Dishcloth Wraps

Since I used to be a MAJOR Paint Shop Pro fan I decided to do some messing around with that program tonight. First thing I did was update my header a bit. (Finally ditched the plain text - YAY!) Second, I made a handful of dishcloth wraps. Sample below...

Other than that, I see I have some picture taking to do. I have the Monthly Knit Along September Mid-Month cloth done (first time with cables!) and the October cloth almost finished. I also did a doll dress for my Sunday School baby and a pair of slippers for Hunter. Trick now might be FINDING the slippers. :)

Long Weekend = Knitting!

Enjoyed a nice long weekend. Wound up going camping Saturday through Monday with the kids. Mind you, we stayed with my parents and my Aunt so this was not camping so much as staying at a home away from home! They both have permanent campers in a beautiful campground in Northeast Iowa.

Did a dishcloth for my sister this weekend and finished up my Exchange cloth for my partner (Kim). Sent the box out Tuesday morning. I think that's the fastest I've ever gotten one out! :)

Went to the doctor last night and they switched splints. My finger still has a funky bend to it and still hurts like mad. Hopefully this will help!

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!

Another KAL Done!

Just finished the May KAL for the Monthly KAL group. I thought this was a very pretty cloth! (And just a few days after my wedding anniversary).

Also did another slip stich cloth - this time in Hawkeye/Starmont colors. Was a fun cloth to do but I might try adding a border of some sort next time. Either that or it's finally time to learn to crochet borders. :)

Webshots and a Detailed Pic

Finally got some of my knitting pictures uploaded to Webshots. While I realize a lot of knitters use Flickr, I absolutely HATE the fact that free accounts are limited to three albums. Of course with Webshots I'm not wild about not being able to download pictures without installing their software. Guess there is good and bad in everything...

Anyway! Off to other news...made a second light box last night and this one is MUCH better than the first. I took a few test shots of my latest KAL and was very impressed with the close-up detail. Here's a sample shot.

I can see this being a fun little hobby as well!

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).

Plugging Along

I have several things on the needles (much to Toby's dismay!) My knitting has pretty much taken over one entire corner of the living room. My goal over the coming weekend is to organize it all before the Easter Bunny comes. :)

Here's the March Mid-Month KAL in progress.

I have been messing around with making stitch markers. I rarely use them but I thought they looked like fun to make. I had no idea what kind of beads to get, so I just picked up a couple of random packages. I tell ya what - these things are addicting! They are also harder than heck to get a decent picture of as they tend to swing and sway.

And talk about addicting - I've started knitting Tribbles. I'll post pics of those later. :)

Emily's volleyball is over for this year. I spent quite a few Sundays knitting between games. They didn't win their tourney last week, but I think they had a great season and a lot of fun. It's been amazing to watch their growth throughout the year. They look like a whole new team! (Emily is number 99.)

Ladies Night this Thursday! My two sisters, my best friend and I are going to Galena, IL to stay overnight. We have rented what is called a "cottage". (Hopefully it's as nice as it sounds!) Two bedrooms, fireplace, DVD player and TV, outside hot tub, etc. Friday will be spent walking though the shops. I cannot WAIT!

Other than that, we are still battling various stages of the flu. Hunter has been down since Friday night. I think he's on the upswing now but he's sure not been feeling good. I can't wait for the weather to improve. Maybe then we can get rid of all of this gunk!

Busy Busy! and a lost camera...

Finally getting around to posting some pictures! My daughter had taken my camera over the weekend (without permission!) so I wasn't able to take any pictures.

Finished my first (of 4) placemats and I absolutely love how it turned out. I didn't put the fringe on the ends though - I actually tried a couple and I really didn't like the look so I took them back off.

I also made a knitting bag for myself over the weekend. I knew what I wanted but couldn't find anything quite like it. I bought a bunch of remnants at Wal-Mart a while back and one of those worked out perfectly. It has 4 outer pockets for yarn, a velcro closure and handles to lug it around. It's small enough to take with me to volleyball games (always important!) but big enough to hold a couple of projects.

Completed Diagonal Ripple Cloth

And my proud moment - when I started knitting I thought the Ballband Cloth was the coolest looking thing but the pattern scared the bejeepers out of me. Two years later and the pattern looked a LOT easier. Here's one in progress.

My current project of sorts is making dishcloths for camping. Everyone in my family seems to really like the cloths and we all camp so....it just seems the thing to do! :)

2 Done, 1 Going....

February Love2KnitDishcloths KAL - in progress...

Rachel's Dishcloth - used up a few scraps of yarn

Another of the Monthly Dishcloth KAL cloths. I wanted to try this pattern with a variegated yarn and a solid. I really like how it turned out! This is actually the second one I did - gave the first away before I took a picture of it. :)

Keep on keeping on....

Nothing finished today but I've got quite a few things going! Started another KAL this morning - YAY! Have a couple of other dishcloths on the needles, including a No Need Pattern cloth and a 2nd of the February Mid-Month KAL (LOVE this pattern!)

And now for the big news...I finally started an afghan! As much as I love knitting, I thought I should finally jump in and try something a little bigger. Now don't get me wrong...I still LOVE my dishcloths...but I thought it was time for something else. What absolutely floors me is it takes me around 15 whole minutes to do ONE ROW! I can have a good start on a dishcloth in 15 minutes! Totally different mindset I guess. :)

Totally unrelated side note - Idol tonight! Didn't the David's ROCK tonight? Last week I completely called the two guys that were going home. This week I can't even hazard a guess. Jason Y. was a little weak tonight but he's the only one that really stood out. I didn't think that Micheal Johns was as good as he has been. And phew - David Cook looked HOT tonight!

February KAL 2

Finished this and finally got pictures taken this morning. The first one shows the "window" detail better but the second one shows the colors better. Not overly wild about the colors together. Funny how they looked so much better in my yarn basket than they do now. :)

This was a fun cloth to make though. In fact, I did another one today while I was at my daughter's volleyball game. Did variegated (shades of green and ivory) and green. It turned out really cool. No pictures though as I already gave it away.

Just Finished!

Here's my finished cloth from the Another Dishcloth Group.



I suppose if I would have been thinking, I would have used a more "Valentiney" color but I like it nonetheless.





An older cloth I did...



This is the Emily pattern from Marilyn's Knitting Heaven. I made it for Emily of course! I was pleased with the overall design but next time will do a knitted border. You can do either a knit or a crochet and I used the crochet border pattern. As you can see, I have yet to add it. Large part of the problem is I know absolutely nothing about crocheting. I'll have to make a call to good old Mom to fix this one!