Guest Room

Remember Project Grellow? Our spare room was to be decorated as a guest bedroom. Well, I'm so proud of how it all turned out. Here's the room, all cleared out and ready to be painted and furnished.The grey went on the walls and the furniture was delivered and assembled.
Bedding next.
Artwork hung.
The butterfly sampler was made using this tutorial. It was so easy I could hardly believe it - DO check it out.
This is my only disappointing piece in the whole room. The fabric is still rumpled, even after ironing and mounting. I still like the embroidery though.
A basic granny square pillow. Random(ish) stripes grace one side....
while the other side is one round of each colour. Ravelry project page here.
My mom and her husband enjoyed the room when they were here for 10 days over Christmas. It now has another occupant, but that's a post for another day ......

Happy Birthday to me :0)

I had to show you this cute picture the boys gave me for my birthday. It's perfect for above my office 'desk'.And that there 'book' is my new nook tablet, thanks to Santa for that :0) I've been reading the 2nd book in the Hunger Games series on it. Haven't got very far yet, what with all the partying and whatnot, but enjoying it as much as the 1st. It's great for carrying around knitting pattern pdf's too - no more printing for me!

Hubbs sent me this little glass token from England. "Friends for Life", that's us :0) Here's a linky if you like it. She always finds the cutest stuff.
Lastly, here's a treat for the kitty fans (that would be all of us then!). We are so lucky our next door neighbours have FOUR cats. You've met Oscar already, and now here's MamaKitty. She's recently taken a shine to meowing at our back door. Isn't she a beauty :0)
Now we're off to the movies to see The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. DH finished the book yesterday, so we're both raring to go.

Happy Monday y'all.

disco xo

A New Year, A New Sock

I'm starting this New Year with a Mystery Sock. Everyone's favourite IrishGirlie has designed for the Sock Knitter's Anonymous group on Ravelry. The sock's name is Blathnat, which means "little flower" in Gaelic. Pronounce it Blaw-nit.

Wanting to use stash as much as possible this year, I chose one that was well marinated - Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in Loden. A fresh green to go with the flowery theme.

Go to the name link above to download the 1st clue. Clue are posted on Jan 1st, 8th, 15th and 22nd, and best of all, this pattern is FREE!!!

Happy New Year, y'all!

disco xo

2011 The Year of the Hat!

I started this year with a goal in mind. A hat per month. Use up some stash and try some quick, fun projects. I made a strong start with Molly in January,Monkey Bones Super Slouch in February,
and Ripley in March.After that, things got kind of off track during the summer. I'd been waiting forever for Carrie to write up the pattern for the Uncle Frank hat and as soon as Dear Baby Francis came out, I was all over it. That's for a total of 4 so far.For Christmas, Hubbs asked for a Freestyle Snowboarder's hat to match her skiing coat, in brown and black. I haven't blogged this one, as it was finished over this busy Christmas period, but it's made with Debbie Bliss's Alpaca Silk Aran.Hubb's hubby needed a hat too. So I whipped him up a Fine Fella - same as the one I made my own hubby earlier this fall, for a total of 7. Phew, over halfway to 12.

I had forgotten about these two beauties until I was trawling through pictures for this post. They are two tiny baby hats I made for Teddy's teacher from 1st grade. She had her 2nd baby - a girl - and I whipped these up to keep her little head warm. Aaawww. I forget the yarns, but I think you can see the softness, right ;0)

My final unblogged and unphotographed completed hat, is Tiny Owl Knits' Orchids and Fairylights. I made it for my SIL's 40th birthday which was on 23rd December. Well, that'll explain that rush then! I'll get a photo of it one day....

There was one other hat, but that's in solitary confinement until I can work out/stop procrastinating on, what to do with it. It was Plicate by Hunter Hammersen. I used Toasted yarn from A Verb for Keeping Warm. Let's just say the yarn didn't work with this pattern and leave it at that.

