Projects!

I know, I know, it's been a while. The last time I posted I was trying to finish up mom's shoes and had just started on the mobile. I am embarrassed to say that neither project is finished. The shoes have been felted, unfortunately a little *too* well and I need to figure out how to stretch them out just a tiny bit, put the straps and buttons on and call it good. Mom *loves* how they turned out though! I got a couple of fish done for the mobile but I had to sideline it, I have a hard time maintaining interest making the same thing over and over. I'll get back to them soon though, I really do want to finish the mobile!

So what have I done? Well I made me a super cute little cotton hat. Here's the pattern.

I loved the pattern so much that I decided to make another in pink for my aunt Barbie. She's a pink person all the way :D

This hat is what I worked on on the way to Vegas

(That's me knitting at the airport)

Funny thing, I have not used charts much and this was my first "lace" pattern period (even though it's not *all* that lacy lol). In fact I have only used a chart once before and I messed that up because I didn't know you are supposed to read charts from right to left and bottom to top. I read it like a book. Thankfully that particular pattern was pretty straightforward and other than it turning out upside down and having a line that wouldn't have happened had I read it right, it turned out beautiful.

(It did get finished, I'm just having trouble locating the finished picture, it was a Christmas stocking for, wait for it...my mom SURPRISE! lol)

So anyways, this was my chance to read a chart correctly for the first time. Remember I did the cotton hat, then did the pink hat - same pattern. So about 5 rows before I start the decrease at the top of the pink hat I realize an error has been made. An error has been made MANY times. This is an 8 row chart and I have made an error on 4 rows of that chart for every.single.repeat on BOTH hats. OMG! It was not the end of the world, I did not feel the need to frog either hat to fix it. I just made a mental note to pay more attention in the future. The error? I did not see fit to notice that there were two different decrease symbols - both / and \. One denoted a ssk, the other a k2tog. I did all decreases as k2tog. Far from the end of the world but as a result the pattern doesn't pop quite like it's supposed to.

So I finished the hat the first night in Vegas and went in search of a nice mitten or fingerless glove pattern to go along with it. I found a fingerless mitten pattern that I liked and as a bonus it also had instructions on how to expand it to a full mitten if desired. So I cast on and got to work. When I got the cuff done and started reading the pattern for the body, I was surprised to realize it was exactly the same lacy pattern as the hat!! I totally didn't do it on purpose but how perfect! Here's the fingerless pattern and the full mitten adaptation (be aware that the mitten adaptation does not include instructions for how to do a thumb. Not a problem for an experienced mitten knitter but since these were my first mittens I was stumped for a bit as to how to proceed).

I worked on the first mitt all the while we were in Vegas. I love knitting in public! Kids especially are just fascinated. I could see every child who saw my knitting wanted to stop and get a closer look. Most parents kept them going but a few came over to see. One adorable little girl of about 8 wanted to see and know what I was making but was too shy to approach me. This was at a Starbucks in Mandalay Bay hotel and while she went to the counter for something, her grandmother approached me and we visited for a minute, when the girl came back I showed her my work, she was happy :) I took a few pictures of it in progress.

Oh and this time I did the decreases correctly ;) I decided to go with the full mittens and got the first done pretty quickly.

I got started on the second but took my time since I knew I didn't have quite enough yarn to complete the second one and I didn't know where to find it in Vegas. It's Lamb's Pride Worsted. We did end up checking out one LYS in Vegas but they didn't have it. They did, however, have two YUMMY yarns! Ok, lots more than two, but two is what I came home with :D.

This stuff is awesome, I wish I could have afforded many many many more skeins, I LOVED every colorway!! I got two skeins of the Cantina which should be just enough to do my very first shawl. I don't know when I will get to it but it will be cast on soon :)

This is super nice as well. I wish I had gotten more skeins, I want to make a baby blanket out of it. I think I am going to go with a stuffed rabbit though, I've seen a few patterns for them that I really like. This yarn just screams "BABY" something though. We'll see. :)

So when I got home I went to The Stitch Niche here in Lexington and picked up another skein of the Lamb's Pride. I finished the second mitten, put it on....and realized I had stopped one pattern repeat too soon and the mitten was too short. I carefully ripped back and tried to pick up stitches, something I am very sucky at on easy projects on straight needles, in the round and trying to deal with decreases and yarn overs, it was a lost cause. I ripped it back to the cuff where I was able to pick up the stitches, rolled my yarn back up and put it away for a while. I will get it back out and finish it soon so I can send it up.

Meanwhile I started on a "brainless knitting" project to take to knit nights with me, knitting in the car and knitting in public. It's a baby blanket and hopefully I will eventually have a baby to wrap up in it. I am using Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in cream, pink, green and purple. It's a simple pattern, I am going to write up the pattern (my first!) and post it when I am done.

I also started a hat for my cousin's 12yr old son. It's in his school colors, I hope he likes it!

