School is back in session!

I'm so happy that school has started back up again. My son, Aiden is a senior this year and I'm overjoyed at the thought of him graduating, but at the same time anxious and nervous over him moving even more toward his independence and adulthood.  Where did my little guy go? He's almost all grown up and it feels like yesterday that he was going off to Kindergarten.

All his school pictures from kindergarten to now

I keep thinking that I have all this time to spend with him, but more and more lately he's off doing his thing with his friends or at work. Yep, you heard right, he got a job this summer and now is earning his own money to buy what he wants. Again, another milestone toward his independence, all he needs now is his driver's license and I don't think I will ever see him! Well we will cross that bridge when we get there I guess.  This year is going to be a fun year with all the preparation that goes into getting ready for graduation, senior prom, and all the senior activities. I'm so happy for him, it brings back many happy memories of when I was a senior - but we won't talk about what year that was.

Now that school is back in session and the kids are wearing their new duds, some knitting projects that you could make to add to their school wardrobe this year, like team spirit hats, beanies, and scarves.  Some I found on Ravelry: School Colors Hat that is a free download on Lion Brand, for purchase on Ravelry there is the School Spirit Headband by Angela J. Baker, School Cardigan by Georgie Hallam. A free download on Ravelry is the crochet School Spirit Afghan for your college bound student designed by Bobbi Anderson. For those that aren't into wearing scarves there is the School Time Cowl by Isabeau Knits, knit it in your students school colors and they can show their school spirit during all the winter sports without ever having to worry about losing their scarf. Or if your student prefers a scarf, crochet this quick and easy scarf a free download from Lion Brand, School Colors Scarf.

Gently remind your college student to keep their studies in the forefront with these Back to School washcloths that have STUDY duplicate stitched on the front that they would use for the five days and PARTY can be saved for the weekends!

You get the idea, there are hundreds of patterns to choose from for your returning student or your college bound student. Ravelry is a great place to start.  Have fun getting those school projects going and happy knitting!

Just in time for Christmas

I've been having so much fun designing the team hats and showing them off through Twitter and Facebook that I have been getting custom requests. So now you can place an order for your favorite team or school custom colorwork designed earflap or beanie style hat at my Etsy Shop!

Here are a few of the requests I've gotten so far:

University of Colorado Buffaloes

NY Jets

 I have modified the earflap hat so that it is more like the style of the old football helmets worn in the early 1900's. The brim is 1x1 ribbing, the earflaps are knitted double-stranded for additional warmth over the ears, the i-cord ties are double-stranded as well and the hat is embellished in an accent color using the reverse single crochet stitch, below is an example using the University of Oregon school colors, that I finished a few days ago:

Team Spirit Hats

I've been having so much fun with colorwork these days! I've been inspired to create team spirit hats. You saw from my previous post the Pittsburgh Steelers team color inspired hat - my son was crazy about it, so I had a thought - what if I made more of these kinds of hats?  My son gives me the ideas and I try to create a hat from the color scheme of the team.

For instance I came up with my own colored chart to create a hat for the UW Huskies:

Go Huskies!!!

Reminiscent of the early football helmets of the 1900's
Earflaps are knitted double-stranded for warmth

Made with Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Oxford Grey,
Violet, and Gold 

Learning colorwork has been challenging yet fun and its opening up more design ideas. Also, now when I come across colored charts I'm not so intimidated. In the past I have steered away from patterns that require me to read a chart and especially any that had colorwork designs!  Now that I've designed a few of my own colorwork patterns, I say, "bring on the colored charts - I'm not afraid of you!!!"

I am currently working on of course UW's rival team - Washington State University Cougars, for which I have also designed a colorwork pattern for and of course I can't leave out the Seattle Seahawks - I designed a really cool pattern for the team color scheme for them. I will post pictures of the hats when I'm done, but in the meantime here is a sneak peek at the design I created for the Seahawks team spirit hat: 

Have you started your holiday knitting?  Have you decided on patterns and designs for the colder weather yet?  Would love to hear from you, come on and drop me a comment.  Happy knitting!!

Update: Finished September 28, 2011

As promised here is the women's WSU beanie with pom pom that I designed and below is the colorwork pattern for it:

Model: Vanessa, a friend at work

Update: Finished September 30, 2011

Seahawks, Sounders FC, or Thunderbirds Team Spirit Beanie

Close-up of colorwork design



New Hats on the Horizon

I'm knitting away once again this weekend.  Finished a few hats I'd like to share:

A few of the above hats are now available in my Etsy shop - Handmade Knits by Knitter Mama.  Drop on by and check them out.

Update: September 13, 2011: Finished this hat after dinner on Monday night!

Trying my hand at colorwork - combining more than just two colors!

The Holidays are almost here! Do you know what you're knitting?

Only seven more weeks (OMG is that correct?) until Christmas! Do you know what you're knitting and giving as gifts this year?  I have so many nephews and nieces I have to start knitting for the next year right after Christmas. 

Well this year as always, I have procrastinated and now am behind on my gift projects. I've been concentrating solely on making items for the Pre-Black Friday Holiday Bazaar that I'm participating in that I have completely neglected my family's projects.  My consolation is if my items don't sell then I can give them as gifts, which in my book is a win-win situation.

