A Whole lotta Makin' Goin' On

I have felt somewhat unproductive as of late, but yesterday was a good day! I think when I sit and knit my progress seems so slow that I feel lazy.  I am moving along on my Martha Stewart neck scarf. Hope fully I can finish it this week. I successfully knitted the loop for the end to slide through-Hoorah! Now I am on the 15 inch long span of just knit, so it is going a little faster.

I also serged and sewed Simplicity 2411 yesterday.  This is a pretty lightweight denim and it was very easy to work with.  I also bought some Coats & Clark jean thread for topstitching.  It looks really nice and adds nice detail to the skirt. This went together super easy except for the zipper side.  I somehow ended up messing that part up a bit and had to take one side out to correct it, but that wasn't too bad. She likes the skirt and is looking forward to wearing it-that works for me!

I also serged up some camo pillow cases as a gift and just need to finish the cuffs on those today. I was surprised at how soft this cotton is. The serger was so fast for these.

Today I am going to try and cut out another Simplicity 2411 in a black and white herring bone knit.  It is pretty heavy without a lot of stretch.  It is also baking day! We are having a Christmas dinner at church on Sunday and we are having a cookie exchange for dessert.  We are supposed to bring atleast 3 dozen cookies.  1 dozen will be put out to eat and the other 2 will be used for the exchange.  I have several types of cookies to bake today, including a new recipe my youngest daughter found for porcelain cookies.  They are really pretty! I have to get the cookies done today because I have to bake a ham and a turkey for the Christmas dinner tomorrow. We also have a homeschool choir concert at our local mall and a wedding shower to attend.  Isn't it amazing how busy the holidays seem to get.  This is my only really busy weekend for the season and I am looking forward to it.  Hope you and yours are having a wonderful time planning, baking, wrapping, singing and so on during this Christmas season.

Knitting progress

I am still working on my Martha Stewart neck scarf.  I really haven't taught myself anything but knitting and purling, so this increase and decrease thing is quite new. Shaping scares me a bit. I did learn how to use a cable needle for my scarf, but this process is a little different.  I am at the end of making the little hole for the end of the scarf to slide through.  This yarn is way too bulky, so it is making the knitting a bit difficult.  I can see why they said sport weight.  Hopefully it will still be a wearable project. 
On another note, I have made a little progress on my straight knit stitch Fishermans wool scarf.  I call this my car project.  I leave it in there and anytime I have a few minutes or 30 while I am waiting on a child to be done with something-(choir, Bible study, school, etc) I knit a few rows.  One day it will be finished and every time I wear it I can think back to all the activities I knit into it.  My kids are growing too fast. My son will be driving at the end of this month and my oldest now has her driving privileges back after a 3 month doctor imposed "no drive" period. I will not be the taxi service for much longer. 

I am still waiting to receive my merino silk yarn for my cowl. Hopefully I can work on that over Christmas.

Martha Stewart neck scarf

My cowl is a project no more! I must have dropped some stitches and it bugged me. I ripped it out and wound it back into a ball. I had been eyeing this Martha Stewart neck scarf on Ravelry.com and I started it with the same yarn. It is probably a bit bulky for this pattern, but I am learning the whole increase/decrease thing with an easy weight yarn. It looks good so far. I have ordered some gorgeous merino wool silk blend yarn for my cowl. There is a free pattern on Ravelry for one that looks like a $750 Burberry cowl. It is made from merino/silk yarn in a taupe and it is really pretty. If you haven't visited Ravelry yet, you need to. It is free to sign up and you can browse through patterns that are free and not free. You can keep ones that are your favorites, you can keep pictures and info on your projects (finished and not finished). Pretty cool site for all you knitters and crocheters out there! The pic of the cowl is the one from ravelry. I hope mine turns out that good.