Finger Update

Well two weeks later and my finger doesn't look a whole lot different than it did the night I broke it. Because of this, I have to go back to the hospital tomorrow and have another x-ray done. Oh joy.

Finished up my Monthly KAL. I have a sister that is a new school teacher, so this cloth will go to her. Took a few pictures of it last night but none turned out particularly well so I will take some more in the morning. I always seem to have better luck with morning light. :)

Update - picture of my MKAL September cloth.

And stitchmarkers made from Tina's tutorial at Love2Knit Dishcloths. My camera was being somewhat of a booger and trying to focus on the background rather than the stitchmarkers. Might mess around with it a bit more tonight.

Pop-Up Camper Directions

Cotton Yarn - Solid Color (Peaches & Cream or Sugar 'n Cream or similar)

Size 7 needles or smaller

*I used a size 7 and my finished cloth is 10" x 10".

Cast on 51
Row 1 - knit across
Row 2 - knit across
Row 3 - knit across
Row 4 - knit across
Row 5 - k3, p45, k3
Row 6 - knit across
Row 7 - k3, p45, k3
Row 8 - knit across
Row 9 - k3, p45, k3
Row 10 - knit across
Row 11 - k3, p19, k2, p24, k3
Row 12 - knit across
Row 13 - k3, p18, k1, p2, k1, p13, k1, p9, k3
Row 14 - knit across
Row 15 - k3, p17, k1, p4, k1, p12, k1, p9, k3
Row 16 - knit across
Row 17 - k3, p17, k1, p4, k1, p12, k1, p9, k3
Row 18 - knit across
Row 19 - k3, p18, k1, p2, k1, p13, k1, p9, k3
Row 20 - knit across
Row 21 - k3, p15, k23, p7, k3
Row 22 - knit across
Row 23 - k3, p15, k1, p6, k1, p4, k1, p1, k1, p2, k4, p9, k3
Row 24 - knit across
Row 25 - k3, p15, k1, p6, k1, p4, k1, p1, k1, p2, k4, p9, k3
Row 26 - knit across
Row 27 - k3, p15, k1, p6, k1, p4, k1, p1, k1, p2, k4, p9, k3
Row 28 - knit across
Row 29 - k3, p15, k1, p6, k1, p4, k1, p1, k1, p3, k2, p10, k3
Row 30 - knit across
Row 31 - k3, p15, k1, p6, k1, p4, k1, p1, k1, p15, k3
Row 32 - knit across
Row 33 - k3, p5, k11, p6, k1, p4, k1, p1, k11, p5, k3
Row 34 - knit across
Row 35 - k3, p5, k1, p16, k1, p4, k1, p11, k1, p5, k3
Row 36 - knit across
Row 37 - k3, p5, k1, p1, k7, p1, k6, p1, k1, p4, k1, p3, k7, p1, k1, p5, k3
Row 38 - knit across
Row 39 - k3, p5, k1, p1, k1, p5, k1, p1, k1, p4, k1, p1, k6, p3, k1, p5, k1, p1, k1, p5, k3
Row 40 - knit across
Row 41 - k3, p5, k1, p1, k1, p5, k1, p1, k1, p4, k1, p1, k1, p4, k1, p3, k1, p5, k1, p1, k1, p5, k3
Row 42 - knit across
Row 43 - k3, p5, k1, p1, k1, p5, k1, p1, k1, p4, k1, p1, k1, p4, k1, p3, k1, p5, k1, p1, k1, p5, k3
Row 44 - knit across
Row 45 - k3, p5, k1, p1, k1, p5, k1, p1, k1, p4, k1, p1, k1, p4, k1, p3, k1, p5, k1, p1, k1, p5, k3
Row 46 - knit across
Row 47 - k3, p5, k1, p1, k2, p4, k1, p1, k1, p4, k1, p1, k1, p4, k1, p3, k1, p4, k2, p1, k1, p5, k3
Row 48 - knit across
Row 49 - k3, p5, k1, p3, k2, p2, k1, p1, k1, p4, k1, p1, k1, p4, k1, p3, k1, p2, k2, p3, k1, p5, k3
Row 50 - knit across
Row 51 - k3, p5, k3, p3, k3, p1, k1, p4, k1, p1, k1, p4, k1, p3, k3, p3, k3, p5, k3
Row 52 - knit across
Row 53 - k3, p8, k2, p3, k1, p1, k6, p1, k6, p3, k1, p3, k2, p8, k3
Row 54 - knit across
Row 55 - k3, p10, k2, p21, k2, p10, k3
Row 56 - knit across
Row 57 - k3, p12, k2, p17, k2, p12, k3
Row 58 - knit across
Row 59 - k3, p14, k2, p13, k2, p14, k3
Row 60 - knit across
Row 61 - k3, p15, k15, p15, k3
Row 62 - knit across
Row 63 - k3, p45, k3
Row 64 - knit across
Row 65 - k3, p45, k3
Row 66 - knit across
Row 67 - k3, p45, k3
Row 68 - knit across
Row 69 - knit across
Row 70 - knit across
Row 71 - knit across

