Getting felt up...

I tried my first attempt at making felted coasters last night. I used a little Corningware bowl for the circular pattern. I think that they turned out semi decent. Not good enough for me to send off as presents, but they are getting there.

I think that I need to make the following changes: 1) more roving. They are kind of flimsy. 2) I need to get a sushi mat to roll them. I used a flour sack towel and all it did was soak up the moisure which made it fuzzy. 3) I am going to throw these in the washer to see how that turns out. I already have them pretty well felted and I think that this will help them tighten up a little bit.

This way is definitely going to be the method I use for Christmas presents. I did both of this in about 10 minutes. I know that if I set a whole day off to make them, they would all be done! I am also including a new/ modified list for some christmas present for people that I didn't really think about but have to give to:

Pat: Soy silk scarf. (going to be knit of 15's so it will go faster)
Liz: Thick and chunky warm weather scarf (no pattern yet)
Amber: A green scarf... yarn with lots of foo foo.

Still trying to get my satchel done. I have 5" done on the back piece, only 16" left to do. Then 15" more for the front piece. I get to knit all day, so I am really excited!

My first attempt at felted coaster made from roving. I think I have more work to do.  

My interview and Christmas Ramblings

I had my interview earlier today. Martha's hair came out really great. There were a couple of things that I would do differently but it wouldn't have been anything a client would have noticed. Just the perfectionist in me.(How is it that this doesn't work with cleaning the house???) Anyways, the main person that interviewd me said that she really liked it and was at first a little unsure about how the coloring was going to turn out, but she said she was impressed. COOL HUH? The other girl that looked everything over wasn't so talkative. She was doing a little more detailed look into the highlights and how they blended and layed. All that she said was "It looks good". Becky told me that she needed to talk to the store owner and then would give me a call in a couple of days to let me know either way. So, now the wait begins.

Christmas Ramblings:

I have decided to go another route for my felted coasters. I think that this method is going to be a lot quicker. Too much to write down the method so see it here. I was doing some math and realized that I would have to knit up at least 40 coasters to be done in time. I really don't think that I can knit that fast. If I do it with felting then I can do at least 1 set a night, maybe more. I think that roving will be cheaper than buying all that yarn, too!
The thing is with Christmas is that I get so Martha Stewart. I become the present wrapping maniac. (I get that from my dad; he used to get out the yard stick and double sided tape and everything.) I love finding new and different ways to wrap presents every year. I will leave you with some tried and true Christmas ideas for those who already in the spirit. The first one is my favorite as it totally invokes the feeling of a Winter Wonderland and the second always gets the question of "How did you DO that?". Check out C and D on the page!

Blogger is making me mad...

I don't know if it is blogger's site or if it my computer (although,it is a relatively new computer with a lot of processing) but I can't seem to post anything and it takes forever for me to update my template.
I finished the gusset on the satchel last night. I am starting on the body of it. My goal is to get the knitting part of the satchel done by the 10th. Don't know if that will happen or not but I am really going to try. I am going to knit some leg warmers for my neice for her birthday party. She is going to be 12 and is going to have and 80's party. Her mom is super excited about it. My sister was my dressing maven when I was younger.
Most of my memories of my childhood are of my middle sister and I dressing up in Kim's clothes and then, of course, getting into trouble. My favorite memory of these times is when we got into Kim's white face makeup. My sister was one of the "MOD's" in high school. She used to wear fishnets, long john's, long skirts, and oversized tops. Think the Cure not Madonna. So, she used to have this white clown make-up, (I still remember that it was from an Avon Halloween kit!!!) that she would put on to make herself even paler. She is a redhead, how much lighter can you get? Well, one day my sister Amy, her friend Summer and I decided that we were going to play "China Dolls" and we slathered ourselves with the white face paint, made bed sheet Kimono's and then found some of my mom's 60's music to dance to. We had just gotten the dance down when Kim came home. We were so busted. I think that we were grounded for a month!
I have my interview today and I am getting nervous. I hope that Martha's hair turns out okay. It is a "practical" interview so I have to do a hair cut and a hightlight/weave on her.
I will post more about this later on.

knitting and knitting and knitting

I have been working on my satchel. Actually, the gusset and strap for the satchel. It has to be 95" long. I have about 56" done. This thing just never seems to end. It doesn't help that it is only 16 sts across, so I have to keep turning back and forth all the time.That seems to really take up a lot of time. The satchel is from the Holiday Issue 2004 for Family Circle Easy Knitting. I am going to be adding a seperate list for holiday knit presents. I think that they are going to be regular bars as I don't want to give away what they are! I did a little more work on my Fluted Banister socks. I really like this pattern. I think that the next time I knit this up again it is going to be on a solid or a nearly solid. I still have to get a poll up for Kim's glove yarn. I just need to find a site that has them all with the colors seperately. Off to find percent bars....

