Hey! It's An FO!

I had this Stockinette BSJ on the sidelines and I finally finished it!





Mods can be found at Panda Man's Knitting Corner

It helps to have knit a Baby Surprise Jacket before and I've knit dozens so I found this easy.

The only thing I did not like were MY increases and decreases. I think I was doing it wrong or else they just do not look as good in the stockinette. If you look at Panda Man's BSJ, you will see a much neater line.

I plan to knit up another and try again to see if I can improve the increase/decrease lines.

You have to have the original Baby Surprise Jacket pattern by Elizabeth Zimmermann to make this stockinette pattern. Go see his page for more details!


Here's a picture at the halfway point.






Sapatinho experimenting still going on and I just have to seam those little guys up.

Will post the results next, but I am leaning toward the 2nd pair I made with the garter stitch bottom. Easy to seam!

Another Red Hat

A very bright red!




Pattern can be found here

Back to finishing WIPs .....

More Knitted Cuteness

Cutie Patooties! These took only 1oz of worsted wt yarn. I used #6 needles. See the ones on the bottom? I seamed up the whole cuff and folded it down, but I think I like the open cuff best.



And another hat is done! Nope - it's not fair isle. It's just a combination of varigated brown yarn with solid brown yarn.



Several other Wips in line;
Curve of Pursuit
Ripple Scarf
Taptestry Crochet Kitty Bag
Cold Shoulder's Capelet from The Happy Hooker
Some slippers and another hat.
Oh yeah - Mittenz! Deadline is almost here!

Little Knitting

Not too much knitting going on with the bigger projects. They're on hold for now - too hot!

Finished those Little Kid Socks and they are really easy to knit up. The only thing I changed was to slip the first stitch of each row. The pink pair was without slipping and the seaming is not great, especially the back part. The varigated pair came out better, but seaming that back heel needs to be neater. Perhaps with a fluffy yarn the seams would be hidden or maybe omit the bind off and place the back parts on holders to weave in later?
Or maybe my seaming skills will improve :)





AND - I found another pattern!

Bernat's Organic Cotton Knit Booties



You have to sign in / register to access their free patterns.

Another two needle quicky, but I am thinking that the opening might be too loose to stay on.
Maybe go down a needle size for the cuff. Already on my next pair, so I'll be experimenting - again :)

Thanks for all the compliments! Keeps me knitting and knitting for charity!

Who Said I Don't Knit Socks?

Here is a cute pair. The pattern call for fluffy angora,
hence the name "Angel Booties"

When you use sport wt yarn, you get socks.




These knit up quickly, but those little #3 dps are a pain to maneuver around and I've tried the "Magic Loop" - don't really like it. I get the concept and can do it, but somehow I don't enjoy the part where you slide the loop.

Now For A Two Needle Pattern

Thanks to a fellow NAS member that posted the link to this pattern for
Little Kid Socks . I like these better as they are knit on two needles.




I'll be finished with these soon, but I am getting ideas as I knit along to "marry" both patterns.

Meanwhile a few more hats have been done!



Standard 2x2 rib with combined smaller weight yarns.



Another of Tammy's Flap Hats.



The "Jos" hat. Pattern no longer on the www, at least I can't find it.

The two hats above were knit with the same yarn combination but my camera did not capture the correct color on the Jos hat.




Child's Earflap Cap by Robin Hansen from IK Spring 1999

Love and Hate Relationship

Curve of Pursuit 2
Originally uploaded by Nonni Mariella

Almost there! I had to take this off the needles and put the ends on waste yarn just to take a picture.
I'm also trying out this "Post from Flickr" blogging feature.

I love this blanket, but I hate knitting it!

Clicking on the picture takes you over to my Flickr photo album where I am working on uploading my projects and my stash. Ravelry maddness has taken hold....

Updated Questions about this blanket pattern:

The Curve of Pursuit is a pattern by Pat Ashforth and
Steve Plummer
For details go to their site - Wooly Thoughts
I bought my copy from them via Ebay.
They have even more interesting patterns!

Little Red Baby Bonnet

A quick little project! Red Baby Bonnet all done.








Pattern: Top Down Baby Bonnet by Hello Yarn
I used one skein of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece with a bit left over,
and #5 needles.
It was very easy to follow, although I cheated at the start. I did not work the figure 8 cast on.
I simply grafted the top stitches together later. I'll have to try that cast on again, I am sure it would look much better.
Maybe it was working with this yarn as it was a bit "splitty". Glad I only had one ball in my stash.

