Land-escaping!

This year our homeowners association got new landscaping (or "land-escaping" as my relatives call it) and I am loving it. Don't ask me what kind of tree that is though, because I have no clue. It's something cute and fluffy.

The last hosta is about to bloom. It is a pretty lavender shade. The little bushes in the front bloomed earlier in the summer and they had lots of purple flowers.

Summer 2008 Mittens

7 pairs of mittens done!

These are for the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota via CIC.

Bathroom Makeover - Before and After

Before

After

Before

After

I am so pleased with how it turned out. It is much more my style now. The changes include a new light fixture, faucet, paint, drawer pulls, towels, towel bars, and a rug. I did everything myself except installing the light fixture and faucet. The only thing I have left to do is steam clean the floor, but that can wait until it's not so hot out!

Father's Day Socks

Dad got hand-knit socks, too. They're his favorite color, a dark loden green. We had a barbecue for Father's Day, which I heard was nice, but I slept through the whole thing! I had just finished a 25-hour shift at the hospital, so I was pretty wiped out. I got some nice R&R and Mom and Dad's, though!

Little Socks

I finished another pair of toddler socks for CIC today. Yay! It's my fifth pair towards our current challenge. The green ones aren't blocked yet, but I'm posting 'em anyway. They were made using Patons Classic Wool Merino and the purple ones were made with Cascade 220. They are both heathered shades - I love the depth of color.

Knitting Techniques

Due to popular demand (i.e. Marmel), I'm posting about knitting resources on the web.

One of my favorite websites for knitting techniques is Knitting Help. It has these great little videos that show you exactly what to do and they're shown from the point of view of the knitter.

I particularly like their tutorials on joining yarns without having to weave in the ends. For wool yarns, there is the felting method, and for non-feltable yarns, there is the Russian method. You can find these videos about halfway down the Tips page.

I also like their video tutorial on short rows. Many have tried to explain how to do this technique, but this is the only explanation that made any sense to me. The video is at the bottom of the page entitled Advanced Knitting Techniques.

My Favorite Knits

Here are a couple more of my all-time favorite knitting projects.

This is a felted bag that I made for my mom a couple years ago. The pattern is from the Pursenalities book. If you look closely, you will see that the centers of the flowers are embellished with iridescent red beads. I just love how this one turned out.



The next photo shows a pair of mittens that I made for my dad for Christmas 2007. The pattern is from the Folk Mittens book. My dad bought me the book, so I figured that I'd make the first pair for him. Plus, he loves getting handmade gifts. The photo shows the palmar view on the left and the dorsal view on the right.