FO Friday 87

Happy Friday! I'm off to Palm Springs for the weekend for a tiki event! I'm very excited to spend time with my husband, who has been traveling a lot for work, as well as just relax by the pool with good drinks, music and knitting! The socks I was working on for WIPW are FLYING off the needles. I'm already at the heel flap/turn of the first sock and will be picking up stitches tonight (Thursday). I'm hoping to finish one of the socks this weekend and maybe even start the second! I just started these socks Tuesday!

I actually have a few FOs finished, but I'm going to share the one I teased last week and save the Hermione socks for next week's FO Friday. I hope you don't mind. :)

I know a few of you guessed it in the comments last week! I was knitting a Mother's Day dishcloth/washcloth for my mom! Good call! I used this pattern, knitting it with Sugar N' Cream yarn in colorway Rose Pink. The pattern suggests a size US 3 needle, but I went up to a US 4, as 3 seems a little small. It ended up such a great size and my mom loved it! I also gave her a gift bag full of LoLo Bar products! It was a great Mother's Day as I was able to hang out with her all day, including going to a watch party for the LA Kings hockey game. SO fun!

That's it for me today. Have a great weekend!

Share your FOs!

FO Friday 20

It's Friday again! Thank god, I think I'm ready for some time hanging out with my husband. I love days we can spend together, even if we just sit at home and play video games. This weekend should be beautiful here in San Diego, getting into the 70's on Sunday. Sorry to all of you who are stuck inside and surrounded by snow. I don't mean to brag. LOL

I had a fun week of packages arriving at my door! I ordered several knitting books from bookcloseouts.com, a knitting book from Barnes and Noble and tons of fingering weight sock yarn to dye. All of it came within two days of each other. So awesome. Here are the books that I got. I can't tell you how excited I was to find the Charmed Knits book for super cheap. I've been dying to get this book! The Big Book of Knitted Monsters was the one I got from B&N (obviously since it just came out).

Have any of you knitted any patterns from these books, or read the Yarn Harlot's books? I'm excited to dive in to all of them. What are your favorite patterns from these books if you own them?


Anyway, back to FO Friday. I have a few projects to share, and one that you've seen before but I thought I would show it to you completely finished.

You may remember the purse I made for my sister in law that I shared in FO Friday 18 and how I debated on a ribbon or not. Well, I found one that worked pretty well, so I went ahead and bought it. Here is the purse completely finished with the ribbon. Do you like the new addition?





I finished the heart washcloth, and also pretty much finished off that skein of yarn, so I marked it off of my yarn diet skein count. I had fun knitting this because it was easy, especially since it's hearts so that it was symmetrical. Once I read the first part of a row, I knew how to finish the row off without looking at the pattern. It made it an easy tv watching knit. Also, I loved how the yarn pooled when knitted.

Materials used:

US 6 needles
Bernat Handicraft cotton
Yarn needle





This has been a long time coming. I'm not sure why it took me so long, but I think it might have been the annoyingness (I know, it's not a word but just go with it. LOL) of the color change on such a small ami, BUT I finished the corgi!!! Planet June's pattern was great, and once I stopped complaining about all of the color changes, I finished it quickly. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The only thing that annoys me a little is that it turned out SMALLER than the wiener dog, which doesn't make sense, but oh well. I just need to do a collar and get a name tag before shipping it to my mother in law, along with the other dog I made for her.

Materials used:

5.00 mm (H) hook
Red Heart Super Saver (body- white)
Vanna's Choice
Caron Simply Soft (nose- black)
Poly Fluff Stuffing
Safety eyes- 9mm
Yarn needle

Share your FOs!

Work-in-Progress Wednesday 25

I don't have too much to show this week, as I'm more into completing projects lately, or working on things like the Ice Cream blanket that is slow going. I finished the hat, almost finished the corgi and hope to share both Friday, as well as my current WIP I'm sharing today. Isn't it nice to change items from in progress to complete on Ravelry?



