Another late post and other things

Comments make me all warm and fuzzy. Thank you to those of you who leave me comments here on my blog. :-)

I miss all of the wonderful ladies I knit with in Cali, and I still don't have any pictures from any of the woderful going away parties they had for me, but I do have a picture of the lovely cloths I was given as going away presents. I don't need them to do dishes right now, my mom has plenty of her own, so I am going to put them all in the bathroom to use in the shower. :-) I know they'll look so pretty all rolled up and sitting on the little metal shelf in the bathroom. :-) And everyday I can think about the wonderful people who took time to make me a little something to take with me.

I tried to take a picture of the stitch markers Della made me, but they are so small and delicate that they are hard to focus on and the pictures all came out blurry, so I will have to try again later.

Once again, if you have pictures of any of my going away parties, please, please e-mail them to me, I really want to have them.

I gotta go to bed now, my eyes are crossing.

Gift Set For Mark / Knitting in the Truck

I learned something vitally important on the drive from LA to Tulsa at the beginning of the month. I learned that, as long as I don't look at it, I can indeed knit in the car! Awesome! And I so took advantage of that this past weekend on the 13 hour drive to Chicago / South Bend and the 13 hour drive back. This is the stuff I sent Mark. Its a soap sack with an all natural Hemp soap already inside and a set of 6 coasters. I made 4 of the coaster during this drive and I examined them closely after arriving home. No mistakes that I could find! Which is especially good because I knit two of the in the dark (after sunset) so even if I had wanted to look down, I couldn't.

Here are the 6 coasters all laid out so they are easier to see. The granny and the nubbins are the two I already had done before the trip.

This is a close up of the coaster I made using the lionbrand dishcloth pattern that is just a simple 4 row repeat.

This is just a basic seed stitch coaster

And the Granny. I have picture of all of them, but I am in a big hurry because I should already be leaving for work at the PAC and my hair is still wet and I have no make-up on, but since I got a text yesterday that he had finally received all of this in the mail, I wanted to go ahead and post. :-) I thought about it last night, but I was just too tired.

If you take a good look at the OTN section of the side bar you will notice I completed 2 big projects this weekend. Yay! I still haven't tucked all the ends in, but I will. OK, off to work now!

Better Late Than Never, August Exchanging

I've waited so long to post the pictures because I wanted to post them all together and some of them were still on my camera and now that I finally have it all here, I'm just too tired to write much. This is the exchange package I received from Michele through the knitdishcloths group. I love the sweet puppy notepad. I mean really, look at those little faces! I like the dolphin cloth and tea as well. I drink a lot of tea, especially after it cools down
Here's the stuff I sent Michele. Nothing big, just cutesy little stuff, but I think she liked it all. I read that she loved yellow and green, so between the cloth and the slippers I figured I had a good thing going.

I just love this pattern. Its so pretty and fun to knit. I need to make myself one of these. I had excatly enough yarn when making this cloth. It was the second cloth I'd made from that particular Super Skein of Sugar and Cream, and I seriously had maybe a yard leftover when I finished binding off. I was sooooo nervous there towards the end.

So, anyway, I think exchanging in August all went well and I had fun. Pretty soon I should be able to post about exchainging in September. I have the cloth from my knitdishcloths partner and I have mailed hers to her. I know my tea time knitters partner got her exchange package and I know mine is in the mail on its way here. I'm soooo excited!

Ok, to bed. Seriously.

Speed Stix

So yesterday I started my first adventure knitting with size 50 needles. Or, as Lionbrand calls them, Speed Stix. I am using one of their patterns, but I don't want to say more than that as this is to be a gift and I wouldn't want to spoil the suprise. All I want to say is that holding the size 50 needles made my hands hurt far more than knitting with teeny weenie size 1 needles. I think I worked on them for about 2 hours and then I seriously had to stop. The results look great though, so I think its worth it. I will just only work on this particular project for an hour or two at a time and always have another project around to pick up when stretch my hands round the ginormous needles starts to get painful. I do think that if you have bigger hands than mine that it would be much easier, the only part that hurts is that I have to literally stretch my hands to hold the needles. And the first row on the big fatties is really akward but totally do-able.

