My Only Sunshine

I Finished Something!!

I recently posted a review, on Craft Critique, of a product I got at CHA this summer.  Now that it is nearly time for CHA winter I thought I should show you what I made.

I made these yoga socks for Bug on my Clover 9" circular needle.  Go take a look at my review.  As you can see, I love this knitting needle! 

I do pretty well with the magic loop method.  I'm even relatively good with two circs.  I just can't seem to get good at DPNs at all.  With just one short needle I can whip up a project so fast that even my short attention span doesn't run out before it is finished.  Shocking isn't it?

Can you see Bug's cute little chill bumps up there?  What a great foot model I have.  She'll roll up her pants and go out in the cold with me for a photo shoot.  She is getting a really cool pair of socks out of the deal.  At least I think they are.

These are knit with Knit Picks sock yarn that is so old that they don't have anything like it on their website anymore.  It's close to this though.

I made up the pattern myself.  It's basically just a tube.  I knit some 1x1 rib, then switched to 4x1 rib.  Then I knit another section of 1x1 rib and I cast off half of the stitches in the middle of the section and cast them back on in the next round.  When I switched back to the 4x1 rib I threw in a few K2tog.  A little more 1x1 rib and I was ready to cast off.

Aren't they cute on my little dancer Bug?  She's most excited to have socks she can wear with her flip flops.  She wants to wear new Croc flip flops no matter how cold it is outside.  Silly girl.

Itty Bitty Knitty

Do any of you remember when my blog was a knitting blog?  I'm sure there is someone out there who does.  Well guess what?  I've got knitting content to post today!!!

I'm going to start by posting some pics of knitting freebies I got at CHA.

 

I got a sample of Premier sock yarn and a Clover circular knitting needle.  The amazing thing about these two things is the scale.  Take another look.

 

It's TINY!  This knitting needle is designed to knit socks in the round with two circs or magic loop.

 

See, it's a size 2 that is 9inches long.  I know you're thinking it won't work but I actually did some knitting with it in Florida and it works.  Having extremely short needles on the ends actually really works.  I can't wait to cast on a sock and show you how well it works.  First I have to finish this...

 

 

This is the Shetland Shorty from Summer 08 Knitty.  I'm knitting it in the XS size for Bitty to wear to dance.  I'm enjoying knitting with KOIGU KPPPM though the pattern is getting a little monotonous.  I'm also a little worried I won't have the yarn to finish it.  Scary.

Hey you knitters out there, I'm going to start teaching a friend (Hi Donna!) to knit soon.  What would you suggest as a good first pattern?

Is it a skirt? A dress?

I'm pretty sure I won't be adding this to my WIPs list.  If you'd like to see the rest of the list, though, I have made a WIPs photo album for my sidebar.

My stix are fully dressed

I emailed Lisa with my To-Do list though I left one thing off, the teacher scarf.  It's not like my list of things on the needles right now wasn't long enough, but I have to have that scarf done before Christmas break starts so it better be on the list.  The next step to getting my stix naked it to show you how things stand right now.  I took my pics "in situ" around my house so you could see how things are coming and exactly how I treat my WIPs. First is Samus.

I don't know if you can tell, but Samus is under the coffee table.  Knitting off of such a huge cone makes this a hard project to take around with me.  It is slowly getting there though.  The biggest issue is keeping the kitties from tearing it to shreds.

Next up is Marissa.  She is a One Skein Wonder for Bug's friend in Kindergarten.  I need to  finish knitting the sleeves I am adding, seam them, and then pick up the stitches for the ribbing and knit it.  Doesn't sound like all that much does it?  Yes, well I'm just on my second project.  Wait until you see what else I have to get done.

Number 3 is the Nana sweater.  I have completed the back.  It's a cardigan, so that means 4 more pieces before I can seam and then work on things like neck, zipper, or button bands, depending on how things looks once I get more done.

