Some Finished Things, Some Unfinished Things, Some Other Things

This week, at Knit Night, I talked about Christmas stockings. Here was my example:

I knit the stocking using this pattern. Instead of bulky-weight yarn, I held two strands of worsted weight together. Also, I didn't have size 10 1/2 dpns; they don't carry dpn's at Wal-Mart, so I bought a dowel rod the same diameter as a 10 1/2, cut it into 4 pieces, sharpened the ends in the pencil sharpener, sanded them smooth and rubbed them down with wax paper. (I guess that's how the pioneer women would have done it!) Because this stocking is for my Irish-loving son-in-law, Adam, I added the Saxon braid to this one; I'm working on another stocking, and I am going to add three 6-stitch cables to one side of the stocking.

I started a new blog, just for Knit Night, which can be found here, so from now on, I will post all our projects and patterns there. All knitting, all the time there; knitting, opinions and general blather here. I'm not sure what we will do next time, but I am thankful for all the great free patterns on the Internet -- you can always find something interesting.

I also finished 4 Hats for Alex, and will send them off this week:

The yellow is the Pea Pod beanie by Kate Gilbert, the pink and red/white are the umbilical cord hat from Stitch and Bitch, and the Christmas tree is a free charity pattern.

I bought some 100% wool sweaters at the Goodwill this week, and attempted to felt them to make Christmas stockings for the St. Vincent de Paul craft show. Sweaters before:

Only felted sweater after: The other three didn't draw up at all. Bummer. Back to the Goodwill they go. But I did get several stockings cut out of the red sweater:
I'm going to blanket stitch around them and add a loop for hanging -- the smallest ones would make cute ornaments, I think.

I gave up on my socks for Sockin' it to Maggie -- they were just bleh. So, I took the yarn and made this little cell phone/Ipod cozy for her, using the Ron Weasley sweater pattern I have had in my folder for about a year. I didn't quite understand the instructions for the sleeves, so I fudged them a bit. I hope she likes this -- at least I know she will like this more than the bleh socks.

I'm making a little progress on the MQW -- up to square 20. I love the pattern, but I'm not sure I love how I am doing it -- I think my work looks sloppy, and I'm afraid the colors I chose are a little reminiscent of the granny square afghans that we made in the the '70's (yes, I'll admit it -- I crochet, and I like it!) I am thinking of doing the MQW again, in a different fiber, in different colors; I've seen some beautiful variations on the Internet.

Peace.