I've knit 70 items this year!

Here’s my ravelry where you can see the details of them or add me as a friend! :D

• My Cowl
• My Second Mitten
• Thorny cowl  
• Levi’s Crown
• Teegan’s Crown
• Mary’s Bracelet
• Teegan’s Bracelet
• Abbi’s Bracelet
• Basketweave Cloth
• Grandma’s Cowl
• Leaf Washcloth
• Tiny Flower
• Mindy’s Bracelet
• Sid’s Bracelet
• Fishing Pole
• I-Cord
• cupcake
• Elephant Nugget
• Puppy Nugget
• Royce’s Bunny Hat
• Val’s Bracelet
• Wormy
• Val’s Elephant Nugget
• 8 lace headbands
• 2 fish
• 10 washcloths
• 1 ostrich plume stitch washcloth
• 2 ” I <3 dachshunds” washcloth
• Extra Bacon shawl
• Peace Washcloth
• Skull Washcloth
• Reverse Diamond Towel
• Camera Lens Socks, 2
• 2 Marching Elephants Hats
• Royce’s sweater
• Royce’s Mittens
• 1 sock
• 2 charity wash cloths
• star trek wash cloth
• Thorny cowl for bf’s gf
• 2 hats of the same pattern (matching for mindy and i)
• 2 Plume mitts
• Gris de Lin cowl
• Candle Cozy
• 1 sock *again but not same pattern*
• Star

My knitted stitches for the year: 158,307

For 2014’s goal I’d be totally happy with 40 projects! Here’s to a whole new year full of knitting possibilities!

Recent Projects!

Just finished a sweater for Royce!

 I knitted a shawl!

I knitted Royce and I matching marching elephant hats!

Stitch count is at 126,433. Project count is at 54!

Crafts I Still Need To Make.

Knitting

• camera lens socks
• penguin washcloth
• star trek washcloth
• 1 or 2 Hats
• 1 pair of Socks

Embroidery

• I <3 Coffee
• Garden scene
• lighthouse?
• live long & prosper
• Snowman

Sewing

• 2 Lumberjack hats

Stuff I need to Buy/Do

• Meat cleaver
• Jack Daniels, 2 bottles?
• Pie Server
• Fill out the new address book

Okayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. Need to get that mitten done and maybe redo the first one by this weekend. I’d really love to get the 2 washcloths done quick. And I need to get the camera lens socks done by Nov 6th. I need to buy 1 of the jack daniels bottles by Nov 12th. Everything else is Christmas.

And I need to figure out what to make for a gift exchange...

Tallies.

I counted up all of the knitted projects I’ve done this year (46.5) and counted up how many stitches I’ve knit, 80,000.

Most of them were all small projects but you know, last year I knitted maybe 8 things. This is a big deal to me and I hope to double that amount by the end of the year, that’d be amazing. I still need to knit my first sweater (one for Royce not me), pair of socks, and shawl. Those are the big items.

I’ve also seen vast improvements in my knitting with how fast I go, learned new stitch methods/patterns, and how nice it looks and that makes me happy too. I sure fuck up a lot still but that’s because I’m still learning, I’ll always still be learning and there will always be people that knit better, faster, more complicated designs than me and that’s ok too.

Knitting is great and I highly recommend it to others and when you put it in terms of stitches and projects of how many you’ve done, you may be surprised in your sense of accomplishment. Not many people can say they’ve knit their own hat or scarf or socks or whatever so be proud of what you create.

*Cue victory dance*

Christmas Knitting for Stocking Stuffers

Washcloths/Dishcloths/Towels I’m knitting for Christmas stocking stuffers. All are free.

 Reading top left to right:

1. Peace Washcloth
2. I <3 Dachshunds (My aunt & gma love them)
3. Plum Stitch
4. Raindrop Washcloth
5. Raised Diamond Stitch
6. Reverse Diamond Towel
7. Skull Washcloth
8. Leaf Washcloth
9. Shingle Stitch

All but the shingle & plum stitch are on ravelry as they are from newstitchaday (great site). There are a SHIT. TON. of washcloth patterns for free that make great stocking stuffers. On newstitchaday you can search for stitches/cables/whatever & you can easily form them into a washcloth or towel. You can even use stuff like afghan square ideas to make these!  Another great pattern is doing a basketweave and if I didn’t mind messing with a cable needle I’d do a few nice cabled ones, those always seem a bit fancier. :)

Crafting Machine!

