Woot! Woot! Finally Have Pictures to Show Off!

,That's right guys I have some pictures! I have two FO's and one HO! I may be overly excited for this but it feels good to finally have some WIPs finished. I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed wth how much I've had on the needles, and even though I'm still feeling a bit overwhelmed atleast I have some finished items. 

The first FO I want to show off is the baby blanket I was working on. I am so proud of this beauty! Are there errors in it? Yes. Will I fiddle with some things next time I make it? Yes....but over all I am very pleased with the finished product. When my previous boss (we'll call him B) asked me to knit a blanket for his daughter who was born prematurely I knew right away I wanted to knit this blanket. Back in February I left my then job (with B) for a new one, at the time I was completely miserable at work and had been for a bit. From the moment B started working there he knew I wasn't enjoying what I did and he knew that eventually I would most likely be leaving. Knowing all this though he never gave up on me, he was a continuous stream of encourage,  support, and appreciation. He made an environment that was stressful and unpleasant for me better than what it was. For this is am always going to be grateful. He has been one of the best people to work for. Not only that but he showed interest in things that I had knit. I made his niece a dragon when she was born and he was very appreciative so I had no problem saying yes when he asked for a blanket. He is one of those people I would consider knit worthy. I know all you knitters out there know what I mean by this. So of course I wanted to make him something special and I couldn't think of anything better than a 'Nana' blanket. No, this is not the name of the pattern, however my Nana only really ever knit one pattern her whole life and it was this blanket, she always had one on the needles until she shattered her wrist in a nasty fall one winter. It was the steeple of my childhood. Everyone had a 'Nana' blanket, my siblings, my cousins, friends who were lucky enough to be gifted a baby blanket from her growing collecting, and of course me, I actually have three. To this day my sister still sleeps with or has to have her 'favorite blankie' near her bed and of course it was a 'Nana' blanket. So here it is! My first completed 'Nana' Blanket! It's not perfect and the handiwork in no way matches her's but it looks pretty damn good and I have a few things to tweak for the next baby blanket I'll be knitting. Originally the pattern calls for two different pattern squares/stripes. I opted to just go with design A. It has always been my favorite of the two.

To keep in true 'Nana' blanket tradition this blanket is made with acrylic yarn which only make sense since it will be getting washed and 'Nana' blankets are meant to last a lifetime. I used Caron Simply Soft in Strawberry for the pink and Bernat Satin in Lavender and Banana for the purple and yellow. The blanket consists of 6 stripes that blocked out to be roughly 36 inches long and 6-7 inches wide, the Caron Simply Soft stripes were a bit wider than the Bernat. Each stripe was given a single crochet border and then crochet together. Around the whole blanket is a crocheted border in a row of single crocheted yellow, a triple crocheted row in purple and pink and then the last row is a scalloped edge. I need to work on my borders. The next 'Nana' Blanket I make will have less corner stitches and I am going to stick with one brand of yarn. The blanket was knit with my size 5 (3.75 mm) chiaogoo needles and crocheted with a size F (3.75 mm) clover soft touch hook. Next blanket I am also going up a hook size.

My next FO is a itty bitty baby hat! Surprisingly this is my first baby hat and my first 'traditional' hat/beanie. I have knit two hats in the past but they were a bit more fancy or had a different structure to the me. I have been hearing a lot recently about the 9 inch circular needles for socks and baby hats and wanted to give them a try, so I bought two 1.5 size Chiaogoo needles to test out. I figured if I didn't like using them the regular way then I would try knitting using the double circ method. As soon as I got them in the mail I grabbed the closest ball of yarn that wasn't from an Indie dyer and cast on. I used some Moda De Cherish in Tangerine.  I am still undecided about the 9 inch cable. Once you get some fabric built up it does get easier but my hands were getting cramped fast which has never been an issue when I knit. I could knit all day with very little hand cramping or stiffness. I did decide I do not like using the 9 inches for the double circ method. I tried that for the decrease portion of the hat and quickly stitched over to trying out some dpn's. I haven't used Dpn's since I started knitting and wanted to also give those a shot. I think I will stick with my magic looping for most things.

So those are my two FO's. For my HO I finally made progress on my His and Her Level up socks. I finished the right foot His sock for my boyfriend and decided to frog the her sock. I gave up on knitting the two at time. It's just not for me. I don't get second sock syndrome so I have to worry about that, plus I don't really want a pair for myself anymore. I may make a pair for my self in the future but for now I'm fine with not having a pair. For those are you new to my blog I started a pair of Level Up socks by Heather Kinney of Highland Handmades back in January as a stash down project. It has been awhile since I worked on the pattern which no fault of the patterns. I love the look of the cables and the cables are pretty easy to knit I'm just not a fan of cable work. I love the look but have realized they aren't for me to knit. I enjoy knitting the pattern once I get started but it's more the idea of knitting cables that keeps me unmotivated. That being said I am very glad to have one sock complete.

I really really love how this yarn is working up and the boyfriend likes the way it fits even if the toe is very squared. He is a bit tough to knit socks for as he is very particular about the fit. He likes his socks really snug but hates them snug at the toes. He feels like his toes get suffocated and squeezed even though the socks stretch around them. So this time I tried decreasing every third row. So for every decrease round there are two knit rounds in-between. This seems to have worked. I'm crossing my fingers that he still likes the fit when I am completely down with both socks. If you guys want to cross your fingers for me as well I would so appreciate it. The last pair of socks I made him he decided he didn't like them until after they were complete. The heel was more baggy then he wanted.