I finished all of the slippers for my brother's family! His are the huge green and brown ones and his wife gets the brown with the pink toes. I Had just enough brown to do the toes and the heels for their 6 month old baby girl. I still need to weave in the ends for the baby ones. They are made out of red heart soft held double for the big ones and single for the baby ones. 

I finished knitting one of these huge felted slippers for my brother in law. It took about 2 whole skeins of wool and a good chunk of time. I'm hoping to get the other one done this week and then get the seaming and felting done. 

My friend sent me a picture of a hat that she liked and asked if  I could make one like it but grey. This is my third attempt and I hate this yarn. It's a fuzzy acrylic nightmare but it's bulky and should be done in no time now that I've figured it out. 

I'm making some steady progress but I think I have about a million hats left to make! Plus I'm working on a couple of projects for me so I don't go crazy!

If you're reading this and you haven't done so already.....
You should enter the raffle! <-- click there
It's a chance to win something for you or it could be a great gift!

So I made a real list for my gifts. An official one. Unfortunately it made me realize that I don’t have very many gifts done. I had three done but my dad needed another hat and I decided to not make him wait two months for it. Now I have two gifts done out of 12 and luckily 4 gifts are for kids. I’m really trying to focus on gift knitting so I put my socks on hold and I finished a shawl I was working on for me. This is the Lonely Tree Shawl made out of reclaimed yarn.

I used my hand spun alpaca to start this lined beanie. The brown gradient is the hand spun and the blue is reclaimed alpaca yarn. I’m a little more than half way done and I think I’ll be able to finish it this week. 

I felted these slippers and they ended up a little furry. They are a little too fuzzy right now and one of them felted more than the other but it was good practice for the ones I’m making as gifts. 

I started these new slippers last night and I might be able to finish the knitting today. I’m making these women’s size medium

My plan for this week is to finish the felted slippers and the alpaca hat. I also want to make one of the kid’s gifts but I keep changing my mind on what to make them.

In other news, my pattern is almost done being tested and I took some new pictures of my completed shawlettes. Thursday I’ll be starting the raffle for this blue shawlette. 

This week I finished knitting two gifts! Two whole ones! I took pictures yesterday morning and last night I finished these socks for my boyfriend (I only had 5 rows left for the cuffs). I’ll get some finished pictures after I wash them and weave in the ends. He loves wearing wool socks but during the summer he likes to wear short socks. It’s hard to find short wool socks in stores so I knit him these ones. If he likes them then maybe I’ll knit some more.

I also finished this hat that I made out of some locally raised alpaca fiber. The farm isn’t far from here and they get there fiber milled in Oregon as well so I was able to enter this item in Amy Beth’s local fiber KAL (the LoKAL). This was awesome yarn to work with and I love the rustic texture. Not rustic in a bad way but it just feels like petting an alpaca and it looks like almost like hand spun (from a super awesome and consistent spinner). This will be a gift for my brother or my dad. 

On top of finishing some knitting I finished some spinning as well. The cowl that I made with hand spun alpaca used a little over half of that fiber. I spun the rest of the fiber a lot thinner and was able to get about 130 yards of sport to worsted weight yarn. I’m planning on making another alpaca hat and I think I’ll let my dad choose which one he likes and then my brother can have the other one. That’s my plan today but who knows, I might end up with another cowl lol. 

I worked on spinning some fiber on my drop spindle as well and it’s just a slow process. I’m about 2/3rds done with the first half and I’ve been working on it for a while. It’s some kind of superwash wool blended with bamboo from shooting yarns in the berry patch colorway. The tag is somewhere so by the time I finish it I’ll have all of the info. I was planning on spinning this yarn for socks but it depends on how it turns out. 

This is turning out to be a lot more than I thought because I also started a new project. I joined a KAL for the Lonely Tree Shawl in the Beginning Lace Knitters group in ravelry. I am using reclaimed worsted weight yarn that is a wool silk blend. I have more of this yarn in my shop and I was planning on listing this mega skein but it just needed to be this shawl instead. I have no idea about the yardage because I didn’t measure it but I would estimate it to be about 500 yards and the shawl calls for 330 yards so I’ll have plenty and I could possibly make it bigger. It’s a free pattern and I’m about half way done with chart B. 

For the rest of my Christmas knitting I am planning on making slippers. I have some of that orange wool dying in the crock pot right now and it looks like it will be a really deep red color. I’m using that and some other wool for felted slippers. I’m also still trying to get motivated to work on those slipper socks. I just haven’t been in the mood for them but they are a quick enough knit that I can procrastinate just a little longer. Next week I should have an update that includes felted slippers and the results of my dying today.


