Hot Loops Party Plans and oh yeah, my stash

The Hot Loops Party was awesome! I bought a couple of patterns to use with stash yarn. Both patterns are for short-waisted people. Many hand-knit sweaters/jackets/whatever are made for people who are long waisted. So more pictures as they come out. I also bought some amazing bamboo cotton, handpainted yarn and other yumminess.

The pink/red/green actually has REAL sterling silver flicks in it! Awesome! I'm thinking about making Miss Ava a Christmas shrug out of it. Or at least I can make 2 hats, 1 for Bella and 1 for Ava.

So I'm on a roll to finish up some projects to get started on the new yarny goodness.

Above is a basketweave blanket from Encore. So easy, the pattern states that it is an 8-hour project, but It's more like 12 hours. The blanket is knit on size 13 needles, which takes some wrangling when you are knitting with basically large sticks. I have plans to make another one from this creamy colored boucle':

Janine, Britt and I have decided to call all yarn from the yarn estate sale a few months ago "murder house" yarn. It may sound melodramatic, but the front of this lady's house looked like a very bad horror movie. Add that to the fact that inside, there was yarn from floor to ceiling. Of course this decision making came from a conversation at Loops over pomegranate martinis. Janine also wants to design her own yarn and call it "murder-house" yarn. Can you hear some of the colors: vampire red, boo black, Kreuger orange? (hey, I teach first grade here, I know these are mildly scary names for yarn)

I must take a picture of Janine's cardi she made from the, ahem, murder-house yarn. It's a lacy leaf sleeve and just open in the front. Turned out great! And she's going to teach me how to make one!

Memory Quilts 101

First, you take some of these adorable baby clothes.

Cut and line with interfacing...

Carefully decide placement of the squares and then go shopping for fabric for the sashing, binding and back (my favorite part - I LOVE taking a quilt shopping!)

Quilt-in-the-ditch with hand-stitched binding and you have....

a memory quilt is born!

Weight Loss Wednesday

I got on the scale today and surprisingly, i lost 1/2 pound. I'll take it. Labor Day weekend was an unhealthy food weekend for me. I'm working at eating more fruit/veggies and a lower-gluten diet.

I need suggestions for gluten-free that tastes good for my family. When I bake things with high fiber grains, they tend to turn up their nose. Suggestions?

Memory Quilts

This memory quilt was made for Angie out of her oldest's baby clothes. Most of them were onesies. I cut 2 5" squares and then sewed them so that none of the matching squares were next to each other. Add a border, machine quilt and bind!

Baby Goodness!

As I was cleaning the craft closet, I found some more unfinished objects. Here they are finished:

Baby things are another way to really work your stash. Babies don't require a lot of yardage and they look cute in any color! Mommies can never have too many burp clothes or blankets or onesies. I have some more onesies to embroider - I use many of Sublime Stiching's patterns or I use them for inspiration.

I LOVE Dishcloth Cotton!

Dishcloth cotton comes is a staple of my stash. It's worsted weight and knits up on size 7 needles. When I want a project that I can see results fast (read: unlike socks), I head to the cotton shelf. It's blogged by other knitters also: Mason Dixon Knitting and The Purl Bee to name a few.

I give you a log cabin washcloth:

You can find the directions from Purl Bee. Just 4 skeins of cotton makes 4 different ones. I'm on my 2nd in about 3 days. Told ya it was fast!

Weight Loss Wednesday

I'm joining a few other crafty moms in trying to lose those last preggy pounds. Rosey Things has started this Weight Loss Wednesday where we write about what weight we've lost, if any, and what we've done differently to lose that weight.

Well, this week I gained a 1/2 pound and I know why. I've strayed from my mostly fruit/veggies/whole grain lifestyle. I ate out this week and didn't watch what I was eating. So back to the healthier choices for me. I'll have some more green smoothies, and I love this smoothie with 1 banana, 1/2 c. pineapple, 1 orange and 1 c. almond milk. Yum!

On to more finished projects: I made this scarf from stash acquired at the famous yarn estate sale that was in Tulsa this summer. The cool thing about some of the yarn I bought is that some of it doesn't have a label. This means that you MUST knit a gauge swatch in order to make something look right. But, that said, when you are making scarves, most of the of the time, I say gauge, schmauge!

It's a plain, old, nubby garter stitch, back and forth for miles and miles (ok, only 65 inches - I'm a little on the short side). I finished it off to prepare for my class this Sunday. I'm going to "on-purpose" create a scarf with sock yarn that has holes in it! I figured, I have the sock yarn, let's give it a go. It's gorgeous and I'll keep you posted...

I think I need a digital camera, the indoor pictures from my iphone are not doing anything justice. Any suggestions for cheap, basic camera??