not sure if i should write a pattern for this one

I have a Jewish friend who asked for a hat for Hanukkah.  I had started on a very pretty tweed-looking hat when he texted me and asked if I could put Diesel in his hat — Diesel being his 100 lb. black dog.  It took me a while to figure out how I might do it.  I ended up deciding on making a basic hat pattern but then I took a pattern for a dishcloth with a dog on it because I couldn’t find a dog hat.  Instead of doing the knitting and purling it called for, I changed between the two colors.  Here’s a picture of the hat.

I think it’s a great pattern for a dog lover.  Plus, there aren’t any dog hat patterns that I could find anywhere.  Please give me some input as I took pretty careful notes as I was knitting and should be able to manage a pattern out of it!

so much work done

I got everything but my cross stitch done.  Thankfully, I was able to find a gift for my aunt and uncle because I never got around to the cross stitch projects.  The first one that I was able to finish was Emma’s Frog Princess.  It was suppose to be a Frog Prince but because of the recent movie that came out, I thought that the Frog Princess idea would be very cute.  All I did was add a braid under the crown, but it made it very cute.

I also got Michelle’s scarf finished.  I kind of pooped out at the last minute and only let it get long enough for it to go around her neck and wrap through once.  It still looks very nice, especially with the coral-colored buttons!

Melissa’s mittens turned out great too.  The pattern has you use both US 5 & US 7 needles for them, but I kept the US 5 on the whole time because I forgot the US 7 dpn’s at home.  They turned out great and she LOVES them!

Because my mom was off from work on the Monday before we left for Pittsburgh, I wasn’t able to get either of her projects done.  While we were in Pittsburgh we went to Knit One, which was just an amazing yarn store, we got some Ozark Handspun and I made her a wonderful cowl out of it.  This ended up being a replacement Christmas present and it turned out just wonderfully!

That was all of my holiday knitting that I got done on the trip.  Because I got my tonsils out yesterday, I will have even more time on my hands to get more knitting projects done.  I can’t wait to get to them and be able to share them with you as well!  Hope everyone had a wonderful and  Merry Christmas.  If I don’t post before New Year’s Eve, Happy New Year to everyone as well!

snow snow snow

Well, thanks to all the snow that we got here in Northern Virginia, I was able to get some work done on my mom’s Christmas presents.  The snow here is at a level I haven’t seen since I was in elementary school back in ’96!  Here’s just a couple views of our street and our house after about 3 hours of shoveling snow.

Because of all this insane amount of snow that we had — accumulated in only one day — I was able to get to start my mom’s other Christmas present while the one that I started originially had to sit because she would know what it was when she saw it.  I’m making her the MancalaMia from knitty [here].  I’ve gotten the base of it done as well as one of the large bowls.  Here’s the progress so far.

On top of that, I have been working on a great cross stitch for her as well.  For those of you unaware, my mom is a huge quilter.  I found in one of my cross stitch books a pattern for a “quilt block of the month” cross stitch sampler.  I began by completing each block, but quickly realized that the best way would be to get all the colors except white and the outlines and I have gotten much more done, although I still have more than half of it left.  It really does look great!

 

I have been working furiously because we’re leaving for Pittsburgh on Tuesday and I won’t be able to work on her presents if we’re together for it all, so I really only have about 36 hours to get these two done.  Hopefully I can get to it all before then.  At least it will give me the car ride there and the car ride back to finish everyone else’s presents.  I hope everyone enjoys the snow around here and, from what I hear, up and down the east coast.

holiday knitting

It always seems as though no matter how much time I give myself to complete projects that will be gifts, I never quite have enough time to get them all done.  There is quite a list of things that I need done…

• Mom: sampler cross stitch
  
• Michelle: pink wave scarf
  
• Melissa: pink pocket mittens
  
• Cheryl: angel cross stitch
  
• Harry: lazy dog cross stitch
  
• Giorgio: fair isle hat
  
• Emma: knitted frog princess
  

What am I going to do?!  I’m really not sure that there is any way for me to get all these projects done in a week and a half!  Well, I guess I should stop blogging and get to work, eh?  Hope everyone else’s knitting/crafting for the holidays is going better than mine is!

snowflake hat

Never thought I’d actually knit something for a guy, but here I am worried that I shouldn’t even give it to him! haha =] I knitted the Snowflake Hat [here]. I think it turned out pretty good too, let me know what you think!

 

My biggest issue with it is that it seems a little long, but since it’s for a guy whose head is bigger than mine [hahaha] I should be just fine. I’d recommend scrunching up the top rows that look like a tree, since it also comes to a slight point at the top. Altogether though, I’d definately recommend it!