Knitted 7 lace headbands in 2 weeks and 2 days. My first knitting commission. I really liked knitting these once I figured out a better and faster way to do the pattern. Takes me 2 hours to complete one, before I had modified the pattern, it took 4. It's ok, I know I'm awesome. :)

I had completed last week a cute embroidery thing. I was getting all my embroidery supplies together and putting the fabric in the hoop to see how it worked and the words "hello, is it me you're looking for?" so that's what I did. I had some issues with it tho. I forgot the "k" in looking after I finished the wording, I realized it and had to rip out some stuff but I had been smart enough not to connect it all together so I only lost 3 letters but I made up for it in time since I had been working on it for awhile.

 I'm going to frame it and hang it on our wall.

I have another embroidery project in the works for a special friend.
I am also going to knit 2 lens socks for my mom for mother's day this weekend.

Then I really really need to finish my knitting exchange bracelet for my friend that I'm writing in Arabic on the bracelet. I hope I can get it to work out, when I first attempted it, it was too wide and I didn't like it. Not sure what else I should do since it's supposed to be for knitting but I had fleeting thoughts of embroidering it and then just making a simple bracelet to go with it. IDK.

Lots to do.

Rut

I can easily get into ruts. When I had my 200 books in a year goal, I got into a rut in May and just couldn’t stand to read another book for a few months. I know that’s ridiculous but try reading 300 page+ books in a day & a half for 5 months (I read 100 books by that point) and see how you feel. I’m sure a lot of you read books like it’s nothing but I didn’t like reading books so fast because then I couldn’t fully enjoy them. I love reading but I just got tired of it.

I have been knitting so much I’ve gotten into that rut as well. Which I know it’s silly but sometimes you just need to do something new. I think I might start on my sewing/crafts part of my new years resolutions after I finish up the few projects I do this week hopefully.

I want to make my dress & wallet with my grandma before she leaves to go back to Maine which could be soon as she is thinking about leaving early because of her house trailer issues.

I need to make a list of what gifts I’d like to make for family members for crafts so I can kind of make a list that way to get them done in a timely manner and won’t be so scattered.
I hate getting into a rut.

It’s annoying.

Designing A Cute Dress

I'M TRYING TO DESIGN A FREAKING DRESS OK.

Measurements:
I’m using my favorite tshirt as a guide because 1. it’s large enough for me and 2. I like the way it fits AND looks on me, so why not have a dress that does the same thing. No brainer. I’m also using a skirt that I like as a little help too.

• Skirt length (waist to below knees): 30”
• Waist: 49 1/2”
• Sleeve length (top): 12 1/2”
• Sleeve Length (bottom): 3”
• Sleeve shoulder length: 7 1/2”
• Shoulder & Sleeve length: 20-21”
• V Neck (across the top): 13”
• V Neck (the angles): 8 1/2” each
• Sleeve width: 15-16” which since it’s a circle, it’d be 32” all around
• Widest part of my body (muffin): 64” (I’m not happy, Bob)
• Bust- 57”
• Total length- 50-60”

I want it to kind of look like that! Oh just to put a few things into perspective, I’m 5.3ft around my widest part (muffin top/abdomen). That means someone with say an “average” hips size is 36” or 3ft. I’m 2 times larger than the average person.
Now, me wanting to lose weight doesn’t have much to do with me hating myself because I feel ugly. It’s more to do with i’m tired of having a fucking tire around my hips sticking out 6” of my pants. My muffin top is a fucking foot wide for fucks sake!

Anyway, If anyone has any suggestions/ has experience sewing dresses for lovely fat people, TELL ME YOUR SECRETS!

Brain blast edit: I bet I could totally knit a lace belt to go around my waist!

Rosie Headband

Here's the free pattern.

I think this is cuter if I had my hair up since the last part gets covered up. I love it tho!

Recent knitting!

A Worm for my dad's fishing set!

 Royce's Bunny Hat
There are 2 links. The highlighted ROYCE, is my project that I changed from the original which is linked in the BUNNY HAT section. :)

 Cousin's Elephant Nugget with Crazy Hair, His name is Clyde!

