One is never enough

They're like M&Ms or peanuts - one is never enough.  I've been making granny squares - the good old fashioned favourites and they are so addictive.

These ones will be going to Japan.  Knit4Charities had a CAL (crochet-a-long) last weekend when members had the opportunity to take part in being involved in a little history making.  A group of people in Japan are attempting to create the world's largest granny square blanket which will be entered in the Guinness Book of Records. The blanket will then be divided back into regular size afghans and donated to temporary housing facilities in Tohoku, Japan, to support victims of the March 2011 earthquake.  The largest crocheted blanket currently registered with Guinness World Records measures about 286 m2. To create a Granny Square blanket of equal size, they need at least 7,150 squares of 20 x 20 cm or 8 x 8 inch.

While on the granny square 'kick' I made these two for my Australiacrochet partner in the June round of the 2 x 7" square exchange.  Her colour choices are orange, lemon and pink so I hope these will be ok.

The girls who work with my daughter are asking if I'll be making the fingerless gloves again this year so I've been fiddling around a bit with a pattern which I think I'm now happy with. Instead of crochet cuffs (working into the back loops of sc) I wondered how knitted 1x1 rib would look with the rest crocheted.  I'm halfway through the second glove so will be able to show you a picture maybe tomorrow.

Other than grannies and gloves, I'm still working on the toddler's Tunisian jacket plus a few other UFOs.  From reading other people's blogs, I take comfort in knowing I'm not the only one who stumbles across an interesting pattern, prints it out for future use but can't wait to get started so runs off to the stash to grab some yarn and starts it straight away. Are you like that too?

 Just a 'heads up' for Aussie crocheters who are hooked on hooks. KnitPro have available a soft-touch hook which is VERY similar to the gorgeous Etimo hooks that have been my all time favourite and will probably remain so. However, the Etimo hooks are not available in Australia and to buy the set from overseas is rather expensive when you factor in the postage cost.  I bought some of the KnitPro hooks to give them a try and am very pleased with them.  At just $3.50 (Aus) a hook, how can you go wrong?  If you'd like to know where I bought mine, leave me a comment and I'll get back to you.

Hooked on Hooks

Yes, I'm well and truly hooked when it comes to trying new (to me) hooks and I couldn't resist this bargain.

All this for just $7.00AUD.  I bought these on eBay from a seller in Singapore who offers free shipping so it would have been very difficult to pass on this one. The hooks are comfortable to hold, very smooth and the throat is tapered like the Boye hooks.

My squares from the Australiacrochet 2 x 7" square exchange arrived the other day - isn't the squiggly one unusual?

Today I've been working on the child's Tunisian cardigan and am loving every minute of it. On Wednesday this week I had cataract surgery and I have to tell you I'm absolutely thrilled with the outcome. Everything is SO bright and the red yarn that I'm using is now about four shades brighter. You can see a little bit of it as background to the picture of the hooks above. Had to go straight to the optomestrist after the eye patch came off yesterday to get them to remove the glass from that side of my glasses as everything was blurry. Thank goodness you can't notice that the glass isn't there as I have to wait 4-6 weeks before they check to see if I need a new prescription.  I haven't been able to see so clearly for as long as I can remember.

I haven't shown you a pic of our furbabies for awhile so here they are, curled up on my daughter's legs while she also was having a catnap.  This folks, is not trick photography .... our dog Tasha, is indeed about half the size of Madison our cat !!

Sorry this is a bit blurry - lighting was lousy.

Yaaaayy

Finished !!  My personal challenge of 50 hats by the end of June has been achieved - whoopee.  Most of my hats were made for charity but number 50 was for a very special young man - my grandson. He plays in the under 10s footy team for West Belconnen Sharks and I wanted to give him something in his team colours. A hat and scarf seemed the obvious gift from Nanna ..

I gave it to him today when they called to pick me up to take me for a lovely Mothers Day lunch.

Bendigo Woollen Mills Luxury 8ply wool with 4.00mm needles and an Aussie hat pattern in the 9-12 year old size.  I think it is a bit big for him but at least it will keep him warm and he'll no doubt grow into it.

Its funny what was going through my head while I was doing all that 2x2 rib and getting very bored with it.  I worked out that I'd done about 10,500 stitches before the crown shaping ... hmm that's a lot of stitches for a kid's beanie.  Goodness knows how many stitches were in the scarf.  I think I'm going to have to do quite a bit of crochet this coming week for a little relief - have to get back to my Tunisian cardi and perhaps I'll dig out my wool eater blanket for a few more rounds.

