KNITTING!
A VERY SATISFYING HOBBY INDEED!

I used to knit when my sons were small, but they grew up and I moved to a hot climate and stopped knitting.
Six years ago I took my grandchildren to Zoo Lights in December and my granddaughter said her hands were cold
and asked me to make her some mittens (just assuming that I knew how to knit). So I made mittens for my three
granchildren and have yet to put down the needles. Here are some of my more successful kitting projects.

Currently on the Needles
Just cast on some gray tweedy yarn for a wrap sweater with a belt. The pattern calls for
a much thicker yarn so I will be doing a lot more math as I proceed. This is the second
attempt with this yarn. I tried to adapt an Aran vest by adding sleeves and was doing ok
until I indented for the armholes and it became so far off guage I went back to the drawing board.

2009 Projects

Some booties for charity made with yarn left over from something else.

I've been doing more solid color socks because they go with more things
than striped socks and I can play around with different patterns without getting bored.

It's finally finished! I saw this in a magazine 5 years ago and finally got to make it, but the directions were just awful!
They kept referring me to other places in the directions which told me to look elsewhere, and then you had 3 or 4 things
to keep track of and you'd forget where you were in the first place. But it's done!
Made from KnitPicks' Swish, a very soft, machine washable, merino wool

Just some mittens from some leftover wool yarn.

2008 Projects

I bought the light colored, hand dyed merino yarn in Jerome, AZ last summer and a friend gave
me the very old (30 years?) brown Fleisher's sock yarn which is 50% nylon so good for heels.
I have enough of the lighter yarn left over to make a pair of plain socks with contrasting toes and cuffs.
I'm glad, because this was very expensive yarn - and now worth it.

The smallest things I have ever knit, these "people" are in the waiting room of a friend's office.
The hat and scarf are made from leftover Geranium color sock yarn in a photo lower down.
The hat would fit a golf ball and has a green pompon.

Baby sweater and hat made as samples for a new yarn store.
"Baby Zarina" by Filatura Di Crosa is a thin, lightweight, tubular-shaped yarn that's a joy to knit with.

Sample socks for the yarn store. Fibranature's Yummy from Universal Yarns.
NOT yummy at all but a scratchy yarn even after washing.

Fingerless gloves for the store made from a Twisted Sisters kit.

This is Ru, a yarn from Diakeito, a Japanese company.
This yarn is so soft it is hard to believe it is all wool.
The pattern called for 3 different, much thicker yarns so I did a lot of frogging before I had it the right width.
I did try a guage but it didn't work on a slant..

My cousin asked me to make a sweater for her in this color. With many e-mails back and forth
with her and a yarn store we decided on this pattern and the yarn which is Lana D'Oro by Cascade.
50% alpaca, 50% wool. Amazingly, it fit her perfectly. I later made her a tam with the leftover yarn.

Hat and mittens of Peace Fleece. These are for a charity fund raiser.
They were pretty rough but really softened up after washing.

I forgot what brand this sock yarn is.
I grabbed it when I saw the color. Green is so hard to find and this is definitely green!

Very heavy cardigan made from Sirdar Highlander, a discontinued Lopi style chunky yarn.
I "won" the yarn in our annual yarn swap (and steal) and adapted a very old and out of style pattern

My knitting guild made wallabies of all sizes and colors.
I made this for my 10 year old grandson.

I didn't have any hats to go with the new red jacket, but I do now.

What do you do when your granddaughter asks you to make a sweater for her doll?
You knit her a sweater, even if you have to create the pattern as you go along because
you couldn't find any in print or on the internet to fit that doll.

My knitting guild made hats for charity and I "baked" a cupcake.

When I asked my granddaughter what she wanted for her birthday, she said "a sweater". I asked what color and she said "whatever you choose".
Well, I had both black and white Plymouth Encore, so this is what she received - and she loves it! I had to make up the pattern as she is a pre-teen for which there
are no patterns available! And lucky me, the store had exactly the right number of the perfect buttons, black squares with white square centers.

2007 Projects

I love this jacket but I'm SICK, SICK, SICK of doing moss stitch!
A friend gave me the purple yarn and I had the black, both Brown Sheep's Nature Spun.

This is knit from Manos del Uruguay, a single ply, kettle dyed thick and thin yarn made from a blend of Merino and Corriedale wools
by a cooperative of more than 400 rural women in Uruguay. I used a reversible, stretchy rib pattern and it not only shows off the yarn
very nicely but makes air pockets to help keep my neck warm.

Nice warm (and soft) socks made of BioSpun Wool, an 8-ply unbleached, undyed organic merino yarn from New Zealand.
Even the label was printed on 100% recycled paper. I wonder if they used pure vegetable dye for ink?

