Monday, October 31, 2011

Jess's October Post (another FO parade)

Holy crap not sure what happened. I was doing so well getting at least 1 post a month. Then Summer happened. OK its October 31st... Halloween. But more importantly the last day of October so if I don't post tonight I'm 3 months behind. And yes I have things to post about!

Since my July post I have finished a number of things. first up are a pair of socks I knit for my friend Donna. They were originally suppose to be toe socks. But after a few failed attempts at toes I just made them regular socks.

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Pattern: just winged this pair
Yarn: Red Heart Heart and Sole in Spring Stripe
needles: 2.25mm
started:June 16
finished:July 12

Next I made a pair of socks for my friend Emily's husband (Jeremy who is also my friend). He did my family a huge favor and these were our way of saying thank you. They are fantastically warm. I love the way these socks turned out. Although it did take almost an entire sock to get use to working with how slippery this yarn was.

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Pattern: my basic 3x1 rib pattern
Yarn: Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Sock Yarn
needles: 2.25mm
Started: July 13
Finished: August 8

Next up I made Ryan a cute little dino sweater. At least I think its pretty darn cute. Ryan seems to like it a lot too.
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Pattern: Diplodocus by Kate Oates
Yarn: Patons classic Merino in various colors from stash
Needles: 3.75mm and 4.0mm
Started: August 8
Finished: August 29

My friend Ruth Smith is expecting a little girl. I almost never pass up the opportunity to knit little girl items. So I knit this little set.

babysweater

Pattern:Scrappy Socky Stripey Cardi by Fawn Pea
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Solemate (leftover from previous projects)
Needles: 3.0mm
Started: Sept 18
Finished: Sept 22
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Pattern:Closeknit's Striped Baby Boots by Sarah Owens
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Solemate (leftover from previous projects)
Needles: 2.25mm
Started: Sept 11
Finished: Sept 17
The booties were also a KAL with a friend Janice Marchick. She wanted to learn how to knit them. So we did a quick little KAL. Since I needed a gift for Ruth seemed like the perfect plan. Then I made the little cardigan to go with them. win win

Special for the month of "Halloween" I knit these adorable little felted pumpkins. They are super cute. A fast fun knit. However I did struggle with the felting process. Not easy at all to felt in a front loader machine. So I ended up running them thru the dryer several times after also failing to get very fair hand felting. sesh... you can still see that they could definitely stand to be felted more (tons of stitch definition left on these suckers) but I just gave up and finished them. They are still pretty cute even if they aren't perfect.

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Pattern: Miniature Felted Pumpkin by Tracy Batchelder
Yarn: Patons classic Merino (its cheap and easy to get local)
Needles: 6.5mm for the pumpkin 3.25mm for the stems
Started and Finished sometime in October. I knit the pumpkin parts first which just took a couple hours. Then forgot to felt them. Finally felted them and knit the stems and did all the sewing, just another few hours. They were a very quick project. They'd been in my queue for forever... I'm so happy I finally made them.


To finish off my October post my friend Kelly Jakubowski and I did a little KAL. A winter mitten KAL. These are fabulous. I love them so much and they are perfectly warm for these cold northern winters.

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Pattern: All the Water by Kirsten Kapur
Yarn: Patons Classic Merino (again cheap and readily available)
Needles: 4.0mm and 4.5mm
Started: October 1
Finished: October 13