Bits and Pieces

Here are a few pictures of some recent goings on in my knitting world.

Here's a scarf that I finished. It was my standby 15x15 scarf with boucle yarn.

After I finished that I decided to try a patterned scarf so I'm doing two scarves with a ribbed pattern. They're both just knit 3, purl 3 with a total of 21 stitches on a row. I'm using size ten needles with worst weight on one and size 8 needles with cotton worsted on the other. Here's the cotton yarn.

I really like working with it, which is good since I bought such a HUGE thing. I originally envisioned myself making dishcloths for people, but I actually think I'll use it to tackle my first ever blanket.

The day after Thanksgiving I went to Hobby Lobby and bought two sets of circular needles and some great neutral tones of yarn so I could make some scarves for my boys. Here's the beginnings of a scarf for my son. I decided to use the circular needles so I could get some practice. I'm not using a pattern -- just knitting every row and I'll stop when it's a good size.

I've finally done this enough to know that I really enjoy it and I don't feel bad about building up a stash of yarns and patterns. I can always find a few minutes a day, and I've gotten enough practice that a few minutes can actually yield a good amount of progress. Knitting is cool!

Bah -- my computer is being weird and won't upload the pictures. I'll try again with them tomorrow. :-)

Finally!

Yep, I'm finally at it again! This is my Thanksgiving Break and I vowed to finish up a couple of projects and get going with the whole knitting thing again. I finished the red and black scarf for my daughter and put together a lime green one for myself. I also decided to do some scarves for the boys so I bought a HUGE thing of variegated blue cotton yarn and will get those started soon. I found a skein of really cool blues and greens that I had and am working on a ribbed scarf out of that. I'll probably give it to a niece for Christmas . . . or maybe a friend. Who knows?

It's funny how I set this aside when life gets busy. It really doesn't take a lot of effort to pick up a bag with needles and yarn and take it along when you go somewhere. I finally did buy a "to go" bag so I can carry smaller projects along with me.

I'll put some pictures up soon. I can't find my camera (don't ask) so I'll have to use my daughter's. But I'll post pictures of my new bag, some finished projects, and the ribbed scarf in the making. I think I may challenge myself to a larger project too. Maybe an afghan? That would require the purchase of some new needles, but I'm always up for that!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I'll see you soon! With pictures!!!

Someone HELP me!

So... I think I have a real problem! I at least recognize it and wanted to share this with all of you. These pictures are not staged and that's why I think that I truly have a problem... Why I need all the yarn on the bed (who am I kidding... this isn't all my yarn)... I don't know... but I figured you all might could relate! LOL! Check these out: NOTE: What I think I'm going to do with the laptop while I knit, I DO not know! LOL! ENJOY!

Here are my latest.. these are contributions to our church bazaar for this weekend... I'm not very generous! I want to keep everything I knit!

This is my favorite one and I really hate parting with it. I hope it finds a good home! LOL!

Here's a close up... this was made of hot pink, red and burgandy variegated cheap "Red Heart" yarn coupled with a nice same sort of color ribbon yarn that I got for a steal from one of our church members who was going to sell it in our bazaar.

This is one of the scarves I knitted for our church bazaar (sp?) this weekend... it's pink and white cotton variegated! I thought it turned out ok for a "run of the mill" scarf!

My poor, neglected blog

I guess that's the way life is, isn't it? I was so excited about this blog when we started and then life kicked in and I've been so busy I haven't picked up a pair of needles in months.

The good news? I'm finished with my master's degree in August, provided I pass comps in a couple of weeks. I'm really looking forward to reclaiming the ten or hours a week that grad school has taken.

And even though I haven't had time to knit, God has been knitting away on me! There have been times in the last few months that I think he was unraveling some mistakes I made along the way, but -- as always -- the pieces are being knit back together and I'm sure the end result will be beautiful.

So I hope to post here more often and I hope that the rest of you do can also find time to add a few lines about what you're learning here and there. And remember that you can also find me at http://burleyblog.blogspot.com And from there you can also link to a bunch of blogs created by some really neat people!

Keep knitting!!

New Circular Knitting Kit

Here is my new circular knitting kit from my December birthday that I love to show off with all the pretty colors. My goal for this year is to stopping showing it and start using it!

What do you think I should make?

My Magic Bag of Tricks

Here is the long-abandoned dishcloth. I was right proud of myself because it actually had a PATTERN to it. Woo-hoo! I don't know if you can see it, but there's a raised pattern in the middle of it. I have finished it, by the way.



And here are the contents of my knitting bag, once I cleaned it out. I found four skeins of baby soft yarn. I sent them to my niece Amy Jo who is also learning to knit.


Look at all these needles! I love needles in all sizes and colors. I LOVE the super big green ones I used for my uber-long purple scarf. One of my student workers saw them and borrowed them to make her own. Hooray for knitting evangelism!


Being a librarian, I -- of course -- have lots of books about knitting. I've even purchased another one since cleaning out the bag. Oh, and I think I'd already sent one or two to my niece when I took this picture.


