Baby Cardigan

I started this project for a friend's baby shower. 1-2 YEARS later I've finally finished the product! This is the first cardigan I've ever made and I'm happy with the results. Even though now it is to small for the young baby girl, I'm hoping having it modeled on Royal the the Bear for her to have will be enough to keep her happy. The pattern is by Lion Brand. I also LOVE that it can be completed with only ONE skein of Lion Brand's Pound of Love yarn.

Knitted Baby Cardigan on Royal the Bear

Knitted Hand Warmers

These were also originally intended as a Christmas present for Shelby that never got done in time. The pattern was simple and easy. Even though self-striping yarn in usually tacky, I found that it worked well in this instance and was a combination of our two favorite colors: blue and green. The only thing I despise about my work on this project is a couple of ladders. I still haven't been able to rid myself of ladders in my projects. Although I did find an awesome article on TECHknitting to help me achieve success next time. Techknitting is also a great site to check out in your free time and helps to solve a lot of those regularly experienced knitting problems.

Knitted Hand Warmers

Balloon Bunny

I couldn't of been more happy when I found this pattern that combines two things I love: crochet and balloon animals. The pattern can be found here on Lionbrand's site. I do agree with a lot of the comments on Ravelry about it though. People have suggested decreasing stitches to, and increasing after those areas that would later be tied together. The tying was definitely the most frustrating part of this otherwise quick and fun knit.

This project was meant as a Christmas present, last year, for the great miss Dawn, owner of Balloon Inspirations. Once I started the project (which admittedly took a lot longer than I meant it to) I kept waiting until until I finished it to visit again. Once I finally completed the bunny I drove up to see a 'Space for lease' sign hanging in the window of the store. It was empty. I have seen this happen way to often with Kearney's small businesses and it breaks my heart.

On the bright side Dawn's website it still up and running. So, send her a message telling her Andrew sent you, and support Balloon Inspirations.

Purple Knit Bunny & Blue Balloon Bunny


Purl-ple Knitted Bunny :P

3.14

HAPPY PI DAY! That's right, it's already March 14th. Call me a geek and a math dork, but pi day is probably my favorite holiday. Eat circular foods, break out that protractor, and have a blast. Unfortunately I didn't have my geeky friends to hang out with, because their busy enjoying the spring break. The up side? I was finally able to get a good start on my pi hat!

Christmas Creations- Emily

Emily is great soccer player and after some ravelry searches this pattern fit perfectly. Little did I realize how much of an undertaking this was. It's made out of 20 white hexagons and 12 black pentagons. Each piece took approximately twenty minutes to make with at let 5 hours of sewing time. The sweet thank you message from her made it very rewarding though.

Because of the crazy amount of time this project took I told myself I wouldn't be making it again for a long while, but there are some definite changes I'd like to do he second time around.

1. Make 1 instead of yarn over. In the pattern there are spots where it says, "p1 between stitches." After searching I couldn't find what this meant. I ended up doing a yarn over in these places which ended up leaving holes. Instead where the pattern says, "p2, p1 between stitches," I would p1 and kfb to increase without leaving holes.
2. Make sure to sew the right sides together. This is a simple tip for better looking edges. The places where it's most prominent that I didn't do this is where the white meets the black and the whip stitch is highly visible.
3. Split up the sewing into small pieces. This way you'll avoid the 5 hour sewing marathon at the end. This would especially help those like me who hate the finishing process by splitting it up into smaller bunches.

Knit Soccer Ball


Soccer Ball Pattern

Christmas Creations- Dad

Dad is always the hardest person to make something for. After a bunch of searching I found an awesome pattern for a beer coozie that looks like a sweater. This was also my first time using double pointed needles an I'm very happy with the results.

Knit Beer Sweater


Beer Sweater Pattern- avalible as a free Ravelry download

I also wanted to do something video game related and decided to try my hand at perler beads. After looking at the Sprite Stitch forums I found a free cross stitch charting program called KG Chart. It works great & provides more uses than just cross stitch. My dad's favorite vintage video game is Duck Hunt, so I set out on making some Duck Hunt perler bead magnets. I hadn't used perler beads since daycare and am now happy to present these two Duck Hunt fridge magnets.

Blue Duck Hunt Pixel Magnet


Black Duck Hunt Pixel Magnet

Christmas Creations- Aunt

One of my aunts asked me to make some baby hats for her. I assumed it was for one of my cousins. So, I set out on a pattern from Michaels Book of Needlecrafts. I bought this book when I was starting knitting to have a multitude of knit and crochet crafts, but now I've realized that I don't like enough of the patterns. This is a book I recommend as a library rental first. Anyway, since my aunt lives on a farm, I wanted to make the blueberry hat. When I did the specified number of increases it looked too small, so I did an extra row of increase. When I finished, the hat ended up being big enough to fit my head. She didn't deserve to be left with just an over sized, albeit cute, hat. I made another hat using a pattern I found on ravelry. This one was knit so it could stretch, but was only big enough to fit an infant. She was thankful for both. Luckily she wanted to use the hats to take pictures of other babies (she's a photographer). I still want to try again someday, but was happy to at least provide a finished product.

Blueberry Baby Hat




Knit Infant Hat

Christmas Creations- Alex

This was made using the Lucha Libre pattern from the book Son of Stitch and Bitch. It's one of the few books with patterns for guys. Even though not all the patters aren't that attractive, there's still enough good content to be recommended as a great project book for guys.
I'd also like to mention this is my first time trying intarsia. I like how it turned out,but it could definitely be better. I'd liked to try it again to improve my skills. :D

Lucha Libre Ski Mask


Check out this link! Domiknitrix has a great tutorial series for intarsia.

Christmas in July

Let the posting continue! These scarfs were actually made back in the winter months, but this post goes perfect with Christmas in July. The green scarf is the first knitting project I ever started and the purple one in the first I ever finished. (Took a break from the small stitching of the green one to make the purple) :P I think the green needs some fringe, but overall I'm happy to see them completed. I'll be excited to wear these again next winter.

Green and Purple Knit Scarfs