Just Another WIP Wednesday….

Happy Spring!

I realize a lot of time has passed by since my last WIP Wednesday, but despite my absence, I have been knitting along.  Before I get to my WIPs, I thought I'd share a few projects that have been on my needles over the past couple of months.

We went down to visit my family for Easter, so I knitted some creatures for the NJ kids and my daughter as Easter gifts out of Rebecca Danger's book, 50 Yards of Fun: Knitting Toys from Scrap Yarn.  Here's the cast of characters lined up for their photo op before they were gifted to the kidlings:

Easter Bunny, Easter Ninja, Easter Bunny, Monkey Blue

They were each a very quick knit. In fact, I started and finished the monkey on the sly on the day before Easter. Phew!

Malabrigo March flew by. I knit a Stereo cuff for my sister for her birthday, and I was lucky enough to have it featured on the Ravelry Community Eye Candy for a day.

MM14: A Sort of St. Patrick's Day Stereo

This is a really enjoyable project that goes really quickly, once you string on all the beads!

I also joined a fun KAL for a Carabe sweater. I only managed to get the body and button band knit up by March 31st.  I can't find the progress shot to post here, but if you click on the link above, it will bring you to my project page.  I had started the sleeves and knit about 3 inches before I realized that my knitting was crazy tight, most likely due to my using the magic loop method.  I didn't like how this looked at all, so I ripped the sleeve back. Now the sweater is languishing while it waits for me to pick up a set of double pointed needles in size 7.  One of these days I will!  I'm presently distracted by other projects.

Which brings me to my current WIP! I'm crocheting a Blooming Flower Cushion for my craft room. I had my eye on this project for awhile. After becoming frustrated by the cardigan and being disinterested in the other UFOs I have had brewing for awhile, I decided to work on something fun. This project is very entertaining with all of the color changes, and it becomes rhythmic after awhile. I'm at a stopping point for now because the flower is now at about 13"across, and I want to go shopping for an insert before I continue, so I don't have to rip any of the pretty layers out. Here's what it looks like:

Now I am a crochet novice, so my flower is a little wonky, but it's nothing that an iron can't fix. I noticed as I was crocheting along that some of the petals like to squish up a bit, so I think pressing them down will do the trick.

That's the story for this WIP Wednesday! Hope you are all working on fun projects right now!

WIP Wednesday - Betsy!

As promised, I'm back this Wednesday with my current project on the needles (or at least the project I'm actively working on.). It's another Betsy! I realize that I haven't showed you the finished version of the Betsy that I was knitting last week, and a photo of that is coming soon.  My daughter loved the way that mine turned out, and she asked me to knit her one. A cute hat out of bulky weight yarn? Sure! This hat is being knit out of Malabrigo Rios in the Bobby Blue colorway, and I'm holding the yarn double as I knit along. So far, the fabric of the hat is knitting up so cushy and warm. I hope she loves it!

I apologize for the nighttime photo. The lighting isn't great, but you can check out my progress.

I'll be back with photos of the finished hats soon!
If you had a snow day like we did today, hope you are warm and knitting something fun. :)

It's My Birthday, and I'll Knit If I Want To!

Hello blogworld! I realize that it's been over a year (gulp!) since I've checked in with you all. I've been alive and well, and my absence can be explained by procrastination, writer's block, laziness, or take your pick! Not sure if you missed me or not, but know that I feel a tinge of guilt every time I see that my last post was December 24, 2012!

Nevertheless, here I am. It's my birthday today, and I figured it's as good a time as any to get back in the swing of blogging. I'm having a great day so far, and some of it has been spent knitting this hat.

The pattern is Betsy by Jane Richmond. I went to my LYS last week and fell in love with a gorgeous skein of Mecha in the Jupiter colorway. I have never knit with this base before, and so far it's a dream. The colors are so rich! Red isn't normally my thing, but I totally felt drawn to this color. Garnet is my birthstone, so maybe that had something to do with it!

Even though I've been absent from the blog, I've still been knitting, knitting, knitting. It would be ridiculous for me to list here all the projects I've been working on over the past year. Moving forward though, I would like to officially announce WIP Wednesdays on Kat knits a lot. That way I'll be sure to check in at least once a week!

I'm off to celebrate with the family, take-out, birthday cake (I hope!) and more knitting. :)

Hope all has been well with all of you!

Merry Christmas!

Holiday Greetings to you! Not much productive gift knitting going on over here, unfortunately.  I do have a couple of projects that I knit up for my daughter, but I'll have to keep them under wraps for now. ;)  The road to my knitted Christmas gifts is always paved with good intentions, but procrastination, a frustrating pattern and the rehearsals and five performances of daughter's dance school's production of Nutcracker slow things down quite a bit.  