In the next couple of days look for the information I'm going to be posting on how the enter the raffle for a shawlette knit from the pattern I'm getting tested right now. If you are interesting in testing the pattern I still need a couple of people to test in fingering weight yarn. You can join this group and look for the Lil' Bit Shawlette thread or feel free to PM me on ravelry or in my etsy shop or email me or comment to this post if you have questions. 

I have a quick update to post before I head out to work. I took pictures yesterday but I was just too busy to do anything with them! With moving, family stuff, my school, and the BF starting school I think going to work tonight will feel like a break. First I finished everything but weaving in the ends on some slippers for my sister in law. I tried a new method for the short row heel that I will probably write about next week when I hopefully have one more pair of slippers done. I used red heart soft held double with size 8 needles.

The next project I have is the pair of fingerless mitts for my BF. He has larger hands that me so that’s why they look a little loose on my hand but he has tried them on and they are a perfect fit. Since I took this picture yesterday I’ve finished weaving in the ends and I washed them and they are currently laying flat to dry. 

The other update for this week is that I drove past a garage sale that had a huge sign that said yarn. I tried to resist but I ended up going back and getting a big bag of wool yarn for $5. It’s pretty old and most of it is marked as permanently moth proofed but after researching it I’m pretty confident that it will work well for felted slippers. The picture is just a sampling because most of the yarn I was able to get multiple skeins of. I didn’t exactly need more yarn but those felted clogs eat up a ton of wool and I want to make several pairs so I’m sure it won’t linger in my stash for long. 

So I haven’t made tons of gift progress this week for Christmas knitting but I have made progress on other knitting. I had planned on making some of my hand spun into a hat for my dad or my brother but after several attempts I really just didn’t have enough yarn. They were the only two people who would really appreciate that I spun the yarn by hand so I decided to keep it for myself in the form of a cowl. I really like it and I love how the color changes look. 

I’ve started a pair of fingerless mitts for the boyfriend and have put his socks on the back burner. As he pointed out, he has socks but no gloves. I’ve made it past the thumb gusset but in my attempt to hurry up and get them done I’m starting to get a little burnt out on them and sock yarn in general. 3 of my 5 projects this week have been using fingering weight yarn. It doesn’t help that I was insisting on doing them two at a time but had  to start the cast on about 4 different times. 

My last project was for a gift but not for Christmas… It’s a Halloween gift! It’s a ghost that I knit using a made up pattern and then felted him up in the washing machine. I had a partial skein of bare wool yarn and I used almost all I had left for this little guy. I used some random felted sweater pieces for his eyes and I filled him with beans. He knows he is a little "rustic" looking but he looks like he's ok with it. :)

My plans for this week are to cast on for a hat for my dad and cast on for slippers. I purchased the comfy cozy squishy sock pattern that uses heavier weight yarn and I think I might be using that to make several pairs for the women I’m giving gifts to. I'm hoping for a very full update next week :)

I took lots of pictures today! I found batteries while we were moving so I had some to put in my camera. It’s tricky to get decent pictures but it’s better than nothing! I finished two projects while I was on my road trip and made a lot of progress on two other ones. The projects I finished were two pairs of little kid’s slippers. I held the yarn double and used big needles and they were done in no time. 

I made a ton of progress on my scarf that I’m making for my mom and it looks done but I don’t like how the ruffle looks on the cast off end. Making increases for the ruffles just doesn’t look as good as the side were I decreased. I think I’m going to cast on a ruffle and sew it on so they look the same. 

On the socks I’m making for my boyfriend I got about 10 rows into the gusset increases. I have a feeling that I’ll be using all of the yarn I have for these socks because of my gauge and how big his feet are. 

I made one slipper using the non-felted slipper pattern and even though it’s a nice pattern I just don’t know if I can make myself make the other one. I don’t like seaming and I honestly don’t know how many stitches I cast on for this first one. I wrote it down somewhere but who knows which random receipt or scrap of paper it's on lol. 

I finished binding off my shawl and I got some pre-blocked photos. I also took gauge and measured its pre blocked size. I can’t wait to get some time to finish this up because I think blocking is going to make all the difference in how this shawl looks. 

I was able to borrow someone’s phone for a minute to take some pictures! The handspun alpaca is is a gradient that goes through some different shades of tan and brown. It’s a three ply yarn and bounces between super bulky and heavy worsted. I consider it to be really rustic looking. I also purchased some mill spun alpaca yarn from a local farm that I can’t wait to use. It’s worsted weight and I’m going to be making a hat from it. 

