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High Plains Poncho (Reinvent your Knitting)

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

Crochet Hot Pads (double thick, free pattern link)

I have a girlfriend whose Mom crochets this pattern. She has so many and loves them. I made a few and they quickly became a favorite! These are great to make for gifts! Pattern is fast and fun. I use any cotton yarn, even scraps. Due to diagonal nature of the pattern and the double thickness of the hot pads they lend themselves nicely to color changes. These hot pads are very effective and almost indestructible. Hot pad pattern link Thanks mielkesfiberarts.com !! The pattern calls to chain 26, but I have made all different sizes! Smallest = chain 15, Largest = chain 45. The size I found was most useful was chain 36 for a larger potholder. Experiment!

7 Day Sweater ….Done

I’m trying to get more adventurous with my knitting, well maybe that is not the word I’m looking for, although I need to be adventurous also. More fearless, I think. I hold myself back and wasn’t sure why, until I read a post (I’ll link it if I can find it here), about creativity and perfectionism. The fear of not finding the “right” pattern or it not turning out “good” keeps me from starting or finishing projects. I’ve tried to embrace the “it’s only yarn” mantra. This sounds silly but has helped me to finally bust out of a creative slump. The fear of not performing up to my expectations. Jodi gives the sweater a tail wag! Check out all of the lovely versions of this and get your own creativity going…. In that celebration of going all in and creating something, I cast on a very simple sweater, knitting flat in garter stitch. Although it looks super plain, that is the beauty of it. Oversized and cozy, it has immediate appeal. Scrolling through the Ravelry lineup of those that had