My Greatest Project

My greatest project is still a work in progress, an almost 14 year old work in progress. Sometimes this project annoys me to no end, but most of the time, the project brings me the utmost joy and satisfaction. You may have guessed already that I'm talking about my wonderful daughter. I look at her and want to get down on my hands and knees and thank the gods and godesses that I am not a 13 year old girl! While I'm down there, I also give thanks that my life was blessed with this incredible, happy, healthy child.

My little project has a new project of her own. Won't you please visit her new blog? She's just getting started and just learning. Blogger Beta isn't being terribly kind either. Please stop by for a visit and leave a comment just to say hi. I'm sure she'd appreciate it.

I've completed several projects recently and need to take and post some photos. First up, the dreaded black shrug was finished. Let me just say that the pattern was a horror! It was written with a cast on of 30 stitches for ribbing the first sleeve. On the other sleeve (after working across the back and down the second sleeve) the author had you decrease to 44 stitches for the cuff ribbing. Um....does anyone else see a problem with having almost 50% more stitches on that second cuff?? I decreased to 30 stitches for that sleeve, thank you very much. That was just one of my many complaints about the pattern. Yes, it was a freebie, but it certainly is not up to par with many of the wonderful, well-written free patterns out there.

I've also finished a ribbed hat using my own handspun yarn. I'm really quite pleased with it and feel that it's the most attractive thing I've made to date with my own yarn.

Last night, I completed a hat using a pattern from Susan's blog. No, I'm not stalking her! Start with the archives from November 21, 2005. This is a free pattern that Susan shares over the course of several postings. This is one of those well-written patterns I was talking about earlier!

I used one skein of Patons SWS yarn for my hat. This was my first time using it, and I'm not sure what I think. The colors of the yarn are gorgeous. It's also very soft--looks kind of like a single strand with a very low twist. I was afraid that the yarn was going to break at some points, because it didn't seem to have any twist to it, but it must be stronger than I thought. I didn't like the fact that the yarn seems to fuzz a bit while you are working with it. That's especially true if you need to frog. I'm wondering if my hat is going to pill? One skein of yarn made a nice sized hat (and I have a big head!) even with the yarn eating i-cord cast off. That cast off is so attractive that it is worth the extra yarn.

I'll do my best to get photos for you by the weekend. I know you're all itching to see my masterpieces. ;-)