From Garter stitch to lace

I'm very happy to see how far I have come in my knitting class in 7 classes.
On the right is my homework for my first class...a strip of garter stitch (straight knitting).
On the left is actually 2 classes...the lower part is a snowflake that I made from a chart, and the upper part is 2 pattern repeats of a lace pattern.

Two packages in the mail

It's been almost like Christmas this past week...post lady Pat popped 2 packages in my mailbox.

The first one was from a sweet girl named Arina who lives in The Netherlands.
She sent me a wonderful package of knitting patterns by Alan Dart....joy!
It's very difficult to find them here so I was really excited and grateful to receive them.
I first saw her knitted and crocheted items on her flikr page.
She and her sister, Baujke, also sell knitted, crocheted, and sewn items at Baukje en Dirkje Creaties
Thank you so much Arina!

The second package was from another sweet girl, Salihan, who lives in Australia.
Her package contained a beautifully soft Malabrigo merino scarf that she had hand knitted.
Salihan recently celebrated the relaunching of her wonderful blog
(now called Salihan crafts)
by having a draw and, as luck would have it, I won the scarf :0)
I have admired her knitted work for some time so it's wonderful to actually wear something that she has made.
Thank you so much Salihan, it will be so wonderful to wear such a warm and pretty scarf!
And don't forget to check out her blog and she is also on Ravelry.

Amigurumi Butters (crochet)

I adapted a Stan pattern by lafeecrochette on etsy into Butters by changing the hair, eyes and colour of his clothes.
This is for my 20 year old and is about 3 inches tall.

Link to amigurumi CartmanLink to amigurumi KennyLink to South Park afghan

Yarn Graffiti, Crochet Style

I've seen so many pictures of yarn covered poles and statues, stop signs, and car antennas but I have never seen one in person.
So today I decided to crochet a little graffiti starting with this ugly chain link fence that surrounds a nearby school.


It adds a little colour to an unexpected place on a dreary winter's day. But it is also not so elaborate that it will break my heart if it is taken down.
I hope it lasts for a while.

I had to be a bit sneaky to put it up without anyone seeing me, but since it was cold and windy it went quite smoothly.

I'm thinking of covering a pole next.
Edit: Well it lasted until today, May 27th, that's over 3 months...not bad!

My heart is yours!!!

My heart is yours!!!
Originally uploaded by hine

This totally cracks me up (this won the Valentine's Day contest over at Craft Magazine.)
I think the icing on the cake is the guard around it's neck, you don't want any stitches being ripped out!
Congratulations hine!

Happy Valentines Day Everyone!

Fingerless gloves in crochet jacquard and a little basketweave

I'm working on 2 things.
On the left is my my knitting homework from last week,
which is the basketweave stitch. It's cute isn't it and quite easy.
On the right is the beginning of the most beautiful fingerless gloves that I've ever seen.

I fell in love with these gloves by Danielle Kassner
the minute I laid eyes on them
I had never seen crochet done like this before.
So I bought the pattern and some wool
(unfortunately I had no 'scraps of sock or fingering weight yarn').
It took me a few tries but I finally found a hook that would give me gauge (I crochet loosely so I had to find a 2 mm hook).

These are done in crochet jacquard and backwards crochet, both totally new techniques for me.
(great free tutorials here).
I decided to use greens and blues as the main colours with bits of grey, white and red.

I'm only 8 rows in, but I hope to gather speed as I get better at the technique.
I'm ridiculously excited about them.
I just hope that I finish them before spring.