New Patterns!

I've already talked about these patterns, so I'll make this a short post. 

Willow Carroldine is available on Knit Picks for $2.99.

 Cathie is also on Knit Picks, for $1.99.

Enjoy!

Cathie is done!

I finally finished my Cathie scarf! 

 I decided to make it a bit shorter than I usually do for scarves. It was supposed to be done three months ago. Now the pattern is finished, and in the hands of Knit Picks.

Here's a closeup:

And now I'm on to other designs. I'm almost halfway done with my R&R Shawl sample; and should have yarn waiting for me when I get home, to make Hunter Socks. I've got a friend proofreading my Willow Carroldine pattern before I send it in. 

If I knit fast enough, can I count it as exercise?

Happy Bunker Liberation Day!

First of all, if you have no idea what Bunker Liberation Day is, that's okay. Just bear with me. It's a new holiday for a certain group of my friends, who are all members of a private website. A year ago, most of us were banned from a knitting website. The banning was undeserved, and was very hurtful at the time to all of us. I'll spare you the whole sad story, since I prefer to focus on the positive, but the main issue was politics.

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The reason I'm wishing Happy Bunker Liberation Day to my readers is that the majority of them are BunkerBabes. ☺ I participated in a really fun swap, to celebrate BLD. It was a UFO Swap, and I've mentioned it here before. I sent my Un-Finished Object and yarn to Angela, and Cathie sent her yarn to me. I can finally post pictures! Here is what I made with Cathie's yarn:

It's a scarf. The first picture is a closeup of the cables and lace.

And here's what Angela did with my yarn! It's Tunisian Crochet Entrelac! This makes me want to try both Entrelac, and Tunisian Crochet.

Angela also made some fingerless mitts to match!

And here are pictures of me, modeling Angela's masterpieces!

I know, being banned doesn't seem like something to celebrate. But that's only if you don't know how close-knit(pun intended) our group has become as a result. When we were banned, we were hurt, saddened, angry and depressed. With time, we began to realize that we were knitting and crocheting more now that we weren't distracted by that other site. And we even became more creative than we had been; several of us decided to take the first steps into designing our own projects. We've done multiple swaps, as I've mentioned before here on my blog, and with each one we get to know lots of little things about the person we're spoiling. We've made use of the chatroom on our site, even having online parties! Our New Year's Eve party was wild!

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All that to say, I love the BunkerBabes (and the one BunkerDude) like family. I'm glad we have each other. So Happy Bunker Liberation Day, Babes! I'm looking forward to many more years with y'all!

The Olympics are coming!

I'm sure, if you are a knitter, you've heard of some sites that do Olympic challenges; Ravelry and YarnHarlot being two of them. Well, I'm not on Ravelry, since they banned me and my friends last year without cause(Thanks, Casey, I've gotten so much more knitting and designing done since I wasn't wasting time on your site! And no, that's not sarcasm)...so I can't participate in their version of Olympics, with all of its rules and regulations...I'd be surprised if they allowed projects that are patriotic in nature; it might offend someone. (whew, okay, enough snarkiness; even thinking about Ravelry brings that out in me. Sorry) And, since I have nothing of a personal nature to say about YarnHarlot(except that I sure wouldn't have picked a moniker like that), I'll just say I'm not a fan of hers, so I'm not participating in hers either.

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I am a member of another site for yarn artists, and we're having our own Olympic challenge. Originally, the idea was to pick a project with techniques you haven't done before, and since it's the Winter Olympics, to make it a winter project. But we tend to 'go with the flow' on our site, and since we're actually friends with each other, we decided there's no need for stringent rules. ☺ Since I live in Texas, and Christmas is over, I'm already thinking of spring and summer with my knitting. And there's nothing wrong with that. ☺ So anyway, I decided to do a project with a little bit of Fair-Isle, since that technique frightens me a little. Here's a swatch, and the fabric to go with it...
After making that swatch, I decided that I'm actually going to use thinner yarn, so I had to go find a white cotton sweater(to take apart) with the right gauge of yarn to match up with the red cotton yarn, which I got from a sweater last year. The red is actually a little darker than the red in my swatch, but not quite burgundy. Since the blue in the fabric is so dark, I decided that would be okay. And yes, that swatch was knit from the top-down, instead of the bottom-up; this project is going to be a little girls' sundress, in which the top half will be knitted top-down, in raglan style, and the bottom half will be a fabric skirt. The USA part will be on the front of the bodice, naturally. I'm not starting with the knitting yet, not until the Opening Ceremonies, but I'm getting all of the calculating out of the way, so that I can jump right in when it's time.

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In other knitting news, "Cathie" is almost done. It looks great, if I do say so myself. And I hope Cathie likes it as well! I haven't worked on "Surf" at all since I started on "Cathie"... need to get back to that as soon as "Cathie" is done.

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I just have a few minutes, before I have to go get the girls started on their schoolwork, but I wanted to update, since it's been a few days. I am about halfway done with "Cathie", my latest project (see my previous post). I am in love with this Malabrigo yarn. I will be sad to be done knitting with it. It's so soft and lovely. I think I will save up, buy some of my own, and make a "Cathie" for myself. ☺ I am really enjoying the design; once you have it memorized, it's actually very easy. Now if I could just figure out cabling without a cable needle, I'd be able to speed right through the rest of this project...

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My youngest daughter, whom I have called "Dolly" since she was just a newborn baby, because she was the same size as one of her sisters' dollies, has informed me this morning that she's not "Dolly" anymore. Between meows and snuggles, she told me that she wants to be called "Kitty" now. I have to admit, it fits her well. So my two-year-old will be referred to as Kitty from this point on.

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And now it's time for math...