Mission Knittin'

You should see the basket sitting on the end table next to our couch.  It is filled with half-used balls of yarn.  And then there is another basket in the cabinets in our bedroom that is also mostly full of half-used balls of yarn.  Seriously, they are everywhere.  I have usually have no idea what to do with them.

I eliminated quite a few when I made a scrap blanket, but it's not very big and we use it to line Hyperion's travel carrier.  I've started a second that I think we'll use in Hecate's carrier, but there has to be a better way to use fragment yarn.

And I think I've found it.  I love making things for my family and myself.  The look of appreciation on my sister's face at Christmas when she opened the hat and wristers I made for her was pretty great.  But there is a whole other group of people I think I should be making things for. 

All of these partial-skeins can be put to good use and I encourage anyone who feels the same to join me.  I am going to attempt to use my yarn fragments to make hats for newborn babies at hospitals.  Or for children and mothers and give them to domestic violence shelters.  Or mittens and gloves (as soon as I learn to make fingers) and hats for homeless shelters.  There are several large groups of people who could  do with good warm mittens or hats or whatever.  And now that I've started mastering using color, they can also be something nice to look at, something to be proud of. 

I'm thinking of starting a blog to chronicle the progress of this new mission....

Creative Successes...or not

I decided to skip the customary "Christmas post" this year.  However, I am going to say we had a lovely Christmas and we hope you did too.  One of the best Christmas gifts I got was a whole ton of yarn.  It's true.  My mom set a big red bag down in front of me and it was filled with all different kinds of yarn and the needles I had asked for.  Then Elizabeth got me two skeins each of two really pretty yarns that I had pointed out to her before.  Seriously, I got a ton of yarn.  Therefore, I have been knitting a lot lately.  I found the cutest pattern for a hat that's a daffodil.  Adorable.  And one of the yarns in the bag my mom gave me was a pretty bright yellow, so...

I know that's not the best background for this picture. This hat was also my very first experience with two-color knitting at the same time.  It was kind of intense, but I think it came out well and made me want to really understand colorwork knitting.  This yellow yarn was a very large skein, so I made a pair of my favorite booties to go along with it.

As you can see, I had a little trouble at the front of the one on the right, but apart from that, I think they look awesome.  I also practised a little bit with knitting stripes.

Much better than I anticipated for my first try.  And just for fun, I used some of Elizbeth's yarn to make mittens for myself.  I love them.

But not all my creative Christmas presents had to do with knitting.  My mother-in-law bought me an adorable sewing box and stocked it with many of the essentials, which I did not have.  It was an incredibly thoughtful gift.  For some reason, though.  I cannot make my sewing machine work for me.  I was attempting to make curtains for Nathan's office and I could not get the machine to make real stitches.  I tried everything I could think of and things that were suggested by others.  Then, somehow, the tip of the needle in the sewing machine broke off.  I don't understand how that happened.  I hope sometime in the near future to get the machine figured out.  I have high hopes of making myself some cute summer skirts and sundresses.