Catching up on things

It's been a busy winter around here. The weather was awful, below zero for weeks at a time and lots of snow.  The total so far is around 305 inches for the year, and we will probably get another storm before spring finally is here to stay....

Have been doing some knitting, some babysitting for our grandkids and  want to share some photos with you.  It is a quiet Sunday morning  and now is a good time to catch up on here.

This is Serenity dressed up for her Mom's birthday yesterday.  Her sweater is the one entered in the fair last summer.  Glad it still fits her, this is the first time she has worn it.

This is a baby shrug I have been working on for a few days.  A quick easy knit with size 10 needles and aran yarn so it is soft and warm.  It will probably be done today and I'll post a finished picture next time. Just have to find a nice button for it.

Knitted mittens for felting.  They are black although the picture looks purple to me.  The crocheted edging is just holding the stitches for adding a ribbed cuff after they are felted.   Hope to felt these this afternoon, they were misplaced in the house for awhile and just found them today when looking for something else.

This was taken early in the season.  You can't even see the bridge when you are in that spot now, the banks are so high.  It is warm out today, almost 50 degrees so far.  I will probably go for a walk later with my walking buddy.  

Here is my walking buddy, Noel.  She brings so much joy and entertainment to our lives.   This particular day we were making & decorating cupcakes and she wanted to be close to all the festivities in the off chance that something would fall on the floor.  

Sweet little granddaughter

Here she is, little Serenity.  6 lbs, 6 oz.  Born  Jan 30 at 5:35 pm. 

Finished baby cardigan

This for our new granddaughter who is due in early Feb.  The pattern is the free Pure and Simple Baby Cardigan, and the yarn is Bernat Baby Sport, Pajama Party.  Glad to be finished with it, time to move on to some felted mittens.  Have been wanting to try knitting with unspun roving and in our house we seem to have an abundance of single mittens this winter. 

So far we have been having a real winter this year, over a hundred inches of snow so far, lots of plowing & shoveling and not enough outdoor activities due to the cold weather.   Good for staying inside and knitting or spinning however.  

Fair Entries 2013

Hand embroidered baby quilt.   

Celtic cables dishcloth ( 7th place? )   tatted snowflake, sewn pillowcases, woven placemats.

Hydrangea, utensil basket, baby sweater, handspun yarn and more celtic knitting in the mittens.

Of all things, a dog sweater?

This is the Biscuits and Bones pattern on Ravelry.  First started the large one in the round for Noel, but got confused by the pattern.  Ripped it out and started over flat as the directions have you do, and with the xs size to get the hang of the pattern.  I am more confident about making the larger one, now and am really enjoying the textures and cables. 

Here's a photo of a multicolored rug  that was made awhile back, from t-shirts ( leftover strips) and is quite short.

This one is made from sweatshirts.  When I started it, was also putting red in there, but it seemed too patriotic for a rug, as the light grey looks more white than grey.  The one below is the denim/camoflaug rug I talked about in an earlier post  that was remade from another rug that was hemmed and came apart after washing.

Some placemats

Just finished these place mats yesterday.  It has been an eventful project.  First I tried to make 4 place mats side by side, out of t-shirts to use up the last of the warp.  The left side got tangled and snarled and I didn't have the patience to mess with it. 

So it was taken off and the loom rewarped for the last two place mats.   That went well, for once and then I realized that I didn't have enough material to finish them!   So a trip to Good Will and the other thrift shops with one of our daughters commenced. 

Well, we couldn't just buy the t-shirts to finish up, could we?  We found books, fashion boots, a jacket, and many clothes for my little grandson.  In Good Will it was an adventure, scouring the racks  holding the fabric strips to compare.  We did match the colors, amazingly enough.  And here are the end results.  Hope the next adventure is easier and less costly.

A new sweater project and another rug

This is a sweater for my grandson, size 4, made from Plymouth Encore Colorspun and there isn't a name for the color, I just think of it as Camoflauge.  It's a blend of 75 % acrylic,25% wool and machine washable.  Matthew picked the style of sweater, he wanted a pullover, and it had to be green.

The pattern is from this book.

Here's my latest rug, finished tying the fringe this morning.  Not my colors, but  someone will like it.   Started another one tonight which is a remake.  A few years ago I made a hemmed rug with colored warp and denim/camoflauge canvas fabrics.   Well, it didn't hold up in the washer, and the hem came apart.  It seemed easier to tear it apart and redo the rug. So today was the day to get going on it.http://karensfiberarts.blogspot.com/2007/12/yooper-rug.html  is the original rug, if case you want to see it.