Finished Project!

I finished my first baby blanket! Yes, there are some flaws and they are noticeable, but overall I'm pretty happy with it. I hope Matt and Abbey can overlook the flaws and still see that a lot of love went into making the blanket.

My next knitting project is for my hubby and me. I'm making an afghan with the colors of our living room in it: browns, golds, blues and some purples and greens. The colors don't show up as well on the camera, but that is what is in these skeins. I'm using these huge knitting needles that I mentioned in an earlier post. They are size 50 and are called Speed Stix. The afghan comes from the booklet of speed stix projects. It will be a basket weave pattern. You use 4 strands of yarn at once, and it will take 8 skeins. I managed to get to JoAnn when they were having a 2 for 1 sale on this particular yarn that was called for! I already had 3 skeins, so needed 5 more. I got those this morning and have already started.

Of course, the book says the afghan takes only 6 hours. I don't have 6 uninterrupted hours to spend on it, but I should get it done within the next day or two. I have a few more scarves to knit for Christmas presents, and maybe another afghan as a present. We'll see how fast these speed stix really are. It was a challenge at first to: a) work with such large needles and b) to hold 4 strands at once. Hubby's invention he made for me made that much easier! I have 4 large spools on a holder. The spools all rotate together and each spool holds 1 skein of yarn. It's perfect!

Well, back to work. I wanted to show off my little baby blanket. Now that I've made one, I may get them another one made before I have to send the package. My zine should be wrapped up by the end of the week and ready to mail. Stay tuned for completed pages of that project!

What I've Been Working On

I haven't posted to the blog for a while because I've been busy with these! The top photo is the beginning of a baby blanket I am knitting. My nephew, Matthew and his wife, Abbey are expecting their first child in February. I don't know the sex of the child, so I thought I'd go with yellow. This is my first blanket and there are a few errors, but I'm sure they won't mind. I'm finally getting the hang of it. It's one of those projects where you knit with two strands of yarn throughout. I really like it and hope they will, too.

The rest of the photos are Christmas presents. The pink fluffy one is for me! I love that yarn! It's called Haute Fur and it comes in such delicious colors. I'm going to make more for myself after I finish the rest of the presents. The middle scarf in the top row is a ribbon yarn called Beguile from Yarn Bee. I love it, too, but it was a challenge to work with.

I also bought the knitting needles called Speed Stix. They are size 50 and they come with a book full of projects that you can complete fast. One thing I want to make for my hubby is an afghan for watching football this fall. Our basement is finished, but it gets a little chilly down there. So, the book had a couple of afghans that I think are manageable by Christmas.

On top of this, I've been neglecting my zine. It has to get finished and mailed. I have all the pages designed and a mock up ready. I just need to print out ten copies of each and assemble. I also ran out of color cartridge AGAIN! So, back to work. Also, hubby built me the coolest little contraption for knitting with huge balls of three or more strands at once. I'll post pictures of that soon.