Purling Sprite

Happy 4th of July!

I created this dishcloth about 5 years ago (if not longer). It is one of my very first designs (if you want to call it that). Anyways, I never got the pattern posted because I misplaced the instructions, in the moving of yarn from one spot to the other I found the draft for my instructions.

The Patriotic Dishcloth is loom knitted. The pattern is easily adaptable to create placemats or even little coasters (knit it with wool and felt them when knitted to shrink down to size).

The pattern is posted at Decor Accents in the Free Patterns Section under Kitchen Items.  Or simply follow the quick link to it-Patriotic Dishcloth.

Wimsy Scarf Done

Looming this little scarf kept my mind occupied for half the weekend. Feeling the softeness of the yarn running through my fingers was a delight and then seeing Little Benny running around the backyard wearing my wimsy was the bestest. The scarf is shaped with increases and decreases at the beginning of each row. The best part I think is the yarn...soft and child neck friendly aka not itchy.

The other half of the weekend, I spent decorating Chubbette, my workout log blog. I played around a bit with the banner and added a few extra touches to reflect the theme of the blog. Check it out and let me know what you think. Here is the button for that blog if you want to swipe it.

Hope you all have a happy Monday.

Cabled Mitts

Almost there....a few more days and it will be ready. Pattern is written and now I just have to tweek the last minute things.

What do you think?

PS: thank you all for your enthusiasm about the little Keepsake Loom. Hubby has seen the interest and he is considering adding it to the line of DALooms.

Plushy Slipper Socks

They are squishy, they are soft, they are are the most comfortable pair of slipper socks that I have ever worn. They work up fairly quick too. Knit them on a loom or knit them on needles, whichever way you choose, you will have a super comfy pair of slippers socks.

What do you need to make the comfiest pair of house slippers? The secret is all in the yarn. An ordinary pair of socks becomes irrestible with the appropriate fluffy, squishy yarn.

Loom It!

Yarn: 3-4 skeins of Berroco Plush (doubled throughout)

Loom: Blue round loom by Provo Craft (24 pegs)

Pattern is available at LoomKnit.com or by clicking the Buy It button below.

Price: $1.25

Decking the Halls! Itty Bitty Mitt Pattern

My Momma is coming! She is coming! Time to deck the halls and get everything ready for her arrival. We are already planning sleeping arrangements: she will sleep in little NyNy's room and NyNy will come to our bed (like she does every night, lol), and my brother will share bedroom with Wonderboy.

She is arriving Christmas eve and as such I have the motherload of preparing Christmas eve dinner (my Mexican roots) tell me I have to celebrate Christmas eve with a huge dinner and then a party at night. I like to open presents at midnight so we are going to let the kiddos take a nap and then at midnight we open presents and keep the celebration going.

We are all very excited! The children keep saying that Abuelita will be here for Christmas and asking if Christmas is already here.

My tentative menu for Christmas eve dinner:

Tamales: must be cooked the day before

Pozole: must be cooked 1.5 days before

Bunuelos: must be prepared same day and cooked about 30 minutes before consumption

Apple pie and mud pie: must be prepapred day before

Drink: I am drawing a blank on this one. I would like a warm cider (non-alcoholic) with lots of fruits but the recipe is not coming to mind. I would like something similar to a Mexican drink I used to have as a child but I don't recall the name.

Can you feel my excitement? It has been a year and a couple of months since we last saw my Mom and little brother and I am bubbling with excitement!

A little something I worked on yesterday to decorate our Christmas tree: the Itty Bitty Mitts. The pattern is  loom knitted using a bulky weight yarn and the Flower Loom (12 peg large gauge loom).

The Itty Bitty Mitt pattern is available for download. Hope you are able to use this pattern to decorate or make someone's life a little brighter.

PS: if you download the pattern, please drop me a note below on the comments section. Although I did my best to have the pattern error-free, I do have two kids and a very forgetful mind, so in case there is anything wrong with it, I can always drop you a note and alert you to the updated pattern.

Candy Corn Inspired Bag (pattern)

*Updated Patterns: See ** below.