Made some waves

My making waves socks are done. These socks were a pain in the rear to make. I think that it had to do with A) The yarn I used kept splaying apart. Lang Bebe.... Blue Multi and B) I was using the Susan Bates Quicksilver and the points on them were a killer! I tend to push off with my index finger when I am doing a knit stitch and the needles just kept pushing in and pushing in.

I got to work a little more on my Flapper scarf today. I found out that the dye wasn't set in too well. I washed my hands and then picked it up and everywhere my hands were still wet they turned a nice shade of gray.Yummy!

I think that on Wednesday of next week I am going to take a tour of our yarn shops and really check them all out. I will post more about this later.

My finished "Making Waves" socks. (Click on the picture to see the cabling better.) I don't think that I will be doing these socks again. They were a pain!  

Amy's hat. With a few alteration's this will be my Poof Bag.  

My Fluted Banister socks. Once again the colors don't look nearly as nice as they really are.  

This doesn't really give the flapper scarf any justice. The beads are beautiful.  

New pictures and knit out

I had a ton of fun at our first knit out. There were a lot more people than I had expected to show up. I think that we should definitely do "First Friday's" again. Of course, I didn't get too much knitting done as I kept yapping on and on too much with friends.

I put up some new pictures. I wish that the color was better than it really it. I really like knitting the Fluted Banister socks. They are turning out much nicer than I had expected. I think that these are going to end up as a present for Amy's aunt Caren. But, who knows.
I have also come up with a couple of new ideas for Christmas presents for Amy's and my grandparents. I am going to knit them a set of felted placemats and coasters. I know that Amy's G and G will be a lot easier to pick the colors for as they live in Oklahoma and are totally into the southwest motif. ( This brings me to a rant...I hate hate hate Southwestern Motifs. Howling coyotes with bandanas? Yep, I definitely see that every day! Oh and Native American women with tribal garb holding a swaddled baby on their back?!?!?! It is sooooo stereotypical! aaarrggghhh!)
Anyways, back to the original topic. I figured that I could do that for the Grandparents and then for all my aunts and uncles I was thinking about doing a set of felted coasters for them. Not too sure what all their house designs are so I was going to play it safe and make them in Christmas colors. Less yarn to buy, too!
I have also been wanting this book for one stinkin' pattern. The Poof bag. Well, last night I knit Amy a hat and it turned out rather pumpkin like when it is sitting there. I think that I am going to knit this pattern on bigger needles with wool, add some yarn overs to thread an I-cord in it and voila, I have the pattern I wanted!
Well, I need to get some sleep.

Gone Knittin'

Well, I am moving my blog over here officially. I have learned that I can just copy and paste everything from my old blog and change the date to the time I originally wrote it. It will take a little while but I am so excited to be able to have pics up. The only thing that I am not too crazy about is that I have to learn some basic html. Maybe someone wants to give me some pointers???

I finished my poncho this morning. I re did the seams and I decided that the beads on the bottom just wouldn't cut it. I just have to dye it but can't decide what color. I am thinking a forest green but will decide later.

Today is the knit out for Phoenix and I can't wait to go. I had some housework to take care of this morning, and Amy has to be at work at 12:30 so I won't be there until 1:00.

I was able to start and finish Amy's hat last night. She had been asking me to knit her a hat for about a year now but I was just lazy about getting it done. This means that I can work on whatever I want at the knit out today! I told Amy that I would knit her hat today but since that is out of the way I have smooth knitting ahead. (now to decide what to bring with me)

I will write more later today after the knit out. Hope to see some of you there.

Another image of the socks  

The making waves socks. Not very clear images of the cabling but don't they look like monsoon clouds?  

socks socks socks

I taught the sock knitting class today. It was okay. I think the group was a little too large, but it wasn't that bad. The hardest part was that there were so many people at different knitting levels. I am trying to get my Making waves socks done but haven't gotten too far on them. I need to get them done by the Thursday evening. I am pretty sure that I can do it. I think that I am going to make the net off limits to myself while I finish them up. I will post a picture of them when I am done. I want to finish my poncho up by the knit out on the first. It would be nice to have some FO's for a change!

I designed these socks based on about 4 different patterns. I am going to teach how to make this sock at a workshop!  

Socks from a knit along. I gave these as a gift to Amy's mom for her birthday. I knit them with Lionbrand Microspun. I don't think I will do that again.  

this was during my bag craze. Thanks to a fellow memnber form my SNB group!  

The start of a whole new world!

A big thank you goes out to Brooke for letting me know about BlogSpot. I have been using a different blog site but everything cost $$$ to use. So, now you all get to see my cute little piecs o' knit.

Some info about me:

I am 25, lived in Arizona my whole life. I grew up showing dairy cattle and pigs at the state and county fairs. I have a pig tattooed on my leg! I just lerned how to post the pictures on here, so please excuse me for the crappiness. I am still learning how to use our scanner. Our SNB is tonight. Too bad I don't have anything finished to show. :( Oh, well. More later. Enjoy the pictures! *even if they are bad :(

This is what is going to be in the next Stitch and Bitch book! How cool are these?