New patterns!

So my friend is having a baby girl and her shower is tomorrow. So monday I realize I don't have a gift and I can't buy one! Then I thought...duh...I can make one... So i decided to make a bonnett and maybe booties. Well I did that and then thought, I should make a dress! So I am! Here's what I have so far. It's kind of my own pattern, based on techniques I've done in the past.

I'll take better shots with my regular cam and post the patterns after the set is done. but I just wanted to show it off a bit! Give a little teaser! (for my ONE follower LOL *waves to Peggy*)

Just Another Day...

I am designing a bookmark in my head. All day today. I should try it. I have been making bookmarks for a couple years now. It started out for extra income, but now I make them mostly for the Lets Get This Foundation (letsgetthis.org). I sell them for $5 + shipping, and ALL of that $5 goes to the foundation! $6 gets 3 reading books for low income children! So I call it 'bookmarks For Books!'

http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheKnitchen?section_id=6491032

Check it out! ;)

~C~

Piano scarf

Ok, so this is the COOLEST thing EVER! It's called Illusion (or shadow) knitting and I'm totally addicted! I started my first pattern 3 nights ago and at first it's kind of confusing, but really it's truly easy once you understand the basics of it.

highlight: you get a chart, and there are 4 knitted/purled rows per line of the chart...I know, it sounds confusing but it's really not! Lets say there are 31 lines on the chart (horizontally). Each line has 40 boxes across. The boxes either are white or black. So the pattern is as follows:

k in CA across.

k white, purl black

Switch to CB and k across

k black, purl white

Now that consists of just one line in the chart. then you move to line two and the boses are shaded different colors, so even though you follow the same pattern, it turns out different! And what results is when you knit on the wrong side, it leaves ridges on the right side, and when you look at it from the side you will see a picture! but from front on all you see is stripes!

Here's the ravelry pattern I did: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/counterpoint-scarf

and here's what I've done so far:

The pattern calls for cascade yarn, but since I'm poor I just used peaches and cream cotton yarn from Walmart and it's perfect!

~~Cheri~~

NKOTB and Cables

So, a friend of mine from VA sent me the NKOTB DVD called Coming Home. Now...anyone that knows me knows I am a HUGE NKOTB fan. That's right, I said NKOTB. As in New Kids On The Block. They're my guys! So anyway, I also started a new project. Decision...so I watch the DVD (that I have been dying to see) or start my project?

Well, I ended up doing both! It's really not a good idea to start a new project while trying to watch a dvd, but I did anyway, and despite having to check and recheck and count and recount, It turned out pretty good ;)

I've never done cables before, so this was a little harder than usual. But it wasnt long before I had the pattern down.

So the pattern is Mega Cables http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mega-cabled-scarf by Marie Connoly

Here's the only pic I have so far, but it's like 4x as long now! I'm kicking it's butt!

I'm really enjoying cables and plan to do some more complex designs in hopes of making my own designs...eventually...

My NEXT project will be an illusion scarf with piano keys! It's gonna be awesome! Can't wait!

~~Cheri~~

New Project

I was gifted some amazing alpaca yarn that I made this scarf with it. Pattern off Ravelry. Very easy and it looks awesome!

I didnt block it because I like the way it waves on the side :) (Plus I'm just lazy like that...)

ANYWAY... so I have like 3 balls left I think. I WAS going to make a matching hat and gloves, but...I'm just not ready for that jump... so I think I'm going to make THIS scarf from Stitch DC because it looks awesome! Who cares if I have two scarves with the same yarn? I love this yarn!

I'm so blessed to have been gifted such lovely yarn. If it wasnt for these kind people that have gifted me such beautiful yarns I wouldnt have ever experianced what it feels like to use such nice yarns! I would forever have been stuck in the hell we call ACRYLIC! *screams*

That's the funny thing, when you first start needlework (unless you have a yarn snob to tell you otherwise and teach you RIGHT lol) you always start with acrylic, never knowing what goodness is out there! Now...I'm not saying acrylic is all bad...I'm just saying that once you go natural fiber you have a hard time going back to decently priced yarn! lol

So now, instead of spending $20 on like 10 skiens of yarn, I'll save it and wait til I get more (which is months and MONTHS) until I have enough to buy at least 4 balls or hanks of decent yarn. Last time I bought a cheaper merino at $5.95 for a 50g ball.

WOW...just typing that makes me feel guilty! lol

I still havent done anything with it, but I've been playing with the idea of making some baby socks and a hat for my friend.

I should have called this blog 'Diaries of a poor yarnie' hahahaha I'm a merino lover on an acrylic budget.... HAHAHA

HAGD :)

~~Cheri~~

Pretty In Pink

I like pink. It's always been one of my favorite colors. It just reminds me of innocence, princesses and fairies... LOL

Anyway, a friend of mine was telling me about a blanket she was making her daughter. She had been working on it for over a year I believe she said. (She only had about a foot done length wise and about 3 feet width wise). Now...I picked up knitting and crochet to combat my anxiety and I had run out of things to do, so asked her what stitch she was doing, she told me she was just doing the 'regular stitch' and I asked her to show me a picture of it. It was a triple crochet and I thought, totally easy, send it my way and I'll finish it for you.

Well...

So I get it a few days later. I open it up and I see how tiny the stitches were! She was using a thread hook to do it! (dk weight yarn). I did the forehead slap thing. wth did I just get myself into? lol That would take forEVER. I tried and tried, changed hooks and everything, but I could NOT match the size she had.

So here's where I'll shorten the story and just tell you that we talked it over and decided that I'll just pick a pattern and do whatever I wanted and make her a new one.

I decided it would be a surprise ;)

So I picked a cute heart pattern that was meant for a wash cloth.

I made 9 panels total.

I used two strands of Busy Bee (hobby lobby). This yarn was provided to me by my friend already, so it was easy to chose (LOL). The pattern you can find http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/heart-dishcloth-pattern btw .

I was going to add plain blocks in between the heart blocks, but I forgot and just kept doing the hearts LOL ...whatever. It works.

Sewn together:

And I added a crochet border to finish it up.

Pattern for border:

*SL in 1st ST. SC in second, SK next, 5 DC in next ST, SK next* repeat until you get to the corner and follow again, except add 8 DC in one stitch instead of 5, this will give it a nice clean corner!

If you end up with an extra stitch or two, just improvise. I skipped them LOL you can't tell. I wouldnt skip more than one or two tho.

New blogger

Well, not really NEW new, just havent done it for a while. I'm not good at being consistent, so don't expect too much! What I want for this site is to share the things I am working on at the moment. Usually my projects revolve around Ravelry.com because its such a great reference for knitters and crocheters (and spinners, yarnies, fiber artists...anything needle, hook, yarn related!). I get ideas from the patterns there. Most of the time they just stay in my head and I just follow their patterns, but sometimes I'll see a pattern for one thing and apply it to another and embellish it (I never realized 'embellish' had 2 L's... weird...). I don't call that MY pattern or project, but I will share whatever I do with you with links to the originals. If its my own, I will share the patterns with you!

So I hope you will all join me on my journey to self discovery through needlework, and don't get bored too fast with me! lol

~C~