First FO of 2009! A Baby Round Ripple

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Originally uploaded by pudmuddles.

My husband's sister is expecting her first child in July. Since I have had this gender neutral Pound of Love sitting in my stash since 2002, I thought this was a great time to try my hook at a round ripple pattern. I started January 2nd using a G (4.00 mm) and completed it on the 11th. I could have finished it two days sooner but had to take the time off to complete a book review. In all, I used just over 8/10 of a skein or 826.2 yards. I enjoyed this pattern and look forward to making another one (though bigger) in the future.

The pattern I used can be found here.

Finally! A project to use up that boucle stuff...

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Originally uploaded by pudmuddles.

I can understand my temporary insanity with respect to the dozen or so balls of fun fur still lurking in my stash. I have a plan for eradication which includes amigurumi crochet creatures.

The other novelty yarn (at least I consider it a novelty) is all the boucle I have laying around. There was the bit I bought to knit up the dreaded never-ending poncho of which I think I still have a full skein, if not more. Then there is a skein of BLACK boucle which is going to be a nightmare, no matter what I decide to do with it. I can't crochet with it, that much I know... Finally, there was a BIG skein of Joann's Rainbow Boucle in pink. This was an impulse buy. I think Joann's had it on sale for $3, marked down from $6. It was a thorn in my side as I had tried to make a hat for my daughter but I wasn't happy with my results so I left the yarn alone for about a year.

As part of my ongoing mission to knit 95% of the time from my stash exclusively, I decided it was time to figure out something to do with this. I tried to hold two strands together but couldn't see the stitches at all! I settled on pairing the pink boucle with a white wool-ease sportweight (oh how I wish this stuff wasn't discontinued).

I used Ann Budd's basic pattern for mittens and though it was difficult to obtain an accurate gauge AND the first mitten came out too large, I am very pleased with how these turned out :) Best of all, I have a plan to deal with the rest of boucle as I will be knitting up mittens for my daughters as well!

Bye Bye Red Heart

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Originally uploaded by pudmuddles.

I am happy to report that my stash has been purged of nearly all the Red Heart acyrlic. This blanket worked up quickly using two strands, rows of half double crochet on a 9.0 mm hook. I call it "(Red) Heart Burn". It's a nice blanket which will no doubt be durable enough to take abuse from my kids but so far, it hasn't come off my bed. I'm keeping this one to myself for now :)

FO: Hand Warmers :)

Wow, it seems like forever since I actually finished something! I call these "Warm Simplicity" as I made them up as I went along. The yarn was a gift from my secret pal :)

My crafting group is currently running a secret pal swap and I must say that I am quite enjoying it!

Ok, now back to this project... A bit of crochet, in a bulky weight acrylic/wool blend made in Turkey by Premier Picasso. I used a little less than 50 grams (60 yards) on a size K (6.5 mm) hook. They fit nicely and are WARM!

Success! Stocking #5 is done :)

I'm so happy with how the stockings turned out! Now there is only one item I need to finish for Christmas and then I can start on something just for me :)

FO: Christmas is coming and Stocking #4 is DONE!

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Originally uploaded by pudmuddles.

This was a really quick knit and I love how it has turned out! This stocking is probably for my 2 year old so that means there is only one stocking left to make (mine). I hope to cast on tonight... but we'll see...

FO: Christmas Stocking #3 (2 more to go)

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Originally uploaded by pudmuddles.

This one is done in blues and pink. My daughter requested purple but I don't currently have any purple so this is the best I could come up with. I told her if she didn't like it, I could give it to her little sister and knit her a different one. She of course said, "No, I like it." High praise indeed! LOL!

Christmas stocking #2 (3 more to go!)

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Originally uploaded by pudmuddles.

It's finished! This is Christmas stocking number two, made for my husband. He chose the UCLA inspired colors from my stash. We are both very happy with it (though for me it was a bit more complicated that stocking #1). I need to get busy since I still have so much RH left! My amigurumi book came and though RH is not the optimal yarn to use for these types of projects, I will be making up some stocking stuffers for my daughters (if I have enough time).

Acrylic de-stash possibilities...

I stopped in a Michael's today to pick up some bamboo needles for my daughter's school project. (I should get these back, but just in case I don't... I'm sure you can understand why I didn't loan out any from my current collection. Anyway...) I didn't even look at the yarn as I am still on that diet. What I did see at check-out was a poster announcing a local Warm Up America event. Donations of 7" x 9" squares are assembled into afghans for the needy. It struck me that this is really doable for me (even though I have quite a number of WIPs at the moment) as this project specifically calls for acrylic and would help me get rid of more of my stash! The two dates are November 11th and November 17th. I'll be heading out of town on the 17th so I am going to try and make some up for the 11th (or maybe I can have someone from my knitting group run these over for me on the 17th). I thinking it will probably be faster to crochet these but we'll see...

A simple pleasure...

After working with RH and Fixation recently, I nearly forgot the simple pleasure of knitting with pure wool! Ah the softness :) No more second sock syndrome for me, my dd #2's sock is going to be a breeze to finish :)

...but alas, I will have to follow this project with a UFO (a 2T top in Berroco Cotton Twist) and Christmas Stockings using more from my RH stash.

My first Hallowig...

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Originally uploaded by pudmuddles.

It's finished and I'm happy about that. I made some mistakes and so I will be making this again probably in green and using size 7 needles instead of 8s.

The pattern can be found here.

FO: Christmas Stocking, 1 down... 4? to go!

Started: 8/29/07
Completed: 9/2/07

Pattern was from KNITTING YEAR-ROUND by Better Homes and Gardens (ISBN 069621655-8), pages 96-98.

Yarn: Red Heart, I didn't have the specific colors called for in the pattern so I made it up from what I have in my stash...and I used almost an entire skein of red... I love it :)

So I don't burn out on these, I plan to finish up the socks I have OTN and work on the crochet blanket. (Plus, I have a bunch of reading to do but I won't talk about that here LOL.)