Being aware that I haven't really gotten through very much yarn so far and the first month of the yarn diet is almost over, I decided to make something with the cotton I had remaining from my mom's market bag. I didn't have much left over, which is amazing since it was a 710 yard skein, so I knew I could only make something small. Since Valentine's day is just around the corner, I decided to make a cute little heart washcloth. It looks like I'll have just enough yarn, and will be able to cross off another skein in my yarn skein count. Total win situation! What I'm most amazed about with this project, is how DIFFERENT the yarn looks knitted in a line, instead of crocheted in the round. It looks like a completely different yarn, wouldn't you agree?



Okay, this may be cheating, but I am currently in the middle of untangling this mess. It is the remaining skein of the Fisherman's wool I used for my first two dye jobs (this one and this one). Trust me, this might be one of the hardest WIPs I've taken on lately. It got into this mess because I had to un-skekin it before I had a real ball winder and swift, and then the skein was WAY too big for my crock-pot the way I un-skeined it. What a mess. I've tucked it away for awhile now, and thought I'd give it a chance again. Anyone have any tips on trying to get this back to usable faster? Yeah, I didn't think so. LOL



For those that are new to WIPW, to share your WIPW post with us, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. Despite it saying you must comment, don't feel as if you do. That is something Mr. Linky automatically adds. I just ask you to check out a few of the links posted to see what everyone else is working on and comment there if you can. Everyone loves feedback and a little encouragement on their projects! Also, please link back to this post in your post to get the word out! The more the merrier!

Work-in-Progress Wednesday 19

I'm going to keep this pretty short, as I've come down with the flu. :( I was on such a roll, had so much energy and then BOOM. I got sick on Monday afternoon. Definitely no fun. I hope you're all having a great week.

Here are this week's WIPs:


Almost done! When I'm feeling better, I need to just sew the lining together and then hand sew it in the purse. I also need to add the ribbon decoration to the front. I hope to get better pictures then, for FO Friday. :)



I made a boo boo where the stem of the glass and the main portion meet, but didn't realize until I was way far into it. I don't think the recipient will mind, so I just left it. Other than that, I'm really happy with this and really like the border for it. I also am loving the subtle colors in the cream yarn! Anyway, this is the pattern I'm using.



Despite having so much to do still for Christmas, I couldn't wait to start these. As I mentioned here, I decided to make the Waffle Fingerless Gloves. As you can see, I have finished one, and am about to start on the second. I'm afraid it will be a little small (I still have to seam it) but hope it will stretch. I used Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool that I dyed and LOVE the way the colors turned out. I'm stoked!

For those that are new to WIPW, to share your WIPW post with us, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. Despite it saying you must comment, don't feel as if you do. That is something Mr. Linky automatically adds. I just ask you to check out a few of the links posted to see what everyone else is working on and comment there if you can. Everyone loves feedback and a little encouragement on their projects! Also, please link back to this post in your post to get the word out! The more the merrier!

FO Friday 13

First off, you may have noticed it on the sidebar this week (or above in this post), Stacey was kind enough to make us a FO Friday button as well! Please be sure to thank her when you get the chance. Just like the WIPW one, please feel free to use it on your sidebar or posts.

Friday is upon us and I think for the first time I have more than one FO (though very small). Exciting! I hope that in the next few weeks, each FO Friday will have a few items to share because that will mean that I finished, or at least got close to finishing my Christmas crochet/knitting.



Here's what I have to share!



We got our Christmas tree on Saturday. I am so excited because I think this is the best tree I've ever had. It's so rich, full and it smells amazing. I thought I would share a picture of the whole tree as well, just for fun. Since we got the tree, I wanted to make a little something for it. The pattern I think calls for acrylic, but I decided to use cotton since it would be next to warm lights and I didn't want any melting action to happen. I think the shape would have been better in acrylic, but oh well. I still think it's really cute. He's happy hanging there with the rest of our ornaments.

