Falling For Ewe Swap Question of the Week 6

Question is:
"What seasonal knitting projects are you looking forward to"

There are alot of projects I'd like to make, I really want to make a very pretty table runner to display on Thanksgiving.

I'm thinking of the "Celebration Table Runner" from Yarnplay at home, it really would be a nice accent to have. If only I had more time.



I also want to make some Christmas stockings, look at these, aren't they pretty.



Or maybe some Christmas Ornments, definitely a Angel would be nice to make.



There is much more to knit, let's not get started on the "Gift Knits", that's a completely different list. And let's not forget my number 1 project that I'm scrummaging for yarn on, the Central Park Hoodie!

Maybe I can just take a few months off work??? Hmm... I WISH!

I think I'll just have to find some way to at least squeeze some stuff in.

Hey, tomorrow's Friday! Finally!

Back to normal

My site is now back to normal, Halloween is officially over 8( As much as I love this time of year, it makes me sad sometimes because it goes by so fast. At least Thanksgiving comes late this year, so it gives us more time!

I have updates on my Traveling Scarve's groups.

First up, Group 37 Noro Knit & Crochet combo, I decided to just knit this time, as opposed to crocheting. The stitch pattern I went with is "Mock Cable" pattern. You can't really tell that much from the pictures, but it looks like cables but is really a combo Knits & Purls. The color transitioning is just beautiful, but too bad the pattern doesn't show up much.



This is going in the mail, either today or tomorrow at the latest. The scarf's owner is "Trustcrazyideas" on Ravelry.

Here's a full view of the scarf so far:



It's coming out very pretty! My contribution is on the far right end.

Onto the Traveling Scarves Group 25 Significant Others, this piece is knitted, only knitting allowed in this group. I went with the "Broken Rib" stitch, which doesn't pull like regular ribbing. I strung balls of Koigu together to get the right weight. The scarf's owner is "Lizabee" and her SO obviously likes greens, one of my fave colors. I was going to wind one of my greenie yarns, but I remembered I had 2 balls of Koigu from a previous project and thought, why not string together? Worked out perfect! I love the various tones of green? Don't you??? This too will go to the post no later than tomorrow!



Here's a full view:



That's my contribution on the end of the far right. I really love this scarf!

I still have 2 more separate scarf's to make, and then I'll be "scarf less" for a bit, at least until the next section comes.

For some updates, I've been searching around for some reasonably priced tweed yarn to buy for my Central Park Hoodie I want to make, and have been unsuccessful. Is it too much to ask for a reasonably priced luscious soft green or brown tweed yarn??? Is it? For now I'm still searching and its upsetting me because I really want to get this one started. Hopefully by next week I'll have found what I need. Soon I'll have some snapshots of a seedling CPH!

A goodie for you, I received my latest shipment from my Scout's Swag Sock Club, I give you "De Young":







Happy Wednesday!

Skull Cowl

As promised, this post is dedicated to the "Skull Cowl", I knitted for this Halloween 2008.
Enjoy 8)!



Story behind the Pattern:
I came about making this pattern mainly because of how close Halloween was. I had invested in the “Glow in the Dark� yarn about 2 months prior to October with the intentions of knitting a black scarf with white skulls that glowed.

If you know me, I always have too many projects on my needles, on my spindles, in my dye pot, etc. So the last week before Halloween, I was so upset with myself for not having started this project, that I decided to search Ravelry and the web for any existing “Skull� cowls. I decided to go with a Cowl just because I needed it to be a quick knit, and an affordable knit. There were a ton of different “skull� like patterns, none specifically for a Cowl.

So, I decided to pull up my Excel on my laptop and improvise a skull pattern, with the number of repeats that I felt would work well in a Cowl design. I started this cowl on a Wednesday, about 7 p.m. in the evening, knitted the first 10 rows, and put it away, which took about an hour. The next day on my lunch knitted about 2 rows of the “Skull� chart pattern, for about 30 minutes. That evening, I started again at about 6 p.m., and by 9 p.m., I was done. All in all, watching T.V., eating lunch, and knitting, I’d say it’s about a 4 hour project, shorter if you only knit and don’t have any other distractions. Very fast, and very affordable! I used less than one skein of Malabrigo and barely a quarter of the “Glow in the Dark� yarn.

