Knitting blog ring

Does anyone know of a good knitting blog ring I can join?

Jester Hat beginning

Friday I started working on a new jester hat in a silk/wool blend mossy green yarn. Then Sat. I had to go to the ER (but I'm fine) and so today I got back to knitting the hat. The knitting was putting me to sleep so I didn't get very far yet. Yes, knitting is relaxing but sometimes it is too relaxing. So I quit and worked with my hula hoop for a while. Because knitters need exercise too.

More spinning photos

Couldn't fit them all in in the previous post. More photos from World Juggling Day at El Dorado Park.

More knitting

I see I'm a little behind in posting my knitting projects. The two close-ups are scarves I am knitting. The woman with the fish is my friend Renata Fossett and the fish she made for the mystery knitting contest. The alpaca and the spinner were taken at a World Juggling Day gathering I went to last weekend at El Dorado Park in CA.

Fair Isle Purse

I worked on my fair isle purse at Jack In the Box yesterday and noticed the bottom strip of the pattern just wasn't quite right. I've decided to let it go. I've already started over once, and I'm so far into it now. I'm learning a lot and that counts for something. I'll just have to be more careful with future rows.
It's a delight to work with various colors. Each row only has 2 colors so it's not as daunting as it might appear.

I'll never win

All my life I've tried to convince people that knitting and crocheting isn't just for grannies but the stereotype has persisted. I was in grammer school when I learned how to crochet and I was in high school when I learned how to knit.
Finally people are trying to convince the whole world that it's an art for the young and it's fashionable and not dumpy and dowdy like grannie's old afgans.

Bad news folks. Come Sept. I will be a grandmother. So now the very message I tried to get across all my life is about to backfire on me. I fought for the cause all my life and now I'm the stereotypical grandmother who knits and crochets. Save me.

bonding with knitters

I was waiting for my table at Chili's in Santa Maria and a lady who was also waiting was knitting a cabled burgundy sweater. I told her I was going to goof her up by mumbling 'purl, purl' at random moments. She laughed and then we discussed knitting on trains or while waiting in line at amusement parks.
That reminds me of a book I saw called Knitter's Night Out. It made me long for a group of people to knit with once a week.

Bunny hand puppet

I've been designing a knitted bunny hand puppet.

Yarn Bargain of the Day

I've paid about $5 or $6 a skein for this Lion brand yarn at yarn shops. Imagine my surprise when I found it at the .99 store for .50 a skein. And I needed some to finish a shrug I'm making so I bought 6. I suspect the yarn came from Walmart since many of them have closed their arts and crafts depts. I've also heard of it showing up at Big Lots so keep your eyes peeled.

More Knitting

I just listed three more items in my etsy shop and two of them were knitted. http://www.pigglewiggins.etsy.com

The red scarf I finished this morning. The purple hat I made for a class display at Michael's and the manager refused to display it because it was a 'family oriented store' despite the fact that the main display by the registers at that very moment was for Pirates of the Carribean. So I quit shortly thereafter and the poor hat has been sitting in a bag ever since.

New Knitters

Yesterday I taught two of my friends to knit. At the other end of the table men where working away on bows and making a lot of noise so it was hard to concentrate but they both got the 2 basic stitches down.

My first mittens

This is the first pair of mittens I knitted. The pink camo ones were the 2nd pair.

Pink Camo Mittens

Things were getting so overwhelming that I made myself sit down and write 3 pages in my journal to clear out my brain. Then I took a walk in the sunshine after hearing sunshine on our retinas produces seratonin, which cheers us up. A little sunshine every day, especially in winter, and no more cabin fever. While on my walk I finished a pair of mittens and listed them on Etsy. http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=8990779

I'm so happy to have one more project in the 'done' pile.

Envelope Hat

Envelope hats are literally a knitted rectangle folded in half then stitched up the side.

New Hat At the Beach

I titled my newest hat "At the Beach" because the colors reminded me of sand, surf and sky.

Scood

I learned a new word today. A SCOOD is when your hat and scarf are attached...it's a scarf and a hood. I can't wait to create one. Fun fun fun!

Get a free hat

If you live in San Luis Obispo County, CA you may be able to get a free hat hand knitted by me in one of my original designs. Read the details here: http://hubpages.com/_l6f64eotqm13/hub/Knitted-Hat-Project

Knitting Hats

I just finished one of the hats I designed. It's in my Etsy Shop here http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7244058 so people can order it in a color combination that suits them. I have 2 more original designs on my needles right now. One is blue with orange diamonds and the other has five different colors and a great texture.

I also finished my green and orange monkey hat and should be listing that soon. I redesigned it to make the monkeys smaller for the next hat attempt. I wish I could knit them as fast as I could design them on paper.

Designing Original Hats

Last night I couldn't sleep so I sat up, turned the light back on, and spotted the knitting graph paper sitting there. So I started doodling some new hat designs. I came up with four or five. My favorite was a design with two monkeys. I think I will add a third monkey and knit a had with that design in dark green and orange. I doodled until I finally got sleepy.



This morning I started doing the ribbing on the new hat. I'm still working on a previous hat in royal blue and orange that I should have finished first. The creative process is rarely linear though. I had the worst time with the blue hat and had to frog about six rows. I finally got the pattern back on course, but I was tired of looking at it for the night. Maybe today I'll give it another go. If my headache goes away. I found it's hard to knit when I don't feel well. I get too frustrated.

I finished my purple and light blue hat with the chain pattern except for weaving in the ends. It came out nice, but the pattern shifted in one spot and I was too far into it to rip things apart, so I'll have to live with the mistake. It will still keep my head warm; I just won't be able to sell it or give it as a gift. Sigh.

New Hat Designs

I have hat fever lately. I just finished one original design with a chain motif and now I'm doing one I called "Dotted Diamonds". The new one is royal blue with orange diamonds. I just wish I could knit faster because I have so many designs bumping around in my head and I'd like to see each one come to fruition.