Yarn Art Apple Tree

I decided to do my first piece of painting with yarn today.  I have all this yarn and I thought it would be a fun way to use up some scraps. After debating for hours on the right glue, I decided to just use plain old white school glue.  Next time I might use nicer glue but it worked ok for a first piece.  I glued the yarn on some acrylic painting paper that I previously ruined with a not so great painting. :) So fun!

Babies

I seems like everyone around me is having a baby these days. My sister had a baby girl in January, three people in my department are pregnant at work, and one of my best friends, k, is having a baby in October. K is a knitter too and this is the first time I get to knit baby things for a knitter's baby, so I went all out a made a baby set with a sweater, hat, and booties.  She doesn't want to know the sex of the baby until it is born, so I tried to make it unisex.

The yarn is Malabrigo Rios, which I am in love with. The color is "Ravelry Red." The sweater pattern is from Pickles and can be found here.  The hat uses "Perfect fit baby hat" pattern by Heidi Mikitish and can be found here.  The booties are "Simple seamless baby botties" with pattern found on the "Blog of Joy" here.

Purple Crew Neck Sweater

This is my newest sweater that I made using the app "Raglanify." It is a nice app where you plug in your measurements and it will give you the pattern for a custom fit sweater with a few choices of neckline.  I made the crew neck.  The pattern was great, but I had some issues with my neckline.
Here is the first attempt:

Pretty wonky. I did some research and it looks like I should have planned ahead because some of the solutions would only work if I started the whole thing again, such as putting the neck stitches on a stitch holder instead of binding them off.
I also looked into maybe adding some neck shaping before starting the rib but I couldn't quite figure out how to do that.  What I ended up doing was taking out the neckline and picking up fewer stitches.  I also picked up some stitches deeper into the sweater than just the very edge to make it more round and less holes.  Here is what it looks like now:

Not perfect, but better than before. Overall, I am satisfied with my first crew neck raglan sweater.

New Year, New Niece

It's a new year and my newest niece was just born on Jan 3rd.  Unfortunately, I could not be there, but I left some knitted gifts for her.  Here is the matching blanket and hat set I made for her. You can find the pattern for the blanket and the hat on ravelry.

Space Invaders!

An awesome space invader hat I made.  Very fun knit.  You can find the pattern on Ravelry here.

October

It is October and so I made some small pumpkin hats for my 2 young nephews.  The pattern is adapted from a Ravelry pattern and can be found here.  

First Knit Sweater

I finally finished my first ever knit sweater!  I used Vanna's choice yarn in linen and the pattern Emerald from Ravelry.  I am so happy with it even though I accidentally grafted one underarm backwards.

3KCBWDAY7 The Hat Tree

3KCBWDAY7 The last day! Today's topic: "Are you a knitter or a crocheter, or are you a bit of both?" I am definitely a bit of both.  I started out knitting but soon learned to crochet as well because knitting a blanket takes a LONG time!  Nowadays I knit and crochet fairly equally.
The book Caps for Sale inspired today's picture.  In the book a man's hats all end up in a tree.  Here is my hat tree with half crochet and half knit hats:

3KCBWDAY6 Sweater Skills

3KCBWDAY6 Today's topic is "improving your skillset."  I have only been knitting and crocheting 2 1/2 years now so I still have a lot of improving to do.  I try to push my skills by choosing projects that will make me learn new stitches and other techniques.  I crocheted my first sweater about a year ago and now my goal is to knit my first sweater.  I picked a fairly easy looking pattern from lion brand yarn and am using Vanna's Choice yarn in linen.

Here is the crochet sweater (pattern from Stitch 'n Bitch: The Knitter's Crochet: The Happy Hooker):

Here is the start of my first knit sweater:

3KCBWDAY5 Video Blog

3KCBWDAY5 Today is experimental blogging day for blog week.  I procrastinated a bit on this one.  I have never made a video before so here is my first attempt.  I have been knitting amigurami apples lately so here is a time lapse video of me making one.  You can find the pattern here.

3KCBWDAY4 Knitting and Crocheting Year Round

3KCBWDAY4 Todays topic is: "How does your local seasonal weather affect your craft?"
I live in a small town in Kentucky and we get four distinct seasons most years.  It is spring now and everything is in bloom but this month has been a bit colder than normal.  I find that my knit and crochet projects vary only slightly based on the season.  I am currently knitting a warm hat and am working on my first sweater despite the fact that winter has passed.  My Burberry Inspired cowl was perfect for yesterday's cool spring weather:

You can find the pattern here.

3KCBWDAY3 Inspiration

3KCBWDAY3 Day 3 is about something or someone who inspires your craft.  Today my inspiration comes from my boyfriend and his 4 new buttonquail.  He has been working on some cute bird houses for them and has finished his first one.  He took a couple of pics of my crochet penguin visiting The Condor Club for me. The pattern for the penguin can be found here. 

3KCBWDAY2 Photography Challenge: Mary Tyler Moore

3KCBWDAY2 It's day 2 of blog week. The assignment today is to tell a story or show a scene in a photograph.  I have been wanting to post my Mary Tyler Moore inspired knit hat for a while.  Blog week has inspired me to find a more creative way to show a picture of it.
So here it is... Mary Tyler Moore:

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week Day 1: Color 3KCBWDAY1

3KCBWDAY1
     Thanks to Eskimimi Makes blog for hosting knitting and crochet blog week.  This is the 3rd annual knitting and crochet blog week and my first time to participate in anything like this.  Hopefully I can make it the whole week!  Today is about color.  Sometimes I wish my yarn matched a bit more.  I tend to just pick colors I like when I am picking out yarn and not always thinking about projects.  Therefore my yarn does not always go together and is a bit random.
     Recently my boyfriend found me the perfect yarn storage at Lowe's to display my stash in my living room.

You can find the storage containers here.  I got 3 of them and lined them up.

Here is my latest color work project.  It has gotten too big to take with me so I don't work on it too much.  The pattern is from one of my favorite blogs, Attic24.  I hope to have it done by winter.

Weekend Project- Cacti

A trio of cacti I made this weekend.  Made up my own pattern.  Used simple texture stitch for the large, k2p2 rib for medium, and seed stitch for the little one "stubby nubby."

First attempt at Fair Isle

This was my first attempt at fair isle.  I had some trouble keeping even tension throughout the hat but am still happy with the result.  The pattern can be found here.

Winter is here!

So it is definitely winter now.  It is a great time for knitting!  I love these leg warmers and they are super easy to make: Cast on 45 stitches on US size 8 needles.  k1p1 for 8 rounds.  Then k4p1 until it is long enough and cast off.  I added some green stripes of 5 rows each.

Here are some warm cozy worsted weight wool socks for hanging around the house.  You can find the pattern here.  

First Cabled hat

I recently joined a knitting group that meets at the library.  It is really nice finding other knitters in a small town!  One of the other knitters showed me how easy cables can be and inspired me to make this cabled hat for my friend's birthday.  So here is my first cabled hat!! (Pattern can be found here)

Fingerless Gloves

Here are some fingerless gloves I made on the plane to Europe.  This is a great project to take with you while traveling.  It is small and pretty easy even for a beginner like me.  You can find the pattern here.

Red Beret

Red beret I made for my first trip to Paris, France!

Pattern is from ravelry. Here is a link.