Thing-a-day.com

Ugg. My thesis work is grinding me under its heel. During my radio silence though I have been trying to get a small modular knit done each day if nothing else.

I have 6 squares (and 1 triangle) added to my memory blanket.

The top row, other than the first red one, and the triange in the 2nd row are all new over the last few days.

I have also have finished a few 4″ squares for a comfort blanket being knit and crocheted by several crafters for a 5 year old who was just diagnosed with leukemia and his twin.

I knit these socks, which were designed in honor of the Deathly Hallows release, in honor of the designer’s recent passing. This pattern, which is unavailable until the designer’s family decides what they want done with her patterns, is called Bellatrix.

blogged here with crafting details

This week has been unsually hectic at work, but I have still been plugging away with some creative time.

13th: edited episode 39 for Potter Fic Weekly. Soon to be released!

14th: baked some wonderful flax bread from my own recipe

15th: finished the 7″ for the leg of a pair of stripy socks

16th: cast on and knit the ribbing and 4 pattern repeats of the leg pattern on the Bellatrix socks

Yesterday I knit the toes of these socks, and today I grafted them and wove in the ends.

Yarn: Regia Crazy Color 6-ply in color 5260
Pattern: 56 stitch 56 row sock by Nancy T. McGlynn
Needles: US 3 / 3.25 mm & US 2 / 2.75 mm (for toes and heels)

blogged further here

Remember TAB soda? It is a bit of a joke between us, so I made this stamp this morning for my daughter to take letterboxing. It is also my first handcarved stamp.

Then on her first box ever we found a hitchhicker! She is so excited about this now.

I finally got the last 9 squares done for my crochet sampler blanket. Now I just need to crochet all the connecting bits and the border. All of these squares except the two middle ones on the top row were finished yesterday or today.

For links the patterns for these squares, please see my blog;.

This knit sweater is for my niece for Lunar New Year. Welcome to the Year of the Rat.

Pattern: Minnowknits China Doll by Jil Eaton
Size: 1 year
Yarn: 1.8 skeins Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in 935 Salmon Berry Red
Supplier: The Knitting Room (now closed)
Needles: US 5 / 3.75 mm

blogged here

My day 5 and 6 projects are 2-4″ squares for a project to make a blanket for “Grandpa Rav”, who broke both ankles, his elbow and a wrist 2 months ago due to fall from a 20 ft ladder. To avoid making a house cozy, the squares are only 4″ large and knit from machine washable blue and grey yarns.

I made the mitered square one yesterday, and the shell stitch crocheted square today. They were both made from doubled sock yarn. The charcoal grey is Jawoll, and the blue is Fortissima Socka

Today I finished weaving in the ends and over-dyeing this hat to be donated to a a local charity that provides warm clothing to some of the area’s homeless.

The yarn was from a recycled sweater that I had tried several different dyeing techniques with, so I over dyed the whole thing to make it more “man-approved”. It is 100% wool and very warm.

See the blog post to see what it looked like before over-dyeing.

This card was a chance to play with my new Sizzex die “Tipsy Hearts” which we will be making my DD’s valentines for her class with this year.

This one was just a quickie as a proof of concept. It was made with made from a prismacolor marker, vanilla cardstock, and several different scrapbooking paper. I plan on including it with an ATC I am sending out this month for the Creative Mom Podcast ATC Swap.

I am taking this as an opportunity to finish some stuff that I had in progress. This pair of booties has sat almost finished in my stash for almost a year. Time to finish them before the baby out grows them!

yarn: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino (0.52 skeins)
needles: US 2½ / 3.0 mm
pattern: Sandals by Debbie Bliss
pattern source: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino

I absolutely love these. The garter stitch makes them so squishy, and the yarn is deliciously soft to begin with. I immediately cast on a mitered square for my memory blanket that I am working on.

I am in a knitting swap, where one of the requirements is to send a set of stitch markers in your partners Hogwarts house colors (from Harry Potter). This round my partner is in Gryffindor. As an added bonus these are also in a Project Spectrum color.

I always forget how much I like to work with beads until I have all the tools laid out on the desk. I should make some for myself too this month, as I really like to work with this size stitch marker in my knitting too.

Yesterday I dug into my yarn stash and pulled out all the yarns in this month’s Project Spectrum colors: red, orange and pink.

I have a surprising percentage of sock yarn in there. I can’t see me knitting a ton of socks, but I hope to get at least 2 pair done.

I have been thinking about what I want to work on this month, and it seems like it will have to be a bit of a balance to both finish a thing a day and working in a few larger projects.

Currently on the (knitting) needles I have:
*a sport weight pair of socks
*a Gryffindor pair of socks in fingerweight
*China Doll baby sweater (1 year)

I also have a sampler blanket of crocheted squares that I am working on that I hope to get quite a few squares this month.

The balance of the days this month though I am thinking that I will working on sketches and ATCs. Thybeli made a great suggestion about making some bookmarks that I am thinking of too.

So many ideas! I can’t wait to get started.