This Weeks Knits

I have some lovely projects that I'm working on. My passion is knitting right now but being the creative person that I am that may change in the future. As you can see from past posts knitting hasn't always been my obsession. I usually rotate through different crafts and do different things. Right now though I'm knitting and I love it.

I moved to Australia in the beginning of December to be with my fiance after 2 years of online dating. I've left everything behind, all my craft stuff. Some of it I boxed up to be sent over later and some I have to my mother and my sister to use and keep. My mother knits and quilts and my sister cross stitches. I hope they can make use of my huge stash. I have been collecting craft stuff for so many years that they should have plenty to keep them busy for a while now.

I'm making 2 projects right now, and though I've had to frog them a couple of times, they are coming along nicely. Slowly but nicely. My first project is a blanket for this lovely lady. She is my fiance Peter's baby and is very special to him. She is a lovely kitty with a calico body and a cute tiger striped face. Though she does have a touchy temper and a very unique personality. I think she is rather beautiful though. Her blanket is a mesh of two washcloth designs from www.knittingknonsense.com. Kate the Cat Cloth and Cat's Paw are the two I used to make Tamika's blanket. I did it in two parts and if I get permission from the author i will post my pattern here. I knitted it into 8 squares the cat then paw, cat then paw on the bottom, and paw then cat, paw then cat on the top with some knits around the edges and between the squares for boarders and as I said I did it in two sections cause I only had straight needles. When I post the pattern I will try to put in up so it can be knitted on circular needles.

I chose a lovely pink 4 tone yarn that is close to what Peter says is Tamika's color. He wanted straight hot pink but I'm having trouble finding craft supplies here in town. I'm having to order most everything that I want online at the moment. I hope that will change in the future though as I would love to just pick a project, go to the store and find what I want for that project and take it home that very day.

I got the idea for a pet blanket for Tamika while I was hunting through the lovely patterns on Raverly. They have so many fun things, not to mention groups you can join with like minded people in then who share you addiction...I mean passion and creativity. Just google Raverly to find the site, join up and start knitting and talking the very same day. The cat blanket I originally wanted to do was one that was a solid color of garter stitch with knits around the edge and a cat face with whiskers and pretty glass eyes in one corner, but the pattern was in Chinese and I couldn't understand it so I started fishing through things trying to come up with something for the Meek a girl as that was what I was keen on at the time. I found first the kitty washcloth pattern and then the one for the paw and al presto chango a Tamika blanket was born. When I post my modified pattern on here I will also throw up original photo's by the designer so you can really see what the pattern is suppose to look like, as doing this in a variegated yarn has made the pattern very hard to see with the naked eye let alone in a picture. Though I think its just lovely just the same and it reminds me of her fur.

The second project I'm working on is a scarf for me. The Irish Hiking Scarf by Adrian Bizillia. Her website is www.hellowyarn.com and she has some very lovely patterns. This patter and others are also available free on the Raverly site. How I found the pattern is kinda fun and though it is almost 2 years late for the Kal/Cal it was originally knitted for I thought I would do it anyway as I love love love cables. They are so much fun to do. I'm doing this one in a deep purple so the stitches are a bit hard to see at times with the lighting I'm forced to use at this time and I've had to frog twice so far but I'm not giving up. it is a lovely pattern and I'm determined to get it right. I am really enjoying knitting it though, or trying to knit it I should say. Its been so long since I've done cables but oh boy am I having fun with them.

I am teaching my fiance how to knit, well trying to, because its relaxing and he needs that right now. He also finds the process rather fascinating and I love sharing things I love with people. He catches on so fast and one of these days a week I will show his progress and talk about how well he is doing if he is still sticking it out and the like. I hope he does, he picked it up rather fast and it would be fun to maybe make a blanket or something with him. Each of us making a squares and then we form them into an Afghan in the end. I've suggested this but after my showing him how interested I am in cables I think he got a little intimidated. I will have to let him cool a little and then try to pull him back in, if I can.

I started a knitting journal and I'm rather proud of it, I thought it was a great idea as I don't have access to a printer right now so I can't print my patterns off and it gets rather annoying to have to check the computer screen every couple of rows to make sure that I'm doing them write. I can also add notes on my little tweeks so that I can post them at a later date on the Raverly site and here on my blog. Anything to make a pattern easier to work is a big fat plus in my book.

Ah well that is a week in the life of my lovely projects. Next week will see more goodies and probably some of the same but farther along or finished. We will just have to see. Until tomorrow have a great night and happy knitting.

Love and Light

Tracey