Bind off. Weave in loose ends.

If you find any errors, please let me know.

©August 2008, Shannon Bachtell, All Rights Reserved

Pattern is designed and copyrighted by me. If you want to make these cloths and sell them, that's fine...just please do not sell my pattern or claim it as your own. Thanks! :)

Elvis KAL

I am trying to catch up with the Mid-Month KAL for the Rachel's Knitting Room group. It was a cast-on of 66 stitches! For some reason I am having a terrible brain freeze on the seed stitch. I think I have it all worked out now though. I talked myself in and out of things last night and finally said to heck with it and went to bed! Funny how you can do something so many times without problems then all of a sudden hit a snag. Sad part is the snag is 95% mental! No more staying up late to watch Olympics while knitting. Overload!

Mailed 3 cloths and a tribble to my best friend today. She told me she loves the cotton dishcloths and I was more than happy to share! She called tonight though and wondered about the tribble. She said she told her husband "it's either a scrubber or a hot pad." :) Been experimenting with knitting tulle along with the yarn but I think my tulle is too fine. Doesn't seem super scratchy anyway.

In other news, the kids are back in school! I have an 8th grader and a 4th grader this year. Funny they are both at the top of their respective groups. The 8th graders (Emily's class) are the head of the Middle School and the 4th graders (Hunter's class) are the big dogs in the Elementary. Hunter had homework already tonight and seemed to think it was a bit unjust. I'm just glad they are back in school! Maybe my house will stay a bit cleaner now. :)

All Caught Up AND My Own Creation!

I finally finally finally got all caught up with my Monthly KAL's! Just in time too because the next one starts tomorrow. :) I thought this one was fun - it was neat how the design was built from the top down. Unfortunately, I saw the finished project before I started mine, so I knew what it was going to be (I HATE that!); otherwise, I'm sure I would have been guessing the entire time!

And here is my very first design! The drawback - this is a BIG cloth! I'm quite proud of it though. I'm working on getting the directions typed up and will post them as soon as I'm done. I can only type up so many lines at a time or I start making mistakes. My family and I love to camp and we have a pop-up. I looked around and couldn't find a cloth so I decided to make one. Aunt Kathy did a wonderful tutorial on designing cloths so a lot of the credit goes to her.

And finally - here's a couple of pictures of the new puppy. The first one is Hunter and Jake. The second one is Cooper and Jake. Cooper continues to adjust to the new puppy and is actually doing much better. He seems to enjoy having someone to play with. :)

Finally!

I FINALLY got around to taking pictures of my cloths. I have one more to go (July) and I'll be all caught up with my KAL's. Between vacation, work, swim meets, and ball games the summer has absolutely FLOWN by!

