And The Race Is On!

No, not the Kentucky Derby - the Mittenz 2008 Challenge!

Here is my 3rd set of 8 pairs


Plus one more not in this set makes my total 25 pairs so far.

We have a database in our group site and 15 members have posted their counts.
The total to date is 161 pairs!
Jean is in the lead! She has made 30 pairs.


Pink Thumbless Mittens



I knit up a pair of cute little pink mitts and decided to try them sideways in garter stitch.



The picture above is what I came up with. Then I thought, why not add a thumb?
The picture below shows the result.



Kidlett Mittenz

Pattern still in the testing stage, but if we like it - I'll post it soon.




Babette Blanket


I just love this blanket and finally got the yarns chosen to match my grandson's room colors.
The pattern calls for 17 colors or more - of course I have more......


The pattern first appeared in Interweave Crochet Spring 2006 and is also for sale as a PDF on the Interweave Site.
There are some beautiful Babettes on the Flickr Babette Group - go take a look.

Ran Out Of Yarn In Colorado

A creek behind the Blue Cow Eatery in Morrison Colorado


Yes I did run out of yarn in Colorado! I thought I had taken enough yarn to knit some simple hats and I was sure my daughter had some extra yarn I could use.
I was wrong!
I knit too fast and dear daughter only had yarn that was assigned to projects.
We did go to Hobby Lobby, and we chose yarn to start my grandson's Babette Blanket, but I did not buy extra yarn for anything else.
Note to self - next time pack MORE yarn!

The Hats



The above trio of hats were knit from Wool Winder's Colorful Stripes Hat Pattern.
I used one ball of Lily Sugar n' Cream for the pink ones and odds and ends for the blue one.
The blue one fit my grandson's head - 72 sts on #4 needles did the trick.


Grow With Me Hats

The following hats were from from Cathy Cate's Grow With Me Hat.



Both took only 1 ball of Lily Sugar n' Cream cotton yarn.
The patriotic one above is for my grandson.



And no mitten knitting.......


Now for some more Colorado pics


My grandson




Coors brewery at Golden Colorado

Sunstar Burning Bright

Finished my 8 Point SunStar!



Pattern from Trinket's Crochet Blog
My mods: I skipped two at the “dips” and worked 2dc, ch2, 2dc shells at the tips.

Finished width at points - 48”
Finished width at dips - 40”
27 rounds of dc starting from row 4

Made with worsted wt yarn.

The Startitis Bug Bit Me!

This weekend as I cast on for my 7th pair of mittenz, I was bit by that pesky "startitis bug".
Or maybe spent too much time on Ravelry, looking at all the new patterns.....


7th Pair of Mittenz will be a re-do of my Original Sideways Mittens.



I am hoping to fiddle with the pattern to make it larger and also a longer cuff.
Using worsted wt yarn - discontinued Columbia Minerva Shannon from my stash.



Butterfly Hat Pattern

I saw this one and could not resist casting on!


Pattern here
I am using worsted wt yarn from stash and I only cast on 80 sts - got that tip from another Ravelry member!


Shrug This!

It's still a little cold in the mornings, so I cast on for this.


Pattern is Shrug This from One-Skein Wonders


Answers to some Comments:

Barbara wanted to know if the little yellow slippers that won "The People's Choice" award was one of my patterns.
Nope! They are from Comforts of Home: Simple Knitted Accents

And Monika asked : How many would you need to get everyone in the Rez new mittens?

And Ann answered with some very good info:
Many thousand.
Eagle Butte (where the Main is located) had a population of 2100 in 2000. But the Reservation itself is huge geographically (over 4000 sq. miles) and home to about 8500 people.

Thought I'd post this info so you know why we have a Mittenz Blitz!

Spring Flowers

All the flowers are starting to bloom over here.

Oh and the weeds are growing - well - growing like weeds!



These are so beautiful - but I forgot what they were!


Dutch Iris



Watsonia Flowers




The front bed is full - maybe too full?




My 6th pair of mittens made with my prize yarn - Lion Brand Landscapes



Pattern is from Weekend Knitting: 50 Unique Projects and Ideas

Quick and easy!

Mittenz 2008 Challenge

It's that time again! Mittenz Maddnez




The challenge is - 8 pairs of mittens ( knit, crocheted, sewn, purchased ) to be mailed in October to the Cheyenne River Reservation. Just in time to warm hands for the upcoming winter.

You can read more about it, where to mail, when to mail, rules, etc
on Ann's blog - and she has a contest going on too!