The plan was to knit gloves for my husband (with five full fingers), hats for my nieces and nephew (although this pattern hasn't been set in stone) and some kind hat for my sister.  The reality is I hope to finish one glove for my husband tonight, and then crank out some snowball buddies for my nieces and nephew tomorrow. (I won't see them until Thursday).  Looks like I need to hand out some IOUs.  Good thing Knit Picks was kind enough to provide some printable ones that are ready to go.

In the past, I have stressed and stayed up all night to try to finish an insurmountable quantity of knitting projects, always feeling defeated because I haven't managed my time well.  I smell a new year's resolution.... 

This year, I'm trying not to drive myself crazy and enjoy things for once.  Not really productive, but a bonus for my sanity in trying to get through the holidays happily. 

I hope you have been more successful with your knitted gifts than I this year.  If you've knit any great projects, I'd love to hear about them. 

I wish you all a happy, healthy and blessed holiday! I'm off to ice gingerbread trees!

Kathleen  

Here I am!

Hello blog readers!  Not sure if anyone else is around these days, considering I've been MIA since I posted about my sweet beagle.  Life interrupts a bunch of things, including blogging, but I'm back for at least today. :)  I want to show you some of the things I've been up to!

I have been on a Mochimochiland kick since the summer, and it seems like I can't stop!  I often turn to Anna's patterns for quick and fun knitting projects.  Her book, Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi, has fun ideas to knit for anyone for any occasion.

It all started with this guy!

Tiny Green Monkey

I knit this little guy for a friend's birthday in July.  I usually like to knit the mochimochi out of worsted because it's a little less fiddly.  He's still tiny, just not teeny-tiny.

Of course this was around the 4th of July, so I had to knit one of these:

Tiny Firecracker

It turns out that on the evening of the 4th, my daughter was complaining about fireworks keeping her awake.  I decided to whip this little guy up and left it in her room with a note from him saying, "I'm sorry".

The next project that popped up was inspired by the TV show, Gravity Falls.  Not sure if you've ever caught an episode, but it's a pretty amusing cartoon on Disney channel that features twins who uncover quirky situations that pop up during their visit with their curmudgeon of an uncle.  One of episodes involves gnomes and at one point in the show, this happens.  When my daughter first saw this, she was laughing hysterically.  I knew I could make this little guy in knit form.

I bring you.....a rainbow barfing gnome: 

Rainbow Barfing Gnome

Knitting this gnome got me a little obsessed with gnomes.  With gnomes getting sick, you need a doctor gnome, right?

As well as a Gnome To-Go:

The Gnome To-Go got me thinking about traveling:

Tiny Airplane

And knitting a bunch of other fun little mochimochis for little gifts just because!

See?  I'm completely addicted!  In the grand scheme of things though, it's a really fun addiction!

That Gnome To-Go is on my keychain and he makes me happy every time I see him dangling from my keyring.  

So, need some happy?  Go make yourself a mini mochimochiland friend!

It's been awhile

I've been meaning to start blogging again for the longest time, but I keep saying to myself, "I'll just do it tomorrow."  Well, after what has seemed like a million tomorrows later, there are still more tomorrows, but now is as good a time as any to stop procrastinating already.

I have been knitting, just not blogging about it so much.  I have plenty to share with you, but before I do, I need to share a bit of sadness that our family has experienced.  We put our sweet 15-year-old beagle to sleep two weeks ago.  She was having trouble walking, and she had to work hard to get up and move around. She was so good to try to get outside if she needed to go even though she was in pain.  It was really difficult to let her go, but it happened at the house in the most peaceful way it could possibly happen.  Here's a photo of her with my younger dog a few hours before she died.

R.I.P. Emma

I'll be back soon with more, I promise.  

Bon Voyage!

I mentioned awhile ago in this post that I have been working on making some comfort dolls. I had planned for the dolls to go to Haiti originally, but when I found out that they were close to meeting their goal in December, I decided to make them for Swaziland. I knit ten dolls in total, and I shipped them off today! These dolls take no time at all and customizing them with bright yarn scraps from your stash is a lot of fun. I made 5 girls and 5 boys, and here's a photo of them, all snuggled in the box and ready to go.

I wasn't too familiar with what is going on in Swaziland until I watched this video. Too many of the Swaziland children are orphans who deal with very real grown-up problems like hunger, poverty and sickness on a daily basis. These dolls are a small way to bring a little comfort to these children.

Feel like making some? Even one would be great! You might find that knitting or crocheting one of these little guys can become addictive! You can find the pattern here, and there is more information and support in the Comfort Dolls Knitters and Crocheters group on Ravelry. Or contact me, and I can steer you in the right direction. :)

Thanks for stopping by to check out the comfort dolls! Happy Knitting!