knitting – not your average crochet

working on something

July 20, 2014 by HannahOwens 8 Comments

It’s been pretty slow on the crafting front here lately, but I do have something to share!

It’s my first knitted blanket, and it’s simple garter stitch. I got the inspiration from the Colorblock Bias Blanket by Purl Soho, but I’m not doing the diagonal stripes, just regular stripes. The colors are the ones shown in this post — it’s the KnitPicks comfy worsted. Boy howdy is it soft!

It’s going pretty slowly, as is expected from a knitted blanket versus a crocheted one, but I’m enjoying the easy repitition. It looks like it’ll be a perfect size for my cozy chair. Can’t decide if I want to do a border or not with the darkest gray… I’ll need to learn how to pick up stitches from the side of something; is it easy? I could always crochet the edging if it’s too hard to knit…

Well that’s all I’ve got for today! I hope ya’ll are doing well, and thanks for stopping by!

Filed Under: knitting Tagged With: afghan, blanket, crafts, knitting

row counter ring and a summer update

July 1, 2014 by HannahOwens 8 Comments

Have you seen the beautiful row counter rings handmade by Kristan MacIntyre? I ordered one and received it in the mail yesterday:

How cool is that? It’s made from sterling silver and can be made in your specific size. Mine is the stamped version in size 5 but you can get the numbers hand engraved and you can also get rubies added.

There’s a little notch that you can’t see in these pictures because the ring is rotated on my finger, but the notch indicates where you are, so you align your current numbers with it. I like to keep that notch on the side of my finger so that I can see it really easily when I’m knitting/crocheting.

Isn’t is pretty? One of my favorite things about this ring is that it is an actual piece of jewelry, not just some brightly colored piece of plastic that you wouldn’t want to wear out in public.

Price range depends on whether you get the stamped or hand engraved version and whether or not you choose to get the rubies added. You can head over to Kristan’s website here to view the options for yourself, and check out her other knitting related jewelry! She has some beautiful shawl pins, a really cool needle sizing pendant, and more! I’m eyeing that pendant…

So, for the summer update bit. I’m happily enjoying this whole week off of work for the 4th of July holiday. I was getting a bit burned out at work, to tell the truth, so this was a great time for a little vacation! My boyfriend Chris is working all week, so we can’t actually go anywhere, but I don’t mind staying at home one bit. It’s great just spending time with him and the dog and doing lots of eating and sleeping and movie watching (and not much else)!

And speaking of home, I have some flowers on my front stoop now that my parents got for me:

Aren’t they pretty? That last one is actually a citronella plant to keep mosquitos away (after all we do live in a very humid climate and our location is right by a river). There’s actually a 4th plant, too, but it’s looking very sad. I think it got too much sun so I moved it to the shade, but it might be too late. Well, with my horrible gardening skills, I’m actually pretty pleased that only one plant is looking bad and not more!

You can see our dog Zero in the second picture there, looking across the road at our neighbors’ dog and wanting to play. Poor Zero — I haven’t been able to walk her as much lately because it’s been so hot! I don’t want her little paws to burn on the pavement and she starts panting so quickly, so we just go early in the morning on days I have off. This week should be good for her!

Well, I guess that’s all for now. I’m off to go eat dinner with my parents and my aunt, who is visiting from Arkansas. Hopefully I’ll post a crafty update with some knitting or crocheting soon — I HAVE been working on things… a bit… 🙂 Anyway, thanks for stopping by!

Filed Under: crochet, knitting Tagged With: crafts, crochet, dog, flowers, jewelry, knitting, summer

a pretty pattern and good advice

February 3, 2014 by HannahOwens 4 Comments

While browsing the Internet for lovely crochet patterns, I came across a rug, which appears in Simply Crochet magazine. I want to buy Issue #13 just for it! Dunno where in my home it would go, but that’s OK, right? It’s sooooo pretty!

The good advice is from Slugs on the Refrigerator, and it’s about lifelines in knitting. What are lifelines, you ask? They are a way to keep you from having to rip really far back in your knitting if you make a mistake. Essentially, they save your sanity. I will be doing this from now on in almost all of my knitting projects! Click the link above to go to the blog and read the article for yourself and discover the benefits of making lifelines.

Well that’s all for today! See you again soon!

Filed Under: crochet, knitting Tagged With: crafts, crochet, knitting, lifelines, rug

been busy — hats!

January 15, 2014 by HannahOwens 18 Comments

Hello everyone! I hope you’ve all been doing well. I apologize for my little break in blogging — I’ve just been so caught up in some positive changes at work! I do have some finished projects to share with you though, so here we go!

This is a baby hat made for my coworker Anna — she’s having a baby in February and we’re having a shower for her this Friday! This was done using KnitPicks Brava Bulky yarn and I used this hat pattern, which has different sizes available for any person’s head!

This second baby hat is a highly improvised version of a design. I don’t really like how it turned out but it does function the way I wanted it to — it’s really stretchy and can be rolled down to make it longer when Anna’s baby gets a bit bigger! The yarn used for this one was I Love This Cotton by Hobby Lobby.

This is the third Giftie Slouchie Beanie I’ve made (they only take a few hours), and it’s for my Uncle Bruce, who has recently discovered that he has cancer. It seems serious, but I haven’t been able to see him because he lives in Arkansas (which is a really long drive and I shouldn’t be taking off work yet, since I’m still a relatively new employee). My parents have seen him and they said that he might like a hat to keep his head warm, since he’s losing some hair. This hat was made with Berroco Vintage Chunky.

When my parents were in Arkansas recently, they also visited my Dad’s parents, who were incredibly generous and gave me this:

It’s an old Estey piano, and I believe my great-grandma bought it. Now it just needs to be tuned! I’m so happy to have a piano in my home — I took lessons for a long time when I aws younger and have started to miss playing.

That’s all for right now — there might be some big news coming, but we’ll have to wait and see for that! Let me know how you all are doing since it’s been a while!