FO Friday 20

It's Friday again! Thank god, I think I'm ready for some time hanging out with my husband. I love days we can spend together, even if we just sit at home and play video games. This weekend should be beautiful here in San Diego, getting into the 70's on Sunday. Sorry to all of you who are stuck inside and surrounded by snow. I don't mean to brag. LOL

I had a fun week of packages arriving at my door! I ordered several knitting books from bookcloseouts.com, a knitting book from Barnes and Noble and tons of fingering weight sock yarn to dye. All of it came within two days of each other. So awesome. Here are the books that I got. I can't tell you how excited I was to find the Charmed Knits book for super cheap. I've been dying to get this book! The Big Book of Knitted Monsters was the one I got from B&N (obviously since it just came out).

Have any of you knitted any patterns from these books, or read the Yarn Harlot's books? I'm excited to dive in to all of them. What are your favorite patterns from these books if you own them?


Anyway, back to FO Friday. I have a few projects to share, and one that you've seen before but I thought I would show it to you completely finished.

You may remember the purse I made for my sister in law that I shared in FO Friday 18 and how I debated on a ribbon or not. Well, I found one that worked pretty well, so I went ahead and bought it. Here is the purse completely finished with the ribbon. Do you like the new addition?





I finished the heart washcloth, and also pretty much finished off that skein of yarn, so I marked it off of my yarn diet skein count. I had fun knitting this because it was easy, especially since it's hearts so that it was symmetrical. Once I read the first part of a row, I knew how to finish the row off without looking at the pattern. It made it an easy tv watching knit. Also, I loved how the yarn pooled when knitted.

Materials used:

US 6 needles
Bernat Handicraft cotton
Yarn needle





This has been a long time coming. I'm not sure why it took me so long, but I think it might have been the annoyingness (I know, it's not a word but just go with it. LOL) of the color change on such a small ami, BUT I finished the corgi!!! Planet June's pattern was great, and once I stopped complaining about all of the color changes, I finished it quickly. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The only thing that annoys me a little is that it turned out SMALLER than the wiener dog, which doesn't make sense, but oh well. I just need to do a collar and get a name tag before shipping it to my mother in law, along with the other dog I made for her.

Materials used:

5.00 mm (H) hook
Red Heart Super Saver (body- white)
Vanna's Choice
Caron Simply Soft (nose- black)
Poly Fluff Stuffing
Safety eyes- 9mm
Yarn needle

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Look Mom, I'm Knitting!

I feel like a little kid, smile beaming proudly, as I show my mom an ugly project I made at school. This weekend I made my first few knitting stitches and you would have thought I had cured cancer. I was SO excited, I showed it off to anyone who would look at it. Of course, that only included my husband, dog, two cats and Alea, but it didn't make me any less proud!

Now, if you don't laugh, I will share my first swatch. I AM calling it my first, despite starting another before it with Vanna's Choice that split like no other. It was so frustrating I almost threw my needles across the room. Instead, I decided to switch to another cheap yarn in my stash, TLC Essentials in Surf and Turf. Let me tell you, it was a smart move. This is the first time I've used TLC, which I got on sale on the big Labor Day sale Michaels and Joann's was having. It's a perfect practice yarn! As far as needles, I started on size 10 Clover bamboo needles when I was working with the Vanna's Choice, but when I switched to the TLC, I used size 8 Clover bamboo needles. I like the feel of the size 8 better I think.

I just noticed there is some crazy pooling going on with this yarn! It doesn't look as bad in person.

As you can see, I made an error, dropping a stitch (at least I think that's what happened), but instead of worrying about it, I decided to move on and just learn from my mistake. Other than that little booboo that resulted in a nice hole in my swatch, I think it looks pretty good. The last few rows I did were starting purl, so like 99% of the swatch is the knit stitch.

I love the differences between crochet and knitting. They are so different, it's like night and day. I'm left handed, crochet left handed but decided to learn to knit as a rightie. I'm one of those weird people that uses their opposite hand a lot. In fact, when playing baseball, I bat left handed, but can only throw accurately with my right. Same with hockey. I shoot right handed, but I play goalie left handed. Odd, I know, but I decided to do the same with crochet/knitting. So far, my choice was a good one, as there is less tutorials of left handed knittng as there is for the south paw crocheters.

I started with a few different videos, watching each technique for casting on (the Knitpicks video seemed the easiest for me) before choosing my poison. I know that different patterns need certain casting on (or I think), but right now I wanted the most simple. I then moved onto the Knit stitch, working on the garter stitch for this swatch, before moving onto Purl stitch Monday night.

Between Knit and Purl, I have to say, I like knit stitch MUCH better. Purl seems/feels so unnatural for some reason, but this may be because I just started it. I hope it comes a little easier to me. I was at Borders yesterday and saw a great book, The Harmony Guides: Knit and Purl: 250 Stitches to Knit (or it seemed great, I didn't buy it) that really opened my eyes to the K & P stitch. I didn't realize that you could do a ton of different stitches just with knowing these very basic things.

I did buy this book, Chicks with Sticks: Guide to Knitting, which so far is a great way to learn and have patterns based on my very beginning level. Each "lesson" they teach you a new stitch, which then leads to a pattern using it, so it builds on what you know from the previous one.

I'm SO excited to learn more, and I love how different it is from crocheting. I can't wait to start making things, instead of swatches.

I'd love to have a few books, patterns or videos recommended, so if you have any, please be sure to comment!

FO Friday 5

Since I showed this in this week's WIPW, it's probably no surprise what my FO Friday is for this week. I asked you all if I should frog the scarf, and for the most part, everyone said no. I decided to take your advice, but I had even more incentive to finish. I found someone who loves it even more than I do.

Meet Roxy, my 8 year old baby

She decided to curl up on it while I was working. I didn't have the heart to move her, especially since she has a cold right now. Once I saw her fall asleep on it, I knew I had to finish it. Who cares that it isn't perfect? She doesn't!

Materials used:

6.00 mm (J) hook
Vanna's Choice (scarf- Rose Mist)
Yarn needle

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