Knitting Dragonflies

 I made a series of Christmas stockings, and needed something small and fun to knit as a palate cleanser. I have always looked at the little sweater ornament patterns and thought they were so adorable. So I decided to give one a try. I saw that Berroco yarns had their yearly ornament patterns out,   Minutia 21 , they are free and looked so cute! It is just knitting a little sweater, just like a life size one! So cute.....I did all of mine one dpns, but I found a girl on YouTube knitting them on magic loop. She is the KnitYorker,  video link here.  They were fun and didn't take too long to make.  If you want to look at some more, I'll link their other little sweater ornament patterns of the past years... Minutia 20  , Minutia 18,   Minutia 16, and Minuti 15 . After my first two tiny sweaters that were knit. I wanted to find a crochet sweater pattern ornament. I found one on Ravelry from Melissa Mall. ( pattern link rav)  Miniature sweater orna...

Holiday stocking number 4 done. I think this will be my last one. I saw this pattern & decided I had to try it. Well written & I love how it turned out. The pattern is from Rachel Brockman, and called the Gingerbread stocking. ( rav link) . I did delete the first part of the pattern and substituted the name in that area, and then continued as written. Used scrap yarn that I had in my stash. I have decided after several stocking that I like the look of the afterthought heel, and the toe that is more like a regular sock toe. Some have a round toe that has equal decreased all around. Ready for the heel here. Adding the dpns and cut out the waste yarn. I watched a video on YouTube the first time and this one was the one I understood best. From The Chilly Dog ( youtube link ). It really is a quick way to add a heel. Left out the first pattern area and added a name. Just simple block letters.  May your needles fly as fast as dragonflies

Beginning of my first stocking! I'm enjoying it so much I'm planning on doing more. I did add some stocking net stitch to add a name and just made simple letters to fit on the cuff. I did make the stocking more slender and kept it to 2 repeats. Only cast on of 56 stitches.

Finished my Cable Vest ! Pattern is by Lisa Carnahan, free pattern ( link ) I used Scarfie yarn by Lion brand. This pattern actually calls for a very bulky yarn. Thicker than scarfie. I would like to make it again trying two strands of worsted or maybe three to see how it turns out. Buttons are vintage. May your needles fly as fast as dragonflies.

 Just need to pick out some buttons and finish this up. I love how it looks, yarn is scarfie from Lion brand yarn. Pattern is free.

I was inspired by some yarn bombing I saw recently. When we returned home I started thinking about making something for our own yard. When I needed something for my morning glories to grow on I decided I would knit something. Knitted Trellis Finished Trellis It turned out nice and I enjoyed looking at it under the vines all summer. I left it up all winter and it did fine until the very end when one strand broke and then the whole thing unraveled. Ugh!! So I would recommend taking it down if you have winter where you live. Yarn used was some Red Heart Super Saver, I wanted something cheap, because I wasn't sure how it would turn out. I used one skeins to complete it, which was 436 yards (approx) of weight 4 or worsted weight yarn. After experimenting I used size US 17 needles, I'll post the pattern below.  Advice, when you trying to see if your trellis is wide enough, stretch that sucker really tightly. I realized after the first rain that it grew, and ended up ...

I put down two cardigans that I was knitting, one had a small amount of lace in it, and it is more of a summer cardigan. The other is a more complicated cable cardigan. I had decided to buy some cheap acrylic yarn and try a crochet cardigan. I’ve never crocheted a cardigan. I’m not very crochet experienced, I can chain and single and double crochet, but mostly flat things. After I had tackled the cable sweater I felt fearless and started shopping around for some nice acrylic yarn. Google informed me that Hobby Lobby's I Love This Yarn was highly rated. The price was right. I wanted to feel like I could make it nice but if it didn’t work out I hadn’t spent a whole lot on it. I had looked at a few crochet cardigan patterns and the Staycation pattern really caught my eye! I bought some bright red yarn from Hobby Lobby and went at it. It didn’t take me too long and I didn’t have much trouble. Before I knew it I had my Holiday Sweater! With big patch pockets and an oversized fit! I have...

I seem to have a lot of UFO cardigans around the house. I haven’t blogged in a while so I’ll do a quick catch up. I started with the Berroco KAL in the summer and picked out the pattern Atwells Cardigan, a lacy cardigan made with Berroco Remix light, which is a cotton/silk/nylon/acrylic/flax blend, which is a DK weight. I would actually say it is thinner than DK. I think this is going to be a well loved cardigan when I get it finished. The pattern is fairly easy. Knit in one piece to the underarms and then spilt to the top, then pick up and knit arms to the cuff. I stopped working on this to start the next Berroco KAL which was cables! I picked Arya pattern (free pattern), and choose the Berroco Vintage to knit it up in, a wool/acrylic blend that was surprisingly soft and nice to work with. Pattern is free, and knit in pieces flat, my least favorite method of making sweaters. I think this is when I stalled out. I had knitted a sleeve and realized it was too tight for my liking. I frog...