Materials used:

5.00 mm (H) hook
Lily Sugar'n Cream (yellow)
Yarn needle



And on to the FO I am most proud of, or at least since the Owl Bag. This washcloth (Dragonfly Washcloth) is the first thing I have officially knitted!!! I'm really happy with how tight my stitches are, as well as even. The needles I used (Knit Picks Harmony needles) were heaven. I want a whole set of them! They made knitting so much easier than my other needles when I was doing my first swatch or when I attempted the scarf using Clover ones. I'm not exactly sure what to do with it now, but it's awesome. Since it's my first ever knitted item, I feel weird using it. LOL Anyway, I'm proud of it to say the least. I know to all of you who knit sweaters, it's probably silly, but there you go. :)


Materials used:

Size 7 needles (Knit Picks Harmony interchangeable)
Lily Sugar'n Cream (Denim)
Yarn needle

I took two pictures, one of each side. I wanted to show the double-sided awesomeness of it.

Share your FOs!

Work-in-Progress Wednesday 18

Wednesday, again. Can you believe it?? It is already the 8th of this month, and that has me pretty much hyperventilating. Yikes! Luckily, to take off some of the sting, I was able to order a few bought gifts online yesterday. Now I just need to worry if they will make it here in time. As far as the crochet/knitting presents are concerned, I'm running out of time. There are a few that can be mailed a day or two late, so I am putting those on the back burner. We'll see how it goes. My days are pretty much devoted to crocheting/knitting. Needless to say, I'm getting a LOT of TV time in.

Just a side note, I plan to have a few fun things happening on the blog coming up, including a yarn giveaway, a CAL/KAL (patterns haven't been chosen yet, so if you have any suggests please let me know!) and a yarn diet challenge for the new year (gasp!). So stay tuned for that!

As far as WIPs are concerned, this is what I have on my plate.



The dragonfly washcloth turned out sooo great (will share pictures on FO Friday), that I wanted to do another one. This will be a gift and will look like this. I don't want to say too much about it, but I hope to finish it quickly so that I can get to another one and make them a little set. We'll see. This wasn't originally in my holiday gift making plans, so I can't add too many items at this point or I will simply run out of time...or just not sleep leading up to the holiday.

Sorry for the picture, it's hard to get a good picture of the black yarn doubled over.

I've been dreading making this. I started way back when and then stopped and ripped it out. I love the way that the purse looks in the end, and use the one I made as a test purse a bit! The problem is, the pattern isn't written very clearly and so I have to look at a breakdown someone did on Ravelry with pictures (thank god for that person). Once I get out of the flow of making it, I can't really restart again for some reason. So, here I am starting it again. I have to make two more by Christmas. This one (obviously black) is going to be the worst because it's so hard to work with black, IMO. The next one I think I'm going to do a tan color, so that should go much faster. Luckily, when I stop whining about it and just do it, I'll be fine. It's a fast pattern to do once you get into the flow of things.



For those that are new to WIPW, to share your WIPW post with us, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. Despite it saying you must comment, don't feel as if you do. That is something Mr. Linky automatically adds. I just ask you to check out a few of the links posted to see what everyone else is working on and comment there if you can. Everyone loves feedback and a little encouragement on their projects! Also, please link back to this post in your post to get the word out! The more the merrier!

Work-in-Progress Wednesday 17

First off, I'm sorry that I've been quiet since last WIPW. It's been a crazy week with Thanksgiving, being gone for four full days and the end of NaNoWriMo...which leads me to something I'd like to share. I know it's not craft related, but I can't help myself.

That's right, I hit 50,000 words. It's not the first time I've "won" NaNo. Actually, just the opposite. Each time I attempt it, I hit 50k, but this year felt better than most, with also trying to work on a lot of crochet Christmas presents and going away for the holiday, things got a little hectic. In fact, I didn't hit my word count goal until yesterday morning! Now back to craftiness.