Slippers and more

I mentioned mom's slippers in yesterday's post. I haven't yet felted them and, yes, there is a reason. I am working on another project that I would like to felt at the same time so am holding off. As soon as I get off the computer it should only take me an hour or two to finish the other project, then on to felting!

Anyways, I took pictures of the slippers pre-felting. Warning - my camera skills suck. If I were rich I would hire myself a personal photographer to follow me around all the time and take pictures whenever I want, I am that bad with a camera. Ah well. Sorry.

And the buttons...

I gave up on the blanket I had started the other night. I just wasn't impressed with how it was turning out. So I ripped it this morning. Last night I wound up my last skein of my FAVORITE yarn, Malabrigo Kaleidos.

I love this yarn and if I were stranded on an island with all of my needles and hooks but only one kind of yarn this would be it. I have gone through many skeins, made projects such as a calorimetry and fingerless glove set for my sister and an octopus for my niece.

So I broke out the swift last night and wound up my last skein of kaliedos into a big pretty ball while we started watching Black Swan. Then I sat there looking at it, trying to decide what to make. My needle selection really isn't very good and I am always struggling to decide what to make with my limited choices. I knit in the round a lot but only have a couple of sizes of dpn's and only a couple of sets of tips for my Harmony interchangeables. Compounding the problem was the fact that I had mislocated my little tool to change the tips on said interchangeables and, of course, everything I came up with to make used a different size tip (not surprising since the 13 tips were on the cable).

I finally decided to start on a project that I have been mulling over for, well, a few years. Basically since not long after I first started knitting. I was in this little upscale children's store and they had a lot of knitted items. Not hand knitted, but still had me looking at things and saying "with a little more practice I could make that". Then I found it. A knitted mobile. It had the cutest little knitted...things...hanging. I don't remember now what they even were, maybe moons and stars? It's been too long and I have a memory like a sieve. Whatever, I knew then and there that someday I wanted to make a mobile. Why has it taken me 3 years? Who knows but I finally decided last night that this kaleidos is to be my mobile. I know it's going to have fish, I don't know yet if it will be all fish or fish and something else, but the first fish is almost done! I'll take pictures later.

Oh and, of course, about 14 rows into side one of the first fish, I remembered where my tool to change the tips was. Ah well lol.

Welcome!

Hi there and thanks for checking out my blog! I have another blog, Greenfoley, but it's kind of a hodgepodge of all of my interests and I wanted to start keeping things a bit more organized. Thus, Greenfoley Knits is born. This will be my knitting blog to keep everyone up to date on my knitting and, hopefully, keep me a little more organized and on track with it as well. Occasionally I have items for sale and will list those on here too.

What am I working on now? Well, I just finished knitting a pair of slippers for my mom but they still need to be felted and assembled. Not fully assembled, they are mostly assembled before felting but there is a strap and a button to be sewed on each slipper. If you are interested, here is the pattern on Ravelry, they are super cute and very easy! Well, to knit, we shall see how well I can felt them, thus far I have not had too much success in felting. Thanks to advice from friends I think I have pinpointed the problem to a water temperature issue, so we'll see. I need to go ahead and do them though, they are for mom for her birthday and that's tomorrow!! Ok, so we aren't actually celebrating until Sunday, but still, two days...

I also made her a simple little cup cozy, since her weakness is Starbucks, in the same yarn I made her slippers with - the slippers are two strands of orange Cascade 220 Quatro and one strand of orange Cascade 220 for the soles and two strands of the orange Quatro for the top and sides, one strand of orange and one strand of Quatro for the strap, the cup cozy I used just one strand of the Quatro.

I do have a cotton washcloth on the sticks (also for mom, yes I knit for her quite a bit lol) that I really should get finished. Not hard but I battle my ADD on some projects and that's one of them.

Lastly I started a blanket last night but I'm not sure about it. I'm running 3 strands of Caron Simply Soft, one in black, one purple and one white and on size 13 needles. It's a diagonal, basically a super sized version of a basic washcloth pattern that is one of my favorites. Just cast on 4, knit across for the first row, from then on just knit 2, yarn over and knit across until you feel it's big enough, do a couple of rows of knit 1, k2tog, YO and knit across. Then start decreasing by knit 1, k2tog, YO, k2tog and knit across until you are back down to 4 stitches, bind of and you are done! I love it as a washcloth pattern (mainly because I have a hard time making squares otherwise - I have a large collection of rectangle washcloths lol) but am not sure how I'm liking how it's turning out as a blanket so far. I think it's the colors together, they are nice but it's busy and boring all at the same time.

I am trying to decide what to knit next and also what to take with me when I go to Vegas in two weeks. I am a spur of the moment knitter and as such I usually end up with all of my needles and hooks along with a large selection of yarn in my knitting bag, never knowing what I am going to be in the mood to work on. I am hoping this blog will help me out by helping me talk out what I would like to work on and maybe be a little more organized. I tend to have a large list of things I would like to make and none of them get done because I'm always working on something else.

So that's it for now, if you would like to know more about me, you can find me on Facebook, Ravelry, Twitter and my webpage. Happy knitting!