I knitted a shrug pattern a bit ago, and it turned out very nicely, but I wasn’t happy with how it looked on me, or the functionality of it. The Shrug is often seen as a bridging item for beginning to intermediate knitters. An item for the “I’m tired of knitting scarves, hats and shawls etc.., but don’t feel like I’m up for a sweater yet”. It attracted me because I thought it would be easy mindless knitting for watching TV or visiting, and also a useful addition to my wardrobe. It was a lot of knitting. The pattern I picked was all stockinette stitch. Whew….really long and boring. I would recommend picking one with a simple pattern to keep it interesting. And while it looked nice, I didn’t find it to be very useful, for myself. My husband called it my buttwarmer, and that is a good description of it. It stayed open in the front, where I was cold, and bagged in the butt area, which I don't need to emphasize. I did like the shorter sleeves and  that it was large enough to put ove...

This is one of my long term projects that I just wanted to get off my needles. When these types of patterns started showing up I was interested in making one. It looked simple and fast and cozy. What more do you want? Described as a wrap, shrug, bolero, and even sweater, it is just a large rectangle, either crochet or in this case knitted. When the rectangle is large enough. Just fold it in two, sewing the sides together. . Easy concept. I picked out a free pattern, The Lion Brand, Speckled Shrug ( free pattern here ) I always like to look at the finished projects on Ravelry and read the comments everyone has made that knitted the item.  Seems like knitters were split into two camps. The make it smaller and more fitted and Bolero jacket like. The other group was to make it bigger. I noticed that the problem with this shape of this pattern is a baggy bottom after sitting. (like once). I had already made another pattern that was a bolo jacket so opted to make mine fairly large ...

Day 3 of knitting, as much time as I have, in the cold, snowy days we are having here. I’m coming along fairly well, starting to get a little anxiety about  the amount of yarn I have left. But we will see. I’m leaning towards a collar/hood situation. But I think my yarn amount will dictate how the rest goes. I love knitting top down sweaters, as you can try them on and make decisions as you knit. Happy knitting…..May your needles fly as fast as Dragonflies….

I’ve been in a productivity slump. Well I’ve been gardening and doing life, but falling way behind in the fun fabric & yarn stuff. I happened across this YouTube of Fairy Little who vlogged knitting a sweater in 24 hours. I have a sweater I’ve been stalled on for 3 years (I believe, may be longer) After watching this time lapse video, it was like a kick in the pants for me. I thought “Yes, I can do that!, (well maybe in a weekend or week), Now I’m trying to decide if I’m frogging the pattern & starting over as that was when I stopped. I had to heavily modify  the pattern and……need I saw more? Check out the video & thanks Fairy Little

I have been knitting, but not blogging for quite a while now. I’m getting organized and back into blogging. Colder weather is here and it is time to get the needles out. I decided that I would start by dragging out all of my unfinished projects and take stock & decide which ones I’ll frog or finish. I’ve had a sweater on the back burner for years, I’m not happy with how the pattern was turning out and you know how that can stall a knitter. So I’m determined to be ruthless and not knit, (well not start anything big) until all of my UFO’s (unfinished objects) are taken care of one way or another! If there are any other knitters out there that would like to join me leave a comment! Next post will be a ruthless inventory (I hope) of what I’ve got going on.

My husband has what we refer to as “the crazy hair”, he has cowl licks and loves to wear hats. Add those together and unless he has just gotten his hair cut, he is usually sporting “the crazy hair”. His hair likes to stick straight up, but also pushes together in a Mohawk like ridge. I don’t know how it happens, but am thankful he loves hats, and will wear them 3 out of the 4 seasons. In fact I just finished a hat for him, in 100% wool, and in Southern Indiana it is in the 80’s now, he came home from Starbucks with it on. Well I can’t complain of a husband that will wear my hand knits! I picked out this pattern The Modern Rib Hat by Susan B Anderson , but had decided to style it into a slouchy hat. The pattern is free on Ravelry and written well and super easy to follow. It has 6 sizes, from baby and toddler up to an adult size. This is great, a size for everyone. Style it from the tradition rib, or cap size to fold up brim or a slouchy hat. I will be making more of these. Any siz...

Winter winds, snow and ice? That translates to lots of knitting. I had a birthday to knit for and a couple of skeins of Hometown USA by Lion Brand. I was drawn to this yarn due to the extreme softness, it just made me squeeze the skeins and the vibrant colors, and then noticed that it was 100% Acrylic. I’ll be the first one to tell you, I hardly ever knit with a yarn that does not have some natural fiber in it, but this felt so tempting I couldn’t resist. I usually buy Wool Ease Chunky with a fiber content of 20% Wool and 80% Acrylic, but kept going back to this one. I just couldn’t stop touching it. It is a super bulky yarn at 9 sts x 12 rows per 4 square inches. Available in 63 colors, the solids and multis are 100% acrylic, and the Tweeds are 94% acrylic and 6% Rayon (due to the tweed bits). I decided to try it out, as I had fallen in love with the Tampa Spice color, I thought it would  be perfect for my birthday gal. I wanted a Cowl pattern, and loved the look of the see...