I’m really happy with this design and it’s my very first one! I hope you enjoy it. For issues or questions about the pattern, please feel free to let me know.

Send me a message on Ravelry, my ID is Rocky Moreno, or post a comment here and I’ll respond to your questions.

This is a free pattern, I only ask that you don’t sell it, or use it to sell items with.
Pattern is Copyright of Rocky Moreno 2008 – 10-30.

Materials:
• 1 US 9
• 1 stitch marker
• 1 skein of Black Malabrigo yarn 216 yds
• 1 ball of Nightlights “Glow in the Dark Yarn� 250 yds

Pattern Skill Level:
I would rate this at Intermediate level, only because of the Fair Isle method, but really, it is Beginner friendly. Fair Isle really is very easy, and once you get the hang of it, you'll have no problems.

Yarn Colors:
• Main color black
• Skull color white
Note: Make it your own! Use your own color combo, like Forest Green and White or Pink and White!

Yarn requirements:
1 skein of yarn worsted weight & Less than half a skein of white yarn worsted weight.

Gauge:
Approximately 5 -6 inches per stitch across and down.


Pattern Notes:
Repeat is 14 stitches across, full vertical length of pattern is 12 rows.

Needles:
US 9 24 inch Circular or US 9 DPNS

Cast On:
84

Methods:
Fair Isle, Stockinette Stitch, Knitting in the Round.

Sizes:
If circumference of scarf is too tight, you can add additional pattern repeat to lengthen the scarf by adding an extra 14 stitches.

Sizing suggestions:
Small size 84 stitches
Medium size 112 stitches
Large size 140 stitches

Begin Pattern:
Cast on # of stitches for the size your knitting, for this example, cast on 85 stitches. I add 1 extra stitch to the cast on to keep the border of the initial cast on ring level and straight. If you are using DPNs, just evenly distribute your stitches.

Step 1:
Join yarn by knitting first stitch, place stitch marker before knitting first stitch.
Hint: I usually knit the first 3 stitches with both the working yarn and the tail from the cast on, just to have the tail knitted a few stitches. I still weave in the tail at the end of the project.

Step 2:
Continue knitting all stitches until you get to the end of the round. Keep your stitches straight, don’t twist.
Hint: When knitting in the round, it creates Stockinette stitch automatically, since you never turn the knitting around.

Step 3:
When you get to the end of the round, knit the first 2 stitches together (K2TOG), this will bring your total amount of stitches down to 84, remember that extra stitch, it is now gone. Knit the remaining stitches, at end of row, you’ll have completed 2 rounds of knit stitches.

Step 4:
Knit in Stockinette stitch for 8 more rounds

Step 5:
Start Skull chart pattern



Work chart from bottom up, from right to left
White Square = Skull pattern color “White�
Black Square = Main color pattern “Black�

Step 6:
When completed knitting chart, knit 10 more rounds using only Main color “black�.

Step 7:
Bind off, and weave in ends. Block if needed to flatten edges.

A spooktacular day

Welcome to my haunted site....I'm your blogger, Skullella'. In honor of this 31st day, celebrating the fun holiday "Halloween", I've temporarily transformed my website.

I have some goodies to share with all you ghouls!



These freaky pumpkins were hand carved by little goblins last night, and YES, they made it finally to the Pumpkin Patch! My Mother was able to rush them to the Pumpkin Patch yesterday so we could enjoy a night of knives, cutting, stabbing, carving, and spilling the guts of the poor pumpkins.

Now ghoulies for my secret Halloween FO. I had been wanting to knit something special for Halloween, and like I always do, time got away from me and before I knew it, Halloween was just a week away. My original plan was to knit a black scarf with skulls in white yarn, but given that I only had a week to Halloween, I knew there was no way I was going to knit it by today. So I had to create my own pattern. I decided to make a cowl, a "Skull" cowl. I used black Malabrigo yarn with white "glow in the dark" yarn. I invested in 2 balls of the "glow in the dark" yarn about a month ago just for Halloween. I wanted the skulls to stand out as I'm Trick 'O Treating tonight.

This is my evil creation, which will be available for free on Ravelry within the next few days, it is my 1st official "Rocky Moreno Design".



I tried so many times to get a good shot, but the evils that be just didn't give in.

Here is the Skull Cowl being blocked late last night




And look at this frightening "Skullella" woman with skulls around her neck. (This is pre-blocking, so it's not as flat or straight as I wanted.)



