Favorite Project?

Ok, put on your thinking caps. What's your favorite FINISHED project this year? I've borrowed this question from Xavier Musketeer. Follow the link if you'd like to comment on her finished projects; she's been quite prolific this year!

For me, I chose the blue fair isle cardigan that I'm wearing today. It's the first thing I designed that actually turned out well enough that I'd wear it in public. Second and third place would be the baby blanket and baby cardigan that I did in cotton fleece; I designed both of those too. Two years ago, designing ANYTHING seemed out of the question. Pointless, even. Never say never, I guess.

Fingerless Mitts -another charity project

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in New Orleans has another need (besides the cage cozies; see below). Since there is no roof on the facility, and it's winter, the workers are getting cold. To help in their work with the abandoned or lost animals, they need fingerless mittens. Knit these with anything except bulky yarn; superwash or acrylic would probably be the best. The workers should be able to slip medical gloves over the fingerless mitts. There are many free patterns around on the internet, but really all you need to do is knit a foot long tube in 1x1 ribbing, with a 1" opening for the thumb. Here's just one of the many patterns available: Fingerless Mitts.

Please send your contributions to:
Dez Crawford
c/o LA-SPCA
701 Thayer St.
New Orleans, LA 70114

A Podcast for Knitters

Franklin Habit (an amazing knitter you need to know about) has a new podcast, as part of Cast-On Magazine . He's an amazing writer and an amazing knitter. I'm downloading the podcast to my iPod now, so I'll let you know how it goes. If you read his blog at all, though, you'll see why I'm optimistic.

Welcome!

Kristin has joined us. Welcome, sweetie! Post away.

Today's del.icio.us knitting links

I know you know about del.icio.us and social bookmarking. If you don't, go check it out. It's pretty great.

Out of the dozens of knitting links that scrolled past me this morning, these are the ones I bookmarked. Maybe you'll find them interesting as well.

T-shirts advertising knitting
Mary-Jane Slippers
Round Lace
Ice Scraper Mitts
636 Free Knitting Patterns

Don't like these? Go get your own, and tell us what your choices were! Go here to get started: Delicious Social Bookmarking.

Cage Cozies

Jo-Anne has us all working on cage cozies. Here's the story. Heaven only knows how many animals were displaced by Hurricane Katrina. And naturally, the animal shelter was destroyed as well. They are, however, building a new one. The director is currently living in Baton Rouge and is coordinating a drive to collect blankets for the animals' cages. Interestingly, an animal is more adoptable when she has a blankie, which of course goes with her to her new home.

So, the details are these. Knit a square at least 18" on a side. It can be as big as you want, but 18" is as small as they can use. It seems to be working well to use heavy worsted, the Rambling Rose squares technique, and cast on about 64 stitches on a side. So, 128 sts all told. Make as many as you want. You KNOW you have stash for which this project would be perfect. Heck, I know you have stash for which this project would be perfect.

As soon as the shelter is built and accepting animals, which shouldn't be too long now, the director will post an address for mailing. In the meantime, we might as well be knitting. That way as soon as the shelter is open, there will be blankets for the animals.

Ask Jo-Anne or Andrea for more details. But really, Jo-Anne is the right person; Andrea will just be faking it and asking Jo-Anne herself.

Knitty Kitty

Hey guess who????

This is the cutest pattern I have seen in a while. I sooo have to make it. I have to thank the gals at You Knit What? for hipping me to this.

The pattern can be found at knitty.com

Weird Yarn Fact

typp: the number of thousands of yards of yarn equal to one pound.

So, how many typp of yarn do you have? Never mind. Ignorance can be bliss, after all!

Knitting Arias

A great post, and a fabulous blog Knitting Arias. The post is for those addicted to both knitting AND eclectic musical expression. Scroll down the page to the post of 11/15/05. Have fun!

Shoe Size to Inches

Probably everyone knew this but me, but just in case....

Here's a conversion chart of shoe sizes to the equivalent in inches: Conversion Chart. As we knit socks for relatives in far-away places, this tool might be helpful. Interestingly, sizing doesn't seem to be consistent. Sometimes the jump between sizes is 3/16"; sometimes it's more. I guess inconsistent sizing isn't really news, now is it?

Yawn Over

Sometime in the next few weeks -before Christmas- we need to have a knitting lock-in. Jo-Anne has offered her new house as a place to gather. So, quick like bunnies, think of days that are available for you. We'll order pizza, knit, eat some more, knit.... It'll be fun. But we need to get a date chosen, before they all fill up.

Six-Sox Knit-a-long

I'm really enjoying the six-sox knit-a-long. I've made only 2 pair of socks with this group, but that's two more than I probably would have made otherwise. And I've learned new techniques, too.

This month's pattern has just been posted, and it involves shadow knitting. I'm trying not to start, because there are other things that are more urgently in need of my attention. But I really want to.....

Anyway, if you think you might be making six pairs of socks each year (come on... you know you can do that!), then consider joining the group. It's a low-traffic group, the pacing of the projects is quite sane, and you have cute socks when you're done! Follow this link to sign up: Six Sox Group.

These aren't my socks, by the way. They're the designer's socks for this month's pattern, just to tempt you. I AM thinking gray and blue or maybe gray and lavender, though.

Well, look who's here!

Welcome, Judy! Post away.