Hello there. I'm a knitter in Taos, NM and was wondering if there was anyone else that wanted to form a knitting/craft circle.

I found this blue record and had originally planned to make a record bowl. But the blue color was awesome and I wanted to show it off more.

So I got a clock kit and made a clock. I decoupaged a pic in the center. The clock kit worked out great. For the 3, 6, 9 and 12 I used marble magnets. There's a magnet on the back of the record to hold the marble magnet on. That way I can change them out if I want to.

I needed to whip up a quick christmas present for a friend. This is a simple ribbed scarf knit on 6mm needles. It knit up fast!

A friend of mine recently had a hysterectomy so as a get well present I decided to make her the womb from Knitty's winter issue. It turned out so cute! I finished it fast too-only took two days.


The fallopian tubes are bendable so you can pose her:

My husband bought me some beautiful yarn for me awhile back. I tried making a shawl from knitty.com but the yarn I have was so fuzzy the drop stitch on the edges didn't work.

So I decided to figure out a shawl pattern myself. I searched thru craftster and found someone said you could make a shawl my simply increasing 1 stitch on each end. I cast on 10 stitches, increased 1 stitch on both ends on the knit rows and knit it up in stockinette stitch. I stopped when it looked wide enough and added fringe for decoration. I used size 10 needles to make it really airy.

I wanted a simple pattern to showcase the yarn because it's absolutely beautiful. The yarn is handpainted mohair and was bought off ebay. I think the brand was Over the Rainbow Yarns but I've had this yarn for a few years and am not 100% sure of that.
 
Here's the kitty, approving of my work.


And another pic.

I had just a little bit of fun fur left from my crocheted cat bed project and I decided to knit it up into a cat toy. I just knit a little square and then stuffed it with a bit of scrap foam and handsewed it closed. I had some scrap ribbon that I gathered up to braid into a tail and sewed it to the body. My kitty likes the toy and it's 100% recycled!

I had a skein of fun fur sitting around and finally made a fuzzy scarf. This was a relaxing easy project. I used size 11 needles, cast on 12 stitches and did stockingnette until I ran out of yarn. I'm really happy with how fuzzy it is!

I tried making the knit cat bed from the SnB book but for some reason it just wasn't working out. So I made a crocheted version. Basically I crocheted a large circle. Then I stopped increasing for the rim. I added some fun fur at the end for decoration. I folded over the rim and added foam to give it form. My kitty really likes it I just don't have a good picture of him in it.   

pic of bed


peek at the foam

You know that thin yarn that has little loops in it? It's so pretty and I had a skein of it I tried to make into a shawl. Unfortunately, knitty's pattern called for dropping stitches in the pattern so they would unravel in the trim. The loopy yarn sticks to itself making dropped stitches impossible.

I just frogged my effort and am reduced to a ball of yarn and frustration. 

I'd like to find another pattern for a shawl. Problem is the patterns I find are very design intensive and this yarn doesn't really show a pattern because it's so fuzzy.

Now there's the question of do I jump back in with this yarn and try another pattern or just step back and work on something else for awhile, preferably easy to soothe my fragile knitting ego.

So I tried making the cat toy and just feel lost.  

I've worked on DPNs before so that's not the trouble. I'm having problems understanding the increases.

For Row 3 it says:
Row 3: (K1, inc1) twice, k2(inc1, k1) twice.

Now at this point I start off with six stitches. So do I
knit 1, knit in the back for increase1, do this again, then for the k2 what do I do?
Do I do the (inc1, k1) for the k2 or do I do that after the k2?

Then I'm also confused on Row 7:
Row 7: (K3, m1) twice, k2, (m1,k3) twice

I looked up m1 and it means "make 1". How is this different from "inc1"?
Also for this row do I knit three stitches, then make a new stitch, then knit three more stitches, then make a second new stitch, then knit two, then make a third stitch, then knit 3, then make a fourth stitch then knit 3?

Whew! Thanks in advance, I'm quite perplexed.  

And one more thing. My smallest DPNs are only 5mm so I'm toying with the idea of doing it on 3.5mm straight needles and then stitching it up at the end. Would that work?