New Patterns!

First off I just want to say "what a disappointing snow storm - we were lucky if we got 3 inches"!

Anyway onto more important matters - the patterns!!  For quite a while now I've been "pinning" these little bunnies to my knitting and crochet board over on Pinterest.

 I didn't know that there were any patterns available, I thought you could only buy the finished product until this past weekend. Her store is on Etsy at littlecottonrabbits.  So although I could have probably figured out a pattern for myself, I decided I would treat myself and buy one.  Well once on the shop site I saw you could buy two for $10 so I picked out the bunny above and this fox.

 They are adorable. The patterns are extremely well written and have great photos showing you how to sew them together.  The patterns were sent via email almost immediately which was awesome. I went through my yarn stash and found a grey fleck yarn from Vanna's Choice for the bunny body and an aran from Paton's Astra for the stripe.  I went to Michael's to buy the remaining two colours yesterday - Loops & Threads Snuggly Wuggly in dark turquoise and soft mint, and am now sitting in my pj's knitting away!  It calls for three different needle sizes - 2.5mm, 2.75mm and 3mm but as I couldn't find my 2.5mm needles I'm using the 2.75's instead. Here's the yarn I chose

As I was in too much of a hurry to start my bunny I didn't even think about buying yarn for the fox so that means another trip to Michael's (yay!) and this time I will try to stay out of the scrapbooking aisles - I had a bit of "an accident" yesterday and spent a little more than planned in the clearance section of the Smash/scrapbooking area!!  Off to knit some legs, so until next time...

Photo-a-day

It's been quite a busy week this week.  On Thursday I bought my first ever iPhone - I decided to go with the 6 as I'm not planning on changing it for quite a while (I had my last flip phone for about 5 years!!).  I know I have a lot to learn but so far so good.  It's been busy at work too as we were getting ready for inventory - that's later today and is always fun.  And yesterday I bought a couple of knitting patterns, but more on that later this week.

Here are my photos for the week.  Hopefully if we get all the snow they promised I'll have some great ones from the storm - I guess it's going to be a wait and see as we don't really get much snow here in Devon Pa.

The Bean and I had fun making the Gingerbread House.  We seemed to run out of time over Christmas so we made it the other day.  And if you look at the photo from Barnes and Noble you can see my trusty little red flip phone - I'm going to miss it's small size but oh well.  Barnes and Noble is a favourite reading spot for Hubby and me on days when we just want a tasty Starbucks and a few magazines to read AND to people watch!!

More info coming on my new knitting patterns, so until then...

It's Finished!

I finished my blanket Sunday night and absolutely love it!  It's quite big, about 5ft x 3ft  and feels very warm and cozy.  It should be perfect for cool Spring days/evenings out on the porch - I can't wait!  I think I ended up using 2 complete balls each of the Teal and Ivory and 2 partial balls of each of all 3 colours.  And here it is.

I really want to knit something else but I'm making myself finish off a few other things first.  I do have a short week at work next week so hopefully I'll start my next new project then.  So until next time...

Freezing Rain

Today is another great weather day - we have freezing rain!  Everything looks so peaceful and pretty and I love it!

I've been busy knitting my blanket this past week and should have it finished by tonight.  I'm on my last stripe and it's looking good.  I'm already thinking about what I'm going to knit next but have to do a few other things first.  I'm still having fun taking my photo-a-day.  Sometimes it's hard to think of what to photograph so I decided to start a list of ideas in one of my many notebooks (mum I must have got that addiction from you!!).  I'm not really looking at being a great photographer, I just want to capture some everyday images that we wouldn't necessarily think about photographing.  Like I said before - I don't have the best camera, so often times the photos are blurry and that's ok.  So here are the pics for the second week of January.

Just looking through these pictures is filling my head with what could be some good/great ideas, so I'm off to get another notebook from my stash and jot them down!!  So until next time...

Progress

Today I'm going to post my first week of taking a photo a day.  I don't have a fancy camera, just a Sony Cybershot from at least 10 years ago, so excuse any blurry pix.  The first was taken at the mall when we were there doing a Christmas return! On another pic, I found a small orangey red and grey feather about an inch and a half long.  I couldn't get it into focus so just had to go with the blurry bittersweet (which is where I found the feather) that self seeded in our yard a few years ago.  Anyway I'm having fun and trying to think outside the box!

I've also been to Michael's (twice) and bought some yarn to make a blanket.  The yarn was half price and that's the reason I went back for more!!  I have some knitting ideas for later this year so thought I'd start stocking up now. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!!  Here are the 3 colours I chose.  It's Loops & Threads Impeccable and has 268 yds per ball.  I'm using size US 13 circular needles and working with 2 balls at a time.

 I'm bordering the blanket with moss stitch and working in 20 row stripes. I'm challenging myself to do at least one stripe a day - I'm a stripe behind but hope to catch up today and tomorrow.

And just to update you on my December Daily progress.  I've run out of photo paper but am almost finished.  Hopefully I'll be done with it soon.  
So until then ...

Winter

Let me start out by saying "Winter is my favourite season".  There's something about waking up to a surprise snowfall or being inside all toasty and warm when outside it's cold and windy or pouring with rain!  I love it!  And today is one of those days - it's snowing!

Today I thought would be a good day to post the photos of a few of the things I'd finished last year. The baby blanket turned out really well and I ended up giving it to baby after he was born.  It felt thick and cozy and now has me wanting to make a few, slightly bigger ones for the house/porch (Hubby and I like to sit out on the porch and watch the world go by in any kind of weather). I think a trip to Joann Fabrics and Michael's will be happening tomorrow!

This was a quick and easy blanket knitted in garter stitch throughout on size  US10 needles and 110 stitches.  I used Vanna's Choice yarn in 5 colours (check the yardage on each ball because one of them had a lot less yardage for some unknown reason, so I bought an extra ball of that one) and knitted 50 rows per colour.  If you have any questions leave me a comment below.  I am also happy to knit one for you - again leave me a comment.

And here is the pillow I made as a gift for a friend at Christmas.  I saw this on Pinterest (no shock there!) and new I had to make one. I wrote the word in freehand with a fabric pen and then went over it with a Sharpie.  It did bleed a little but overall I was very happy with it.

Not the best photography but you get the gist!! The pillow form was 12" x 16" and the fabric was Osnaburg.  I also used my new labels for both of these projects that I'd ordered from Labels and Ribbon.com

And lastly another cowl.

This cowl was knitted on size US35 needles using two strands of Lion Brand Thick and Quick yarn.  I love how this turned out and can't wait to wear it.

I challenged myself today to do my blog and work on a few other things before going into work.  So far I'm loving my word choice for the year (challenge) and hope to keep the momentum going!  I'm also keeping up with my photo-a-day and will be posting those at the end of each week, even if some of them are a bit blurry.  So until then ...