Happy Mothers Day.

Mystery KAL reveal

Well, who would've known ??  Its a hat which I'm claiming as No. 47 in my 'personal hat challenge' of 50 by the end of June.  Actually I should be claiming it as two as its a reversible beanie but the organiser forgot to tell us when to change colours so my hat is almost identical both ways.

If you look at the picture in my last post, you'll see that when you sew up the seam and poke one end down into the other, it creates the reversible hat. The idea of the different colours is that you can see the 'other' colour through the eyelet holes. Instead of three colours as it apparently says in the pattern, I'm making another in just two colours, changing halfway up the rib section. I think it would look nicer like that.

While my mind was still on the hat thing, I decided to get on with it and finish my 50 asap so I can concentrate on other projects. My first thought was to quickly crochet a couple but then I figured it would be better to knit a couple of baby hats which are always needed by the charities I support and I think knitted hats are softer for babies. So, here are numbers 48 and 49 .. (yuk - don't like the variegation in the first one but I guess it will keep a little head warm)

I still have my grandson's footy hat and scarf to finish plus the second try of the KAL hat so when either of those are finished you'll hear the big YAAAAYY.

I want to show you this scarf I made last Friday. I'm rather partial to it and will keep this for myself. It was very quick and easy - only took one day. Its based on Paton's One Skein Crochet Scarf which was originally from "Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker" by Debbie Stoller. I modified the pattern a bit to make it wider and used Bendigo Woollen Mills 10ply Luxury with a 5.5mm hook. (Colour more like first picture)

The weather here in Australia is getting quite cold (particularly where I live) so I think this scarf will come in handy.

What could it be ?

Part 3 of the knitalong finished and I still haven't a clue ..

Part 4 arrived in my inbox this morning and all it involves is sewing the sides together - this would give a long tube without an opening. Next you have to push one pointy end inside the other.  Some group members are saying its a hat but why would you have a double thickness hat with the pattern on the inside as well as the outside? I'm baffled.  Guess we're just going to have to wait till the organiser has 'revealed all'. It has been fun - the knitting plus the chatter that has been going on in the group emails.

I forgot to mention yesterday that I'm still working on my tunisian cardi - I'm the master (or should that be mistress) of multi-projects-on-the-go-all-at-once. They say variety is the spice of life and believe me, I can sure do with some spice in life.

I downloaded two excellent apps for my iPhone today - "Knit-n-Count" and "Easy Stitch".  They were $2.99 each and I'm already thinking it was money well spent. There are stitch dictionaries, patterns, hook and needle conversions, row counters, pattern repeat counters, yarn guides and equivalents and so much more. If you have an iPhone and don't have these apps, I suggest you check them out.

Before I finish this post, I saw something funny on facebook that I'd like to share with you.

Meow I lay me down to sleep

I pray my bowl is full and deep

If I should rise before they wake

I will start to MEOW

Make no mistake !

~~~~~

22 Rows of Rib and Time for a Tim Tam

Phew .. I've just finished day 2 of a mystery knitalong with the Knit4Charities group. The Knitalong is a feature of the group's annual conference (Confab) and is something to do in between the different activities. The instructions are also posted on our group site for those of us who weren't able to make it to confab for one reason or another. Unfortunately, because of a couple of health issues, I wasn't able to attend this year but have been having fun with the mystery knitalong. Here was part 1 completed

At this point I wondered what we were making - perhaps a hat ?? Part 2 arrived at around midday today, and after 22 rows of rib, I'm not sure its a hat after all. What do you think? Wonder what it could be?

Sorry about the colour in the second picture - lighting is not so good at night. The first picture is very close to the actual colour. What has me puzzled is that somewhere along the line, another two colours will be used for this project. I've just received the email with Part 3 and at the end, after reducing down to 4 stitches it says to break off yarn - no mention of colour change. Now I'm really scratching my head. I hope to get Part 3 finished tonight as there is one more part which will be posted tomorrow.

Only one other FO to show you now and its this little doily which is very quick to make and ideal for a last minute gift.  I'm going to pop this one into a Mothers Day card I'm sending to my step-mother.

The pattern can be found here. Oh well, back to the knitting.