Thursday afternoon while blog hopping I found the cutest little halloween bag: The Felted Candy Corn Bag. It was love at first sight. I ran downstairs and to my luck I had exactly the colors needed for the pattern. Then, I sat down and was ready to begin knitting when I read the instructions a little closer...it was crochet :(. My heart fell as my crocheting abilities are almost nonexistent.

Not being one to give up too easily, I grabbed by trusty quadrille notebook, pencil, calculator and sat down to do some little math. A swatch and a couple of hours later and I had it figured out.

I made one and my littlest munchkin is already running around the house screaming "trick or treat! Give me candy or smell my feet". One bag down and one more to go...first got to locate more of the yellow and orange yarn.

The pictures below show the bag pre-felted and then felted.  The bag was sturdy enough without being felted but it was a little too big for my little one so I threw it in the wash to felt.

The bag measures: 11"wide X 10" tall (felted): plenty of space to pack a bunch of candy.

The sample bag was done as flat panels; if you are knitting it with needles, you can knit it in the round and eliminate the seaming.

Pattern anyone? Below are three options: loom knitted, needle knit as flat panels, needle knit in the round.

**Pattern is knit completely in garter stitch.

Loom Knit Candy Corn Bag

Needle Knit *updated

If you knit the pattern, let me know, I would love to see the picture. 

A Pixie Bell Hat & Scarflet

My friend's baby is scheduled to arrive today...we are all so excited for her and her family! The little hats were finished just in the nick of time. I was able to create three of them for her little one and hopefully they will keep her little head warm in the upcoming months.

The second little hat was inspired by a book that I got my kids, Beck Beyond the Sea, it is a book with faeries and little creatures from another world. I wanted a little hat that was cute and looked a little bit like a flower bell. The hat follows the same pattern as the previous little hat pattern,except I made the top I-cord shorter and omitted the ribbing at the hem and added a small ruffled edge and a ribbon.

The pattern is in PDF format and it is right here if you are interested in it. I winged most of the instructions, but I think they worked pretty well for the Pixie Bell Hat.

The weekend also turned out a mini-scarflet pattern that I worked up  for my little Wonderboy. Cold weather is here and he is going to need a little scarf to keep his neck warm on our walks to school. It is fairly simple and it takes very little yarn and uses a Knifty Knitter loom. 

There is not much of a pattern for it as it is just the basic instructions for working on a knitting board, but if you need a little guidance, follow this instructions.

My destash is still going, come check it out, I will be adding more stuff today.

*Updated: mini-scarflet instructions

Close-up pictures of the mini-scarflet.

Arellis Bracelet Pattern:Beads, Beads, Beads!

The memories of my childhood are rare, memories with my sisters are scarce and spotty. The recent contact with my little Sis has made me a bit melancholic and has me reaching back for every speck of memory of them.

I remember one afternoon when Mom was washing clothes in the backyard. Mom was washing the clothes by hand on the lavadero (washing sink) and she kept throwing water at us with the jicara (a small plastic dish), and the four of us kept running around the yard trying to not get wet. Our hair was long and I remember my 2nd to youngest sister's hair flying around and she just looked so pretty--she had dirty blond hair that shined beautiful under the sun. I loved her hair, being a brunnette her hair always fascinated me and I remember going to the front yard and picking red flowers to put by our ears. Soon the water was forgotten and we ended up playing with the flowers and decorating our hair.

I don't remember much more than just the above, but I do  remember the flowers and the colors around the  house. Mom had bugambilia trees that climbed up on one of the sides of the house, by the front steps we had purple/blue Hydrangeas (Hortensias), and around the house we had a hibiscus hedge that gave us beautiful and huge, red trumpet shaped flowers (the ones that I used for our hair decoration).

Since my reunion with my little Sister, my knitting times are usually spent reliving memories and thinking of the day that we finally meet each other again. The bracelet above is named after my 2nd to youngest sister...it is her middle name and the one that she prefers to be known as, Arellis.

I hope you enjoy loom knitting it as much as I enjoyed knitting mine...threading the beads will definitely give a couple of hours of contemplation time :).

