In a Blink of an Eye

And just like that, in a blink of an eye the Holidays are over. Our Christmas tree finally went down yesterday. I was kind of sad that the tree is gone and yet relieve that my living room is back to normal. Looking forward to December 2020.  I felt that I did not enjoy the tree enough this year, since we were in Maui for the Christmas Week. So you could say we had a Hawaiian Christmas :), it was windy and raining for the first 2 days but the rest of the week was sunny, we had to remind ourselves that it is December. We stayed in a property very close to the Kamaole Beach Sands in Kihei, I love that I could just walk to the beach. There was so much to do in Maui,  we did the Road to Hana,  Whale watching and Snorkeling, Luau, Sunrise at the Haleakala Summit, Lavender Farms and of course shopping. However if I ever visit Maui again, I will spend most of my time in the beach just relaxing. The sunrise and sunset we're amazing, I have 2 of my favorite pictures below that I personally took and of course I also included free knitting pattern with a Sunrise and Sunset design. Have you ever been to Hawaii? What is your favorite thing to do?


Below is the photo from the Sunrise at the Haleakala Summit!

©rogeliaskornerboutique

                                             

And here is a Ravelry free pattern for a Sunday Sunrise Shawl, it is my goal to knit this shawl.
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sunday-sunrise
© Tamás Kiss




                                  This one is the Sunset at the Kamaole Beach Sands!

©rogeliaskornerboutique

And of course here is a free pattern for a Sunset Shawl
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sunset-6
© letipanda



Have fun and enjoy your day:)

Shawls Are Not Just for your Grandma.... anymore!

I have started knitting shawls since January when I joined the Ravelry KAL (Knit A Long) Group12Dozen shawls in 20dozen. I must say it is very addicting, we knit different shawl every month, most of them are on my previous blog post.
It was my impression before that Shawls are just for Grandma's and/or elderly people but NOT ANYMORE! Once I have seen the different construction, design ,variety of styles of the shawls available for knitting , for sale in store/online,Shawls have evolved into one of the hottest  fashion trend.Shawls are made from,Silk to wool, cotton or any synthetic fiber .It can be use on Weddings, Proms, Dinner Party, Cocktail party ,any dressy occasion or just throw a lacy shawl with a pair of shirt and jeans. You can use it as a scarf, a hood, as a belt tied on your waist, or even as a headband.The versatility is endless.Shawls can be worn any season. A lot of women wear Shawls for dressing up or down around the world. So next time you see a Shawl, check it out, you will be happy you did! You can also visit my website Four Seasons Knits for my knitted shawls.

Check out this collage that shows how shawls have been one of the hottest fashion trend. Most photos are from the Internet. Enjoy!

HOT off the needle!!!!

I did it , Yes I did. I finish July shawl KAL project in 4 days including blocking. I was very hesitant in starting this project since I was not in the knitting mood at all but I want to complete the Shawl KAL that I signed up, the group is not strict about it but I want to do it for ME!.
I was leaning on knitting the Beginner choice Ashton but when they posted August Beginner choice  Budding Shawlette, i decided to use the yarn for it. There was 2 skein of  Simply Soft Caron in Autumn in my stash so I decided to do the Summer Flies. Once I cast on Summer Flies shawl, it just went so fast. The instructions were so easy , the FO's on the project page look all complicated but it was not. Another Instant gratification project to get my Knitting mojo back.
Happy knitting and Enjoy your day!
Here are some pictures!!!

April Shawl Haruni

Finished another Shawl for the April KAL, Haruni designed by Emily Ross. It was not an easy pattern, it took me longer to finish compared to the other previous months Shawl but I was very satisfied with the result. It came out bigger than I expected. I think it is so pretty, maybe next time I will make it in a colorful yarn. I steam block the finish shawl since it was an acrylic yarn, it took me almost an hour pinning the lace edge and  I did decided to do the crochet bind off. The finished project measures 28"L by 54"W and very flowy. I just don't know where to wear it. In the meantime it will be stored with my other shawls. Now onto May KAL, I don't really have anything I like between the May choices , Wingspan for Beginner and Tibetian for Advanced. The advanced choice is too way out of my league and the beginner choice does not appeal much. Well I have about a week or so to decide , if not I'll do a My Choice for next month. Good day to all and Happy knitting. Enjoy the pictures :D

Work in Progress (WIP)

I haven't blog anything about my knitting projects in about a month, I have been working on a Haruni Shawl which is the April Advance choice for my Ravelry KAL. I was brave enough to do the advanced choice this time. However I am also working on another easy shawl Meandering Vines, it is my tv knitting project, I got use to knitting something while watching TV, if not I feel like something is missing, if I'm not knitting while watching TV,it makes me feel so useless just sitting there (no offense to anyone,that's just me). Knitting Haruni needs a lot of concentration on my part so I knit that during my quiet time, early in the morning when everyone else is  sleeping or when I'm alone. It is almost done just 5 more rows then I will be binding off, there are 2 options to Bind off but I have not decided which one I will do, I'll make the decision when the time comes to bind off.Really glad there is so much support on the KAL group, they will be able to help me with that. In the meantime the Meandering Vines shawl is slowly getting there, The pattern looks complicated yet so easy to knit. This is something a beginning lace knitter will appreciate to knit. I have also been using my Knit picks Harmony needle and I would say I have made the right decision when I bought them. The needle points make it easy to knit lace and the long cables are very convenient. I don't think I will ever use straight needles again.As usual all the patterns and instructions are available at Ravelry. Come and join if you are not a member yet.
Happy Knitting and Enjoy your day!

