Crafting up date

To say that it has been cold here lately is a bit of an understatement. Last night when we left the school to head home it was so cold the seats on the van were stiff. Paulina’s comment the other day was to question why anyone would ever live in this area and have leather seats in a vehicle. In the summer you stick to them because it is so hot and in the winter they would be so cold it would give you….well I don’t think I will finish that in polite company. Ha!!

I need to refer you back to the post called “Brrr!” I have added a picture to it. I took a picture of the two books that I purchased on Saturday, plus the one that I already own. It took me a fairly long time to sort through the books on the shelf on Saturday because I wanted one that would teach me stitches not give me patterns that made no sense. So far those two on the left side of the photo seem to be working out pretty well. The one on the right is also good as it covers the very basics and has a few neat patterns. I tried one of them this week. I have started getting into the idea of doing ribbed knitting. I love its texture. Here is what I did.

Ribbed headband.

This is a two stitch rib. Cast on 72 and work the rib for 16 rows. I used size 8 needles, noticed today that it called for 10. No wonder. My 10′s were all tied up with other projects. Have to watch that in the future. Anyway, here is what it ended up to look like when it was finished. Oh yes the thread was a weird thing. I took just regular polyester yarn and there is some really thin old sparkly thread, and I used them at the same time. I am planning to do that with a few other projects. It looks pretty, but may be part of the tightness. I didn’t use the thin thread on the binding off in the second try.

Here is what it looked like and what it was supposed to look like.

A close up when on.

Side view of headband.

I just have one question. If anyone knows anything about how to do a better job of binding off, please let me know. I had to redo the binding off on this because it was way too tight. I am also noticing this on other projects. I tried to do it fairly loosely, but it didn’t help much. Please give me any advice you have.

Some leggings that I am trying to finish up. One is joined, the other is flat.

The photo above is sideways compared to what I wanted it to be. Anyway, this was a made up pattern, and again I found the binding off to have made it really hard to put the legging on.

A closer look, but sort of too close as it looks washed out. I used seed stitch and a modified basket weave.

Also a few things I need to start, or finish as the case may be are some granny squares. I did these up several years ago as the beginnings of hot pads. I had put a few together at one time, but there are only so many hot pads that a person can use. Since I signed up for a ravelry deal to turn in granny squares as a donation thing, I was thinking of squaring these out and sending them. Just a thought. I may actually be able to sign off on finishing a few things.

Stars to convert to granny squares.

This is a walking ripple stitch. I am sort of excited about learning this. I am putting it in my stack of blocks that I plan to use to put a quilt together. Whenever that gets finished. Ha!!

And finally the final photo for the day is of Paulina’s square. She was so bored on Sunday that she was willing to learn how to knit. I have been totally surprised that she is actually willing to do this. Anyway, I am fairly pleased with what she has done so far. It is just the garter stitch.

 

Paulina’s knitting piece.

 

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