WIP it Good!

I finally did it! I finished my daughter's hoodie!

She is the most patient child when it comes to getting things. I started this hoodie with the intention of gifting it to her for her birthday which was last October. Since that didn't work out, I was planning on gifting it to her for Christmas. Again, life kept me from working on it. Then I managed to finish all the pieces but needed to get a matching zipper. After a trip to various sewing notion stores with darling daughter in tow, we finally found a matching zipper!

Now that I had the zipper, it occured to me that I had not a clue on how to install it on a knit item! I can machine sew a zipper in minutes flat, but I couldn't machine sew this one. A wonderful lady on Ravelry gave me the method to sew a zipper to knitting and I could finally move forward. I sewed in the zipper and worked in all the yarn ends and finally my daughter got her hoodie last week!

She adores it and wears it everywhere! I didn't have a chance to wash it before giving it to her, but she did wash it and a wonderful plus, it got softer and cushier. The pattern Li'l Red Riding Hoodie came from the book Domiknitrix and was supposed to be done in wool. Since she is allergic to wool, the hoodie is made of Georga acrylic yarn, 2 strands held together throughout. It makes for a nice thick fabric that's soft and cuddly. Two other requests from my daughter were that I not add the sweatshirt style pockets and the elbow twisted stitch patches. I also lengthened the ribbing on the sleeves to accomodate her long arms. Otherwise, the pattern is true to form.

Early Birthday goodies!

Earlier this week, a friend dropped by to see how I was recovering from the bout of acute bronchitis I came down with several weeks back. She brought me these gorgeous flowers to cheer me up. I am quite amazed that after almost a week, they are still as gorgeous as the day she brought them.

Today was an absolutely lovely day. My darling husband who for once was relatively pain free from kidney stones decided to take me out to lunch and Walmart. Since my birthday is Tuesday, he told me to pick out a few things for myself that I wanted for my birthday. Knowing how small our budget is, I went for the things I can use over not so useful items.

First thing we did after we got off the transit bus was head over to A & W. An old favorite haunt of mine, hubby being Belgian had not been to one of these in his youth. I introduced him to A & W rootbeer not long after he'd landed in Canada, but only introduced him to the burgers and fries a few years ago. Thankfully he fell in love with the place just as much as I like it. So my birthday lunch was, of course, A & W!

Then on to Walmart where I picked up 2 bins to help store the growing stash. I have my daughter to thank for that since she found a store where she lives that was selling Bernat Solo for .99 cents a ball! She went to town and bought me enough to fill a bin! The second bin is for storing all the lovely yarn she finds at local secondhand stores where she lives. I also picked up 4 DVDs (on sale at 2 for $10) Rain Man, Dances with Wolves, Spiderman and The Princess Bride. Yes I know, girly movie but I like it and Jean Ferré, aka André the Giant, is in it. A WWF wrestler from a long time ago, and yes, I was a fan.

I also picked up, Just After Sunset by Stephen King, one of my favorite authors. The book is a compilation of recent short stories. I've always liked his short stories as they have always been a fast get to the point read as opposed to his books which sometimes tend to drag on a bit too much, as if he's not sure how to bring the story to an end. I know, Stephen King fans are beating at the door, but I am only being honest in my view of his writing. This doesn't by any means say that I don't like his novels. On the contrary, I have read every one of them as well as some of his biographical works. One of my all time favorite novels is The Stand. His apocaliptic view of north american society, man as a race, the battle between good and evil is a must read. I have read both versions, the 1978 original and the 1991 re-release which is an unabridged rewrite of the original since he updated the scenario, reinserted approximately 400 pages that had been cut in the original and changed the setting to 1990 from 1980.

I headed over to the yarn department (one side of a short aisle) Didn't see anything that excited my knitting or crochet mojo and moved on to the craft aisles to check out the beads. Last time I was at that particular Walmart, they had E-beads, not a lot but maybe 10 or so colors and styles. This time, there were all of 2! and they were the last 2 bags. The pale ones were .99 cents and the dark purplish/bluish ones were $1.29 or something like that. I also picked up some nice darning needles, the ones with the flattened tip and a few half rounds for those hard to reach places that need to be seamed when you're assembling amigurumi pets or toys.

I've also been working on finishing my daughter's hoodie. As you can see from the picture, I've been sewing the zipper to the bands that will be attached to the front of the hoodie. I figured might as well sew it on the bands instead of waiting until the bands are sewed to the hoodie. Less bulky this way and since the temperatures are climbing, 20C today, it's a lot cooler if I have 2 bands resting on my legs instead of an entire thick warm hoodie on there.