Ahh! I yell when I see myself! I will frighten you with more pictures later tonight when we get all gored up.

I hope all you ghouls have a creepishly safe and fun night! Watch out for those goblins and vampires out there.

Skullella will return again tonight!

But wait, I have one more morsel to share with you ghouls, it is yes, "EYE CANDY", the latest installment from the "Madelin Tosh Society". 200 yards of luscious yarn. I was rushing this morning so I didn't get the yarn specs 8(.





Good-bye my ghoulies! Have a Devilish time 8-)

FOs-Sports-News

I don't know where to start, guess with news. It seems like lately there has been just bad luck circulating in my family. I had a cousin pass away over the last week, she died before her time. Still young, and much more to live for. I attended her funeral yesterday, and have scattered memories of times I spent with her as a kid. I admit that we weren't in touch lately, more of the time I had with her was as a kid. When I go to funerals, I just get all these awful thoughts in my head about the ones closest to me and how I just can't bear to go through it, even though I know someday I'll have to no matter what. Hopefully, later... much much later. I will think positive thoughts **emitting positive feelings now**

In other news, if you can believe it, my hubby, kids and I all have tried at least 3 x to go to the Pumpkin Patch to get some pumpkins, everyone we've went to has been closed! At 8 p.m. no less! Were going to try again tonight, this time at 6 p.m., and we'll see if we finally get pumpkins, if not, off to the grocery store.

For my Sports portion, a good friend gave me a couple of great Lower Reserved tickets to the SF 49ers game this past Sunday vs. Seattle Seahawks. My hubby and I had such a great time, but the game overall was just a mess for the 49ers and horrible at that! I wish they were at least decent or showing signs of improvement, but geez, it's hard being a fan. Only the most faithful of fans stick around during the hard times, my hubby and I being faithfuls, for sure!

Here's how the 49ers make their intro for the game, I love all the fireworks, and huge display they put on, so cool:



And here's the guys huddling up on the field:



Lastly, my FO 8-)...for the Tech Square Afghan. Another square down the "Monogram Square".
I zoomed past this one, totally fun! But hard because you have to pickup stitches that aren't slipped, so it was somewhat tricky, other than that, easy-peesy.

Here's the square pre-monogram



Did you notice that I have begun to incorporate another color into my blanket? Red I thought was needed to add a little kick to all the neutral colors I'm using. I'm really like the red now.

In the book, that middle tan square is where the monogram goes. The author doesn't provide any instructions, stitch patterns for letters, nothing. Kind of dumb if you ask me cause it's whole purpose is adding a monogram, hence "monogram square", duh! So I had to do some knitting math, number of rows across vs. number of columns (stitches) vertically. Then I had to come up with a stitch pattern for my initials "RM". It was easy, but just alot of tweaking to get my letters to fit within the stitches I had. I did look for some monogram patterns, and there are free ones out there, only problem is there all for a larger amount of stitches, so not much help there. In the end, I'm just super-uber happy with how it turned out. I let my hubby choose whether to use Red or Olive Green yarn for the monogram, you'll see here what he choose:



I took this picture early this morning rushing, so I didn't have any time to flatten out the piece so it looks wavy, but isn't. He choose the olive green obviously, which I think looks good and is probably a better fit than having gone with a red monogram. I'm liking how it came out, but I think I might raise that "M" about 2 rows up, what do you think??? Should I leave it or move it up a bit??? Hmm... what to do??

I've also started the next square in line, the "Pocket Square", which has 3 different types of pockets plus a knitted cord. First in the pattern is the Kangaroo pocket. The instructions don't really tell you very well how to form the kangaroo pocket so it took some thinking on my part, but I made it work, and so far, I'm happy with it. I'm currently knitting up the back stitches (wall) behind the front pocket that is already knit. Once the wall height is the same as the front pocket stitches, I'll then do a 3-needle bind off to join and continue knitting until the next pattern change comes into play for the other 2 pockets.



Now you tell me, but doesn't it resemble a woman's thong??? When I laid it out to take pics, I just though, "thong"! Guess I know how to make a thong now 8)

So far so good for it, for now. I also have a secret project I started, very late, last night, which is supposed to be for Halloween, and I hoping I can get it done by Friday. Either way, look out for pics, I'll share even if I don't get it done!