Pineapple FO, okie dokie progress, and socks!

So I mentioned earlier that I had finished some crochet doilies to adorn the arms of my new chair.
Well, I STILL haven’t found my blocking pins, so I figured I would at least show you the unblocked pictures:





Starry Pineapple Doily from Favorite Pineapple Doilies of Rita Weiss from the American School of Needlework.

J&P coats size 10 crochet cotton in Ecru, and #7 steel crochet hook.


(Doesn't Pillow Guy look so happy in his new home?)

I've also picked up Okie Dokie (aka Frosted Ferns by Herbert Niebling) again, and have made some pretty good progress.



It's about 37% finished now, and as you can see I've finished the first acorn, YAY!

And of course, I've got my ubiquitous pair of socks:



Knit picks Felici in "Aurora"
The usual toe up two at a time, short row heel pattern in 1 1/2 Knit Picks circulars.


Unfortunately (ok, not really) these projects are going to be put on hold for a while, since I've just picked up a Commission knitting job through a swap group on Ravelry.

I'm knitting some socks in exchange for spinning fiber. It's win-win-win!
I get to knit socks, I get awesome spinning fiber, and she gets new socks!

Itching for some socks.

Those are all the socks I knit last winter.
Not bad, but I haven't knit any socks all summer, and I'm getting twitch for some more.

But I won't let myself until I finish more of what I'm already working on.

I'm still plugging away at Bill's Squirrel and Oak mittens


Actually more has been knit since that picture was taken, but not much, must get moving!

But, I'm making good progress; I finished the blue butterfly doily:

Now all I have to do is block it.

This was definitely a learning experience, the big lesson? LOOSEN UP! My starting chain was way too tight; I gave myself eyestrain and a tension headache working that first row. And working into the chains to fill in blocks was horrific until I finally began to loosen up when I was working. Also my TR's were too long, and the parts where I increased a filled block at the end of a row are all wavy because they are looser than the rest of the piece. I'm hoping a good blocking will work a lot of those imperfections out, but I know it won't fix the part where I accidentally spanned two blocks while making one, and then instead of ripping back I just increase two from one in a subsequent row. I know, sucky but it's just practice, and there were so many problems anyways. It'll still get use in my home.

I've started working on the crochet snowflakes for the cards this year, I want to get some more of those made and maybe a few rows done on the feather and fan shawl before I start any new projects.

We'll see how well I hold out ;)

Woosh!

I'm moving right along with my projects lately, the butterfly washcloth is finished:



I'll be including it in a home made spa package for my mother.

The other butterfly is coming along very nicely too!



Just over half way, I've made a few mistakes, but that's ok, that's why I did a practice piece first. it still looks cool, and I can't wait until I can block it, I don't know where I'm going to put it yet, perhaps use it as a wall hanging.

Then if that weren't enough I've picked up the squirrel and oak mittens I started last spring for Bill.



I had made a mistake and needed to tink back a little bit, but once I sat down to it I made pretty good progress. these will be my project for car knitting on the way to Rheinbeck.

Speaking of Rheinbeck; I received my Bingo card the other day!
I've already begun stalking checking out the blogs and bloggers on my card.

For those of you who have me on their cards, a description will be forthcoming, as soon as I decide what I'm going to wear.

FO and winged WIPS

Well, the oval doily is done! All I need to do now is wash, starch and block it. Unfortunately I don't know when I'm going to be able to do that. Hopefully I'll find a safe place for it within the next week or so.



it looks a little better then the previous photo, but it would greatly benefit from a good blocking.

***

while at Jo-Ann's the other day I saw a spiffy dishcloth book (garden dishcloths to knit) after I got it home I cast on for the Butterfly dishcloth.



So far so good, I think it will make a nice washcloth to put into a sort of bath gift basket for my mother for Yule, I already have a nifty recipe for fizzing bath salts, plus a bar of natural soap from the people at NYS&W and it will be perfect.