A scarf made from the leftover yarn used on the Julia Roberts sweater
I knit it from side to side and braided the ends.

I'm not positive, but I think I used Trekking XXL yarn for these.

This sweater was actually designed by Julia Roberts and I "won" the complete kit in a yarn swap.
Made with Filatura Di Crosa Primo, a superwash wool. Not merino, but so soft I can wear it next to my skin.

Mohair sweater of Fuego, an Italian yarn by Skacel. This was a free sweater because members of my knitting guild were all given knitting totes with magazines and 3 different yarn samples when we attended an Arizona Diamondback's Stitch and Pitch game last year. I swapped with a lot of other guild members to score enough to make this sweater. There really isn't much you can do with this mohair with this "polka dotted" yarn except stockinette stitch. I think it's going to charity.

A charity blacket for a newborn made from Mohair Mist by Phentex.
The yarn feels very synthetic and I have dozens of skeins in many girlie colors someone gave me.
Guess it will all go for charity knitting.

Fancy flip flops for my granddaughter in her favorite color.
This was another knitting guild project

I started these socks in the spring and finished them in September after my wrist healed.
Evidently the second skein was wound from the opposite end as they match only if you hold one upside down.
They are Fortissina Cotton Colori, 75% cotton and 25% nylon. Pretty ugly, but the yarn was only $2 so it's no big loss..

Not much knitting this year as I spend a few months suffering from tendonitis,
then spent 5 weeks in physical therapy that didn't work, then had surgery.
But I'm all better now and back to my knitting.

This is the Monkey Sock pattern by Cookie on Knitty.com done in solid gray Regia sock yarn.
It has a twisted rib stitch cuff and wasn't that hard, once I memorized the 11 row pattern.
Of course I was almost finished with the second sock by then!

2006 Projects

This is another sweater I designed for the Arizona Kidney Foundation's silent auction.
The yarn is Plymouth Encore and the color is actually light pink.

And yet another pair of socks. These are in Lana Grossa Meilenweit Fantasy.

I need solid color socks so have been looking for interesting patterns. This basket weave is a little different than most, but that's hard to tell here. I have a new camera and am still learning how to use it. Regia sock yarn was used and the pattern is from the book Sensational Knitted Socks.

Say hello to my new friends who have gone to the the Arizona Kidney Foundation for
the silent auction at their Children's Art and Literature Luncheon in March.

When you aren't sure you have enough yarn for a sweater, make it from the neck down. I had about one yard of yarn left over.
This is a loosely spun, very soft, 85% wool, 15% mohair yarn (Alta) from SandnesGarn in Norway.

Lana Grossa Meilenweit Fantasy yarn color 4710 was used for these socks.
I have another skein in a different color combination waiting for its magic conversion into socks.

This little sweater is for an Arizona Kidney Foundation silent auction next February.
The blue yarn is Plymouth's Jelli Beenz and the red is Plymouth Encore. I made
a double tassled square matching hat with the leftover yarn but forgot to take a photo

These are in Regia India Cotton, color Bangalore - but the city has just changed its name to Bengaluru!.
They are (were?) really more orange and red than pink.They were a gift for a very good friend who has always
admired my socks. The sad story is that they are lost somewhere between Phoenix and Buenos Aires and my
friend never even got to see them.

This all summer project in Plymouth Encore is for my granddaughter who asked for a red pullover.
And it just won a blue ribbon at the 2006 Arizona State Fair!

These socks of Fortissima Socka yarn also won a Blue Ribbon at the 2006 Arizona State Fair.

I don't think I like these socks made of Gedrifa yarn. I know I'd like them a whole lot more
if they were just shades of blue and white. I wish I could tell what the socks will look like when I see the yarn!

This is the second pair of socks from this yarn. I frogged the first pair
because they were like cardboard and re-knit them on larger needles with fewer stitches.
Much friendlier now. The yarn is Fortissima Colori Socka Color #4007.

I call these my Faded Jeans socks because they go so well with faded jeans - and I wear a lot of red.
The yarn is Fortissima Colori Socka Color #9506.

I thought this Trekking XXL yarn (#107) would be just plain stripes, but I don't think it has any real repeats
except at the toes where it won't be seen. I managed to make them sort of identical by knitting the second
cuff longer when I found where they sort of matched, then cutting off part of it at the top and redoing the ribbing.
What a project!

Some friends have a new baby, and since they are cat people
and we met via a cat friend, I thought this would be appropriate.

These were made with hand dyed merino wool from Fancy Image Yarn.

These are my first socks from Koigu yarn.
I made them to go with my lavender mohair sweater.

