I need to start something, but what?????

I really haven't started any knitting, since finishing the Wisp. I made some slippers for Miller, but those really don't count. It took me 2 days to do and each day I knitted only a mere hour or hour and a half. I did learn how to do the Magic Cast-On. What a wonderful way to do a toe up sock. Literally, one of the easiest cast ons I've ever tried!

I want to knit The Skinny Scarf, but casting on 400 stitches is daunting. I need to buckle down and get something on the needles, or I'll start snacking again at night, something I really don't want to do!

On the Malorie's backpack front, she has gotten a ton of complements on it at school. She really does like it. I guess Audrey will be asking for one soon. I really don't want to knit that pattern again. The funny thing is that I found a drawstring backpack pattern just this week and I wasn't even looking for one. It took me forever to find something for what a knitted Malorie and even then I had to adjust it. Just my luck!

Oops, I made a change

Okay I know I said I was going to knit the Little Arrowhead stole in my last blog, but things change and I found a pattern that better showcased the yarn. I found this pattern from the Knitty web site. The pattern is Wisp. When I first saw it I wasn't very impressed by it, but later on I when I looked again I realized it was perfect for the yarn. It was super easy to knit and I memorized the pattern fairly quickly. Here's a close-up of the stitched and buttons for Wisp.


Malorie is modeling the piece for me. It's a little too big for her now, but I made it for my sister in Nevada and in about 2 more years Malorie will be as big as her aunt! What I like about this piece is it's variations. It can be a poncho, cowl, scarf and a hood. The pattern shows how to do all these options. I knitted it a little shorter than the finished length the pattern has it at 50 inches after blocking, and mine is 44 inches. It blocked quickly and I am very proud of the piece. Now, I'll mail it and hopefully it will brighten my sister's day!!

Stoles and soapboxes

I've finally started my next project. I'm making the Arrowhead Stole from Interweave Knits. It knits up fairly quickly and only has 4 rows to memorize. I'm using my Aarlan Venice for it. I think that it will knit up quickly. It all ready shows the interesting color variants in the yarn with just 8 rows. The scary thing for me is that I'm laying in bed last night realizing that the arrow point will only go one way. Then I start thinking, it would look a whole lot better if you could make the arrow points switch in the middle of the stole. I figured if I reverse the row pattern I should get the arrow pattern facing the other way. Is this a sign that I'm getting too involved in my knitting? I keep wanting to change patterns that are perfectly fine.

I showed some relatives Malorie's backpack. They really liked it and were impressed that I took so much time to make a backpack that will be dirty by the end of the year. If they only knew that it took me just about 2 weeks and the joy of making something outweighs the practically of a piece.(Which by the way, a backpack is a pretty useful piece. IMHO) Not everything that you knit must be a cashmere, alpaca, mohair sweater that will only see the light of day once a month, if even that much. Thank you for letting me ramble about knitting for the masses and I'll get off my soapbox now.

The BAG is finished

I'm done with Malorie's school bag. It didn't take me too long to finish, even with the modifications that were made. It went from a messenger bag to a drawstring back pack. The SUPERNEWBIE support board at Knitty helped me so much with making the drawstring holes. I didn't think that I'd have to ask how to make holes, but I did. Malorie is pleased with the results and has already used it. She said it worked great. I lined the bag with some fabric that I had and it should last her for at least this school year.

Now, I'm still figuring out what to do next with my 3 skeins of Aarlan yarn. I googled it last night and found out that the yarn is from the 80's. So it'll be my first time knitting with "vintage" yarn.