I’ve made quite a bit of progress on the scarf I’m making. I’ve used about half of my yarn so I’ve placed a marker so I’ll have a good idea of where I need to start the next ruffle. 

This week I cast on a new Christmas stash buster! I’ve had two balls of some patons sock yarn and I finally cast on some socks. I’m going to be making two pairs of mens ankle socks. I’m doing them two at a time and toe up on US size 1 needles. I might run just a little short on yarn but I have some similar yarn to use if I do run out. I’m only planning on finishing one pair for Christmas so I don’t end up running out of time for everything else. I also pulled out the needles and yarn for a hat. It’s some hand spun alpaca that is fairly bulky and a little over spun in some places but I think it will make a really nice hat.

I would love to have pictures of all of these things but my camera situation is still pretty lame. My phone takes terrible pictures and my camera isn’t much better but it’s out of batteries. I bought it 6 years ago and it’s been well used so I think it’s time for an upgrade anyways. I could call it a business expense for my etsy shop because I could use some better pictures! I’ll figure it out this week I hope because I have lots of things to share.

I finished the blue shawl I was working on so as soon as I block it and get the finished measurements for the pattern I’ll be setting up the giveaway for that. Or maybe I should get the pattern tested first… regardless I need pictures of that too! The last pictures I got are here.

Happy Thursday everyone!

I was hoping for some cooler weather but it doesn’t look like I’m going to get it. I know I should want to hang on to the warm weather as long as I can but I’m done with it. Until it’s too cold and then I’ll change my mind! I work at night right now so sleeping during the day when it’s hotter has been a little challenging at times. I also want to spin and knit all kinds of things that make my hands hot. There is one project in particular that I really wanted to hold off on until it was cooler and I have a good chunk of time to work on it. I unraveled a large portion of a cashmere sweater (pictures below) and I was able to get one skein plied. I took pictures and was planning on finishing up that week so I could list it in my shop. I went to do the second skein and my hands were just so hot and sticky that the yarn was just breaking over and over again. Straight from the sweater it is a single ply of 100% cashmere and it’s pretty much cobweb weight. After it’s plied it’s amazing and the colors are great and I love it! Before it’s plied it’s been pretty much my enemy.

There are a few other sweaters that I really want to get processed and listed this month because I would love to be able to give people more choices. I’m making progress on hand knit items but that’s only because I can work on those at work. I don’t think they would appreciate me unraveling sweaters at work. Fuzzies and threads everywhere! Tomorrow when I get access to a camera I’ll be posting some updates to my Christmas knitting stash down. It involves the orange variegated scarf that is in progress and yarn pictures of what is coming up next! 

I’ve started my next Christmas knitting project! I wound the yarn into a cake yesterday morning when I got home from work and did a little test swatch. I had trouble sleeping at first because I was coming up with a pattern and I wanted to start it and see how it was going to look! I might publish this pattern when I’m done. It will most likely be free and on my blog. I’m using fingering weight super wash merino. It’s from Dicentra Designs and I purchased it at Tangled Purls here in Salem, OR. I’m using the citrus colorway and I have about 170 yards of this yarn. My initial thought was to make a scarf with ruffles and ribs so I could call it the ruffles and ribs scarf. I didn’t see a pattern on ravelry that had everything I wanted (which is typical for me). I wanted a reversible scarf that was narrow enough for colors in the yarn to be stripey more than pooled and I wanted it do have just a little bit of something without being too fancy. I ended up with no ribs but lots of garter stitch and I love how it looks with this yarn.

As for further stashdown cristmas knitting I’m planning on toys for the kids, hats for the dudes, and slippers for most of the chicks. I want to keep the pace of finishing something every week but it might take two weeks right now because I’m starting more things than I’m finishing. I have lots of stash diving and pattern browsing to do before I find the right combinations of things for gifts. I also have to work and keep up with school as well as move in a couple of weeks and I have a vacation planned as well… It’s going to be a busy fall!

For anyone who is curious, my pattern so far is:

CO 40

4 rows of garter stitch

K1, *YO, K2tog*, K1

Knit

K2, *YO, K2tog*

6 rows of garter stitch

K2tog across (20 stitches left)

Garter stitch forever until you are ready to do the ruffle on the other end

Increase to 40 stitches probably using the knit front and back increase but I’m not there yet so I might change my mind

6 rows of garter

K2, *YO, K2tog*

Knit

K1, *YO, K2tog*, K1

4 rows of garter

Bind off.