4 would be Bug's mittens.  As I mentioned before, the mits I knit for her did not come out at all the same size.  I got new yarn dyes so I decided to start again on her mittens.  This is where they stand so far.  The yarn should be dry by the end of the day and then I can actually start to knit on them.  Did that green come out bright enough?

Dude's Scarf is next.  This may well be the craziest thing on my list.  Why?  Dude is going to get an Irish Hiking Scarf.  Doesn't look like a irish hiking scarf does it?  Wanna know what is crazier than that?  I'm not even sure this is the yarn I am going to use.  I may go back to my hand dyed alpaca.  We'll see.

Number 6 is Vintage Velvet scarf from Scarf Style.  I'm making this one for me.  See how far I have gotten?

7 is a Pom Pon scarf for Bitty.  I've made three pompons so far.  They haven't been trimmed yet, I will probably wait until all the pompons have been made before I trim them so that maybe I can trim them all in a similar way.

8 is mittens for Bit.  They are in even worse shape than Bug's mittens.  I will be dying this yarn too, but I haven't done it yet.  Maybe today while I still have everything out.

9 is the scarf for Bug's teacher.  It still needs fringe, which I have been putting off.  I have to get this done pretty quick.

10 Doesn't even get a picture because project 10 is just the concept that Bug needs a scarf to go with her mittens.  I haven't even figured out what kind of scarf to knit her or anything like that.

I'm also hoping to knit myself a hat at some point.  Do I have enough projects on the needles or what?  That's point behind the Naked Stix knit along though isn't it.  Wish me luck.

A week from this coming Friday I will be having surgery.  I'm having a laparoscopy to find out (hopefully) why I am having pelvic pain.  I don't know if being post anestheia will hurt my knitting or if it will give me lots of laid up time to get things done.  I'm hoping it's the latter.  If any of you friendly readers have any stories to tell me about laparoscopy or endometriosis let me know.  I've never had surgery that involved an incision before.

Of snowflakes and busy bees

Ok, so I know what you are thinking, "what do snowflakes and bees have in common?"  I promise, the title will not lead you astray.

First, the bees.  I have been a very busy bee lately here at Sunshine.  I've been working hard to get this blog up and running. Seems easy enough, no?  The problem is, I am no html expert, and I want it to be really well put together.  No slipshod for me (if it is, feel free to tell me, I'm still up for criticism, I'll let you know when that ends)  The basic design isn't TOO hard, but I am also working on a sales area for my Kneadles, which are handmade knitting needles with decorative polymer clay ends.  I will probably be selling other things as well, I'll let you know.  Merchant accounts, paypal, shopping carts, it's a bunch to figure out when you only get an hour or so a day of uninterrupted "figure out" time.  I'm getting there though, it won't be long.  To add to the busy-ness of this bee I have also been getting business (business, busy-ness, HA!) cards made for the company, that would be me, with my blog address on them and some custom pic work.  They should be pretty cool, we'll see in 8 to 15 days.  It'll take another 3 weeks on top of that for the new woven tags to come in.   See, busyme = busybee.

As for the snowflake part, that has also kept me busy, but in a more artistic (what I mean by artistic is that the kids saw me make one and are now asking me to make them by the bushel) way.

These are the snowflakes I made using our initials.  The first one is for Bug, I don't know if you can see it, but the pattern is her initials SJT.  Actually, that one is her father's as well, they have the same initials.  The second one is for Bit.  Her initials are CET.  Can you see it?  I think her's is the easiest.  The third one is mine, AST.  What do you think?  I'm planning on hanging them on the Christmas tree.  Next time I will have to show off the snowflakes the girls have made.