I didn't get a pic after I drew on the eyes & mouth. lol.  I did a few changes on the nugget again with the ears and hair. The part that says "cousin's elephant" is my page with the change and the "nugget" part is the original pattern that was used to make a bunny.

Cabled Bracelet for Cousin! I changed the pattern by making 2 button holes instead of doing the loop thing. Bleh.

Fanny Hat!

I got it a bit tight around the color bands because of how thick the yarn is and the small needles but I still really love it. I made it specifically because when I have long hair I never wear it down and this hat fit my head with the pony tail!

Penpal Birthday Knits!

 Birthday Cupcake!

 Stash busting bracelet in like teal blue!

 Puppy Nugget!

Elephant nugget!

She seems to love all of them! The cupcake was a bit tricky because of yarn availability and kind of winging it. I also couldn't figure out what to have in the bottom of the cupcake to help hold it up but oh well, it still worked out!

Total stitch count for this year: 27,808.75
For fun, my avg stitch count per project is: 1,497

Grandma's Gifts!

Finally, I was able to get my grandma her gifts.

1. A cowl.

Funny story. I got the stitches twisted and thought I could fix it, obviously it didn't work that way so then I had to steek it which is the bottom photo and it worked perfectly and I hope she likes it enough to use it. She never uses the hood on her jacket cause it doesn't stay up so I thought a cowl would work to cover her head and be warm. Depends on if she can stand to have it wrapped twice around her neck and stuff. I should've made it longer so it isn't so tight wrapped twice but I had no idea. So we'll see I guess.

2. Basket weave Dishcloth

Nothing difficult co 40 sts, k6 p6. Go for 6 rows (I HAVE NO IDEA WHY I DIDN'T DO 5s?) then switch with p6 k6.

3. Leaf Washcloth

Would've been better with a stem but with the pattern I used, I couldn't exactly tell for sure what end I was starting at... *embarrassed*

4. Flower

My grandma suggested we make it into a magnet! So that's what I'll do.

She seemed to really like them and said they were pretty. :)

Sorry for no recent updates.

I have completed knitting objects since my last post, I've just been wary to post them on here because they are gifts and I don't want to spoil the surprise but I hope to post them within the week! That or I may just post them anyway and hopes the person receiving them won't see them!

Just a bit of an update. I have acquired 2 fellow knitters and created a knitting exchange. One has not knit in years and enjoyed my knitting so much that they wanted to knit again. The other just thought it'd be fun to do! With the first knitter we are exchanging simple bracelets.

Since they are getting back into the knitting game, they are making a simple knit stitch bracelet. I however really enjoyed making THIS bracelet, I will make them this one! I'm very excited to exchange knitting items with them and hope to help them in their journey of getting back into knitting!

The other knitter and I are still figuring out things as they have a full time job and are very busy and that is alright because I have a lot of knitting I want to do right now!

I'm making a fishing rod, i-cord, worm, and fishies for my father. He was recently in a very bad car accident and is stuck in the hospital and he loves fishing so I thought I'd make him a cute toy, pattern HERE. The only negative is I am not sure if they allow small magnets in hospitals? So once I find that out, I can give it to him but I will keep working on it as I only have the fishing rod done!

Then, for my penpal, I'm going to make her a little puppy HERE because she likes them and then probably that same bracelet I listed above since it is a fast and simple bracelet! And I may possibly knit her a cupcake (HERE) as it is her birthday coming up beginning of March and it'd be cute to send her a "birthday cupcake" in the mail. And if I have even more time, I'd like to knit her an elephant (HERE) as I love elephants and it completely symbolizes me. :D

My next gift for myself whenever I get around to it! Will be this lovely headband (HERE). Maybe I'll get to that by April?! HA!

As you can see, I have quite a few knitting projects that exceed my original goals but that is perfectly alright because it is helping me to become a better knitter and that is what I need so I can continue to grow!

5 projects, 7 days

Projects I completed this week:

2 Toy Crowns

Here's the link to the pattern---> Toy Crowns

2 Honeycomb Bracelets

Here's the link---> Stash Busting Bracelet

And finally 1 beaded lace bracelet!

Here's the Pattern---> lace bracelet

Very pleased with all of them and how they turned out! :)
Total stitch count: 11,054

I'm excited to figure out what I'm going to cast on for tomorrow! I don't know if I'll make myself one of these bracelets cause I LOVE THEM or if I'll keep plugging away on my knitting goals!