Two New Finished Projects!

I had a lot of cotton that I wasn't planning on using for much of anything, so what to do... Washcloths!  This cute little set is knit in a checkerboard type of pattern, very simple, but really cute.  And really repetitive!  Yikes.  Here's a pic... These are currently up on my Etsy site...

I really like the Lion Brand Cotton much better than the Sugar n Cream stuff.  It doesn't bleed nearly as much and it really is a lot softer.  That being said though, if you are doing washcloths for the kitchen, I've found that there needs to be a fair amount of ribbing or raised lines in order to get some scrubbing action going.

The other project that I finished was a little newsboy hat, for ME!  It's really cute and I like the way it turned out.  I will say that a friend of mine commented that I kind of looked like Link from The Legend of Zelda in the pic I took... which, really, I'm kind of okay with.  :)  I found the pattern with the intent to make one for my friend Carrie's little boy, but I wanted to practice the pattern and figure out if I needed to make any modifications before I made it for him.  Sure enough... I felt the brim was a little long for the adult version, so I shortened it, and I would also make the body of the hat a little larger - the pattern calls for it to be 5" long before starting the decreases, I think I would probably go for 5.5" or 6" instead - just to make it a little poofier.  :)   For Alex's hat, where you see the buttons on me, there is going to be a little Cowboys star (for whatever reason, his parents are Dallas fans... When I make him Cowboys stuff, I have to pretend that it is really for a Penn State fan, otherwise, I don't know if I could do it... ;)

Next on tap: a cotton market bag for my friend Meghan, which I'm going to go and get the yarn for (hopefully today, if the weather cooperates) and a few more of these hats... I've already had a couple of requests! 

Up and coming projects...

One of the problems that I tend to have is that I like to make a lot of different things.  I see a cool pattern or a cool picture and I want to try it, instead of finishing the things that I already have going...  after playing around on Ravelry today, I found a sweater vesty thing that I HAVE to have for fall, as well as a cute little shrug thing that I am going to NEED for summer... problem is that I need orders people!!!  :)  Or donations... feel free to PayPal me money.  :)  This is just a short little entry today, as I did a long one about my children's FABULOUS behaviour over at my other blog earlier this morning. 

As far as progress goes, I should finish a robot today, and another couple of coffee cup holders that I just got an order for this morning.  Unfortunately, the order that I got the other day on Etsy fell through (LAME) - she never paid for it... so, I was rather disappointed about that.  I also need to get the special surprise project done for the soon to be sis in law (who, is losing weight right now, and this might complicate things slightly... check out her getting healthy blog here.)

Julia's Penguins!

Yep, they're all done! 

These were made from a pattern by Fiona McTague, which can be found in the book "Knitted Toys" and available here.  I'm just debating whether or not to make them little graduation caps... thoughts?  :)

Fun Stuff!

Fun thing #1:Today, thanks to the power of Twitter... I was invited to be a contributor to a website called "Naughty Knitterz".  This is a cool web based knitting ring kind of deal, where there is advice for both beginning and advanced knitters, as well as freebie patterns, links, and my favorite part - even being a girl, this is still my favorite part - a whole section for guys.  :)

Fun thing #2:
I had started a project for my little sister, who really isn't so little anymore, for her high school graduation.  She LOVES penguins and all things pink, so I had originally planned to do a pink penguin for her, and if you look on Ravelry under KusalaKnits, you will see it in my queue.  However... I instead decided to do a set of three mini-penguins, because, well, three is WAY better than one!  I have two different shades of pink: one is a dark rose color, another a milkshake pink color, and then they are going to have white bellies and flipper undersides, orange feetsies, and yellow beaks.  I don't know if I am going to do the eyes in all of the same color or change that, but one is going to be the dark pink, another the milkshake color, and the third a stripe of the two.  Very cute... and I hope she likes them.  They wind up being about 5"tall, and I hope to put some pics up tomorrow.

Fun thing #3:
I also have just gotten a request for another robot... hopefully I will get the penguins done by Friday and can start the robot this weekend... gotta make the money!

Latest Project

What was I working on this week?  Well, I decided since I had a BUNCH of red sparkly yarn left, I would make a coffee sleeve for the parents on my oldest son's baseball team...

This one is one of three different color patterns I did - the others being red, black, red, and also red and black together.  They all came out really super cute, and hopefully everyone will use them instead of the paper wraps that come on the cups at Starbucks or Peet's, or whatever coffee shop you happen to frequent. 

(Side note: the Clackamas Junior Baseball: Midget National Mariners - what a long name! - won their Opening Day Exhibition Game, by a score of 10-7!)

Upcoming projects:  A special wedding present for my soon to be Sister in Law (I can't say anything, just in case she happens to pop over here), and also my little sister's graduation penguin!  I need to do that in two different shades of pink - hopefully the shades that I have are okay, because I would prefer to do it with recycled fiber yarns... and also I have a few more head wraps to do, another couple robots... the list seems to go on and on... as well as some baby leg warmers and a hat for my friend Carrie's little boy - Carrie, I haven't forgotten, I swear!  Not to mention, I found that sweater pattern a while ago that I would really love to get started on!