February in the South

Yep, all over the front yard.

Swatch It

I'm swatching for a vest right now. This would be my first official "swatch-making in hopes of attaining gauge" effort. The first effort, which is this picture, was on US 7's and turned out too ...well, what do you say..."small?" if the needle size was too small and you ended up with too many stitches? Or do you say, "too big", since you have more stitches than you need? Hmmm....I'm not sure. Anyway, it was wrong, so I've gone up a needle size and am trying again.

Got the yarn from Webs. It's Valley Yarns Williamstown, a very soft tweed. On sale, to boot! And since I saved that money, I went ahead and got a few balls of this

for a hat. I'm looking at this one, which I love.

Sock One, Sock Two

I finished the first sock for Jimmy, and I've cast on for the second one. I'm in love with the color of this yarn. Pictures don't do it's heather-y goodness justice. I see flecks of gold, rust, red, sand, and chocolate in there. And I think this basketweave sort of pattern shows it off great.

I did a much, much prettier job of picking up my stitches along my heel flap this time around. It's a darn good looking sock if I do say so myself. Here's to a repeat.

I'm also making a few washcloths, this being the first one. You know, sometimes I feel like I click along pretty good with my knitting, and then sometimes I feel like the slowest knitter in the world. I guess I see all these people whipping out tons of knitting, and then I work on the same washcloth for a week! Makes a girl feel a mite slow. Admittedly, I only give it a few minutes each night, but it seems like some folks plop 'em out in an hour.

Knitting on....

A New Look

Time for a new look for the old blog! I was tired of the white background...I wanted something warmer. Plus, I made a few other changes: I now have 2 sidebars instead of just 1, thanks to this great blog. I added a few more goodies to those sidebars as well. It's just fun! Let me know what you think!

Squatty Sidekick

I finished my Squatty Sidekick bag and got it felted! It's too cute....just the size I was wanting for carrying to church.

I felted it in my machine, with a couple of towels and a pair of jeans. I put it in an old white pillowcase and closed it with a rubber band. I went through 2 agitation cycles for a total of about 15 minutes of felting, give or a take a minute for the times I checked on the progress.

It still needs the perfect button, which apparently, I don't currently possess. So I'll have to buy one. I can't decide....brown or blue?

Details on Ravelry
Amanda's Squatty Sidekick
Needles: KnitPicks Options US 10.5 (6.5 mm)
Yarn: Lion Wool in Cocoa and Dark Teal
Cast on 1/26/08
Cast off 2/3/08 and felted 2/3/08

February One

Brown is the color of the month around here...I'm wearing a brown sweater as I write this, too.
Not really planned, but I do love brown. Chocolate brown... the color of a Dove bar, yum.

I cast on for a new bag, and I'm up to the top decreases already! And hello...what is that? Why yes, that is colorwork...very clever of you to notice! I've been wanting to give it a try, and since this is to be a felted bag, I figured this would be as good a time as any to see how I do. I just did a very, very basic alternating 1 brown, 1 blue for 3 rounds. But, I did it...and now I know I need to brush up on my English style knitting, so it feels more comfortable.



Jimmy's sock is coming along. I've just finished the heel flap and am about to start turning the heel. This yarn is rather splitty to knit with, but I love how it looks with this basketweave pattern. Very yummy. Like chocolate! (It's all knitting all the time around here.)