I received from PatriaE today!  It was so exciting!!

First, I got 3 reusable shopping bags.  Clara must be psychic, because I always need more of them!  I walk to the grocery store, and many of my bags are getting worn out.  And to make it even better, it says "I love math," "math is fun," and "(mathy symbols)" on them!  Now they can't be stolen!  My favorite is the "I love math," as that's my Ravelry name  



 
Next, I got an apron!  I love aprons, but can never justify buying one, and it's in blue, one of my favorite colors!  Even better, it fits around my neck without me having to make an extra knot! Yippee!


A gummi bear shirt!  It fits!  It's adorable!  I'm wearing it a we speak!  It's soft! It's purple!  I love purple! Exclamation point!




And a freakin amazing pillow!  It has these awesome ties so I can read a book WHILE KNITTING!  I used it today, and now I can super-multitask!  And of course, green is another favorite color

 
Action shot!


Clara, you rock my socks.  I can't even pick a favorite among these things because they all rock!!! Thank you so much!

I was going to wait and take some nice pictures of the sets, but I don't get home before the sun sets and the lighting sucks in the home.  I made these toys and blankets for my twin nieces that are due in December or January.  They're girls, but parents wanted a little more gender-neutral colors.  The animals were fun to knit but I really like the elephant more... after I add eyes.  The dino has a funny head... but I made it to tie in with the color combo I used for the pinwheel blanket.  I used Lion Cotton-Ease for everything.

Elephant is from: http://susanbanderson.blogspot.com/
Dino from: Knitted Toys by Zoe Mellor

It's been awhile... I've been good with Ravelry but not my dear Craftster!  This scarf is from Vogue Knitting Spring/Summer 2005.  Once you realize what you're doing, the pattern isn't hard-- easily memorized.  But the first couple rows can be confusing.  The pattern called for two skeins of Blue Sky Alpaca Silk, but I stopped at one-- it was long enough.  Blocking was very easy.  And it's soft as a baby's butt!

Here's my hat!  I used one ENTIRE skein of Manos del Uruguay, held double.  I added a couple rows before decreasing, and then added a few more rows near the end.  I need to recenter the button on this, but after that, yippee!!
Thanks for the pattern!  I will be making my husband one this time... actually, this was supposed to be his, but I ran out of yarn.   

All done... also in yellow!  It's Lion Brand Cotton Ease... took less than a month.  I ended up using 3x5 card and writing each row on a separate card, and then flipped through the cards as I went.  I never fully memorized the pattern.

Thanks to the O.K. (Original Knitta), we have this pattern: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=86155.0

It took me less than a month of knitting (including school starting up again-- I'm a teacher), and just over 4 skeins of Lion Brand Cotton Ease.  Fun and easy!  I'm not sure how well Cotton Ease blocks, but I'm going to wash it with some fabric softener to soften it up a bit.

Thanks for looking!

Hello!  I wish I knew about this board before I got married.  We were married a week before Halloween and couldn't afford floral centerpieces.  Solution?  The pumpkin patch!  My husband and I bought 15 white pumpkins and carved the table number into each pumpkin.  We also carved three larger pumpkins with our first name initials and my new last name's initials (so, P, A, & G... or GAP?).  We bought a bunch of smaller mini pumpkins and gourds to decorate the reception-- an auto museum.  After the wedding, all the guests with kids took the pumpkins home for their kids.  Much fun!  The leaves you see in the centerpiece pic are nice paper cut in leaf shapes with a heavy-duty die cut from the elementary school that I worked at.





To keep the car theme... my husband had an extra car hood from a car he gutted.  He spray painted it black and we made it our own guest book.  It hangs on the wall.



...and some cars to appreciate
 



Thanks for looking!

Pattern (10-cable hat) from:
heyjulie.wordpress. com/2006/08/18/cabled-baby-hats/
Yarn: Less than half a skein each of Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton
Needles: 7
Time: Less than one day each

Notes: The yarn I used was thicker than the yarn she used in the pattern, so for the smaller baby hat, I decreased by 32 stitches (two repeats of the two-cable pattern), and cut out 3 rows of the K6, P2. For the larger baby hat, I decreased by 16 stitches and knit all rows as listed. I think the smaller hat is too small... maybe a preemie size. I think the larger hat is about the size for a one-year old. We'll see.   I took a picture next to a dollar bill to give a point of reference.. I have no idea how big these hats should be to actually fit a baby.  Thanks for looking!

My friend is having a baby but isn't going to find out the sex of the baby until it's born... so I did the boring thing and bought some stuff from the registry with plans to knit a stuffie when I had time.  Everything on the registry was organic, so I decided to use my Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton with size 6 needles.

I present to you Oliver the Organic Teddy Bear!

Getting some sun for once in San Francisco!




Pattern from:
http://www.berroco.com/exclusives/foliage_bear/foliage_bear.html

Their bear looks like he's garter stitch, but the pattern said that the stockinette was the right side.  Oh well.  It took about 4 hours of knitting and 2 hours of seaming (urgh)... I only used half a skein of the cotton!  Very fun knit 

Unlike the rest of the world, San Francisco is colder than $*@#&* right now... in my view.  My mom asked me to help her make some scarves for some relatives, and I took a break from baby knits to open my own sweatshop.  One done, who knows how many more to go!

I totally recommend the pattern.  It's super duper easy and it knits up quickly!  It has a "self-tying" feature-- there's a loop on one end of the scarf, and you pull the other end of the scarf through it.  The first picture shows where that loop is (up at the neck).  I also included closer-up pictures of where that loop is.  It's so easy!

P.S. I take goofy pictures.  It's the only way I will get in front of the camera.  You should see the family Christmas cards.  My siblings hate me.

Some details:
Pattern in: Vogue Knitting Winter 2005/2006 Pattern #37 (Designed by Debbie Bliss)
Yarn: 1.5 skeins of Goddess Yarns "Jay" (70% Wool, 30% Alpaca, bulky)
Needles: 10.5 straight
Start & Finish: August 8, 2007 (~4 hours)