Last year 405 pairs were sent to the Rez - Let's make it more this year!


I've made 5 pair already - but you all know I am not stopping at 8.... Several of us are having a "Battle of the Needles" going on - great fun!


1st Pair



Pattern - Isela's Cabled Mittens from a LAL on the Loom-a-Long Raverly Group.
Worked on the blue Knifty Knitter round loom.
Yarn - Woolease Chunky


2nd Pair



Pattern - None - just improvised
Yarn - Chunky odds and ends.



3rd Pair



Pattern - I improvised on 32 sts with #6 needles on worsted wt yarn.
My first pair of mittens on 2 circs!


4th Pair



Pattern - South Dakota Mittens - I am working on writing this up.
Yarn - Odds and ends of worsted wt.
#5 & #6 needles


5th pair



Pattern - Anami's Mindless Mittens
Yarn - Columbia Minerva Shannon - discontinued
80% Orlon, 20%Wool
Knit two at a time on 2 #5 circs

Easter Basket

What a great Easter Basket I received this weekend!

I won all this as a prize!



Ann of Sheep Shots had a contest on her blog

People's Choice Award for Heet the Feet 2008

My little yellow slippers won the most votes!



Thank you!

You Are A Star!

Just a few more rows and I'll be finished with this 8 point Sun Star.



Kathy you wanted to know how I come up with these color combinations?

I found the inspiration for the Sun Star here.


Another quick hat - I used up odds and ends of bulky type yarn. This one was knit from the top down, with a 3" brim for extra warmth. No pattern - stopped increasing at 60 sts.






Little Poncho Is An FO!
Pattern is at the Lion Brand Site - Hooded Baby Poncho





Another Old Wip added to my "to finish" list!
A half circle shawl I started back in Nov of 2006 - found it in a bin.



The pattern is on my sidebar - Half Circle Knitted Shawl


More mittens & slippers are on the needles!

Hats & Hatz!

More Cranky Hats!




Using only Lion Brand Woolease, I made 5 hats to find the best fitting one.
Woolease works great, flows with ease thru the needles while cranking away.
It also stretches more so the hats (well the final one) actually fit my head.

Starting at the lower left side going clockwise is the Hat#1. I attached the brim after I took the hat off the machine. Ok, too short, brim a bit snug.

Hat #2 - I hand knit a garter stitch border and then attached it, stitch by stitch to the machine.
Too much trouble and still a bit snug.

Hat #3 - Brim width ok but could be longer - body of hat needed more length to cover my ears.

Hat #4 - Brim still not enough width but I think I got the body length just right.

Hat #5 - Center hat - TaDa! The brim depth just right so it's double thickness covers the ears and the body length long enough to hit just at the end of ears.

Here is my "Hat Recipe" for using Wool Ease yarn on the Innovations Machine.

Innovating Hats

Using LB Woolease gives a gauge of 3sts & 5 rows to 1”

Cast on with waste yarn for however many rounds you like (I knit 4)

Change to MC and knit for 40 rows,

After about 40 rows start attaching the brim.

Reach into the inside and pull up the bottom of the fabric, you need to find the corresponding st.

Pull out the stitch and place that stitch on the blue needle and adjust it downwards to meet with the stitch on there.

Crank the machine and feed the yarn to knit the two sts together.

Continue picking up sts from the brim, transferring them to the needles and manually knitting them together as you crank.

Knit 20 more rows then change to waste yarn, knit about 6 rows and take off to hand knit crown of hat.

I swatched first to find what needle size gave me the same gauge as the machine.

Crown decreases:

Rnd1: K9, K2tog around = 40 sts
Rnds 2,4,& 6 Knit
Rnd 3: K3, K2tog around = 32 sts
Rnd 5: K2, K2tog around = 24 sts
Rnd 7: K2tog around = 12 sts. Break yarn with a long tail to gather up these last sts.

Here's an inside view of the hats.





And even tho it took me about a day to crank out and hand knit the machine hat, I can still hand knit a hat in one night.!

One of our NAS group members, Mary, gave us a great link to some real easy hats.

So I made this one last night.




Basic pattern can be found here on Pat Hodd's Website.

Watch Cap Patterns

I used about 3 oz of worsted wt yarns and #6 needles.

The only thing I do not like about this pattern is the crown - I prefer a more fitted crown so my next one will be knit with the crown the way I prefer. This one was knit according to the pattern. And it really was easy!


