More knitting... but No More gray!

Remember a few weeks ago I showed you this photo,and said I would show you 'mine' once I finished knitting it?

Well, I finished knitting it :-) 

  

 

And not that you can tell, but I colored my hair yesterday, it felt great to get rid of all those little gray hairs that seem to be multiplying of late!

One of the ways to wear the cardigan is to wrap it at the front. . . . I was nearly not going to show this picture - I won't even comment on how fat I think my face looks!!!!!!

Overlapping Blogs!!

In order to avoid not having any posts until Friday this week (something that would sorely disappoint my sis back home) I am posting about the only thing that is going on with me at the minute . . .  knitting! Finished knitting to be exact. 

I recently showed you this hat I knit for Kristen. . . .

Well I finished the mittens that match it at the weekend 

It is such a cute set, I am seriously thinking I might make one for myself.  I took Kristen out in the back garden for a few minutes today to get some modeled shots!

 I still have one hat I need to knit to send home (as a belated Christmas gift, to mail with 3 others that are late too) but I have to get more black or gray yarn. 

No school til Thursday this week,(for teacher/staff development!) and Jason is away in Denver til late Thursday night. It will be a few cozy days at home for me and Kristen and I'll be doing the usual.... housework, gym, knitting!  What are you up to?

Lucky Me!

Well, considering this year got off to a rough start for me what with allergies and just not feeling 100%, it looks like January is turning out to be a great month :-) I recently won a giveaway over at Stephanie's La Dolce Vita blog, when she was celebrating 3 years of blogging! My prize arrived just before last weekend . . .

Stephanie had chosen a few books in different categories (house, cooking, photography) and the winner got to pick which one they wanted. I already had the Pioneer Woman cook book that Stephanie had chosen, so I picked this sweet home book 'The Perfectly Imperfect Home'.

 It's filled with water colored pictures that I just love. I haven't had a minute to sit and read it yet, but I certainly will find the time this week. I would think this book will sit on my bedside table for a while too, so I can browse it at bed time ;-)

Thank you again Stephanie, and here's to many more years of blogging for you. If you haven't visited Stephanie's blog before HOP ON OVER and say hi. Her photography skills are amazing.

And if that wasn't lucky enough, I also learned last week that I'd won another giveaway on a knitting blog :-) I'm waiting for my package which is being shipped from the UK. I'll post about it when it arrives. Speaking of knitting, it's taking up all my spare time at the minute, I just LOVE IT.  I knit this hat last week for Kristen, it only took me a day!

Isn't it cute :-) I just love it, and I learned something new this week - I don't mind knitting fairisle!!! I always thought I hated it cos it was too messy twisting the yarns, but you don't actually have to. It knit up much faster than I thought it would because of that. 

 The pattern calls for bulky yarn, but I didn't have any. I decided to use a different yarn but knit the larger adult size, giving me a 'young girl' size when it was finished :-) The yarn is 100% wool from Hobby Lobby.

I'm just thrilled with how this turned out, I am thinking of buying the bulky yarn and knitting one that will fit me. There is also a pattern for matching mittens that I might make us. Sad thing is we probably won't get to wear any of these til next winter. The weather here in TX has been positively Spring like this week!!!

The fog is lifting. . .

Hi everyone,

I can't believe we're already in to the 10th day of this new year and I'm only just starting to feel somewhat 'normal'. I've hardly done anything since I packed the Christmas decor away (ok, truth be told it's STILL not all put away, some boxes are still in the dining room!), so I've hardly got anything to blog about ;-) 

I finally got in touch with my ENT (Ears, Nose Throat specialist) office yesterday, hoping to get an appointment to see my Dr but he is booked solid this week til Friday morning! No kidding, I'm sure I'm not the only one around here suffering badly with all these allergies. Thankfully they were able to call in a prescription to my local pharmacy and I went yesterday to pick it up. Can I tell you I'm already feeling SO much better this morning. SO MUCH better that I actually went up to the gym with Cheryl at 8.30am!  My hearing is still a bit 'fluffy', feels like theirs cotton wool stuck in my left ear, but it's not as bad as yesterday so I know it's improving every hour. 

