Improving one stitch at a time

I keep trying, ever so slowly to improve my knitting skills. This is a close up of my portion of "Mossy Delights" Oddball Baby Blanket. The darker green, top of the photo is my section. I used a stitch called pique triangles. I like the stitch because it has lots of texture, and is completely 2 sided which is nice for a blanket. It's only a 4 row repeat which also nice...for me. Perhaps as I improve a bit more, I can expand on that.
Here's a picture of the whole blanket before I sent it on for boarder patrol so you can see how everyone does a strip, different stitches and colors (or in this case shades of the same color). The blankets each have a theme, a name and we're to do our bit based on our interpretation of that name/theme. The blankets are donated to babies in need at various hospitals around the country.

I think I'd like to do that stitch again, wouldn't it make an awesome scarf? Perhaps best knitted lengthwise vs widthwise? Would the pattern show up less is the scarf were done in the more traditional method of knitting it widthwise?

Lots of WIP (works in progress for my non crafting friends), but chipping away. Hope you're all staying warm. Sorry I've gotten behind in visiting your blogs, but hope to chip away at that today and tomorrow too.

**Adding this per hakucho's post, so you can see this blanket when it was finished. Here's Nancy Blog.

Becoming a Buckeye Baby

To be a Buckeye Baby one needs to be born in The Buckeye State, and have appropriate Buckeye Attire. Regulations can be altered at an older age when one chooses to become a Buckeye as long as appropriate clothing is worn. lol

Seriously folks my youngest nephew and wife are expecting and as my nephew is a HUGE Buckeye Fan, I thought I would forgo the traditional baby blue colors. Took this photo just after finishing the booties. As you can see the sweater needs to be sewn together, trimmed and the hats needs finished. Intended to post this a few days ago and didn't get that far. I did finish the hat last night, and the sweater is sewn, though trim edge and finish touches still remain. I need to finish this today; as the baby shower is tomorrow........yikes. It's doable though. I'll post a finished picture later.

Hope you're all staying warm and safe with all the lousy weather everyone's had.

I've been busy working on several afghans for Bridge and Beyond, a baby blanket for above baby later, finished a scarf for Bridge and Beyond, and need to do a border on an Oddball Baby Blanket, and have a ghan in the works for a friend. Whew.. Hooks, needles and yarn flying like crazy around here.

Five thousand three hundred stitches!

Nothing fancy for sure, basic beige in basic double crochet stitches. One pound of Caron and a I hook, chain 100 stitches get's your 53 rows, which is 5,300 stitches. Funny, I've never actually thought about how many stitches there was in something I made. Have you? This measures about 33.5 inches square and will be a center panel on a ghan. It's not as big as I would have hoped, but needed to see how big the one pounder would make. Long ago I started this ghan, had issues with it, then determine the original design I came up with wasn't going to work and had to frog it. Terrible how long this has been a wip. The stitches were so tight it really bothered my arthritis, carpal tunnel, and ulnar nerve...so I keep pushing it aside. Finally got tired of pushing it aside and put it in the basement even with my yarn stash. My friend asked me to make it, she doesn't like anything with holes....so smaller hook, makes it tighter etc.

I never intended to have it go this long and am rather embarrassed by it. After I put it in the basement, I didn't even think about it anymore. Believe my new design will allow me to make fewer squares which is the part that bothered me the most.

Here's the first go round that was completely frogged.

Just for Fun

Long long ago, in a planet far far away. Me on the left with my dirty sandal shoes. You know I still love plaids. Butterball in the middle, is my younger brother Mike. Isn't he adorable. My older brother Chuck looking quite handsome and right at the camera like you're suppose to. He was always a good kid, almost....always did what he was told. lol

Just for fun....thought I'd share.

My First Ever CAL (Crochet along)

I've never joined a CAL before, never thought I would enjoy it actually. I like to make what I like to make, and or am directed by what charity I'm stitching for. But, I received a person invitation to join this one, and thought I'd give it a go. The pattern book we're using is 101 Crochet Squares by Jean Leinhauser. I've used some of her patterns before, but so far I'm not overly impresses with her ability to write patterns in a user friendly way. I have a border book of her's I've been using and it seems much better written then this book. I've only done 2 squares so far, but in both cases I had to add and delete stitches to come up with the number of stitches she indicated should be there. Maybe I'll do better with the third one. No one else has yet mentioned having that trouble.

Then again, not many people have yet started as getting the book presents some problems. This book varies in price from 16.95 (which is what I paid) to around $300.00 on line. None of us can figure out why such a huge price swing on this book. But, it's been priced in about 10 different places and is over priced in the majority of the on line listings we saw. The group is a RAV group and so far there's just a couple dozen of us that have joined. Check it out, if you're interested.

Above is the first week's square. I liked how it turned out, and believe this is a square I would do again, #44. I did alter the order of colors so that I started and ended with the same color which is not how the pattern is written. The pattern indicates it's about a 6 inch square, mine was 7 using knitted worsted weight yarn and size I hook. I had trouble with my stitch count on rounds 4 and 5; but got it worked out and am pleased with the end result.
The Teddy Bear was a real BEAR to do. I really worked on this as the counts would not work as she had written them for me. I did and redid a couple of times until I finally just added stitches where I needed them etc. This is suppose to be a 5 inch square and since I don't like squares that small changed this pattern also. The last row is just beyond the bear where the darker color is and was to be a sc row. I did DC instead, and then added yet another row of sc and if I do this again would probably do 2 rows of dc's instead to make it larger. I also used left over Caron Simply Soft yarn which I hate using and that probably made it smaller also since it never meets gauge properly for a ww yarn. But, I had the yarn at my finger tips and decided to experiment with it. I don't know if I'll do this again, though it turned out ok it was not fun to make and too far too long for one little square.

Will keep you posted how things go with The CAL. Have you ever done one? Did you enjoy it?

The last of the garage sale hats, completed!

These 4 hats are the last from the partial hats needing completion from The Garage Sale. I've mentioned this before. (HERE) and (here) Am happy to have those all finished and on heads of those in need through Bridge and Beyond.

I started this fun multi-colored scarf also for Bridge and Beyond the other day at hair dressers. Needed something I could do without my glasses on while I was getting rid of the gray. That process seems to take alot longer then it used too...hum, must be because the gray is more gray and there's more of it. GROAN! This is called kaleidoscope and is probably the softest Red Heart Knitted Worsted Yarn I've ever used. Wonder why it varies so much from color to color?
The picture makes it look more orange then it is. I might have enough for a matching hat too since this is for a child. We'll see as it progresses.

We've been busy redoing our bedroom which has been a pretty major project. In a small house, it's hard to have places to move furniture in order to paint...AND before you paint you have to repair places (Spackle and stuff like that). These projects always take more time and become more involved then one thinks it will before starting. Always! New bed will be delivered in a couple of days so we need to get the painting finished before delivery. We moved our bed into the other room, but had to move the bed from their to the basement. See what I mean...always more work then you think it's going to be. But, am anxious for it to arrive. We both feel like we'll sleep better going to more space, a King. Sometime down the road, we'll need to do some changing around in the room we moved the bed too...cause it's over crowded now. But, one thing at a time.

As always busy busy, how bout you all?