I have been working away on mittens. The small mittens are a great little pattern. They will fit a two or three year old. It is a free mitten pattern called Child's mitten . What a great way to use up scraps. I am going to make a few pairs of these mittens. The homeless shelter needs mostly school age mittens. But, last year they had several young toddlers living at the shelter.The blue mittens that are felted are from the Robin Hansen, "Knit Mittens". These were very fun to knit and I love the embroidery. The red ones are the famous Lovikka Mittens. I really love the shape of the thumb and the rounded top of these. The Polar Bear mitts were a little pointy for my taste. I have been concentrating on using up my stash of yarn. So, I decided to make this little bag for Lacey. I did not knit the partition for the middle. Lacey is eight years old and will fall in love with this bag. She is a big fan of lime green and orange. I started a "Canteen Bag" from the Fall issue of Interweave Knits. My niece Hailey picked this out while flipping through the issue. I am using some Gjestal wool I had purchased from Elann quite awhile ago. It is light blue and Navy for the trim.It should make an adorable bag. I also finally finished the "Branching Out Scarf". I am going to block it this weekend. Whew....I guess I have been busier than I thought. The last photo I posted is Miss Peaches. One of my customers made her that little catnip pad. She is in love with it. You can see her shaved belly in this photo. She is healing very well. It is hard to believe it has been six weeks since her surgery. Can you believe how much money has been raised for Give a little . Knitters are amazing people! I am still going to Weight Watcher. I just hit my 35 pounds today. I am very excited to say the least. On to my next five pound increment.... Well, I am going to sign off here and get out and enjoy the day. Happy Knitting everyone.
Don't you hate it when Blogger eats your post? I had a post for the weekend that never materialized. I spent the weekend canning spaghetti sauce and making hotdog relish. I know canning is so much work. But, isn't it great when you are eating it all winter. I have an incredible hotdog relish recipe. It is made with green tomatoes and red tomatoes, green and red peppers, onion and brown sugar. If anyone would like the recipe, let me know in the comment section. It was given to me several years ago by an elderly client. It was her grandmother's tried and true recipe. On Saturday I was up at 4:00 a.m. to start my spaghetti sauce. My husband was going off to fish Lake Winnipesaukee for the day. As the sun was coming up on our lake I tried to take a picture of the mist. It was so beautiful. I think you can see a bit of the mist in the picture. So, what do you think of the Mary Janes ? I used a J or a K needles to make them bigger and then felted them. I think they are just adorable. They are great for little bits of leftover wool. I also felted the the "Lucy Bag". , LeAnne is going to love this bag. I am still working on mittens and have several pairs finished. I also made some Lovikka Mittens . They need to be felted and then embroidered. I will post some pictures later in the week. I forgot to mention.... We were up in Center Harbor last Sunday. There is a great place to launch the boat for that end of Lake Winnipesaukee . My husband drove over to Patternworks . What a wonderful store! If you are ever in that neck of the woods you need to stop by. They have a wall of Koigu that will make your mouth drool. I bought some Alpaca Boucle for these incredible mittens. I will show you that later in the week. Well....I need to get out the door to work . I am working till 9:00 tonight. Have a great day everyone.
I am sure many knitters are already aware of the Give a Littlesite. Susan and Margene have started this site. When I just checked in to Susan's blog, the total donated has reached $54,911.15. Knitters are incredible people! The generosity never ceases to amaze me. There is no donation that is too small. Kim has also listed information about an organization that helps pets. I know this is also near and dear to my heart. Do what you can and stay well friends.
It is Mitten time again... I love to knit mittens. I have three or four books about mittens and a slew of patterns. Each mitten is a new adventure. I have my eye on this book. I am not sure when it will be released. I bought Fox & Geese & Fences when it came out in the late 80's. I love Robin Hansen's designs. Should be fun to see what is in her new book. The mitten picture I have posted is a free pattern on the Internet. The first mitten is from the Knitlist. It is called M&M mittens . These were very fun to make. They will probably fit age 6 to 8 years of age. I would like to play around with this pattern to make some larger sizes. It really is an adorable mitten. They tell you to use a different color for each row of window panes. I think I will try the next pair like they suggest. It have a great thumb design. You knit six stitches with waste yarn and then slide them back on the left needle and knit them again. I have made a few mittens with this technique. It has become one of my favorites. The second mitten is the "Bulky Mitten" from "Weekend Knitting" by Melanie Falick . I used two strands of my Bartlett yarn that I had over dyed. This is another great pattern. It works up quickly with two strands of yarn and a size 10 and 1/2 double pointed needle. I made several pairs of these for the "Mitten Tree" last year. The last photo is of a "Lucy Bag" for my co-worker for Christmas. She loves the color grey and will be thrilled with this. I felted it tonight and have it drying on the deck. Speaking of the deck.... I spent all day and evening staining it. We have lattice work all around the bottom. I am sure you can all relate to the fun I had staining those tiny slats. I never thought I would finish. Hopefully it will be dry enough to start the second coat tomorrow. It is going to be a gorgeous weekend . We are hoping to take the boat to another lake. There is a lake about 20 minutes away with plenty of bass waiting for us. I am sure a mitten and book will be aboard the boat too. Hope you all have a safe and wonderful Labor Day weekend.