June

June Mid-Month

July Mid-Month

August

In other news, we have a new addition to our family...a 7 week old black lab we have named Jake. It's much like having a toddler in the house - potty accidents, getting into everything, waking us up at night and so on! We are slowly adjusting. Our 2 year old chocolate lab still doesn't quite know what to think. It's usually a mixture of indifference and disgust with a few affectionate moments thrown in.

Finally Done!

Another KAL done - finally! As I've said, this one was a doozy for me. Funny thing is, once I got the kinks worked out, it was actually a fun, easy cloth to make. It's one I tagged as "favorite" in my pattern book so I will definitely be making it again!



Here's the Ballband cloth I did during our trip to my cousin's graduation. 3.5 hours, one way. Plenty of knitting time! :)

ARGH!

This month's Knit Along is absolutely kicking my rear! First time around, I was doing the yarn overs wrong so the pattern didn't look at ALL like it was supposed too. Now that I have THAT figured out, I seem to have a continuing problem with purling through the back loops. Seems like about every fourth row or so, I miss one and I wind up with one goofy stitch in the middle of the row. I think this is rapidly turning into my most frogged project ever!

Mistake in the top row.

Results from the wrong yarn over.

Correct way (I think!) front side.

Correct way (I think!) back side.

Another Placemat

Finished the mainly green placemat this morning and I have to say I am LOVING how these look! Makes me anxious to get the other two done. :)

Completely Caught Up!

I FINALLY am completely caught up on the Monthly Knit Dishcloth knit alongs! With the time I had to knit over the weekend and a few nights this week with nothing going on, I finally got all of my back knitting done. What an awesome feeling! :)

I am going to try to take another picture tomorrow morning. Orange does NOT photograph well. Related to that - my light box bit the dust over the weekend. Full house, two kids, big dog, rammy husband and precious little storage space meant the light box went on top of the piano. Unfortunately, there were also some books on top of the piano that went through the side of the light box. I was a little bummed but not terribly so. I wasn't haven't great luck taking pictures with it, just good luck. Maybe I'll try again another day. :)

Here's a slightly less orange'y orange. I think it shows the detail MUCH better than the other picture. Plus you don't need sunglasses to look at it!

Playing Catch-Up

Had some lovely time to knit this weekend - finally! Emily helped pick up the house Saturday so I had most of the afternoon and evening free to just play around. I decided to try to catch up on the KAL's that started before I joined the Monthly Dishcloth Group. I am trying to complete the challenge (making all 24 cloths for the year) and had two to finish. I completed the Diamonds on Lace cloth this morning. It's a very pretty cloth with a cool pattern.






Funny thing is, I joined the group the first part of February and I remember looking back at that cloth and the directions and thinking "I'll NEVER be able to make that!!!" I'm thrilled with how many new things I have learned in the last few months. I'm forever grateful to the members and owners of the various groups I belong to. :)

Mother's Day 2008 - Hunter and I went yesterday and bought some flowers for the front porch. That was my present. The kids and I went to Sunday School and church this morning and Toby made us brunch (Belgian waffles - yum!) Played a round of Garbage with Hunter and have been reading and knitting. No complaints here!

Round and Round

I finished my very first circular cloth last night thanks to a pattern from The Dishcloth Boutique. (I used the Cotton Dishcloth pattern) Once I got the hang of this, it was a very fun cloth to make and pretty quick too! This was also the first cloth I did that involved turning. It's so much fun to learn new stuff! I have to admit though, I frogged this cloth three times because I didn't think it looked quite right. Each time though it looked the same so I finally decided that must be the pattern...It was.

Happy knitting everyone!

April Mid-Month KAL

Finished my April Mid-Month KAL. I LOVE this pattern! I'm sure I will be making more of these in the future.

Also attempted a light box tonight. It turned out good but I made it a little on the small side. I think I will try another one tomorrow night. (I'm sure my husband will be thrilled to death).