Some FO's

The Cashmere gloves still aren't done, but I seem to be starting projects right and left. Amazingly enough, I have managed to actually finish a few of them!
First we have Steve and Sally.
Pattern: Hello Dollies a free pattern from Canadian Living
Yarn: Red Heart Luster Sheen from the stash
Needles: Size 3 dpn.

The pattern has you knitting the dollies flat, then sewing them up. I knit Sally this way and realized that size 3 dpn is really too large for me to be knitting this flat. I also despise toy patterns with lots of little pieces that then need to be sewn up. It feels like you spend as much time sewing up the doll as knitting it in the first place. So, I used the same directions, but knit Steve completely in the round and stuffed as I went. All I had to do was stitch up is crotch a bit. If you notice, he's a bit smaller than Sally. This is because my gauge is always much smaller when I knit in the round. I think this comes from me being a combined knitter and my loose purling. I think it took me about 3 hours of total knitting time to knit each of the dollies.

I found this pattern because my favorite knitting group The Knitting Parents group is doing a small knit along for these dollies and/or a ball band dish cloth. It just so happens that this week was Shaya's 3rd birthday, and she absolutely adored these little dolls for a day. Then she got all her other presents and they seem to have fallen by the way side. It's ok, though, because I will never forget her sitting not so patiently next to me as I sewed on Sally's hair, hat, and face. As soon as she was done, she didn't leave Shaya's hands for a full 24 hours. Now that's satisfaction :D

Next we have my new neck warmer!
Pattern: What pattern?! It's just a 2x2 ribbed tube knit over 62 stitches, and is about 5 or 6" long.
Yarn: My very own handspun, beaded novelty yarn. It generally fluctuated between sport and worsted weight.
Needles: Size 4 36" circular from my Options set (I love these needles, and really like Magic loop).

I knit almost everything in magic loop now. Isn't that funny? Once upon a time, before I had really tried it, I used to think that people knit using magic loop because they were somehow inferior to people who used dpn. That they weren't coordinated enough to use dpn, or that they were just too scared, so they made up a way not to have to use them. To tell you the truth, though, I really like magic loop. I think I might be quicker at it than with dpn. I'm not as afraid that my needles will slip out, and generally feel less awkward with it. Not that I can't whip around on dpn, but I think I just like the huge flexibility of magic loop.

The only spinning fiber that I have at the moment is a lot of really fabulous creamy natural white superwash merino. This is the same merino I used to spin the yarn for my nephew's baby sweater (Which I just realized I don't have a picture posted of, so I'll talk about it at the bottom). So, anyway, I ADORED this yarn so much that I bought a full pound more of it. It is so incredibly soft and bouncy and wonderful. Since this is all the fiber I have, I have been spinning a lot of it. I have about 150 yrds of sport/worsted 2ply and also made 2 skeins of novelty yarn with it. It is a boucle that is 1 ply of that wonderful wool and 1 ply of sparkly metallic gold thread that I threaded randomly with colored glass beads. I had no idea really how it would knit up, but I actually really like the random funkyness of the beads. I still have a skein of it that is quite a bit more lumpy, and is only 57 yrds. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with that, but I love my new neck warmer. It doesn't flop around like a scarf and definitely keeps the chill out while looking oh, so stylish :D

Here's the baby sweater I made for my sister's baby in December.
Pattern: Heartbrakingly Cute baby sweater from Mason Dixon Knitting (and simple top down hat)
Yarn: My own handspun superwash Merino. Mostly bulky to worsted weight
Needles: Size 8 Knitpicks Options
Buttons are from my stash of knitting supplies

The sweater is larger than I had planned. It is more of a 9 month old size than a newborn size...lol, but I suppose that's what you get with bulky yarn. It is snuggly soft and bouncy and I love it so much. I was a bit disappointed, though, because my sister barely looked at it when I gave it to her. Somehow I get the feeling that she doesn't really want/appreciate hand knit items. I think that she was probably just a bit overwhelmed with the whole new baby thing, and hope that when Evan is big enough to fit into it, that it will keep him nice and toasty. I guess that handspun/handknit items whether they are ever worn or not are simply an expression of deepest love and I know that I have knit all that love into it, and can only hope that the feeling transfers to that sweet little baby boy :D

Now I think that I need to search through my files and see if I managed to forget any other FO's. If you can't tell, my blog is a bit behind...lol