This is my last post before leaving town for a week - I'll be back in the New Year!

I finished my surprise xmas present for my Mom and Dad.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a pic of the slippers pre-felting because they were quite hilarious and undeniably huge. Here they are post washing machine.

 

 

 

 

They turned out so great, now I need to make a pair for myself.  I used Fiber Trends Felt Clog pattern (which I highly recommend) only... WHY do they print it on blue paper??? It was extremely hard to read the pattern.  One of my goals for today is to copy this pattern onto plain paper so I can read it better. I used Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride for the yarn.  It felts extremely well, but does turn out rather fuzzy.  Which is fine for the clogs, but I don't know if I'd want it as a purse or something like that.  I guess you could use a razor and get rid of the fuzz later if you really needed to.

So, being a totally insane at xmas person, I have suddenly (today) decided that I must create a gift for two people.  My Mom and Dad are going to be the (hopefully) proud owners of...

 

 

 

I now think that I win the award for Person Who Started Christmas Gifts Closest to Christmas.  I guess you only live once, after all.

I've been working on this sweater. The problem is that now that I've finished the front (mostly) that I don't really like the way it looks. This is another project that I've had around for awhile that just hasn't got finished. I really like the way the yarn feels (it's Microspun by Lion) but I just don't know if I can see myself actually wearing the thing. So... I'm going to let it rest for a while and then see what I think. Actually, it's probably that I can't bear to rip the whole thing out, cause it looks good and it was a LOT of work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, onto my next possible project; this is absolutely gorgeous yarn that I bought a couple of years ago at Stitches West - it's total mystery yarn although I think there is probably mohair in there - other than that I don't know except it does have a shiny strand running through it. It was priced at $100 per hank but they were doing clearance so I got two hanks for about $20 apiece I think. It took me a couple of hours last night to roll the first hank into balls (and they aren't small that's for sure). I'm going to check out how it looks in this pattern, which is Ripple from Jo Sharp's Knitting in Color.
Only a couple of days left until Christmas, I'll probably go shopping on Monday morning, since I don't have any work that day. Besides that I'm still playing around with the code for my page - we'll see how much I can add etc, as it's pretty barren right now. I've seen some cool stuff with pics and progress and so on and would like to add that, we'll see how it goes.

Okay, we are going to try to upload some images of recently completed projects, we'll see. 1st on the list is my first felted project a hat and (of course) since I couldn't find a pattern that looked right - I made up my own. It's made out of Yanukau Yarns in Charisma (a multi-colored Aran wool) and it turned out pretty cool. Let's see if the pic thing works...

And woo-hoo it does!!! This is the hat pre-felted.

 

 

 

 

 

And, this is it post-felting. Now, I didn't realize this, but wool felting does not a flat brim make. So, if you sit this hat on the counter, the brim is flat - which is what I wanted. But if you put it on your head, the brim is sort've wavy - actually I do like it and it is attractive. I'd post a pic of me in it, but I usually feel as if I look like a doofus "on camera". I really liked how the colors turned out on the hat though, they actually came out more intense than on the pre-felted hat although you can't see that very well.

 

 

 

okay, something else I did in the last week or so - a basic beret, a free pattern from Lion Brand yarn, Homespun, color prairie, which is pretty much the color in the pic, a sort've olive green. I'm also doing a "brainless knitting" project to go with this, a scarf in k2p2 ribbing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is something that I've had "around" for a while. It was mostly done but I had to "edit" the shoulders and so it was happily resting in a bag waiting for me to get around to it. Finally finished and although it doesn't show up that well in the pic (because of the color I think) it is a VERY attractive pattern. Okay, well I edited the pattern a bit, mostly in the finishing - I did a row of single crochet and then one of reverse single crochet around which gave the edge a very finished look and also stabilized it really well. It's out of Microfiber Ribbon from Tess Yarns and the colorway is Midnight Blue. The pattern is also from Tess Yarn, it's the Tank Top pattern (you can find it under Kits if you're interested). I also showed the stitch detail, because that is the most attractive thing about this top is that the basic top is in reverse stockinette, but it has elongated knit stitches running all through it, really pretty.

Well, that is it for now, so far so good.

Well, a brief introduction - having been introduced to the world of blogs recently, I've decided to publish my own.  I'm doing this mostly as a way to keep myself motivated on my projects.  After all, if I've decided to create a blog, I must post, and if I must post, I must do something to have a reason to post.