These were made during the 2006 Knitting Olympics. Never heard of this world renown event?
It all started with Stephanie Pearl McFee, AKA the Yarn Harlot. http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/olympics2006.html

My first sock with Opal yarn and Nicky seems to love it! I'll have to knit him his own "Little Pink Sock".

Regia Canadian Color (4736) is the yarn in these socks.

2005 Projects

Here's Miss Bear with her new wardrobe for the Arizona Kidney Foundation's silent auction at their next
Childrens' Art and Literature Luncheon in February, 06. Her cousin last year was very much in demand

My first pair of patterned socks made with JaWoll yarn.
The pattern looks complicated but it is really just a 12 row repeat of which 10 are K2P2

Another pair of red socks - because I wear a lot of red.
and they are my team!

A friend and I did the squares for this afghan and another friend sewed it together. We entered it
in a contest Project Linus held for "Cat Themed Afghans" and won first prize in the knitting/crocheting division.
The afghan my knitting guild made won second prize. Project Linus will give them to some lucky hospitalized child.

These may turn out to be my favorite socks. They are in a discontinued DK weight wool I bought on sale and were extremely stiff when finished but after washing are incredibly soft.

The striped yarn came from a Virginia yarn shop but they had
only one skein. I bought the solid one locally. Both are Lang's Jawoll.

This for the Arizona Kidney Foundation's silent auction at their next
Childrens' Art and Literature Luncheon. It is made from Brown Sheep's
Nature Spun yarn and won a blue ribbon at the 2005 Arizona State Fair

A blue ribbon winner at the Arizona State Fair, this sweater for my son is made of
Karabella merino wool and that is really seed stitch between the cables.
This men's medium size took all summer to make!

This is also for the Arizona Kidney Foundation
It's made from leftover Nature Spun plus one new skein

The hardest part of making these was finding the right place in the yarn
to start the second sock!. They are made from Trekking XXL yarn.

I just mailed these to Afghans for Afghans. They are mostly Lopi wool yarn.

Butterfly Bow socks
I did manage to get the bows to run in opposite directions
but I ran out of yarn so I will have to keep my shoes on in public.

Wild and weird socks made from Brown Sheep 's Wildfoote "Rock N' Roll
which I thought would make rainbow stripes. Glad I had the navy blue to help "dilute" the impact!
Now what do I do with the extra skein?

I bought this yarn because I liked the sample sock displayed in the store

They look awfully skinny - but so are my feet!

My first afghan - donated to Project Linus
which distributes blankets to hospitalized children..

2004 Projects

My granddaughter asked for a "light purple poncho so I made this for her.
There is also a matching hat I made from the leftover yarn.

A cardigan with pockets for myself. I cheated and used
silky fabric for the pockets. Who needs extra thickness on the hips?

My first pair of socks - done toe up.

For my daughter-in-law. This sweater is SO SOFT because it is 50% merino and 50% alpaca
The buttons are pewter. I designed the pattern and this won a blue ribbon at the Arizona State Fair.

Another one I designed that was a state fair blue ribbon winner. Donated to the Arizona Kidney Foundation.

My favorite Harry Potter fan gets a gift he'll never outgrow!

Three of the five bears I donated to a five bed children's shelter at Christmas time.

2003 Projects

This was for my older grandson who loves the Diamondbacks.
The colors in the photo are off a bit from the Plymouth Encore yarn in the actual team colors.

Donated to the Arizona kidney Foundation for a silent auction.

Also for the Arizona Kidney Foundation.

Something for myself - a mohair sweater in an Icelandic Pattern.
This also won a blue ribbon at the Arizona State fair..

This was for my granddaughter. I reduced an adult pattern to fit a 6 year old.
It is also of Plymouth Encore which I use for most of my childrens' sweaters.

My younger grandson is crazy about anyhting to do with space so I designed this one for him.

Very Old Projects

This is "The Boyfriend Sweater". I started it for him but realized it was too small,
so I finished it for myself and made another just like it for him. And I DID marry him!
They are of Lopi Icelandic yarn and I actually wore mine in Iceland a few years ago.

It is very warm!

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You appear to be a Knitting Purist. You are an accomplished knitter producing beautiful
pieces with a classic feel. You sometimes
lament losing half of your local yarn shop to
garish novelty yarns. Perhaps you consider fun
fur scarves the bane of knitting society and
prefer to steer new knitters towards the wool
and cotton blends. Some might call you a bit of
an elitist but you know that you've been doing
this craft long enough to respect the history
behind it and honor it with beautiful piece
that can last a lifetime. http://marniemaclean.com

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KNITTING!A VERY SATISFYING HOBBY INDEED!