Prosperous Plum…and…pics…

First, I am madly knitting the Prosperous Plum tank.  It is knitted in cotton-ease in violet.  I am knitting a small as it will be the sample that I will be teaching in my classes.  It has a provisional cast on, picot hem, lace and cable knitting, shaping…basically lots of things I can teach on.  I rarely actually get to teach the projects that I plan out, so hopefully this will be one of those times as this is really one of the funnest projects I have done in a long, long time.

Seriously, the chart is really interesting.  It is easy to remember and is really working up fast.  Of course, I am knitting the small (rarely get to do that) but it is still a fun knit.

I casted on for this on Saturday.  As of tonight, this is where I am at.

Front:

Back:

There is this cool asymmetrical-ness, yet oddly symmetrical that this top has.

I need to be finished with it before Saturday and at my current pace I think that is possible.

I started out using size 5 needles for the picot hem, then switched to size 7.  However, as I got a few inches up, I realized my gauge was off and so I dropped down to a size 6 and am getting the 19 st/4 inch gauge.  It actually worked out good doing it this way since the hip part is a little bit wider than when it decreases into the waist, so the change in gauge isn’t noticeable in a bad way.

Once I get my class knitting out of the way, I hopefully will have more knit/crochet time for myself again for the next few months.  I love my classes, but the prep for them is very time consuming.

I did do a little bit more knitting on my sock (not shown.)  I am almost at the toe decreases.

Here is a picture of my dad’s sweater:

Sorry dad…it is hard to wear this way, I know.  I don’t have the back to block this as I would have to pin it to my floor.  I am sort of waiting for Tony to help me.  I swear I will finish this soon…luckily it is still cold and rainy where you live even in the summer.

Speaking of rain.  This was Saturday:

And lastly, as if there are not enough pictures on this post, a picture Sierra drew.  Her teacher suggested in a report card that Sierra needed to color better within the lines.  Seriously…something is wrong with her teacher.  Isn’t coloring outside of the lines better?

She has Tony’s artistic ability.  I NEVER colored like this in kindergarten.

Summer Top Bomb

I needed to come up with a project for my knitting class.  I was hoping I could find one that was appealing to people and would get them come to a couple of classes.  I thought a summer top would be fun and came across the Summer Top from Bernat.  It is cute and looks like a pretty simple knit.

I decided to go with Lily’s Sugar N Cream cotton to substitute for Bernat’s organic cotton.

Well…long knitting story…short…is that I ended up with a bit of a problem:

1.  My gauge was off.  Usually I check gauge…but I must have forgot.  Silly since I was knitting this for a class.   You might all laugh about this, but I have so many distractions this can easily happen.

2.  Really long armholes…

3.  Really small head opening….(neither mine nor Tony’s head will fit in the opening.)

Now, the interesting thing is that my head opening is actually bigger than if I was knitting on gauge.  I am knitting at 3.75 st/inch and the gauge is  4.75 st /inch.  The head opening is 35 stitches across.  Even though the gauge is for the larger needles and the head opening is knit with smaller needles, my head opening is still larger.  So if I would have been on gauge the opening would have been even smaller…hmph!

Since this is a “small” size that I knit, maybe it was designed for a small head ?  Like smaller than Sierra’s head.

I think I need to turn this into a summer bag or something…I am not even going to bother trying to figure this out.  I guess I will need to find a new project for my knitting class.

I am thinking about a summer pattern that uses the New Cotton-Ease that the store now carries.

PLEASE!!  Spam me with some tried and true summer knitting patterns.

Finally finishing things…

The first one is Knitty’s Anouk. It is done in Cotton-ease. You have seen the pics before, just finally found the perfect buttons for it, at Walmart of all places. I have realized there are not a lot of places in my area that sales buttons.

