Knitting Dragonflies

I was reading some blogs and saw the cutest crochet owls on Karen Makes Stuff (who is a prolific creator, check her out, you want to make it, she probably already has and can show you how), of course she has just made them up without a pattern. Super Cute! They would be perfect for my niece, which I was looking for a little something to gift her to cheer her up. And then they show up in the mail! Thanks Karen, you are so sweet! Check out how small they are, love the colors! Along the way I found crochet mice patterns, which I had no intention of making, but they caught my eye, from The Green Dragonfly , she had a through tutorial, which was very easy to follow. Well they were somewhat addicting to make, LOL (look through her free crochet patterns! I’ve already found a few I’d like to try) Who us??                               ...

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...

It is funny how many times a good idea comes along while looking for something else. I ran across this free pattern for Finger Less Mitts. It looked fast to knit and I really liked the pattern. Free pattern link (ravelry) http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/camp-out-fingerless-mitts   These fingerless mitts are worked in two directions. The hand portion is worked flat in garter stitch. Stitches are picked up and worked in rounds for the thumb and wrist portion. I enjoyed knitting this pattern! It was easy to understand and well written. I did add two modifications to the pattern. Even with my modifications I had this done with under 150 yards easy, I had a partial skein left over. Above is the palm done and I’m ready to start on the arm, I decided to add a “thumb”, I did this by picking up 19 stitches around the thumb hole, and k1,p1 all around for 4 rows, or until it is long enough to make you happy When finish I cast off in pattern all around. I also noticed in the pho...

  I love this bright coral color that these skeins ended up! I wound up about 2000 yards of 100% Wool yarn and decided that it was bright and sunny out, so it was time to do some solar dyeing I was going for a light pink, but after that skein looked rather wimpy, and my husband said he thought it would look good more vibrant. I decided he may be right. I like to use sun tea jars to solar dye my yarn. It is amazing how warm the sun makes the water and really bakes the dye into the skeins, I’ve used different combos of fiber mixes and 100% wool gives the most vibrant colors. I wound all of my yarn on a swift, and tied each one off in at least 5 places. I found to error on the side or more ties, to reduce tangles. But tie them very loosely, I like the little mark of lighter dye where the tie was located, it gives the skeins a more varied look. Soak the skeins, making sure all of your wool in underwater, I usually put a plate on top of them to weigh them down. Gently squeeze the ...

Have some yarn from a forgotten project? So did I. I found a skein of Fisherman’s Wool from Lion brand yarns, in Maple Tweed. Each skein has a hefty 465 yards or so and it is Worsted weight yarn. After some trolling around on Ravelry I found a super simple wrap, a rectangle with rows of knit on the top and bottom and k2, p2* until end of row for 2 rows  and then p2 k2 next row for 2 rows, repeat until you are ready to end it, and then knit your heart out for the ending rows. See the photo in the link here , it is the Shawl by Melanie on Ravelry. I used needles size 13 US, also cast on 132 stitches instead of the 110 called for. I just knitted until my skein was over. Then couldn’t decide if I needed another one. There is a fine line between wrap so big you don’t want to take it anywhere, and wrap just right. So I stopped at one skein, I like the longer length, I can wrap it over my shoulder to stay on, or wrap it backwards. It can also be used as a cowl/doubled scarf, due to the...

Knitting always sooths me, I was stressed and needed a small project, out of town with little resources. I had one knitting book and found a Joanns store. After much looking around and dithering, some yarn was found that I fell in love with a wool, mohair, acrylic mix!  Patons North America Lace ,I decided to buy two balls, because, well who knows what it would become? Only having one knitting book gave me few options, Greetings from the Knit Café , so I picked out the Lale shawl and started in. The pattern is super simple and goes fast due to the yo’s and then drop them the next row! This would be a good first shawl for a beginning knitter! Love how the yarn is giving the color change and lacy look with a slight halo. Pattern is very easy to follow, once you knit one repetition of it, you can go on auto pilot with it.I knitted most of it during visiting friends for a music festival. So little attention to detail, and lots of talking involved. I’m always surprised at how many ...

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...