Pattern is loom knitted but it can most definitely be needle knit by using size 11 needles (details on the PDF file). It is not knitted with wire but with elastic which feels more comfortable than the wire :). I hope you really enjoy it!

Download PDF file.

When you click on the link it will download the PDF directly to your computer. If you have any problems downloading it, drop me a quick note below and I'll send it out to you (I am using a new service to store my pdf files).

Also, drop me a comment if you have any questions about the pattern, I know it reads more like a guide than a pattern.

Although it uses a lot of beads, the beads are quite inexpensive. I think I was able to create the bracelet with about $3 (all materials for it).

Pearly Satchel

A little whimsy for a night out. I started working on this last week when I found a bag of pearl beads in my stash. I didn't know what to do with it and then I opened a drawer and found a lonely skein of Patons Brilliant.

The little satchel uses less than 1/2 skein of yarn and it looms up quite fast. I was able to knit it all in a few hours. It took longer deciding how many beads to put and where to place them.

The satchel is big enough to put a lipstick, keys, and a credit card (or some cash). While I was knitting it, I kept thinking back to my prom night and how something of the kind would have been so handy and a lot nicer than the purse I took. 

I used white color beads and the White Twinkle Brilliant yarn (which adds some bling, bling to the bag),  but you can match any dress/skirt by changing the color of the beads and/or yarn.

The baggy is small, at only 3.5" x 3" it is small enough to wear around the wrist too.

The pattern is in PDF format. Enjoy!

Click here to download Pearly Satchel

Coming tomorrow or Saturday, a quick tutorial on using the Pocket Knitter (my stats show a huge googling for this item).

Eclectic Post

I was recently asked as to the reason for my test knitting others patterns...were there really reasons beyond the obvious ($) one. And I have to say that the answer is a resounding yes! Let's see....

1. I get to try out new patterns (who doesn't want new patterns with sometimes new techniques to try out)

2. I get to try out new yarns (being the first to touch a new yarn is always tempting!)

3. I get to try out new colors that otherwise I would not try out (now this poses a new experience on its own!)

4. And to top it all off, sometimes I even get paid to knit! Now that is really cool.

All the reasons above make the test knitting fun and something that I look forward to doing...the only down side to all of this is that I can't really show you many of the items that I am knitting, but I can show you little bits of them...I just can't tell you what they are.

Currently, I am knitting a hat from a new book that is coming out. The book is one that I really want to get too and this test knit is giving me the chance to see one of the patterns. And although the pattern is really neat (I am trying a new technique that I had not tried before--a top down hat), the main focus is the yarn color. 

The color is out of my mainstream, I wouldn't have chosen this color if I had gone to a store to pick yarn out, but seeing it knit up makes me feel that Spring is almost here and I want to knit something Springy and fill my house with flowers and even do some Spring cleaning! What do you think? Does seeing other people's choices of yarn influence what you buy? Or better yet, how many times do you purchase the same color of yarn that is shown on a knitted garment?

On other knitty news, I am still looking for a pattern for Little Benny's knee highs. They are just in the back-burner right now (that just means that I sometimes sit down and think about them and even grab a book or two and try to see if any of the designs would work).

On loomy news, the Inara Scarf pattern is ready, I had a report from two of my test knitters and the pattern is ready to go. I can see so many possibilities for this scarf design, if I had a bit more free time on my hands I would love to knit a few more pattern repeats and knit a shawl, or a mock mobious scarf by just twisting the scarf and joining the two ends together (mock because you are seaming the ends and thus it is not knitted like a true mobious).

And on more loomy news, I received my complimentary copy of the book. Yay! Now, what do I do with it.....hmmm...oh look there is a fly....thunk!

And on exercise news, I have been going on my recumbent bike and although the workout is not as arduous as the elliptical (if you can call going on the elliptical arduous), it does have the great advantage of allowing me to knit while I pedal. A big fat plus on my book! Now, I know some of you have bikes and you exercise on it, am I going to see any results from the pedaling--noticeable as in inches off my bottom or even my love-handles? I have had the bike for awhile but I have never solely relied on it to shape up (not that I ever was in shape, other than a round tubby shape).