Thank you all so much for the wonderful response to Sew? I Knit!. We were worried that no one would want to participate and we’ve gotten such a great response. I think this will be a lot of fun. You can still join - the sew-along doesn’t start until February 15th and you can sew your skirt any time between February 15th and March 20th, which should still work for all of you Olympic Knitters out there. And remember, if you can’t join right now, you’ll have other opportunities later. We hope to continue to sew-along with other projects. So check back when your schedule opens up.

In other crafty news, I finished my shades this weekend. These were roller shade kits I bought and didn’t require any sewing. Despite that, they took about 6 hours (for both, but still). Were they worth it?

Here’s another picture that might be a bit closer to an accurate representation of the wall color.

Overall, I’m happy with them. They are a really nice change from the lovely miniblinds that were there from the previous owners and they add a bit of color to the room. I have enough fabric left over to make a new cushion for the chair, so I might try to do that one of these days. This room still needs things hung on the wall and a new bookcase, but it’s slowly starting to take shape.

In knitting news, those of you who have been following the Ombre saga will be happy to know that I’m on the 10th color (there are 11 total)! I worked on it over the weekend and made decent progress. I hope I can have it finished by the middle of February and then I can start on Butterfly.

Good Morning. Dear knitting friends, I have a deal for you! Don’t ya just hate it when someone says something like that? But really, you’re going to like this. YaiAnn, Mari, and I have been chatting. We decided that we’d like to become a bit more proficient at sewing, but it’s a little scary. Knitting is something we’re all (and all of you) are completely comfortable with, but give us some fabric and a pattern and expect us to use scissors and a sewing machine and things get a litle dicey. To be quite honest, there’s a cold sweat and a tension headache involved in some instances. So, we’ve decided that the only thing to do is set up a support group for knitters who want to try their hand at this sewing business. To that end, we’ve created Sew? I Knit, a sew-along for knitters. Cool, huh? And to make things really fun, we have a plan (you know I just love a good plan). We’re going to take a project and sew it as a group - support and technical assistance at its finest. The first project is a skirt. That seemed like a simple and fun project that we could all get on board with, even us rookies. You get to pick any skirt pattern you want (and we have some links for you to check out). We’ll start sewing on February 15th and end by March 20th. Interested? Get over to Sew? I Knit! for more information and to sign up.

The red scarf is done. And I have to tell you, I really like it. This is a pattern I picked out for the sole reason of using some red yarn stash, and as it turned out, it’s a great pattern and a fun scarf.

Project Details:

Pattern: Antique Stitch Scarf from Vogue Knitting Spring/Summer 2005

Yarn: Jo Sharp Soho Summer DK Cotton in #221 - Carmen, 2 balls with this much left over.

Needles: Size 10 Brittany Straight Needles

Modifications: I used a different weight yarn than called for in the pattern and went up a needle size to compensate. The finished scarf ended up measuring 6 inches wide and 70 inches long (I knit another pattern repeat to use up the ball of yarn).

I’m mailing it off today and I am quite pleased with my first charity knitting project. It was a lot of fun and I hope the recipient really likes it.

I have officially joined my first Sockapaloooza. I missed out on the last one and didn’t know a thing about it when the first one was going on. I’m pretty excited to knit a pair of socks for someone. I think it will be fun to go outside my comfort zone a bit and knit something fun and challenging for someone who will hopefully appreciate the end result. The deadline isn’t until May, so I should have plenty of time to fit a pair of socks into the lineup.

And, just to keep with a general theme of joining, I also joined Lolly’s Project Spectrum. She’s so creative and I look forward to not only knitting, but baking and maybe sewing in color.

Thank you all so very much for your wonderful comments on the frist mitten. I really couldn’t have done it without all of your input and support. You guys are the best. I cast on for the second mitten this morning and hope to make decent progress at lunch. Ombre is still in the works and will see some serious knitting time this weekend. And tomorrow I’ll have the finished red scarf to show you before I mail it off.

Mitten number 1 has been blocked and dried and is ready for inspection. She is far from perfect, but this ain’t no stinkin’ store bought mitten, people. For my very first ever stranded knitting attempt, I’m pleased. There is much improvement to be made on mitten number 2, but someone had to volunteer to go first, and it just happened to be this little mitten.

I believe I may have a tentative understanding of this whole business of knitting with the yarn in your right hand, but darn, it’s hard! I find that as I knit on the mitten, the two-handed stuff gets a lot easier, but I’m still hopeful that someday I won’t feel like the most uncoordinated person on the planet with my right hand (I am right handed after all). However, there’s this one spot that is still wonky (I just love that word) and I wondered if any of you might be able to tell me what that’s all about.

See that black diamond in the middle? There’s supposed to be a single line of red stitches between those black areas (it’d be a whole lot easier if I knew how to draw an arrow on a picture). The stitches are there, but they don’t show up. I’m assuming it has something to do with my tension, but I think it’s odd that that (and the same design again) is the only place the tension problem is really noticable after blocking (thank god for blocking - you were right, it worked miracles). Any thoughts on why that might be?

And, after much angst and worry over gauge and fit, I’m happy to report that the mitten is a perfect fit - not too tight and not too loose.

Now I just hope the second mitten is close to the same size.