Yarn stash for projects!

Woohoo! Our associate pastor/minister of music has four adorable girls (ages 6, 8, 12 and 13), and one of our ladies asked me to make hat/scarf sets for each of them - if I had time. If I had time! I told her I would MAKE time to work on my looms! :)

So she brought this yarn stash to me last week:

So many soft, yummy yarns! These girls are going to be so excited with their goodies. So far I've only finished two hats and started one scarf. I'm not letting this beautiful spring weather deter me. I figure they can wear them next winter if spring arrives before I finish!

One of the girls asked for gray / black, so I started with this hat. The brim is boucle (that's another story in itself!) and the body is Patons Divine.


Here's the scarf-in-progress to match the hat. I started with 10 rows of boucle, and the rest will be done with one strand of Divine and one strand of Red Heart (black). I'll add another 10 rows of black on the other end, and then I'll decide whether to add fringes. The next time I do one like this, I'll start with fewer solid color rows I think.


Another sister wanted white, so here's her hat:

The brim is two strands of TLC Baby in a creamy-yellowish color, while the rest is in white Divine. I'm not completely happy with the hats, and it looks like I'll have plenty of yarn, so I'll probably make each girl two hats each (in different styles) so they can have a couple of choices.

Now back to that Boucle. Oh my goodness, can you say YARN GUTS?? When I started the first hat I was pulling from the center of the skein, and guess what I found -- bunches of KNOTS. What a mess! I should have taken a photo, but I was too busy trying to get it all untangled. I worked on it for over an hour one evening, my husband took over and worked for over an hour, and then I worked on it again the next evening. FINALLY we got it all straightened out, but unfortunately I had to rip the hat apart and start over, and the yarn was broken in a couple of places. Here's the result after putting it on my yarn winder and making neat balls (and after using some for the brim of the hat):

Hard to believe that little pile of yarn almost caused a meltdown! LOL

Just look at that face! Isn't he handsome? That's not my son, but he may as well be. He's one of the players on my husband's basketball team -- he turned 12 in January and is 6'3" tall! He TOWERS over the other players! He's holding the trophy we received for winning the tournament! Anyway, see the hat on his head? That's how I spent my weekend between basketball games. I knitted a hat for my son in his team colors, and he started a trend. One by one each of the players asked for his own hat, so I'm in the process of finishing up the last of eleven blue hats. I think I have four more to go. Whew!

I'm working on my afghan on the yellow Knifty Knitter. I'm making panels and will whipstitch them together. Here's my progress so far:


One panel done. I'm using Homespun yarn and the garter stitch (alternating knit and purl rows). I love the way it's turning out -- I think it will be toasty warm but not too heavy.


I've started my second panel:


I'm keeping the first panel on the loom until I decide whether to make it longer. Right now it's about 36" long.


I picked up a set of these cute row counters at Walmart, ran a piece of yarn through it, and tied it to the last peg on the loom. I wrap a row, knit off a few pegs, and go back and purl those pegs. When I reach the end I switch the number, so I guess I'm really counting pairs of rows? Anyway, I figure as long as I'm consistent it'll be okay.

I'm really playing with the idea of buying a 48" infinity knitting board and a 20" A-Just-A-Loom from Decor Accents, Inc. Oooooh, where's the loom fairy when I need her?? I'm hoping my next entry will be a celebration -- cross your fingers for me!