This is the beginning of my Haruni Shawl

This is where I am now, almost done!

Meandering Vines Shawl, the pattern looks really nice.

Meandering Vines Shawl in progress

March Shawl plus one

Finished my Holden Shawl on March 2 *clapping* . I must say this is a very nice pattern and something I will make again in the future. I made this one bigger since I wanted a shawl but when I decided to make another one I would like to make it in a smaller size. And since I had finish the March project early I decided to knit another shawl  well actually it was a shawlette.It was an easy knit pattern, i was just not too crazy about all the purling but it turned out cute. I use some left over yarn from a baby project . The pattern name is Little Shells, available on Ravelry as a free download . I  love Ravelry ,they have reach their 2million member Congratulations!!!!.
Here are my finished Shawls. Enjoy your day!

This is the Holden Shawl, the designer Mindy Wilkes was inspired by the waves of the Holden Beach in Northern Carolina.

 And this one is called Little Shells. They do look like little shells, don't you think?

Make your own Stitch Markers

So I have been  making stitch markers lately, how and why you might ask. Since I was knitting shawls for the KAL ( knit a long) I have seen other knitters projects with all this pretty stitch markers and they look  beautiful on the needles and projects, they call it Jewelry for your knitting/crocheting projects, and of course I like to have some. I started looking online specifically on etsy. I have found a lot of them pretty and  interesting but they cost $10 to $18 for 4-6 stitch markers. I thought maybe I could just make my own.I've seen most of them are made with beads, I remember that my daughters used to make stuffs with beads awhile back so I went looking for it, when I finally found them, it took about 4 hours for me to organized the beads by colors and sizes. I found a You Tube video that shows how to make the stitch markers. I will include it on this post. I went to local Walmart to buy the tools, I would have used my husbands but the pliers were too big.  Surprisingly they do not cost much ,the set was for $8.00 which includes a wire cutter, long nose and chain nose pliers( on a later trip I also saw one at Michael's for $10 and it has 5 different pliers), a bag of  flat head needle for $2. And there I go. The first few ones were wonky and the wires were  bent from too much twisting. The hardest part was trying to put the wire inside the bead to close it up. The more I make the easier it gets and it was really fun trying different combinations of the beads. And here some pictures. Enjoy!

And here is the You Tube Video Tutorial!

It's MONDAY...

Weekend went by fast, didn't get any knitting done,Saturday morning was nice, it was raining, i love the rain then we went to my brother in laws house to celebrate his birthday and watch the Pacquio Vs Marquez fight, it was not as exciting as their previous fights, oh well both of them made so much money. Sunday was laundry day and did some organizing around the house.We are also trying to replace all the faucets in the house, so much work so little time. Housechores gets in the way of my knitting :)



Oh!I have to post this picture of my new styrofoam head, it came in Thursday, my daughter told me it creeps her out:D , she looks great to me.



 
I also made some progress on my lace shawl, It seems I have been knitting this for a long time and yet it still looks small even for a shawlette, did 3 repeats of the lace pattern already. I will make sure to use lace needles next time since the needles I am using is blunt, it makes it harder and slower to work on the yarn, in fact I decided to stop working on it until I get a lace needle. I have ask some knitting friends on g+ what will be the best knitting lace needles, got several suggestions and I will either order online but  will visit my local yarn store (lys) first to see if they sell any. I normally go to Joann's but they do not sell the lace needles in-store.
Well here are the pics Happy knitting and have a fun Monday!

WIP Wednesday

Happy WIP Wednesday! What do I have on my needle right now? Hmm, lets see a Lace shawl, another shawl, a scarf, a cowl and a helmet liner. What did I get myself into. I'm suppose to have only 3, oh well I guess I have to control  myself casting on another project until I finished one. Speaking of finish project I was able to make me a fingerless mitts yesterday, my hand got so called on MOnday and I could not knit wearing gloves, i'm glad i actually finish it or else it will be the 6th project on my needle. Moving on to my Lace Shawl ,so far so good, I'm on the last row of the lace repeat, I'll probably do one more repeat (oh no!!), since it seems really small, of course I'm still keeping my lifeline, especially now that I have gone that far, probably farther if I just work on this one, good luck on that, I tend to work on other projects when I get too tired of the pattern or gets frustrated, that's why there's always an easy project on my needles to switch into just to get me going. Enough of my babbling, here are some of my pictures. Enjoy your day and keep on knitting, i know I will :)

Here is my progress on the lace shawl that I am working on , the cable needle does not want to cooperate hence the wonky edge, Hopefully next picture will be a finished project.

Finished Fingerless mitts :)

This photo shows folded cuffs!

Shawl/Shawlette Progress....

Okay so far I made it to the first 22 rows of lace and working on the repeats. I did not have to ripped back my work since I have place a lifeline but im still keeping it just in case.It looks wonky right now hopefully it will look better after blocking.

Happy knitting and Enjoy your weekend!!

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!!

Gem's Purple Shawl

I finally finished the shawl,I'm making for my friend Gem. I hope she will like it.

Here it is...