There are some imperfections, but overall I am happy with it. As much as I love cotton-ease (and am excited about its come-back,) I have realized it isn’t very forgiving. It splits easily and when you mess with it it doesn’t spring back.
This next finished project is one you didn’t even know I started, because I am shameful and pretty much broke my September challenge rule. Yes, I lied to you all, but not intentionally. I was crocheting this scarf thinking it would make for a fun beginner’s project for my classes. The first row wasn’t too bad, but the second row took me a couple of nights of crocheting…so it isn’t a 2 hour project to say the least. It was fun, though and makes for a very pretty scarf. It is Patons Curly Q Scarf. It took almost 4 balls of Patons SWS with a size K hook. The pattern calls for an L hook, which I don’t have, so I figured K is next best and would use less yarn.

This next project is one that will be in my beginner’s crochet class. It is a credit card/cash wallet. It is made with Patons Classic Merino with a size H hook. It is very easy. I still wonder if this is pushing it for a 2 hour class, but if I can get them past the button hole then I think it won’t be too bad.
Oh, and too my friend Amy, mentioned I am doing well. I am.! I have lost 10 pounds since I started my vegetarian diet. That isn’t a lot, but it is better than nothing. Tony has lost a lot more than me. My back has been killing me, but I noticed it goes in waves and is because I do things like carry Madeleine on my back and wrestle with the kids.

Dropping that class has made my stress go from a 10 to a 2. Seriously, I didn’t even realized I was that frazzled until in retrospect looking back. I think everyone around me knew it though.

Sierra is doing well, too. She has a “boyfriend” at school and kissed him on the cheek. I told her not to, but she told me she wasn’t in school, so it was okay (we were walking to the truck.) Sigh… He was nice and told me, “it is okay, I like it.” In school she is doing better. Her homework is coming back just fine. She isn’t crying after school and I think overall the teacher and her are communicating better. Either that or she is preoccupied with her “boyfriend” and so isn’t getting upset over the other stuff, I don’t know.

Madeleine has been “rough and tumble” lately. She is skinned up on her knees, on her chin, and has a bruise on her head. She is a little daredevil and is also sometimes clumsy. She is very much a comedian, always looking for a laugh.

She is talking more, full sentences. Though really only Sierra and I understand her. Tony doesn’t. She leaves the ends of words off, still and I am trying to work with her on it. Sometimes she says something to me and I don’t know what she is saying and it is frusterating to both of us. Also, I guess and she acts like I guessed right, but I wonder if she is just faking that and just being happy that I am giving her something.

Felted Ball

Here is the ball after felting. It is true that polyfill won’t felt. Michael’s doesn’t sell wool filling, that I know of so I am just going with what they have.

This isn’t a beginner’s crochet class.  It was suggested to me that I start off with beginner’s classes for the month of October.  Then in November to add a more advanced class so that people who took the beginning class would want to take another class of mine and learn more skills.  Maybe it will end up that people will only want to take beginning classes or maybe they will want to take more intermediate ones, I don’t know.  Teaching is so new to me and I am just treating it like a journey.

I would appreciate any advice out there about teaching knitting and crochet and if you have any short/small easy projects you can share with me, that would be great too!

Here is my Anouk, without buttons. I still didn’t buy any today.

A Ball!

My latest finished project is a Crocheted Ball. It is made with Patons Classic Wool. It will be one of my teaching projects at Michaels in November. I felted the ball (these are pictures Before.) It didn’t felt as much as I had thought it would, but now in retrospect I remember that single crochet doesn’t felt as well as hdc and dc. Just my opinion. It is still a really cute ball. I stuffed it with polyfill. I think it would make for some cute ornaments.

Oh, and Madeleine was eyeing my ball tonight, so I hope I can get an After photo, but if not it is because she took it.  As I was taking the Before photo, she was hovering over the ball, ready to pounce on it.  I tried to take a photo of her, but her batteries died, so they are charging.

Yesterday I made a Garterlac Dishcloth. It was a fun pattern, just don’t work on it when you are tired as it is easy to confuse yourself.

As part of my September challenge to not start new projects , I am pretty much finished with Anouk. I just need to buy buttons and sew them on. I know the ball and dishcloth are new projects, but the dishcloth is part of the KAL at Fiber Freaks. Fiber Freaks, by the way is doing really well. We have almost 90 members, are averaging 100 posts a day, and have active CAL’s and KAL’s. Tomorrow I am going to finish Anouk completely and start on my second Angelica sleeve. It is about time I finished that!

