Friday, April 24, 2009

Rectangles and Warm Woolies

This is a toddler sweater I made for Warm Woolies a few months ago, using Jaeger Extra Fine Merino Chunky yarn. I finally grafted the underarm seams today, so now it's ready to send. I've been holding items to send to them until I finished all my lingering projects. Now that I've finished them all, I realize that I could have sent a box a long time ago because now there is so much stuff to send I'll need 2 boxes anyway. I hope there will be some nice person at the post office to hold the door open for me! There usually is.



Below are photos of some rectangles I've knitted for the Handmade Afghans Project. They crochet the rectangles together to make afghans for wounded soldiers. I am sending 14 rectangles.


The rectangle above looks brown, but it is actually green. I tried out a new stitch pattern, gulls and garter, and I really like how it turned out.


These 2 cream-colored rectangles are also examples of new stitch patterns that I tried. The rectangles are small enough (6" x 9") that they are great for trying out new patterns. It was fun. I got a little adventurous.


Saturday, April 11, 2009

Stash-Buster Blanket



For a few years now, I have been accumulating a stash of leftover bits of wool and wool blend yarns. There wasn't enough of any one color to make a whole item, so I decided to use them to make a blanket for Warm Woolies. I used 2 plastic grocery bags full of partial skeins, about 2.5 lbs of yarn. I think there are 39 different yarns in all. I used worsted weight yarns doubled or bulky yarn alone on size 9 needles. This is one warm blankie! The final dimensions are about 45 x 52.

Waffles for Brunch Sweater



Well, I finally did it...I finally finished this sweater after it sat neglected, one-sleeved, for months! Now it is completed and ready to send to Warm Woolies. It will probably fit a 2 or 3 year old. I used the Waffles for Brunch pattern and Rowan Plaid yarn. I really like this yarn. It's soft and warm and I like the colors. I was worried that the different colored plies might split, but they didn't - they are almost felted together. This yarn is for cold-weather knitting only, though, because it is so thick. I tried to knit with it in July and had to stop because it was too hot to even have the project on my lap inside in the air conditioning!

Grad Socks

I finished these socks for "my" grad at the Urupinka orphanage in Kazakhstan a few weeks ago, but just photographed them today. It's weird - in the photo, they don't even look that big, but in person, they look enormous. They're made to fit big teenage boy feet. The yarn is Knitpicks Wool of the Andes Bulky in emerald.