Everyone needs a peppermint shot glass, don't you think?  I don't know what I will do with it, but it was only $1 a Target so I had to bring it home for a blog photo shoot.  It is posing atop my second One Skein Wonder. This OSW, which is in the same Shaefer yarn as the one I made for Bug, is for Bug's school friend Marissa.  Bug wore her cute little shruggy thing to school one day, and from reports (her Mom) Marissa went home raving about it.  Understandable, who hasn't raved over Glampyre's knits?  So Marissa's Mom asked where she could get something like it.  Well you can't buy it at the store, and I already had plenty of leftover yarn, so I offered to make one for her.  I am going to put sleeves on this one since it is starting to get cold here.  We wouldn't want Bug and Marissa to match exactly either would we?

Last but not least, I give you "The Pouch".  I got this pattern over at Split Yarn and had to start whipping some up immediately.  It's a great little credit card/coin case and was really fun to make.  I have made them for both the girls, Nana, and myself.  I'll probably be crunching out a few more for gifts, or just for the fun of making them.  We'll see.

Have a great day everyone.

A cat, a duck, and some kids

I know I promised you the poor mistreated cat would host my next entry, and I assure you that I did try, which is why it has taken so long to get this post, but he is too busy being mistreated and put upon.

See what I mean?  It's hard work being that harrassed, really it is.  He will tell you all about it, in that whiney cat "feed me" voice.  So while I couldn't get him to host this entry, I did talk him into posing with some knitting for your viewing pleasure.

That was before I finished the cable for Samus.  I have now gotten the cable finished and have picked up the stitches and started my way up the body.  I'm not loving knitting the body of this thing yet.  It's rather unwieldy on my circular needle and the rows are LONG, but I am holding out hope that it will get better as I go along.  I look forward to wearing this sweater.

While taking breaks from Samus I have been making Bug a pair of mittens.  These are the first mittens I have made and they aren't coming out quite right.  Did you all see Norma's post about her mittens?  I feel bad that her mittens aren't working out as she had hoped, but it does make me feel a little better to know that I'm not the only one who has this problem.  (I should be comparing my mittens to Norma's really, my situation is much worse)

  I knit the finished mitten on the right first.  The ends are all woven in and everything.  Then I started in on the left mitten and it is turning out SO much better.  Somehow my gauge got drastically tighter on the second mitten, but also the thumb gusset actually looks almost right.  So the second is much better, and now I have to figure out what to do.  Do I try to frog the right mitten (ends woven in, many pieces of yarn put together) and then reknit it hoping it will more closely match the left mitten.  Or do I buy another ball of this yarn (DB Alpaca Silk) and start a third mitten?  Another option would be to just scrap both of them and chalk them up to learning, then start another pair of mittens all together, in another, more pink, yarn.  Bug intially didn't think these mittens were so great because the color is so bland (I had plans to work that out) but then she tried them on and decided they were soft enough to make up for the color.  What do you guys think?

Once I realized how far off the mittens were I cast on for something else.  Obviously I had to have something to keep me busy while trying to decide what to do with the mittens.  (please refrain from pointing at all the other WIPs you've seen in previous posts)

Here are the very early stages of my duck.  It's amazing how I can think about knitting all day long but only find myself actually knitting for a few minutes each day.  I need to do something about that.  On top of starting to knit this cute little duck I have spent some time trying to figure out how best to turn a sweater and pair of pants of Bug's that I love into a purse.  It's been going on all over the place, but I was finally truly inspired when I saw this.  There are a few things that my children have worn and grown out of that I just couldn't part with.  The yellow sweater and green cords are like that.  Nobody in my house will ever be able to wear these things again, but I couldn't just donate them like I do all the rest of the kids clothes they have grown out of.

So instead I through the 100%lambswool sweater into the washing machine.  It ran for two full cycles and at the end it was obvious that there were two tiny little holes that I hadn't noticed.  That's ok, I will be cutting those portions off anyway.  I'm going to make the sweater into the body of a purse and use the cords as the bottom and possibly the straps.  I may decide to add leather straps, we'll see.  I'll let you know as soon as I know.

For my last few pics, I'm just going to show off my kids.  If you can't stand to look at kids after suffering through cats and ducks, please feel free to look away, but I promise you'll be missing out.