Monday, January 1, 2007

Happy New Year!

This is what it looked like from my front porch yesterday afternoon. Today it is cloudy. One of my reasons eleven years ago for moving to this end of the state was to get into the eastern part of a time zone, so I wouldn't have to wait until 8 o'clock for the sun to come up in December and January. Little did I know that many years the sun doesn't show itself much in December and January. I discovered that the first year I was in 'the Purchase' and it's happening again this year.


Now to show the works in progress at year end/beginning. Mittens I cast on yesterday because I wanted to see what this yarn (cheap, worsted-weight acrylic) looks like in linen stitch. I like it! These mittens are for charity. The thumbs will be in garter stitch. I'm using US size 5 needles. Next up - the socks for Alyssa to match the ones I made for Lexi. Lexi likes short socks, so I only worked about an inch of the lace pattern before starting the heel. Alyssa's wants hers about eight inches from top to bottom of heel. The heels and toes will be solid brown. Those are my old Rhodo-Cristal Nacre needles, 2 mm (US size 0) in a nice sunny yellow. I love these needles for socks. They have a metal wire in the middle - they'll bend a little, but are not likely to break. This is a bit of the bedspread I'm crocheting as a wedding gift. It's in Aunt Lydia's Classic Crochet Thread - size 10 crochet cotton, using a size 5 steel hook. Each piece takes about two hours. I've done 88 so far. If I do one each day, maybe I'll get it done by Yvette's third anniversary this fall.
So far this stuffed toy is a quintopus, but by next Tuesday he should be an octopus and ready to present at the baby shower/knitting guild meeting. It's from worsted weight cotton I've had forever. I'm using US size 4 needles, so it's very tightly knit. That's a bit hard on the hands, but then it's a small project. The pattern is in Kath Dalmeny's World of Knitted Toys. I altered it a bit so I could knit in the round and not have all those seams.
And this project I set aside a couple of months ago to work on other more pressing projects. It's a 'log cabin' small blanket for charity. The reason I started it, other than wanting to do a 'log cabin' was to use up certain yarn from my stash. I then discovered that I didn't have enough of the forest green (it looks like black in the picture), so I had to buy more! But my overall stash will be reduced when I finish it. There will be twelve squares; ten are done so far. Each starts with red as the 'home fire' with forest green, midnight blue and amethyst as the 'logs' - two squares each of the six possibilities. Worsted weight acrylic, US size 9 needles.And finally, some of my granddaughter's handiwork. Isn't he cute?

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