Doll bag delivered!!!

Eva & doll bag
Originally uploaded by sfarewell.

This is why I like to knit. My friends are so excited when they get a handknit gift. This is my friend Eva and she is turning 4 today. I'm guessing that she won't get another doll bag just like this today. I hope that she enjoys dragging this around with her & this doll becomes a good friend. I have never given a gift that I have been more proud of. Almost motivates me to get working on some Christmas gift. Almost.

Back to working on my "Spring Fling" purse. I know it's summer so I am running a little bit behind. This is the project that I am forcing myself to knit continental style. I wish that I was a quick continental knitter & I thought a felted project would be the way to practice so all of my uneveness will disappear when the bag is felted.

A Big Boo Boo

basket before
Originally uploaded by sfarewell.

Believe it or not this was supposed to be another "Pris"tine Shoulder Bag. But I had the great idea that I wanted to make it bigger. So with my great mathmatical mind I made all of the enlargement adjustments in my head and began to knit. When I got to the flap I realized my adjustments were a bit off ... Ok, waaaaay off. So my choices were to rip it out & start over, throw it out & pretend it never happened, or just put it in the closet & ignore it. Being the advanced knitter that I am, I went for the last option.

Boo Boo Saved

basket after
Originally uploaded by sfarewell.

This weekend I pulled it back out, ripped out the partially done flap, bound off all of my stitches and threw it into the washing machine. Viola', a basket. Not a basket pattern that I could sell to Interweave, but a reclimation project. Now I just need to figure out where to put it and what to put in it. Maybe I should just plop it on the floor next to the front door, fill it with dog toys and announce officially that this was the project that went to the dogs!

Multidirectional Scarf

farewell scarf complete
Originally uploaded by sfarewell.

Yeah, it's all done. And it feels great to wear. Only, I don't think I'll be wearing it too much in July. The Karen Baumer's Multidirectional Scarf pattern is free and can be found online. I added a corkscrew fringe that I found in Hip to Crochet by Judith L. Swartz. It was very easy to knit even though most people are impressed what a "complicated" project I've knitted. The yarn is custom hand dyed, hand spun from Kaleidoscope Dyeworks. This yarn is created by Roxi Willoughby in Tacoma and is wonderful to work with while really lending itself well to this project.

A yarn to call my own!

farewell scarf
Originally uploaded by sfarewell.

Literally, this is MY very own yarn. Dyed for me, spun for me, named for me. The Farewell yarn. My yarn dealer, mentor and friend, Roxi is adding a new dimension to her business, Kaleidoscope Dyeworks. She is now creating custom made yarn. This one she made for me, me, me!!! I just love all of those luscious greens & it feels so good to knit with. She also sent me the link to this free pattern online. And it is the first project that I did all on my own without adult supervision. Usually I start a project right at Roxi's table with a lot of , "OK, tell me how to do this." And she is very patient with me. But it is her fault that I am a knitter. She missed her chance back in February when I said that knitting was too hard and I could never, ever learn. She should have just nodded and said, "Yup, you're right, bye now." But nope, she had to be helpful and demonstrate what a superior teacher she is. And all she has to show for it is me, the knittin leech, I can just suck the yarn right out of a person. So I am knittin just as fast as I can, before she wises up & kicks me to the curb.

Ain't she sweet!

doll bag
Originally uploaded by sfarewell.

I found this pattern in Folk Bags by Judith Square. The pattern suggests that you knit with wool, but since my plans are to give this to a 4 year old, I used Plymouth Encore, so she would be washable. This little doll bag took me a whole lot longer than I expected. The dress went really quick & that was the part that I was worried about. I really like knitting patterns. So I expected that the rest, just little bits, would go lickity split. Not so fast. But now that it's done, I love it & I am softening about doing another, since I have enough leftover yarn from this project to make 6 more at least. Just not gonna do the next one anytime soon. Got some yarn & projects waiting in my closet already just dying to be knitted & I guess I am the one to do them.

it's growing

it's growing
Originally uploaded by sfarewell.

20 down, only 52 to go and the back will be complete. I will post a picture of the completed back. It may be a while since I have started a new project, a doll purse for a 4 yr old birthday party in June. So that makes me an official knitter, 2 projects going at once. And if this sweater sits for a while and becomes a real UFO, Un Finished Object, I will have joined the ranks of an experienced knitter.

Will the real sweater #2 please stand up?

the new & improved sweater #2
Originally uploaded by sfarewell.