Speaking of butterflies and other winged creatures.
While surfing around Ravely (uh oh...) I spotted the most gorgeous filet crochet fairy pattern and fell in love, I really, really want to make this, but I've never done filet crochet before, so I looked up a bunch of tutorials, and then went looking for a slightly easier pattern to practice on.



so far so good! It's the Filet Butterfly Doily from Celt's vintage crochet. I'm just about ready to start the actual butterfly part, and am quite excited.

I'm not entirely pleased with the way the filled mesh increases look at the end of the rows, but I'm sure I'll get better as I practice.

I seem to be in the middle of a major thread crochet jag, and the feather and fan shawl is still on hiatus, don't worry, I'll get back to it eventually.

Doily

Well, I bit the bullet at photographed the Pineapple doily I'm working on.
It doesn't actually look as bad as I was expecting.



Not great, but not horrible either.

I started this thing last summer, I wanted to submit it to the fair, but I didn't finish in time, I ended up dragging it around with me for a while, but eventually lost interest, I picked it up again to see if I could finish it.
I hadn't realized how skuzzy it had gotten, the picture doesn't show it as much, but it's got this giant blob of dirt in the middle medallion, I'm hoping a good washing before I block it will get it out.

I can't wait to finish it; it's going to be beautiful!
This is the biggest doily I've worked on so far, more than a foot long.
Hopefully I can enter it into next summer's fair.

catch up

Well it has definitely been a tiring summer around here, thankfully there is only about two weeks of work left.

Progress on feather and fan is going well; I'm a little over half way finished. Although it has slowed down a bit as it has gotten too big to travel with, so it has become my stay at home project. Even that hasn't kept it safe though, somehow it has acquired a small red stain - I'm assuming raspberries - but I'm not sure how it got it, as the knitting is kept far away from the food. It's a good thing I plan on dying it once I'm finished.



That and I was distracted for a few days be Ravely. :-/
I love being able to surf through patters and see other peoples projects with just a few clicks. It makes finding good projects so easy.

Including this:



His Name is Alexander the Great Lion Washcloth.
Or Knitty's Grrr.
Bill saw the pattern while I was surfing around Ravely and thought it was cute, so I decided to make one for him. (He doesn’t want to use it, just keep it as a friend... my husband is a little weird sometimes)

It was actually quite fun, the loop stitches were a PITA at first, but once I got in to the grove of it, it was a fast and fun little knit.

I've also picked up the crochet pineapple doily I had started in the middle of last summer, but never finished, I had been hoping to submit it into he fair for judging, but didn't finish in time. It has become my new traveling project and I only have a few more rounds to go, I think it will definitely be submitted next summer.

In honor of the sleet we got this afternoon

Snowflakes:

These are nice little guys, snowflake #21 from 99 crochet snowflakes

Right now they are un-starched (and the ends aren’t woven in) but I'm waiting until I have a few more done to make up a batch of starching solution. unblocked they come to about 2 1/2 inches, I fear even with some vicious stretching that they may not reach the full 3 1/4 inches the book claims. I guess I crochet a bit tight. I plan on slipping one of these into each card I give out for the holidays, something to make it a little more personal. I decided to go with all the same pattern for everybody so that next year I would be able to tell what everybody got, and won't accidentally give people duplicate flakes.

Also, a pi shawl:

I made this a while ago and posted about it in my LJ, but I guess I forgot to repost it when I started this blog.

It’s a variant on Elizabeth Zimmermann's Pi shawl. I made it using worsted weight wool on US size 10 needles. I ran out of wool and couldn't obtain any more, so it came out to only about 5 feet in diameter, a little too small to make a really effective shawl for me, but with it's thickness it makes a perfect lap blanket, especially now when it's so chilly, and getting chillier.

Here's a better picture of it blocking:

The outside lace pattern is straight form Knitter's Almanac, the middle pattern is a lyre pattern I found in one of my stitch encyclopedias, heavily modified to fit, and the middle is 'wheat', once again heavily modified from one of my stitch encyclopedias, the middle pattern really distorted the middle though, but luckily most of the problems blocked out, although you can still see the distortion little bit.

And finally, because I can...

Cayenne, my wonderfully cuddly American Eskimo doggie

she says "I need cuddles"

guess I should go do that then...