Our Little Lady is Here!!!

Our little girl has finally arrived!! 'Fashionably late' as some would say. She is happy & healthy & her big brother loves her sooo much. Hug her, kiss her, poke her in the eye. LOL She is doing well at home & is being breast fed like her brother. Mom & Dad say this is the last. Too expensive to raise kids. Hopefully she isn't allergic to wool & will be able to wear the clothes that her brother couldn't. 

On another note, Mom is a school teacher & with the present economy she is wondering if she will have a job to go back to. I am afraid that things are going to get much worse for all of us. I don't believe that the recession is over at all. Dad is a truck driver & is getting minimal work as freight is down. No one has money to buy other than the necessities so not alot is moving. 

I have been busy with my charity sweaters. This is a size 2 raglan made with Red Heart Soft Baby. short rowed neck with grafted neckband.

Size 6 with RH Soft Baby Drop shoulder with short rowed neck & grafted sleeves & loop through loop bind off. 

Size 4 RH SuperSaver drop shoulder, grafted neckband & sleeves with the loop through loop bind off. 

I have been so busy volunteering & doing other things that I have neglected my blog. I still have a few projects planned. I want to make some of the cloth baby shoes that I saw on another blog. I want to make some sweaters for the clothing bank here in town. Also, need to start on the baby clothes that I promised the shelter. 

I haven't been able to find out for sure, but I think the 'Afghans for Afghans' program has ended. I went to the website to check & see what they wanted knitted up, but there is no information as to the current needs. Also, the blog has been deleted. I am going to do some more investigating & see what is out there accepting donations. I know 'World Vision' does, but they don't want wool garments. Only acrylic. As far as I know 'A4A' is the only one that takes wool. & I have lots of that!! If anyone has any information that they would be willing to share with me, I am all ears.

UPDATE

Afghans for Afghans is still in business.  The 'Knit Along' Blog is up & running.

Still Knitting

I have had a few orders come in, but am still making baby rompers too. I think that this will be the last one for the season. 

I am getting ready for my winter rush for longies. Usually it starts about the middle of September. I want to get some made so I will have some ready to ship as well as customs available.

My g'son is growing so fast!! I can't believe he has turned one already. They don't stay little for long do they??

I have started to work on my Xmas gifts for this year. I am going to make knitted toys for the little ones. Small stocking stuffer type of things. I have fun making them & they have fun getting them. With the bigger kids I generally make them something useful  like socks in school colors etc.

Cast-ON Rags

Today I want to talk about Cast-On Rags. I learned about them from a machine knitting book that described how to make them. I was a fairly new machine knitter then, & didn't really understand the instructions very well, but did get the general idea.  I set out to make myself several of them. 

I have recently watched several U Tube videos on how to make them. I make mine a little differently, based on the instructions from the MK book that I had, & my own inclinations. 

1. Decide how wide you want the rag to be. Most of mine are 100 stitches.  They can be as wide or as narrow as you want.

2. E-Wrap cast on as many stitches as you have chosen. Knit a few rows & add your weights. 

3. Knit 30 rows & then knit a very loose row. 

                4. Knit another 30 rows & knit another very loose row. Do this 3-4 times. 

5. When you have about 124 rows hang the e-wrap cast on & bind off. At this point you have a tube.  Turn the tube inside out. You should have the purl stitches on the outside.  

You will use the loose stitches to hang your rag on the machine. You can use all 100 stitches or less. You can also use 2 rags together. 

      I like to make my rags in 2 colors so that if I am working on a garment that is a similar color I can use the contrasting color. When they get dirty just throw them in the wash. 

This is my cast on rag for my sock machine. I knit it on the mid gauge machine with a cuff to it, so I could hang it like a set up basket. The bottom of the cuff holds the weights.

Hand Knit Baby Poncho

Here's a hand knit baby poncho from Lion Brand. I have been meaning to make one of these for my g'son but haven't gotten to it yet. These are sooo cute!! & easy to hand knit., but I am going to adapt it to the machine, & see if I can knit it in a worsted weight yarn on my SR 860. I esp. like the little pocket on the front.  

I haven't done much knitting the past weekend. I have been busy reorganizing my knitting room. I have taken down one of my standard gauge machines & also my bulky.  I am still working in there, but I hope to have it finished up today. I left my long bed machine up. 

