Did You Say Hatz?

Today I'll be working on Hatz for 2008. This challenge is not official yet, but I have to get a jump on Lizzie - she already has 5 Hatz!

Here is her cute button I'm stealing for my sidebar. Go check out her blog and you'll see the lovely hatz she has already made.




2 hats were sitting in the NAS bin. I made them in April and had not gotten around to mailing them so I'm counting them!

Hat #1 is the Butterfly Hat - my hat here.

And here is Hat #2





Hat #3 is really bright pink! More thrift store yarn and no particular pattern.
I just cast on for a 20" head and did some ribbing and added some purl bumps along the way.


Here is #4 almost done - just needs the ends woven in.
It's the Checkerboard Mesa Hat by Nanette Blanchard and available for purchase on Ravelry and here.





What I found while digging thru the Wips - I forgot I had started these before my April Colorado trip .


And that's not all I found.....
I had to re-organize all my forlorn and forgotten Wips that were shoved to the side during Mad Mitten Making.
Here is what I found - about 10 little baskets all lined up and waiting for me to "get with it".



I'm still working on the other mitten mate for pair #49 and I have a few more mitten patterns I want to try - so there will still be mitten knitting - just not so much.

Have to finish those blankets and I found another cute little sweater pattern on Ravelry.
Yes, I cast on for it already....

Hello - I Am An Over Achiever

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The Battle of the Mittenz Knitting is still going on. There is about 7 of us "Over Achieverz" that are in the double digits. Here is my 6th set of 8 pair and when I get to the 50th pair, I will take a little break.




I will not stopping making mittens but I think I'll switch to making a few hats and slippers.

Hatz Blitz, Heet the Feet Blitz and Babiez Blitz were being discussed in our Yahoo Group.
There will be more about this when the actual challenges start.
The Hatz Blitz will most likely start after the Mittenz Blitz ends - Sept 30th.

Some of the my fellow OA's (Over Achieverz) have already started making hats so ya know I have to "get with it" and knit me some Hatz!

Oh and I almost forgot about the "Underwear Blitz"!
Between now and August 1 (the mailing date) we are challenged to pick up a pack of NEW (only)
underwear for school aged children. It's our June/July Blitz.

Now to go check out my Ravelry Queue and see what hat patterns I have marked.

Explanations & Mittenz

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Explanations

Did I confuse anyone with posting my dad's WWI picture?

Most of you probably have grandfather's that were in "The Great War" and you are probably thinking that I must really be old...

Well I AM old, just not that old LOL! I was born way after my brother and sisters were born.
Dad was a very proud father at 53 years old and mom was not too bad herself at 42 years of age.

I wish I knew more about his WWI service, but the records from that time were destroyed in a fire. So I do not know what battles he might have been in or if he ever was in combat.
I did find several medals of his and passed them on to my nephew who is in the military service.



So now on to my Felting Experiments.

For my 49th pair of Mittenz I used this pattern and here is a picture
pre-washing machine.




Here they are afterwards


They seem to have felted down to a nice size and the only thing I would change for next time is the thumb width and length. Those thumbs do look a wee bit skinny...



Now for the following big blue mittens! I made these on my Innovations Knitting Machine.
I started them way back in March but never got around to felting them.
Here they are before their trip thru the washer.


And here they are after.


They are about 10.5" long from end of cuff to tip and about 4.5" wide at the palm.

There are just two things I might change if I decide to make more.
I'd shorten the cuff length as I think it is too long and I'd make a less pointy mitten tip.

Hopefully they will fit a large sized hand.

Memorial Day

1917 - my dad - WWI
Camp Kearny
First Arizona Volunteer Infantry

40 Pairs of Mittenz

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I'm up to 40 pairs of Mittenz for the 2008 Mittenz Challenge!



The 2 very bright red pairs are a pattern on 2 needles that I have been working on.
I'm still tweeking and might change it to knit in the round or maybe both ways.

One pair of bright pink ones was crocheted using this pattern.
The 2nd pair of bright pink ones and the little striped red pair are just a basic mitten pattern.

The "Good & Plenty" mittens are 3 strands of yarn and are knit from Susan B. Anderson's 45 Minute Mitten pattern. PDF here

The 2 pairs of orangey ones are knit with 2 strands and improvising as I go along.



My 41st Pair of Mittenz in the works!

The Rising Count

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Thanks to all for the information and links in your comments!

Now on to knitting



The 5th set of 8 pairs of Mittenz is rising like a bright tower!

If you like knitting mittens - knit some for the 2008 Mittenz Challenge.
Info can be found here and they are to be mailed to the
Cheyenne River Youth Project in South Dakota the last week of Sept 2008.


Good & Plenty Mittens



The combination yarns for this pair sure did remind me of the candy by the same name.

I'm on the 9th panel for the Babette Blanket!

My Blog Has Been Stolen!

Well thanks to Suzann for alerting me that some of my posts have been "lifted" and posted on another site. How rude is that? For what purpose - I don't know.... It's not like I have anything important to say.

The offending site - the thief of my posts is Knittingclub.org.

So if you are on this site - go elsewhere - they're nothing but thieves!

Can I Beat The Heat?

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This is called blog scraping and people do it to make money by diverting traffic to their site.
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Babette Is Growing

I'm trying to beat the heat and still work on the Babette Blanket. Crocheting the squares is tolerable in the heat, but seaming is another story.




Panel #8 is done and seamed up early this morning.





Mittenz Update

4th Set of 8





A Pair of Ocoze Mittens

Needs a little more tweeking....


Garter Stitch Paw Warmers


Great pattern from Panda Man's Knitting & Crochet

Pattern for Paw Warmers
Yarn - worsted wt

5 Pairs of Kidlett Mittens





A Pair of Crocheted Mittens


From Angel Hugs site

Crochet Mittens For The Family

Worsted wt yarn and a G hook

Happy Mother's Day!

Here's hoping you are all having a great day - I am!

I've been very busy all week, crocheting the Babette Blanket for my grandson.

Finished section 7 and getting ready to start section 8. It's so much fun to work with lots of colors and different shapes. I'm not getting bored in the least bit!






Mittenz Update

I'm up to pair #28 and still working on those "test" patterns.

The other wips have fallen to the side for now.

Too Many Ideas

And not enough time to knit them up!

I mentioned that the Kidlett mittens were in the testing phase.
Have not heard from my test knitters yet so I'm waiting for corrections or comments before I post the pattern.

Meanwhile back in the lab.....

I decided to convert the Wristerz pattern into mittens.

Here is what I came up with - Ocoze Mittens

(Ocoze means warm in Lakota)




Below you can see the two sts that are left at the end before you turn around.
I keep track by placing a marker on the ridge before the short row.



Here you see the marker, then two ridges then I mark the next ridge because I will be short rowing in this next row.


Pattern will follow soon - it is really easy - it's just the Wristerz again with short rowing at the tip and adding the full thumb like in my original Sideways mittens.



Babette Is Growing!



This is what is slowing my mitten knitting. I'm just having too much fun choosing the colors and adding the squares!

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!