A recent FO and some WIPs

I recently finished a set of sweater ornaments that my Aunt asked for and decided to use that to get back into posting about my knitting. I followed two patterns to make them up. I used the Minutia and Minutia '08 patterns from berroco. I love any project that allows you to use bits of yarn left over from other projects. All that is left for these is for me to make the hangers that go with them.

On too the WIPs I recently purchased the Tidings of Joy Kit

from knitpicks.com for the sole purpose to really make the Popcorn and cranberry garland. It is slow tedious work... anything that is knit in the round on Size 2 needles and starts with 4 stitches I guess would be.... slow going but I'm loving how it looks. Another knitpicks kit I recently purchased was the Design your first sweater I went with the red and white, I really like this pattern kit because it allows you the option to choose the bottom, the cuffs, the sleeve style and collar style. Plus it is knitted in the round and that means no Seaming!!! I am making pretty good progress on this one and hope to have it finished in the next couple of weeks.

A knitting contest

I once again can't imagine how long it has been since I last blogged. But to get back into the whole blogging thing... I decided I need to share with all of you about this great contest I recently read about. It is for a chance to win a set of KnitPicks new Zephyr needles. You can get all the details at: http://thingsmomslike.com/2009/07/30/knitpicks-zephyr-knitting-needle-set-giveaway-821/comment-page-9/#comment-8552. So go ahead and why not give it a try.

My First Drop Spindle Experience

I have taken the next step. I have now spun some yarn. I have always been amazed at people that make their own yarn and I am even more amazed now that I have tried the whole drop spindle thing. I recently purchased a drop spindle and some roving and figured I would be able to figure out how to do this craft.

So here are photos of the experience:

Here is the roving all laid out. I wonderered how much yarn I would get. I guess it depends on how thick you make the yarn.

Well I removed a part of the roving attached it to the spindle and started spinning.... and spinning..... and spinning.

After some trial and error I actually started to see progress. Yeah I was making yarn! Well as time passed the spindle began to get fuller and fuller. So I knew it was time to set the twist and hang to dry.

And after this I got a finished product.... a small ball of yarn. The thickness varies throughout the ball. But I've purchased yarn like that so I know it is okay.

Now onto what is left of the roving. This time the

process went much easier. Yes it still has its variations; but, I'm happy with what I've made. On this go around I put the yarn I made into a hank!

I guess know I'll have to think of something to make to work this into.

Knit Knack Blanket Squares!

Yeah! They are officially done. After much procrastination on my part; the squares are finished.

When I first signed up for this in May 2008. I thought no problem I'll be able to get 24 squares done in plenty of time for the deadline. But as the deadline approached I knew I wasn't going to make it. Luckily, it was extended till the end of January. Well here we are in February and I haven't mailed them out. But they will be all on their way to their new homes by the end of the week.

I hope everyone will enjoy the square I made. As you can see in the picture they are various patterns. I just couldn't decide on just one, and I didn't really want to get bored by doing just one design.

Now the next step will be waiting for all the squares to arrive. I have already received some... which makes me feel even worse that I haven't mailed any out. Once they arrive it will be interesting to see how long it takes me to put it all together.

A Glass Head and other knitting news

Well it is another year and I just past my 3rd year anniversary of knitting. I can't believe I've been knitting for 3 years. I am definitely happy with the progress I have made during this time. It is always enjoyable to look back on what you made in the beginning and seeing how you have improved. An example would have to be the teddy bears I've made, both were from the pattern used for The Mother Bear Project. The first one was made in about Sept. of 2006 and the

second was done in August of 2008.

In other knitting news I am working away on the blanket squares for a blanket exchange I am taking part of in the greatest ravelry group known as Knit Knack. I have procrastinated on making these squares and now with the deadline looming I have been knitting nothing but squares. I have until the end of the month and 12.5 more squares to go. Then the process of sending them all out. After that will come the process of me sewing the squares I receive together. I guess I should take some pictures of my squares...

Oh and now about the rest of the post title. A Glass Head. I just had to share that I am now the proud owner of a Pier 1 glass head. I have been looking for one of these for at least a year now and now I have one. I can't wait to make a cool hat to use this as a model. I guess I'll have to wait till those squares are done.

A post Christmas Post

I hope all had a happy holiday season.

This Christmas I made all of my gifts and was so happy that everything seemed to be well received.

Do we really not read?

Okay I saw this on a blog I read and I to have decided to post this. I'm just curious to see if it is really true.

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This one is originally from The Big Read. Apparently they reckon that most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here.

Instructions:
1. Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2. Underline those you intend to read. (In blogger you can use Ctrl. U to do this)
3. Italicize the books you LOVE.
4. Reprint this list so we can try and track down these people who've only read 6 and force books upon them.

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkein
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter Series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. 1984 - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Lousia M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbevilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulkes
18. Catcher in the Rye - J D Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisted - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner- Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold comfort Farm - Stellla Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curios Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stroker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Slyvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

I guess I'm doing pretty good 26 out of 100 that isn't too bad.