I pulled this yarn out of a sweater that I bought awhile ago! I hadn’t had the guts to rip it out before now, because I didn’t have a pattern to use it with. I finally found a pattern for a shrug that I really like, and I look forward to starting it sometime this weekend. Oh, did I mention the sweater? It was way too big and too long for me, and it had a ton of fringe on the end of the sleeves. I couldn’t do anything wearing this sweater, because the sleeves were about four inches too long! Let’s just say it’s quite a bit smaller now.

After much time with fussing around with increases and stitch counts, I finally finished my first pair of Fiber Trendsfelted clogs! To be able to get the correct stitch count, I had to use a “kfb” increase. Instead of two strands, I used a yarn very similar to Lopi. I was really surprised that they came out felted so completely! Although they were a size bigger than they were supposed to be, an extra felting in the washing machine and a run through the dryer shrunk them a bit. A hint would be to felt them a little bit smaller than what you need (about a half size) because they will stretch as you wear them. If you need to, you can always refelt them as they stretch later.

Finally! I got this pic posted of the second knit project that I did. I never did get around to using the pattern that I bought. I liked this cable pattern better. It ended up being a bit big, so next time I might take out a cable repeat on each side or something, and also not start the arm holes till later so they are not so big, but it is perfect for wearing something bulky underneath which I have done. It also keeps me super warm which I guess is it’s purpose. I designed this sweater around one that I saw in a mall. They had it for sale and I thought that $89 was a little stiff and that i may be able to knit it. Well needless to say, I ended up spending about that in yarn and supplies. But this was my inspiration to start knitting in the first place. I did write down the pattern, but I am not about to type it all up! Sorry

The phrase that came up this week was “yarn balls.” Every knitter has ‘em, so here’s a picture of mine.

I had trouble recruiting a human “volunteer” for the photo.

I decided to start a donation project and found that the Children’s Hospital in our area needs preemie items. This set is crochet using two different yarns. The yellow is “Pound of Love” by Lion Brand and the blue “tweed” is by Plymouth. There is a blanket, a hat, and booties which are all stitched with single crochet. The blanket stitch is single crochet in the front and the next stitch single crochet in the back. I repeated this for the whole blanket. I hope to be able to get a set done every month to be able to send to the hospital.