Mess of Wips

Time to be honest and report my current WIPs.

Wip #1
I saw a Sideways Seaman scarf on this blog but the pattern is no longer available.
So of course I had to try and make up my own version because it is garter stitch with short rows, similar to my Sideways Mittens.

Last night I was happily nearing the end when I saw the mistake.
Can you see it?
Clue: The purple stripe is the midpoint and I did not repeat the stripes in the right sequence.
So it's rippit, rippit, back to the mistake.





Wip #2 is this cute cardi - Super-Natural Stripes from fpea's Free Pattern Fridays






Wip #3

Cold Shoulder Capelet from the Happy Hooker





Wip #4

Another hat!




Now to answer some questions!

Crafty Callie asked if I was going to post the pattern for the ripple hat.
Maybe I'll try and knit up another one and take notes. I didn't to that last time so I have no pattern - yet :)



Well back to reading Harry Potter and playing around in Ravelry.
My Ravelry name is KnittingNonni.
I finally got my invite and now to enter projects and such.
Love all the features and the ability to check out what other's are knitting.
Many, many ideas!

Quadruplet

It's official - I am on a hat binge! I just cannot stop making hats. They go easy if you have a pattern that works for you and they are so relaxing to just knit and knit.
Decreases my stash too!





The red hat is a knitted ripple type hat. Basic knitted ripple and I just made this up as I knit.
The other 3 are variations of Ann's Fat Hat pattern. I am getting so good at this that I can knit one up in a few hours!

No mitten knittin, yet...

On the needles, one sideways scarf from an idea on a blog. More on that when I finish.

Yarn Bargain

I'm back from my short vacation but I had lots of fun just hanging out with my sis!

One of the places we went to was the East Bay Depot. I had been to the original store a few years ago and I had fun digging thru all the bins.
This time I found some great old booklets and some pretty Red Heart for more hats and mittens.
$5 for this lot!







My sis saw this lovely scarf at her local LYS and she chose these colors and she bought the yarn so I guess that has no conflict with my KFYS rules!




Not much else to report. I have to get back into my mitten knitting but want to start the scarf and some other new projects I saw in Blogland!

Vacation Knitting

I'm currently on vacation - visiting my older sis and took some knitting with me.

We're running around so much that I have not had time to knit but I did finish another pair of mittenz before I left.













I also managed to knit up two more hatz!








Both are basic beanie types.
The top one with odd bits of leftover yarn knit every 3rd row.
The bottom one is a combination slip stitch brim of 3 inches and then the Helix hat method for the top part.

Well back to running around the Bay area of California!

We Have Hatz!

The Mittenz Blitz is still going, but now we have a Hatz Blitz.
Oh I love knitting hats!

Some Fat Hats

Knit with 2 strands of knitting worsted. The pattern is from our Cheyenne River group's site
Helping Hearts For Cheyenne River.

It's one of Ann's creations - Ann's Knit Fat Hat



As you can see I had lots of orange to knit up and it is so much fun to combine colors.
The design on the bottom hat was done with one strand of yarn and duplicate stitched.


Triple Treats!
These are done with 3 strands of knitting worsted and so quick to knit up!
Pattern is from WhimsyKnits - Tripple Treat Toddler Hat





Crocheting A Star
I wanted to crochet a ripple like hat but with an 8pt star on top.
This is what I came up with. No pattern, no notes. I love to improvise and see what develops as I crochet.




Side View

Knitting & Rocking

I've been nominated!




Monika over at Smoking Hot Needles has nominated me as a "Rockin' Girl Blogger".
Well Golly Gee! I am honored and humbled.

I'm supposed to nominate 5 more from all the Blogs I read. I have many more than on my sidebar because I use Sage Feed.
I do enjoy everyone of the blogs I read - can't decide who I like the best - you are all great reads!

So here's a random 5

1. Ann from Sheep Shots for sure!

2. Gail from Knitamaniacs

3. The Knitting Angel

4. f.Pea

5. Sugar Bunny Boulevard

I could go on and on - I read alot of blogs :)


Mittenz Update

And another pair of Mittenz for the Rez!