More Halloween Fun followed by Birthday Fun!

I know this is a bit late, but that's the way things go sometimes. After spending Monday with my daughter and celebrating my darling husband's birthday, I had to regroup and figure out where I'm at in the various wips I have on the go.

When my daughter walked in the door she instantly beelined on my pumpkins and hinted that she would love to have a Zero of her very own. You can see that I have obliged such a sweet request and she will now own her very own ghost dog.

It was a lot of fun to make. I changed a couple of things from the pattern though. I used magic loop to knit the ears instead of doing them flat and sewing them up after. I also knit the collar instead of just wrapping yarn around this neck since this toy may end up in small hands at some point. The collar was easy enough; I CO 20 sts on #3 needles, knit three rows and bound off. I used the yarn ends to mattress stitch it closed around the dogs neck. Voila!

While my daughter was here, we ended up going to a couple of fabric stores to pick up a zipper for her Red Ridin Hoodie which is almost done. I had her try it on and it fits beautifully! She won't be cold wearing it when she's walking to and from work. I forgot to snap some pictures, but I will when she comes to pick it up. I love the pattern and would recommend it to anyone who wants and simple hoodie. The hood part drapes and reminds me of elven hoods which is what she wanted.

We also ended up at both Zellers and Walmart looking for a birthday present for darling husband. Oddly enough, we kept finding ourselves in the yarn and yarn accessories area at each place... Zellers was disappointingly poor in color selection so we went looking for a birthday present. Again, no luck with that either. So on we went to Walmart. Again, the inexplicable gravitation towards the yarn aisle.... Oh well, if you can't beat 'em... Strange things started happening; 2 balls of Bernat's black yarn that I needed to keep working on darling husband's Kenobi jacket fell into the basket. Then I look away and size 10 and size 8 bamboo knitting needles clatter to the bottom of the basket quickly followed by a size 10 and size 8 circulars in bamboo find their way to the bottom of my shopping cart. I didn't put them there! Honest! My daughter wanted to repay me for the hoodie and this is how she did it. I am so thankful to have such a wonderful caring daughter.

The only disappointing part was when I opened the circular needles, they both are short cabbles, no magic loop for those needles :( but I can definitely use them for everything else!

We also found darling husband's birthday present. A rice cooker/vegetable steamer. I know, doesn't sound very exciting, but he loves to cook but hates making rice. It usually sticks to the pot or burns. This way, it won't stick and/or burn. I also love the fact that it's a vegetable steamer as well since it will free up a burner when I'm making veggies and I have to make a cheese sauce.

Not Quite Straight Scarf revisited

After a false start; I had to frog my first attempt since I missed a crucial detail in the pattern. (when to start the main pattern) 1 row, that was all I'd missed but it made the scarf do some pretty weird directional stuff.

Gambit passed judgment on the first version so I had to frog it (not Gambit!).

The good thing about messing up the first version was that I discovered that if I followed the pattern exactly, the resulting edge of the scarf would have loops sticking out. I didn't like that, so I went with slip 1, knit 1, increase 1 instead of the k1, inc 1 that the pattern asked for. The resulting edge is much smoother with no loops sticking out.

This is my second attempt at this scarf. The edges are now smooth with nothing sticking out.

I'm using a non wool yarn from my stash since there is a wool allergy where this scarf is going. I really like the wave effect moving on the diagonal. It's a nice change from the "hohum it's a scarf".

In other news, the baby hooded jacket is still at the hood part. I have to figure out the hood before I go any further.

My daughter's Lil Red Riding Hoodie is almost done. I just need to get to a store that sells zippers. Since that involves taking 2 buses, it's going to wait until I need more supplies before I go or I get desperate enough.

I'm not overly fond of using city transit, but it's either that or walking. In my husband's favorite distance descriptive words, "This is more than a fair walk".

Knitting, knitting, knitting...

Let's see, I have the baby jacket I'm designing, with the hood half done sitting here.

Then I have a hairband half done that I started today because I wanted to keep my hair out of my face at work without tying it up (I have hair down to my hips)

And then, since I'm back temping at the hospital, I'm also working on squares for the blankets for the homeless.

And last but not least, I still have to finish my daughter's Little Red Riding Hoodie for her birthday which is next week!!!!!

I hate having so many things on the go. Thank goodness it's Friday! I should be able to finish the baby jacket, the hair band and my daughter's hoodie during the weekend. That will leave me with the squares for next week.

I will post pictures! this weekend :) I promise!!

I will also do a bit of research in response to the comment on pet patterns, that cat patterns are difficult to find with some finds of my own. So get ready for pics and links