I'm still not doing much around the house, other than laundry, dishes, knitting and reading ;-)  So I have no pictures to share. But I can't have a post without pictures (I sometimes do, but it's rare!), so here's one final Christmas photo (or two), I found these pics on my other camera and forgot I'd taken them. Remember the pretty candy cane vase I made . . . 

 The week of Christmas I bought some lovely red carnations to put in it - they lasted all the way through new year too :-) Sadly last week I threw the vase away! The can was all rusty from the water and there's no way this would last a whole year in the garage with the other decor, I would think the candy canes would melt once it got over 100 in there during the summer. It was a cheap make, just $2 for a box of canes, soI'm sure I would do another one next year.

 You can see more of Jason's Christmas windmill in this picture. We've always wanted one of these and I found one a couple of years ago on Ebay.

And with all my talk of knitting, if you're wondering what's on my needles at the minute, it's this. . . . 

It's called the Dahlia Cardigan. Mine is in a light blue. I've knit most of it and am working on the first sleeve at the minute. I'll be sure to share photos once I am wearing it :-)

Fall Creations

 The lovely Kristen over at Kristen's Creations is hosting her first 'Share Your Creations' Party today. It's similar to her Show and Sell, but she's changed it up for anyone to share 'anything' they've created (not just what they're selling), although she still has allowed us to share things we've created that we will sell!  I thought I'd join in today and show you a few things I've been creating this week for my Etsy shop.

I popped out to Hobby Lobby earlier this week and decided to buy some 'Fall Yarn'! It's still hot here in TX, but there's still a feeling that Fall is on it's way, perhaps because we're up earlier each morning and I'm getting to feel the cool 70 degree weather before it hit's the 100's later in the day! Whatever it is, it's putting me in the mood for Fall Knitting :-) 

Last year my Pumpkin hat was pretty popular, so I'm listing it again and can do other sizes if needed. Using the same lovely orange yarn, I knit this pretty little girls hat . . .

I think it looks super cute and will be a great addition to any little girl's 'wardrobe'. I've got some cowls to list soon too, like these I had last year - a gorgeous chunky cowl knit in a 'fan and feather' pattern (which looks rather lacy).

I love this oatmeal colored yarn and I've got a chunky pair of fingerless mittens to list in the same yarn - it's just a matter of taking the photos, which I'm hoping to do this weekend. Also to list is another cowl like this . . 

 

and I also have it knitted in a lovely 'Fall' color, a beautiful blend of browns, orange, sienna and burnt umber - it looks gorgeous. After I have a few new things listed for Fall I will get on with my Christmas gift knitting :-) It certainly keeps me busy!

A few last days. . .

Hi everyone, I'm still here! I had intentions of posting more this week but here we are Thursday already and I haven't done anything since Sunday night!!  This week seems to be a little crazier than usual, today even more so. It was piano lesson this morning (for Kristen) and we got finished there I headed to Walmart, thought they might have some sneakers we could pick up for school, but they didn't have much of a selection. We'll have to head out again tomorrow to hunt for some!

We're just home and having lunch. Later this afternoon we can head up to the school for 'meet the teacher' night, and to take up our school supplies. After that I'm headed straight out to book club. Our meeting is a little different this month, we didn't read a book but we're having a fun movie night instead. We picked something most of us had already seen (so we can still chat too without missing what the movie is about) - Mama Mia, starring Meryl Streep :-)  We're having a pot luck too so it should be a lot of fun.

I'm also busy this week knitting baby hats for a local photographer! I've teamed up with someone that will use my hats as baby photo props and in exchange for the hats I can use her photos on my Etsy store to sell more. I'm excited about it as the professional photos I've seen on Etsy really do help sell the hats - and goodness knows my photographs leave a lot to be desired!!! For instance, here's a little pear hat I knit ready to sell for the Fall . . .  (I took the photo, lighting is terrible!)

and here's one I found on Etsy with a professional photo. . . .