I've pretty much memorized the pattern so it is easy for me to throw in mods here and there.
With these I added a few more stitches for length and only used 9 sts for the thumb - 18 instead of 20.
And if you notice there is a slight flare at the wrists - I added short rows to the edges to make them flare out.

Wipping Along

Well summer is finally here - hot, hot , hot!
Temps in the high 90's and low 100's.
Oh, and no A/C.
All that means less bulky item knitting and sometimes even less time knitting!

I've started off the week with a few Wips.

Another pair of Mittenz - smaller needles - smaller size





Crocheting

I have been wanting to try my hand at Tapestry Crochet and finally decided to join the group over at Yahoo. You can find out more about Tapestry Crochet here.


The original pattern for this was supposed to be a bigger bag - more kitties - but since I am just learning, I decided to make a smaller version. So far it's been fairly easy and fun.


A couple of hats for the latest Hatz Blitz!



As you can see I started a 2x2 rib on circular needles. I love circular needles, but for some reason they were hurting my hands. So I switched to straights and happily k2, p2 my way to a few hats with Lion Brand Homespun.

Mittnz Update

Here is another set of seven pairs!



Those bright yellow ones and the smaller rainbow ones were knit from my latest sideways mitten pattern. Everytime I knit the original one, I keep getting different construction ideas.
Pattern for the new Mittenz on the sidebar.
The yellow ones were knit with Red Heart worsted wt on size 5 needles. The rainbow ones from (I think it is Red Heart) a thinner varigated yarn on size 4 needles. See the difference in sizes?

Here are some more pictures of these Mittenz










These lovely tan ones were knit by Carol, one of my "test knitters".

Special Announcement Time

Time for a break in my regular scheduled knitting activities.

It's another Mitten Challenge for 2007 - 7 Pairs in 2007

Details on Ann's Blog here.

So here's my first pair - 6 more to go!




I used a 2 strands of knitting worsted and a very basic pattern.
Here are my "mods":
Cast on 24 sts, worked a k1,p1 cuff to the bottom of my hand, then a few more rows.
The thumb is EZ's famous afterthought thumb with waste yarn on 6 sts.
Knit until I was almost to the tip of my fingers and did decrease rounds.
Picked up thumb sts, added 2 more on each end, knit 2 rounds, then decreased them down to 13. I kept trying it on to see how far to fit my thumb and then decreased, gathered up and mittens were done!
They fit perfect! Someone on the Rez will fit into them too - I'll probably make more and have fun combining my yarns.


The crocheted squares blanket is officially an FO!




I used light worsted wt yarn from my stash. The multi-colored yarn for most of the centers is Moda-Dea Sassy Stripes. A good way to use up the sock yarn I bought and thought I would knit socks.

Here's a closer view.

On Hooks & Needles

The WIPs I have on my hooks and needles this week.

Ripple #2 and wow is this bright or what?




The Crochet Square Blanket
I have about 14 more squares to do and then join.





Curve of Pursuit blanket that I must finish. I only have a few more color repeats and then the border.





Rita's Vest has to be sewn together.




Cottage Creations Babies & Bears Sweater
It starts at the sleeve then increases up to the middle where you put it on a holder and start the other side. I'm working both sides at the same time because it's no fun going back to the beginning for the 2nd side. Sorta like knitting 2 socks at the same time. Good thing I have 2 - 16" circs.

Tally Tuesday

I'm proud to say I have 3 FO's to report!

Here's the crocheted ripple blanket/afghan/laprobe.
I used an I crochet hook and stash yarn. It measures 42" x 42"



These ripple blankets are so addictive that I've started another one with some really bright colors.


Now for knitting

The sunburst star blanket is done! Not too happy with my color arrangement but it's a nice 43" across size. Good for a baby or a lapghan or even folded in half as a shawl.
I started out with garter stitch as the pattern suggests, but worked rows of stockinette with some garter stitch ridges every few rows.
I think I had about 450-500 stitches all on that 60" circular with room for more if I had wanted to make it bigger.
I'd love to try another one, but perhaps I had better wait until the fall and cooler temps. No use starting something that will be tossed aside as the weather warms. We are expecting 80's temps this week. Besides, I've started working on the Curve of Pursuit and want to finish it!





Finally those little teeny socks are done! Socks are so easy, but I do not like knitting with such fine yarn. I still have enough of this Lion Brand Magic Stripes for another pair - someday soon.