I had a great time up in Los Angeles visiting family. I bought a lot of good yarn, as well as a few books, but I'll share them in another post! I hope everyone had a fabulous holiday in the US, and for those of you who participated in FO Friday this past week, I promise I'll get to commenting on your posts now that my life isn't all about furiously typing on my NaNo project.

I don't have anything new to share, but I did make some progress on the two projects from last week:


I was able to work on the market bag on the way to and from Los Angeles, thanks to my husband who drove both ways! I really like the way it's coming out. My gauge seemed a little small, so I added two extra rows of increase before starting my way up the sides of the bag. This is going to be a great size for supermarket and farmer's market shopping! I can't wait to give it to the recipient! I hope to finish this week, so I better get hooking!



I wasn't able to work on my washcloth much more, but you can see I've just started to hit the point of where the first (or second, depending on how you look at it) set of wings starts for the dragonfly washcloth. I'm still super stoked about the way it's coming out and LOVE knitting. I actually bought more cotton so that I can make more of these. They're fun, quick projects (when you actually have time to knit) and are actually useable! I hope to finish this one soon too, but the market bag takes precedence since it's a Christmas gift and the washcloth is just for fun.

For those that are new to WIPW, to share your WIPW post with us, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. Despite it saying you must comment, don't feel as if you do. That is something Mr. Linky automatically adds. I just ask you to check out a few of the links posted to see what everyone else is working on and comment there if you can. Everyone loves feedback and a little encouragement on their projects! Also, please link back to this post in your post to get the word out! The more the merrier!

Work-in-Progress Wednesday 16

Happy almost Thanksgiving to the WIPW peeps who live in the US! Have a great time with friends, family and eat TONS of turkey, pumpkin pie and sweet potatoes. YUM! Also, don't forget, a lot of LYS and craft big box stores have Black Friday sales, so don't forget to check all of the ads.

As I mentioned last week, I will be posting a FO Friday for everyone to take part in, but will not have a FO to share. It's been a crazy week, which is why I haven't posted anything since last Friday. It's the last real week of NaNoWriMo and I'm having to write my little fingers off since we will be away for the last four out of six days remaining in the month. Next month I'll probably be posting so much, you'll all be sick of me.

Now onto WIPW 16!


Yes, this is a different knitting project than I shared last week. Last week it was the scarf, but I screwed up and decided to start it over again. In the meantime, I wanted to try something I could make fast and really master the knit and purl stitches. Oh yeah, and getting these beautiful new KnitPicks needles kind of talked me into being used as well. The pattern is a dragonfly washcloth. Depending on how it goes from here, I may keep it or gift it out. How do cotton knitted washcloths/dishcloths hold up in the washer and dryer? I'm using Sugar 'n Cream, which I'm not crazy about for crochet (or any cotton for that matter, which makes this whole WIPW kind of odd since both new projects are cotton), but adore with knitting. I may have to buy a few more skeins on Friday since they're on mega sale to go crazy on making dishcloths and washcloths!



This is a gift for someone (and I'm not going to mention who, because they may read this blog) for Christmas. I wanted a practical gift, and this is one for sure. It's a market bag. Originally I started a different bag, but then decided to do one in the round because it was easier and worked up a lot quicker. I increased a few more rows, so that it would be nice and wide at the bottom for maximum holding. I'm using Bernat Handicraft Cotton that I got on clearance on Labor Day weekend. So nice to have a project for this finally. When I bought it, I couldn't pass it up. It was on clearance for $4.97 and then I got another 20% on top of that. Not bad considering it 710 yrds worth! The colors are fun without being too obnoxious (you should have seen my other choices!), so I thought it would be perfect for this project.


For those that are new to WIPW, to share your WIPW post with us, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. Despite it saying you must comment, don't feel as if you do. That is something Mr. Linky automatically adds. I just ask you to check out a few of the links posted to see what everyone else is working on and comment there if you can. Everyone loves feedback and a little encouragement on their projects! Also, please link back to this post in your post to get the word out! The more the merrier!