Christmas is here!

Well actually in 4 days, this will probably be my last blog of the year. I've sent/given most of my Christmas knitting presents.. whew ! I still have 3 hats, a scarf and a mitten to finish, it should be done before Christmas (cross fingers). At least all the ones that needed to be mailed were already sent out. I think I will have to start earlier next year if I want/decide to do this again. I wish I had taken pictures of the presents before sending them out but I was too much in a rush. I also got to see a friend today, we use to work together before I quit.I gave her their presents, she also gave me one of her homemade pie and a cake, she's wonderful and she looks really good. I do wish I'm back to work, well maybe :) I will cut this blog short as I need to finish a few more projects so enjoy your day !

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Yummy cake given to me by my friend Rachel, it looks so good! I had to take a picture before it disappears.

 

WIP Wednesday and Totoro Hat

10 days before Christmas! Oh my., I started knitting Christmas presents since August and still I have more to go at least in my mind. I should just be happy on what I have now instead of thinking adding more stuff like hats, mitts to go with the scarf. On top of that I will have to wrap and mail them too.And then I have some other projects in between. Well today's WIP Wednesday is a Faire Isle ear flap hat for Brianna's mom. My daughter gifted her an ear flap hat last week for her birthday and Brianna's mom loved it so Brianna ask(thru my daughter) if I can make one for her mom and she will supply the yarn (how sweet!). I told her I'll make one and not to worry about the yarn since I have the blue and white in my stash.I also finished my daughter's Totoro Hat and of course as usual it was small , thank God for blocking. I keep on forgetting to adjust the size even if the instructions says it will fit an adult head :)
Here are my pictures, enjoy and have a nice day!

Totoro Hat! If you are wondering what Totoro is, It was a character from a Japanese fantasy anime movie called My Neighbor Totoro.

Earflap hat, I still have to work on the sides and ties!

Those little voices in my head....

Did you ever have that time when you just want to scream at your brain to stop thinking, I swear sometimes i want to have an on and off switch for my brain to stop running a million miles per hour :D There is so much to do and so little time maybe because it is just 16 days before Christmas and I'm not finish with my knitting presents, I need to do some finishing touches on some and additional accessories, i guess others will have store bought  presents or a Christmas card (that's it). I have to buy the Christmas tree so we can start decorating for Christmas, my son put up Christmas lights and decorations outside yesterday and I did some garage cleaning, the girls dump all their new guitar boxes ( they had an early Christmas present from their dad) need more work but its less clutter. We also have some home improvement going on,replace the sink, needs new carpet, paint the girls room, fixed backyard, we're also turning a loft into a bedroom for my son, he use to have his own room and the girls shares a room but when he went to college the youngest one took over his room and when he came back she would not give it up, both girls want to have their own room. It would be less of an issue if we do not have to submit a permit but of course we have to follow the rules and go thru proper procedure, we decided to build it ourselves (which means hubby and son) since it is cost effective but this person at the city building department is giving us a hard time when we try to submit the plan requirements, she knows we are not engineers/architects and kept on asking for stuff we do not understand instead of explaining it layman's term. She scribbled some notes on the papers and basically shun us out and told us they will be closing soon and she has other people waiting. We'll try again Monday and hopefully get a more helpful person. And also I need a job, left my job 3 months ago reason would be another story. I'm trying to write all this out so my brain will stop thinking. Of course I still worry about my children constantly and my mother who is in the Philippines, it's her birthday on Christmas day I wish I could be with her , have not seen her for more than 3 years. Oh and I was also able to finish the baby blanket, hat, booties and mitts that I was knitting in time but my nephew has to delay his flight to Australia, he was in a car accident, he is alright but needed some medical attention. That would give me more time to make another set of baby stuff . I'm currently working on a Totoro hat for my daughter, still have my lace shawl on hold :( wont be able to work on that until next year. My other daughter and my son is also requesting for beanie hats. I better stop this and start knitting. Enjoy your day!
Here are some pictures of the baby stuff I made :)

 

Lifelines in knitting

Wow it's November already, hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween, I still have sugar rush just by giving treats to little monsters and also big ones in my neighborhood. I manage to have 3 projects in my needles so far, 2 projects are pretty much the easy shawl and the one row scarf, yes I'm still working on my Christmas presents, hopefully ill get them done by the end of this month. I actually challenge myself by knitting my first lace shawl. I use a pattern that I got from Ravelry, it should be a beginner lace shawl/shawlette but I actually frogged it so many times but I am not going to give it up, so far I am on Row 9 ... 63 more to go :D and I do not want to ripped my project back from the beginning if I make another mistake which I am sure will happen so I decided to try the lifeline which is pretty much a scrap yarn threaded through the live stitches on the project, as you continue knitting,the scrap yarn will stay on the stitches and if for some reason you make or I make a mistake and needs to rip back I only have to rip back up to the lifeline (scrap yarn on your stitches), this makes a lot of sense and it would help prevent frustration from starting all over again especially when working on lace pattern. On the picture below is what i have knitted so far and as you can see there is a white scrap yarn for my lifeline, I will keep going and plan to place lifeline maybe every 5 rows just to be safe. I will try to post more pictures of my progress. Happy Knitting!!

Your Yarn is the STAR!!

I love working with yarns that have texture like boucle, fun fur ,homespun etc.. They always give you different final product and you don't have to use difficult pattern. I have always just use garter stitch to make simple scarf and yet they look like something that was complicated ( from a non knitter point of view :D ). 

I tried using lace patterns on some yarn with texture but ended up frogging them in the end since the designs does not show much. For me just using plain knitting works well with textured yarn. I found this yarn from my stash and taught I could make another scarf to add to my Christmas knitting projects/presents.This should not take long as I'm using a size 17 needle and just knitting every row.  Ill post a picture once its done. Happy Knitting..

This is what i have done so far:

Knitting Christmas presents...

So I finally decided that I will be gifting knitted items as presents for Christmas, this is a gutsy move for me as I have never given any of my knitted projects except of course to my own children and husband. I've knitted tons of scarves and hats. My daughters would have scarf and hats to match any of their outfit, the only problem is they can only wear them during winter here in California. I am making really simple shawls for my sister in laws and female friends , scarf and hats for boys and male adult.  So far I have finished 3 shawls and more to go.I have all the yarn I need for the project but  I feel that I need more yarn , as every knitter will say you can never have too much yarn :D. I will be taking pictures of my finished projects and share them here. In the meantime.. Happy Knitting and Be well.