 I am moving things around in there to get some more space. I have a heat press that I use to print Tee-Shirts. Also, sewing machine, serger, linker, & embroidery machine. & 2 yarn trees so there isn't much room t0  maneuver around. 

My g'son has been here all week. We were watching the show 'Hoarders" on TV when he piped up with 'G'ma, you're a yarn hoarder!!'  Yes, I am. LOL But I love all of my yarn & am working to get it under control. I have seen worse, but I don't think it's a bad thing. I wonder if they have a 12 step program for 'yarn hoarders'?? 

Guesstimating???

Usually I'm pretty good at estimating how far my yarn will go. It took years, but now I can look at the cone or hank & pretty much know what the biggest size of scrappie I can make with it is. This time I ran out of rose too soon. I thought that with a couple of stripes of another color across the front & back that I could stretch out the rose & get the complete back & front finished. I was a little bit off. I debated ripping the sweater out, but since this is for a little girl, I decided that the lavender would look okay.  I was disappointed though. I like to make the front first just for that reason. 

We are going away for a couple of days this weekend. I am taking my laptop with me to stay connected to my store. I have had a couple of small orders come in but it is still slow.  I am going to do them today before we leave.  

Right now we are waiting for the yard service to get here & cut the grass before we leave.  I hope that we can beat the traffic out of town. Happy 4th of July. (Please drive defensively  all!!)

Lemon Aid Stand

This is my g'son's Lemon Aid Stand. He set it up over the weekend & made $12 with it. He was so proud of himself & had so much fun. We don't live on a very busy street, but he did get some traffic & everyone was more than willing to stop & buy his Lemon Aid. The neighbors came over too, so he was very pleased with the project. 

I am going to start on a new box of scrappies. I promised not to buy anymore yarn until I have used up what I have, but it is sooo  tempting. I love to go look at all the beautiful colors & am thinking of making some baby clothes for the women's shelter as they said that they need them. 

I like to use Andino for my summer baby clothes & Trenzado for my winter baby clothes. I have plenty of both. When I buy yarn I buy in bulk. I know that no matter what color it is I will find a project for it so buy lots of different colors. I buy in quantities of 6 cones of each color, as that seems to work out the best. 

I was reading Mary Ann's Oger's blog, & she cautioned against buying yarn just for the sake of buying it. I am afraid that is a habit that I have fallen into. Over the years I have gotten more yarn than I can possibly use, but I love every cone or hank completely!! I always thought of that as a good habit, but can see now it might not be. I still have a full bin of Bramwell & they have been off the market for a while.

Mary Ann also cautioned against buying too many machines. I have 5 machines. 2 of them haven't been used for a year, my longbed(great for making baby blankets) & My Brother 270 bulky. Last time I used that was over a year ago when I made Diana Sullivan's Slippers. I have 3 Standard gauge machines set up & am thinking of taking down 2 of them, & the bulky if I can force myself to do it. LOL 

 While making scrappies I have been using up all the partial cones & hanks first, then will start on the full cones etc. I have barely made a dent in it. I am using mostly the worsted weight yarn first because I have so much. Then I will start on the lighter weight yarns. 

Scrappy Sweaters Delivered!!!!!!!!!!!

This was the last sweater for my box of scrappies. My DD & I took them to the shelter.  Now maybe I will see some child wearing one. LOL I hope they are well received. I am going start on a new box. 


I finally had an order come in although it is a small one. Every little bit helps. After I finish it I am going to make some more 'Ready to Ship' covers.  They usually sell pretty good. I bought some new colors in the 'Patons Classic Merino Wool' & I am wondering how they will look knitted up. 

I found this online & decided to add it to my website. I took an early retirement due to Breast Cancer. I had 4 tumors & infected lymph nodes. No one, including myself, expected me to live. But I did. 

Facing my own mortality made me re-evaluate a lot of my goals in life, along with my perspective of what is important & what is not so important. Having bin after bin of yarn stored away is a waste. Knitting it all, is now my goal.

I have always been a 'caregiver' & with that crisis I became even more so. I was so fortunate  to have caring, compassionate nurses & doctors + a caring family  to encourage me to live. I know I could not have managed to keep a positive outlook without them, & I love them all more than life itself. 

After I recovered I started my Wool Diaper Cover Store & also sold knitted baby clothes. The diaper covers took over & I quit making baby clothes, as I didn't have the time. Now that things are slow I thought I would put up some baby clothes & see how they do.