So now I have no excuses. I have needles, I have how-to books with every project imaginable, and I have yarn. I didn't include a picture of it because it's kind of embarrassing. No excuses now, right? Hmm, Susan? Do you think I could knit, be in class, watch LOST, and Google talk all at the same time? It's definitely worth a try.

One completed, one begun

It amazing how much your time gets away from you once work and school pick back up. It's hard to believe we're about to start our fourth week of classes. I've been plugging away on some knitting projects but not making as much progress as I'd like.

I finished the orange scarf and have made progress on the red and black. I also found a long-abandoned dishcloth when I took inventory of my knitting bag so I finished that too.

I thought I had pictures but they're not on my computer! ARGH! They must still be on my camera, so I'll add them later. I feel like I'm finally making some progress and actually becoming a knitter and not just someone who is struggling through the learning process.

Oh -- I took pictures of all the stuff I had down in my bag. I'll have to show you how much stuff I had crammed in there. I sent some of it to my niece and I hope she can join in and post us pictures of what she's working on.

Keep your eyes open! Pictures will be here soon.

Football Mania Scarf

The Scarf pictured to the left is my latest completed project. This scarf is for my friend Nancy. Nancy was the one who taught me how to knit. Nancy is not only a knitter but also is a big fan of our Appalachian State Mountaineers Football team and attends almost all of the games. As a "Thank You" present for teaching me this new obsession, I decided to knit Nancy a ASU themed scarf for her to wear to our chilly ASU home games this next fall. Our colors are black and gold (obviously). Here is a close up of the weave. This is plain knit stitch (21 casted on) and using one thread each from a black skein and a gold skein.

I love to make fringe but never found a good way to make it. With help from my smallest "Knifty Knitter" loom, I was able to make the fringe the right size. To trim, I hung the scarf up over my shower rod and trimmed off the excess. I thought the alternating colors turned out well.

This project was done with just regular Sweet Heart yarn.... one black and one gold. The project only took probably half of the skeins. What you see to the left are the remnants of the skeins. I put the two colors together and cast them on together using the two strands like one. I used Size 11 Bamboo Needles. If you haven't switched over to bamboo needles... pay the extra and get them. They are like butter. You can get them at Michaels, JoAnn's or AC Moore.

I may be getting the hang of it....

So I decided yesterday to try again to get my scarf going, and I think I have finally go the hang of it. At least the purl stitch anyway. My scarf is about double that size now, and I am so excited to see it starting to resemble a scarf. I am actually knitting! YAH!

Maury

Some of my projects....

Lisa asked me to add some of my projects to the site... my digital camera isn't that good but this is just a few of the projects I've been working on.

I've been knitting for about 13 months now. I've been wanting to learn to knit for a long time. I first started with the "Knifty Knitter," a set of looms that allows you to knit without ANY skill! ;-) Here was my first project. This scarf was done in Black and White Eyelash yarn.
Last November, my friend Nancy taught me how to knit... and I mean KNIT (I'm still scared to Purl). I don't have pictures of all of my projects but here's my first finished knitted scarf. It's Homespun (my fav too) and in one of my favorite colors, PURPLE.... I especially like the fringe on the end! ;-)


Here's one of my favorite boucle scarves in my OTHER favorite color... Red. This is especially nice since it's Red and Black variagated! I thought it turned out well.



Our church has begun a prayer shawl ministry. We have given away 8 shawls and this has really been a blessing to me. The product isn't perfect but it is filled with love and prayers. After making them, our church prays over them and it is given to someone that has expereinced illness, loss, etc. This is the latest prayer shawl I have made for a dear friend of mine having surgery this week.
I've gone a little nuts now... I have been making scarves and prayer shawls right and left! I NOW have two HUGE Rubbermaid totes FULL of yarn. I need help!

New Year, New Projects

I finished the tangerine scarf! Hooray! Just in time to start a new project for the new year. I have some red and black self-striping yarn I started with a while back, but I wound up ripping it apart in order to use a larger needle size. The other scarves I've done have either been garter stitch (all knitting) or stockinette stitch (a row of knitting followed by a row of purling). This time I'm using a double rib stitch, meaning every row will be k2, p2. Another difference will be needle size. My quick-to-make scarf is on a size 15 needle. This one will be a 10 1/2. The yarn is textured, but it's not as bulky as the boucle' yarn I've used before, so I have no idea how long to expect this one to take, but it'll be fun to see how it comes together.


Oh! And here's a picture of my uber-long scarf that I made last year. Becca likes it so much she wants me to make one for her. She's going to go pick out her yarn and this will give me a quick project to work on when I need a break from the smaller needles and slower progress of the red and black scarf.

I used Homespun yarn and size 19 needles! They're HUGE and make these humongous stitches! It's a real loosey-goosey finished product.

There are two different yarns: the solid purple and the variegated beige, cream, lavender. They look really cool together. (The rows are straight, just not in this picture, LOL.) On cold days, I love being able to wrap it up over my head and around my neck and still have it hang down low underneath my coat.

When I started knitting there were a few days I wanted to just put it up and never do it again because I just couldn't get it. Remembering that frustration makes it all the more satisfying to say, "Yes, I made it!" when I wear this scarf. Hang in there!