So, that brings the total 2011 hats to 11. Not far off my goal, and mainly crammed into the last month of the year, but still, I had a lot of fun with them.

Tomorrow is another knitting year and I wonder what it will bring.......

Love Letters Socks

This is the third time I've knit this pattern. I LOVE the result. The little V's that make the heart shapes. The pattern change on the leg, to give opposite socks. The swathes of stockinette.But, I especially like the squiggly back and forth cables. They are fun to knit and look great.

Right now, they're winging their way to Wales, along with these other beauties (Honey Badger and Breaking Hearts), gifts for my Aunts and Cousin. Do you think they'll like them? };0)

Pattern: Love Letters by Irishgirlieknits

Yarn: Socks That Rock Lightweight

Colourway: Rosebud

SNAP!

I saw Zonda's Dear Baby Francis socks and thought I really should post pics of mine too.

Knit in Kollage Sock-a-Licious, the are squishy and stretchy. The cables make the socks look small, but of course, they also make them stretchy, so they should fit a little one for quite a few months. Behold, their cuteness.....

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In other "snap" news, that's what my nerves almost did when I realised I'd left my Christmas shopping late. I ordered some things from amazon on Sunday night and was given a delivery date estimate between 18th and 24th Dec. Cutting it close, or what! Since when did on-line ordering for Christmas delivery have to be done in November?! Oy! Now I have to go mall shopping }:0(

Happy Holidays peeps }:0)

Home-a-Rama Pillows

I have a wonderful friend here in the Charlotte 'burbs, Michele, who's an awesome crafter and artist. She gives art & craft lessons to our local community and makes the most beautiful things for her home. Go see the loveliness she has for sale in her Etsy shop .

A couple of months ago, Michele was working on a room design project for a local builder's "Home-a-rama". She was to decorate a girl's bedroom and a 'jack and jill' bathroom. She made all the fabric soft furnishings, but wanted a bit of extra texture, so asked me to make a couple of pillows.

Here they are, in all their disco glory.
Michele chose the colours, and I whipped up this granny square beauty.Other side......Buttony closure. No need for button holes. The granny square has them built-in.

This next one was knit, but I crocheted the two sides together in the contrasting green - yes, I am loving the crochet right now ;0)

Buttons courtesy of Michele's vast volumes of vintage. Couldn't resist that bit of alliteration. Carry on! And some duplicate stitch stems in that contrasting green, to tie it all together."Patterns", as such, are as follows:

GRANNY SQUARE PILLOW

You'll need not quite 6 skeins of "kitchen cotton", a 5mm hook and as many buttons to fasten as you'd like.

Front: Make 17 rounds of "Granny Square" pattern. Here's a good tutorial from Purl Soho.

Back: Same as Front

To make-up: Crochet 3 sides of the pillow together. Sew on buttons.

This should give you a pillow size around 16" square.

STRIPED PILLOW

You'll need not quite 4 skeins of "kitchen cotton", a 5mm needle for the stockinette stitch stripes and a 4.5mm needle for the moss stitch. Use however many buttons to fasten as you'd like. Oh, and don't forget the crochet hook for making up.

Back of Pillow - Cast on 74 sts. Knit 39 stripes in stockinette stitch - 2 rows of each colour. Bind off.

Front of Pillow (Top) - Cast on 74 sts. Knit 26 stripes in stockinette stitch, then 8 rows of moss st. Bind off

Front of Pillow (Bottom) - Cast on 74 sts. Knit 8 stripes in stockinette stitch, then 3 rows of moss st. Insert button-holes at appropriate places on next row of moss st. Knit 4 more rows of moss st. Bind off.

To make-up - crochet the outside edges of the pillow together. Sew on buttons. Duplicate stitch the flower "stems". Sew on Flower buttons.

This should fit a 12"x16" pillow form. My gauge was around 4.5/5 sts per inch.

Stockinette Stitch: knit one row, purl the next.

Moss Stitch: knit one, purl one. On the following row, purl the knits and knit the purls.

Enjoy

Disco xo