So this is the very beginnings of the sweater that I chose after the first mitered square sweater disaster. I really like doing mitered squares. I better because this sweater has 69 squares on the front and 72 on the back. I found the pattern in Module Magic and I am knitting out of svale yarn (cotton, viscose & silk) colors sage & spring green. I will keep all posted on it's progress

Sweater # 2

Sweater # 2
Originally uploaded by sfarewell.

And this is all that you will ever see of it. Roxi and I fell in love with the same pattern. It had these mitered squares around the bottom edge of the body and sleeves. I really liked this yarn because it was out of Cascade Sierra Quatro, the same cotton yarn that I knitted the shell. The cool thing was that I choose the 4 colors for this sweater that made up the the one strand of yarn for the shell. Luckily, I had only knitted this much when Roxi found a fatal flaw in the pattern (she had knitted halfway up the back of the sweater). Cascade Yarns,the company who made the pattern also manufactured the yarn and was nice enough to take everything back and refund all of our money. The only thing that we didn't get back was the time that we had invested. It will be a while before we ever trust a Cascade pattern again. But I did realize that I liked doing mitered squares.

Something for Moi

1st sweater
Originally uploaded by sfarewell.

Up until now, I have given everything that I have knitted away. This one's for me. My very first sweater. Ok, it's really just a shell, and there are no sleeves, so techinically it's not really a sweater. But it's mine, so I'm calling it a sweater. I found that pattern in a Manos Del Urguay booklet "Cotton Collection 1". I knitted it with Cascade Yarns Sierra Quatro color # 83. I really liked the 4 colors that they put together for this yarn. Could it have been the 2 shades of green in the yarn??? Mmmmmmm. Could be. Even though this project was intimitdating to start - Hello! This is a sweater & I'm not ready for this yet, merely 2 months into my knitting career! - it was easy and went fairly quickly. It knitted into a thicker fabric than I thought it would be, but hey, I live in the northwest, how often can a girl wear flimsy?

I love this hat!

noro hat
Originally uploaded by sfarewell.

Now this was fun! I whipped this bad boy out in one day! I knitted most of it in a cold ice rink during a hockey game. I wish that I had gotten the knitting bug when Katie was playing hockey. That would have been 10 years of knitting for countless hours every week. Of course, we wouldn't have been able to afford hockey and knitting. So I would have been a frustrated knitter, knitting hockey blankets and scarves out of the team colors with Red Heart yarn on a pair of sad aluminum needles. Ick, now is that a pathetic picture or what????

I do love this hat. The pattern is soooo easy it's almost sinful. It is knitted with one skein of Noro yarn & when the skein runs out, that hat is finished. And, of course, it looks particularly cute on Katie.

first socks

first socks
Originally uploaded by sfarewell.

When the felted bag was all done, I asked Roxi, what should I make next. My goal was to be a good, well rounded knitter. I wanted to develop my skills so that I eventually I could knit anything. So Roxi said socks. My response was No Way, I'm not ready, socks are too hard, etc. Roxi is not a good listener so here are my first pair of socks. I used Fixation sock yarn & it's a Roxi pattern, so it was free with the yarn.

Some people love socks. This project was not a love affair. I did learn alot. Cuffs aren't tight enough for my taste. And I did the Kitchner stitch, twice. Once with a lot of adult supervision & once all by my lonesome, with detailed written instructions. If I can ever whip out a Kitchner stitch from memory, that will be a major accomplishment!

felted bag

felted bag
Originally uploaded by sfarewell.

After my scarf run, this was my felted bag was my first project. Errol, another new knitter, was knitting this bag the first day I came into the yarn shop. As I learned the challenging garter stitch, he completed knitting this bag and felted it. How cool! I thought that Katie would love this, so I decided that I needed to make one. The pattern is the "Pris"tine Shoulder Bag. I used Burly Spun wool. It was so quick and fun to knit that it surprised me. It felted up great and made a fun Easter basket for my daughter. I encourage all new knitters to do a felted project. The beauty of felting is that knitting with bulky yarn and big needle goes fast & any new knitter uneven tension disappears during the felting process

orange scarf

orange scarf
Originally uploaded by sfarewell.

I did several scarves in the beginning. All of which I gave away. I gave this one away too but it made it back from college for the summer so I was able to take a picture of it.

I learned that working with this fuzzy yarn covers a multitude of uneven stitches that are inevitable during the learning process. The color changes made this more fun to knit & also hides food stains well.

In the beginning ...

first scarf
Originally uploaded by sfarewell.

was a scarf and the scarf was good. Actually it was pretty sad. But I sent it off to Katie with instructions that if she didn't like it, she should give it to a homeless person. She said that she loved it and I was tickled that she wanted to keep it.