Oh and I have not forgotten about the mittens - I'm getting ready to start another pair!

It Must Be Spring in Southern Calif

Thought I would share some pictures of my nectarine tree.




It's called Panamint and is very prolific with loads of fruit every year.













New Ravlery Group!

I just started a group on Ravelry to be a companion group to our Native American Support Group on Yahoo. Come join in the fun! Ask questions, post projects, or just stop by and say hello. Hopefully with the help of the listmoms on the NAS group, I will post information about our latest Blitzes and Challenges for the Cheyenne River Reservation. Where to send stuff, etc.

Clicking on the banner below will take you to the Ravelry Group - if your signed in.





Next post I'll have some FO's to show!

What the Haek does Haekelbeutel Mean?

It means a crocheted bag!

I used odds and ends of Sugar n' Cream yarns and a size F crochet hook.





AND - I just had to start another 8 point star blanket.
Pattern from Trinket's Crochet Blog.
I'm calling this my Sun Star Blanket.





Here's the cabled mittens I knit with the Knifty Knitter Blue Loom.
Pattern was only available for a limited time from the Ravelry LAL.




Well I thought the loom knitting was fun, but too slow for me, so using the pattern as inspiration I used double points to knit another pair with k1p1 ribbing.





A little more on the HEET the FEET 2008 Challenge

Woolwinder wondered how many knitters participated in our Heet the Feet 2008 Challenge.
Well we do have about 230 members in our group, but only 29 of those members were responsible for sending in the 717 pairs!

Double Trouble

We had a very successful Heet The Feet 2008 Challenge!

717 pairs of socks & slippers were mailed to the Cheyenne River Reservation.

Now we are looking forward to the upcoming 2008 Mittenz Challenge that has yet to be announced.
And some of us are getting a head start on Heet the Feet 2009!

This is turning out to be a lot of fun for our group as some of us have been calling it the

"Battle of the Needles"

And so I have decided to learn the knitting socks on 2 circular method. I am hoping this will cure my 2nd sock syndrome! And just to make things more interesting, I cast on for mittens with 2 circulars.


A mess of needles and yarn!



WIP Update

All the current WIPs are progressing slowly and some are FO's.

The loom mittens are done and then I knit another pair with the same yarn.
Pictures and more details to come.

The Bond Scrap blanket - I made two panels and I am crocheting around them.
2 more panels need to be made but I needed the machine to knit up some quick dishcloths.

Still working on the Mile-A-Minute blanket and the 6" crocheted squares.

The Lion Brand poncho is halfway done.

The Haekelbeutel squares are all done, just sewing them together, then for the straps.

Finished trimming all the trees in the backyard - now for weeding, ugh....

Just finished reading The Beach House by James Patterson.

And I wonder why I do not have time to take pictures and post!

Surprise!

I finally finished my Curve of Pursuit blanket!

Monika - you guessed it right on!



I started this way back in July of 2006. It's a design by Pat Ashforth & Steve Plummer
of Wooly Thoughts

I used #8 needles and Lion Brand Woolease.

Lots and lots of garter stitch. I really love this blanket and I think I am keeping it for a winter snuggle up! If and when I ever make another one, I will omit the last set of blocks.
It's about 50"x50" right now and omitting that last set would make it more of a baby sized blanket. Less bulk for knitting laying on top of one's lap - especially in the summer heat!


I am already planning another Wooly Thoughts blanket - bought this pattern already.

Revolution

They are so addictive!

Thrift Shop Finds & Answers

Went to the Thrift Shop the other day and found some yarn for my double knit blanket.

99 cents!



Not sure what brand the blue one on the left is but there were 4 balls of it.
I'm thinking little sweater.


And for $1.99 - I could not pass up this book.



Now for some answers to some comments. Figured I'd answer in a post - much easier!

Lizzie asks what I do in my spare time - Oh, bake, watch tv, weed, trim trees, shop, web surf...
Today we are going to trim another of our backyard trees. I'll try and take pics.

Kathy asked if I had a pattern for my earflap hat - no I did not take notes - just knit until it looked good.... I'll try and make another one soon.


And what about all those WIPs I showed you?

Well the books have been read - I'm on to new ones now.

The Midnight Club by James Patterson
and
Deadly Decisions by Kathy Reichs

Crocheting around 2 panels of the Bond/ISM blanket.

and some reason I dug out an old favorite WIP and trying to finish it.

I have 6 more rows to go!

Hint - It is RED, WHITE & BLUE