HUGE difference right! So, that's what's keeping me busy this week. I'll be back in a few days and hopefully next week once school starts I'll have even more time to get organized on here and post more.

Looking Forward!

It's 104 degrees outside, and I'm knitting Winter Cowls!!!!!! I must be crazy! To be honest though, there isn't anything I could knit that I would wear during the summers here in TX. It's always way too hot for knitwear, no matter how thin/cool the yarn is. So, I'm content to knit 'winter woolies'.  Instead of "wishing the summer away", I like to think of myself as just "looking forward" to the next season ;-) Fall has to be my favorite season of the year, and here in TX we tend to have to wait quite a while for it. Even in September the temps can still be pretty high. I looked back at my posts from last year and by mid September I was still complaining about the heat! So it's nice to sit here and knit with thick yarn, and think about the cooler days I know will come soon enough.

I love how this chunky grey cowl turned out. It's just a simple roll neck design, but I think the addition of the silk flower really makes it special. The flower can be removed and worn as a brooch or a hair barrette

For this cowl I knit the flower too. Colors differ on each monitor so I'm not sure how you're seeing this. It's not a light cream but more a golden wheat color. The flower is a burnt orange. They look great together for Fall

The cowl stretches to go just over your shoulders too, or you can pull it over your ears when it's really cold out! However it's worn, I think it looks stunning.

I knit these pretty beaded wrist warmers months ago, and have just never gotten around to listing them in my Etsy store. The hard part is trying to get great pictures! They look great with a denim jacket, or even just with a sweater!

Now I just need to get them listed. If you're 'looking forward' like me, and you'd like something custom knit, just let me know. I'd be more than happy to discuss the details with you.

Summer Knitting!

When I think of Summer Knitting I usually conjure up pictures a bit like this one . . . .

or even this one (oh to be knitting in Tuscany!)

I'd like to be thinking of skeins of soft cotton yarn, the kind that would keep you cool, of pretty little tanks that can be knit while you're lounging at the beach . . . 

but in reality, my summer knitting looks more like this . . . .

and this . . .

 

 and even this - yes, that's a hat and scarf set for my bottles of wine ;-) 

(they make a hostess gift look really cute)

 That's because right now my summer knitting consists of Christmas gifts for family and friends, AND some new things to put in my Etsy store come the Fall!  But whichever way I look at it, it's still Knitting, and it's still what I love to do :-)

Show and Sell Party - #6

  

The lovely Kristen is hosting her Show and Sell party! Party # 6, and yet I’ve only joined in two of them because I always forget it’s Thursday already and I usually don’t get a post up in time.

So, trying to keep on the ball this week, I’m posting today and will join the party tomorrow morning when she puts up the linky (or it might be tonight).

Slowly but surely I’m adding things to my Etsy Shop. This week I finished a couple more soft washcloths. These are in a pretty pastel green.

I’v made this a set of two instead of 3. Some people have never tried hand knit cloths so a smaller set might be what they’re looking for. But I have to tell ya, if you’ve not used a hand knitted washcloth/dishcloth before, you should give them a try.

  I usually knit my dishcloths with a ‘not as soft’ cotton yarn. But these washcloth/facecloth are so soft they are perfect for the bathroom and super soft even for baby’s bathtime.  They make a great baby shower gift.

This pretty little pink and white set has already sold, but I’d be happy to take a custom order ;-)

Also listed this week is a pretty little watermelon hat.

Size 0-3mths. It’s perfect for that new little one on a cool summer night. Knit with 100% cotton.

 

Coming soon is this cute white hat featuring a big pink rose !

 

I love knitting hats :-) This one is still available in my shop (with free shipping).. . .

 

You can visit  my ETSY SHOP HERE ! Or click the banner below.

Thanks for stopping by. Head over to Kristen’s blog to see some other wonderful hand made goodies. Kristen sells the most beautiful photo frames and floral arrangements.