Oh, and I did the wrong decrease throughout Anouk. Atleast I was consistent, though. I was doing a SKP instead of a SSK. I know the difference, and hey…I never said I was perfect. Atleast it is slanting the correct direction. Also, the person who will be getting this won’t know the difference. I will post a picture when I get the buttons sewn on.

Okay…some non-crafty stuff…

Tony and I gave blood today. The lady poked me real hard and it hurt real bad the whole time. Squeezing the ball was difficult to do. I couldn’t straighten my arm afterwards and 12 hours later that still hurts. I have never experienced this much pain associated with a blood draw. I wonder if she somehow hit a nerve or something. I am sure tomorrow I will be better. All I know is don’t mess with a knitter’s/crocheter’s arm! Tony warned me I should have had them do my left arm. It was all for a good cause, though. They called twice this morning and really were in need of blood.

We also didn’t eat too healthy the past two days and I am telling you we both can “feel” it. Tony was craving a hamburger and bought us In and Out and after eating it we just about died. We felt so run down and gross and ick. Tonight the kids drank apple juice and it made them bounce off the walls and get really upset, etc. They aren’t use to all of the sugar. I am looking forward to buying some fruit and veggies tomorrow and planning out next week’s meals.

Spam me a recipe if you have one that is mostly veggie related!

Thanks everyone who posted a commented about me dropping that class. You are all right. I need to give myself a break. It is okay to admit that I can enjoy being just a mom and don’t need to rush into going back to school. If it isn’t going to work and makes me unhealthy or causes me to miss crucial parts of my kids young lives, then it isn’t worth it. These times are precious and this is such a developmental time for Madeleine that I really need to take my time with her and enjoy her before she is “grown up” like Sierra (or so she thinks.) I am still taking an online class and so will remain in the school’s system. We will see what happens this Spring.

Sock Ornament

       Sock Ornament

Yarn is Caron Simply Soft Shadows:  color Autumn

Size 3 needles

This is my prototype for the sock ornament I will be teaching at Michaels in December.  It has every basic aspect of a sock, dpn, ribbing, heel flap, turning the heel, picking up stitches, heel decreasing, and toe decreasing.  It took me about an hour to make it, so I figure it will be a decent 2 hour class where I should be able to get the basics taught as the students knit along.  Once the ornament is finished they will have learned all aspects of a basic sock and will have a small finished project to take home with them.

Silence=trouble

Madeleine, it isn’t Halloween yet!  There goes all the toothpaste.  Atleast you know who got the creative genes.

Paton’s One Skein Patons Classic Wool Merino – Leaf Green I made this scarf for the Michael’s class I will be teaching in October. It will be for the display. I did want it to be like the on in the pattern, same color and all.

Scarf Closeup and Sock Progress

        (clickable)I have been working along on the second sock.  I am almost up to the heel.  I also ripped out the toe of 2 others socks I already finished to make them shorter.  The yarn bloomed and they were too big.  I have one done and will finish the other one tomorrow so I can mail them to my friend.

I finally have the details of the classes I am teaching in October.  They will be beginning knit and beginning crochet.  I staggered them so one beginning class builds off the next.  However, I think they are basic enough that even someone who doesn’t know anything could take any of the classes I am teaching.  They are pretty basic.

Eventually I would like to have one beginner class for knit and one for crochet each month and then one advanced class for knit and crochet.

For November I am going to focus on knitting and crocheting in the round and simple decreasing.  For both of these classes we will be making basic hats.

In December I have plans to crochet snowflakes and then will teach how to block them.   For a knit project, I may consider a stocking.  I haven’t knitted one before, but I think it would be a fun project.   Don’t worry, I will make all of my projects before I ever put them on my project sheet.

I have a feeling January will be hand items and sometime in the spring I will teach basic sock knitting.

I posted closeup pictures of the scarf I knitted.   I didn’t get any comments about it.  Usually lack of comments means people are trying to be polite and so are refraining from saying what they really want to say.  This could be true, but I was thinking I would try to get some closeup shots.  It really is a nice scarf.  Think cables…but they aren’t.  Scarves always look better in person and especially when they are tied around the neck (not in the summer.)