I'm supposed to be helping my grandma move, so ciao!

That Hot Pink Jolly Roger

I had to wait to post about it until after I gave it to Miss Becca, and since I gave it to her the week I was frantically packing to move, the post just got put off. I found this free Jolly Roger dishcloth pattern on-line and decided it would be the center piece to Becca's birthday present, and I really think she liked it. It knit up very fast. I think I know a few more people who need Jolly Roger washcloths. I didn't have time to block it before I took the picture, but I think the design is easy to see none the less. Here the washcloth is hanging out with its fellow present items getting ready to be wrapped in tissue paper and arranged in a cute little bag. The socks say Rock Princess on them and there are four pairs, each different. And who can resist raspberry sorbet lotion and glitter gel?

In other news I have started the baby blanket that I spent all summer meaning to start and its working up very quickly. Its really really pretty and I hope the girl I'm making it for likes it. I have also decided to make the adorable baby hat pattern that was this fridays pattern of the week in the Stitch N Bitch calendar for two other girlies I know who are pregnant. Thats all I want to say on the baby gift subject, in case any of them ever look at this blog. But, as always, I will post pictures after the items have been gifted. :-)

I need to make the cloths I have picked out for my two different september exchange partners. The move put me really far behind. I already got the cloth from my KnitDishCloths partner and its beautiful. I'll post a picture of the whole package later. Gotta go knit!

Back in Tulsa, but missing Cali

Because I miss everyone so ridiculously much I can't even say, I'm going to post about the dishcloths I gave Cheryl, my super wonderful manacurist, the last time she did my nails before I left. I'll post about the trip later, cause I did knit on the road once I realized that if I can knit without looking it won't make me motion sick. And I only dropped 1 stitch the entire time! But more about that later, with pictures of what I made.

This first one is a free pattern called "May you find peace in your heart" and I think it came out beautifully! Cheryl loves peace signs and I had already given her the regular one, so I thought this one would make a nice addition to her dishcloth collection.

Next we have the Monthly Dishcloth Knitalong mid-month KAL. Between the cables and the varigated yarn it is a bit busy, but I think Cheryl liked it and I love cabling, so it was really fun to make. And the bernat organic cotton is super soft. I think I would recommend it for face cloths.

And last, but not least, I whipped up a cute little soap sack to match all of Cheryl's other stuff. I like soap sacks. They are fast and fun. Especially this little drop stitch pattern.

So here's the whole present having a group photo. Aren't they cute together?

While I was in Cheryl's beautiful home, I decided that all of the dishcloths that I had made her should have a photo shoot, with the gorgeous kitchen as the background. The one hanging from the faucet is actually excatly where I found it when I walked into the house, still damp from being used. Its the first peace sign cloth I made her. The only cloth that missed the photo shoot was the face cloth I made from the bernat organic cotton that was the little boxes pattern. I didn't want to make her dig it out of the bathroom.

And if you look carefully under the pile of dishcloths, on the counter you'll see a dishdrain I crocheted a few years ago for Cheryl. :-) I love that she uses it and I am glad I picked a rich cream color that compliments her kitchen well. I made my mother one and she uses it all the time. Cheryl's is in better shape because she has the rack above it. My mom puts dishes straight on hers so its getting a little worn and she may need a new one soon.

One last group photo. Six dishcloths, chillin' by the sink. Its so nice when you go to someone's house and see them using the things you made for them. :-) Those people tend to continue getting things, more than the people who don't use things (like the guys that think knitted things are too nice to use so they just look at them).

I am supposed to be going to bed. I promise I will post pictures of the jolly roger cloth and other things I was working on as I was leaving Cali and about the trip back. And I want someone to send me pictures of the going away party(s) so I can post those and ramble on about that too. G'night!