Saturday, December 20, 2008

I'm Stitching as Fast as I Can....

As I have mentioned before, I have broken my personal rule: No handmade gifts for the holidays. Now with less than a week to go I feel much less stressed than I expected about the whole thing.

If you had asked me about it last Monday I may have had something very different to say. That was the day I decided to frog the afghan I had started for my mother. Well, here's the new one. A simple granny square made in Peaches & Creme double worsted. That's a ruler in the center. It's about 52" across right now. I plan to work another 3 or 4 rounds (5"-6"), and call it done.

The yarn and colours are the same as the ripple afghan I had started and didn't like. I had decided on them after giving her the Shell Edged Kitchen Set, and deciding that the colours were okay in her kitchen, but PERFECT in her living room.

I got to hooking on this as soon as I ripped out the previous blanket Monday afternoon, by Monday night I realized I was not going to have enough yarn. THANK GOODNESS I am well liked by the Flo over at the Pisgah factory, who put me on hold while she ran around to find yarn in the same dyelots! The new batch of yarn came in yesterday, so I was able to resume my frantic hooking. Now the only problem is whether or not the blanket will weigh more than my mom. It's currently about 4 pounds, but feels much heavier!


Another gift that I need to finish this weekend (so I can priority mail it Monday) is this doll. This had been in the back of my mind forever, then a few rounds hanging off the needles for almost as long, but I have finally gotten in gear with it. I have completely winged this one with no real advanced planning except the image in my mind. I'm pretty pleased with the body, but am frogging the first attempt at an outfit, as I need to make the clothes much smaller than I thought.

No more details on this one until it's gifted....

The thrummed mittens are nearly complete. I'll post pictures in the next post.

I've even started something for myself this week. Last weekend we had a full house here, as we were the only people out of the NH family to have electricity (in case you hadn't heard a major ice storm left 100's of thousand's of people with out power in NH- aka most of the state) and all of the WIPs I had on hand were being gifted to a person that was present. So, I pulled out my camel-merino-silk hand spun and started this neck warmer. The perspective in the photo is a bit off -the neckwarmer is larger than the ball of yarn. It's just a ring of 2x1 ribbing, but it's super soft and luxurious feeling, and I can't wait to wear it. I wish it had been ready for the 8" of snow I woke up to today!

11 comments:

LDSVenus said...

Sorry that you were hit so hard by the storm that just went through here too. We didn't get as much as was predicted and tho we did get some ice, it wasn't as bad either.

The neck warmer looks so warm, I'm thinking, hmmmm, maybe I can use the yak I spun and make myself one :). The doll is so cute, will it have fiber hair? You are sure getting that rung done fast!! But then that is what I like about crochet, it does go so much faster than knitting. Hey if I wanted to make a rectangle afgan with crochet, how many chains would I need and then would I do double crochets in the chains around doing two with 2 or 3 chains in the corners? I made one years ago and loved it, but alas the memory of how I did it is long gone!! :P

Dave said...

An afghan in a week? Yikes, maybe I should learn to crochet and maybe get through some of this stash faster. :-)

The neckwarmer looks yummy!

Maureen said...

Neckwarmer looks great! Hope you get to finish everything up to get it in the mail! We had about the same amount of snow today. In fact it was suposed to end overnight, but it snowed all day! And there is another storm on the way tomorrow! I can only imagine what NH looks like if we in upstate NY have about a foot so far! At least it will be a white Christmas!

Anonymous said...

Ohhh the neckwarmer looks yummy. It snowed here for almost 48 hours and we now have over 2 feet of snow.

I really need to get started on some thrummed mittens!

Unknown said...

Lucky family! Your mom is going to love the blanket even if it does weigh a metric ton, LOL. Those are the best kind to snuggle under.
Love the neck-warmer. It looks soft.
Great work as usual!

Unknown said...

I am quite curious to see what the doll looks like when it is finished.

DEEDALOOS said...

LOVE the afghan! the doll is very cute and i'm actually having a vision of wool felt dress w/ a blanket stitch edging of sorts ?? hmmm . . .

DEEDALOOS said...

LOVE the afghan! the doll is very cute and i'm actually having a vision of wool felt dress w/ a blanket stitch edging of sorts ?? hmmm . . .

Lil Knitter said...

Hiya, Stranger. Thanks for the visit and the sweet comment. Seems like we're all too busy to post regularly lately. Love that neckwarmer...yarn looks sooo nice!
Please do post a photo of the doll finished too.
I wanted to stop in and say "Hi" and wish you the most awesome New Year EVER!!!
Lots of hugs to ya!

Knitnut,Karen said...

Well, I hope your mother liked the afghan! It looks very comfy. Also, I found your post about making cheese, extremely interesting. I've been asking my husband what we could do to live more green this year,besides recycling. I do can what veges I raise and make jam from my berries, but cheese, ummm, may have to check into this!

Anonymous said...

Hi there.. the afghan is lovely... The doll is darling.. I can't wait for more details... and Neck Warmers are wonderful. Happy New Year to you. Toni