed. No luck. So I pulled out the directions in hopes that it could shed some light on things. The directions say that you can make lengths of 17" to 58". I am now baffled at why I can't get my needles to 17", which I figure is close to what I need. So I stare some more and would you believe, there was a smaller cord hidden with the longest cord. I had mistaken the two cords for one long cord. Now my faith is restored and I know I have made an excellent investment. I am off to start my new project and hope to have it done in time to send it to Charmed Knits.

Flop Project

Drum roll please.....and here are the long awaited pic of the flopped project.

After looking at it for awhile and showing it to several Chicks at Chicks with Sticks several ideas came about on what to use it as. The first is a gage piece for a larger bathmat. The other was a soap rug as demonstrated below.

I hope these pics appeases the Blog Gods at least for awhile.

Slightly off the knitting track

Well as much as I would like to say I have been knitting feverishly since my last post, I am sorry to say I have not knitted a single stitch. I have been quite crafty though! I make unique character cakes for my son's birthdays. Well the tradition truly started with my brother when he was little and has now carried on to my son. So without further ado, here the pics of the cake that only took me 4 hours verses the normal 8-10 to make. Can you guess who it is?

It's Mickey Mouse!

The pic below is the mini Mickey Mouse cake I made for my son to smash is face into, and he did a spectacular job of getting it all over his face.

As you can see I have been exercising my crafty muscles in other ways. Now back to knitting!

And I'm back

So I fell out of the knitting universe for a little while but I am back and knittin'. I had high hopes for my previous project but it was a flop. The flop did not squelch my creative fire. Thanks to a little help from the Chicks at my Chicks with Sticks group I started to event several other ideas for my own patterns.

I know I know I can't even finish one project according to someone else’s pattern and here I am making up my own patterns. I haven't had a steady creative outlet in a very long time so I am jumping into the deep end with knitting and trying to keep my head above water.

So as I promised I will be posting pic soon. I just have to get the time to download them from my camera.