Last year's gifts for the fam were felted slippers - I made twenty-two pairs and was still mailing off slippers in March of this year. They were such a big hit that I have back orders that I still haven't filled.  So this coming weekend will probably be devoted to back order items and finishing those pesky unfinished projects hidden in my upstairs closet (you know the old saying..."out of sight, out of mind").  Well that's where they've been for a couple of years, out of mind - but not anymore, it's time they saw the light of day once again and finally get finished - no more putting it off...well that's the plan anyway.  Can you tell I'm trying to psych myself up for this endeavor?  Is it working?  Not really...but I know it must be done.

So last night I went through the bag I had hidden away upstairs and found that I had no reason to be intimidated - there seemed to only be crochet projects in the bag and only two knitted caps that I cleary had intended to give as a gift but never did.  Apparently this is my MO, I get excited about a new hat pattern, knit it, and then squirl it away in a bag in the back of the closet.  Well no more - these cute little caps will find a new home, once I make a nice matching scarf or fingerless gloves to go with them. So I pulled them from their hiding place and right now have them lined up across the back of my couch settled on styrofoam heads like the one you see here that a friend of mine is letting me borrow to display them at my table during the holiday bazaar.  They look really kind of cool - but my son thinks that I've really gone off the deep end when he saw the heads sitting on the back of the couch with all these hats on them!  He says I'm turning into a knit-a-holic, and that's a bad thing? 

Well it looks like this year, hats and scarves and/or fingerless gloves are on the agenda for the fam - my first attempts at making hats was when I first began to knit several years ago. I only knew how to work on straight needles and had to sew a seam up the back of my hats. Well I certainly hope that I've advanced a little since then.  When I discovered patterns that showed you how to make hats without seams using circular needles I was doing the happy dance - my hats now look so much better without the seam going up the back - as my mother (who was a seamstress that did piece work for a big manufacturing company) would attest I'm a terrible seamstress and I am very happy not to have to sew anything if I can help it.  Thank goodness for circular needles!

So I'd like to hear from you about what's on your needles for the holiday gift giving season, post a comment and tell me what about your favorite pattern or item you like to give as gifts.

Rolled brim skull cap - 1st time using
circular needles

back view: 1st time decreasing on double-pointed
needles (dpns)

If I didn't have my knitting to keep me sane...

I saw this t-shirt that said, I Knit So I Don't Kill People and I thought... that is so me! Have you ever felt that if you didn't have a hobby you love that allows you to get away from the craziness around you that you would go on a killing spree?  Well maybe not exactly that far, but there are times when I feel like the people around me are so annoying that I just want to smack them right up side the head! Ugh - particularly the ones who seem to be so helpless when standing in front of the copier machine and you have a twenty page document you have to have ready for the boss in like five minutes and the person in front of you can't figure out how to work the damn machine!  Shouldn't that be a requirement of a person before they are hired?  Know how to use standard office equipment, i.e.: copier, fax, computer, printer? Hmm...just a thought.

Well thank goodness for my knitting, it's allows me time to de-stress at the end of the day after dealing with the daily frustrations of stupid people on the job, raising an oftentimes annoying teenager, really bad drivers in Washington, and everything and anything in between.  Have you ever felt that way?  If I didn't knit, I think I'd probably go stark raving mad sometimes - because people can be so annoying at times and other times even more annoying.

Patterns don't talk back, or cut you off in traffic, or make you do a letter over five times before it's perfect!  I'v found that knitting can bring you a lot of joy and when you finish that handmade creation and see your friend or family member sporting the end product you can't help but smile and think life isn't so bad after all.

And since life can be overwhelming at times for me to keep my sanity I pick up my needles [no not to stab that annoying person in the check-out line who can't find the right card to use to pay for a lousy pack of gum and a gallon of milk] and block out the stupidity around me and bask in my world of colors, textures, styles, patterns, and designs.

Ladies small - machine washable-gentle cycle
& dry-low heat

And with that I just finished another shrug last night - this one was a little longer in the making because I used a less bulky yarn and smaller needle [Berroco Comfort Chunky 50% super fine nylon & 50% superfine acrylic in Beet Root, size 9 needle].  It took a little longer but I think the end result speaks for itself.  What do you think?

I also completed the Fun Fur & Jiffy scarf and hat.  All the ladies at work loved it, maybe you will too!

Me modeling hat and scarf
I'm all set for the holidays!

Welcome to Knitter Mama



Small Market Bag

Welcome and thank you for joining me at Knitter Mama.  Here you will see many of the wonderful handmade knit and/or crochet creations that I knit for family and friends.  I learned to crochet nearly 20 years ago and have made crochet blankets for almost all my nieces, nephews, second cousins and friends' babies.  But crocheting was a luxury I couldn't seem to keep up with, so I had put away my crochet hooks and yarn for many years.

But a few years ago, I joined a knitting circle at work and after a lot of trial and error taught myself to knit, with lots of help from the wonderful group of knitters.  Within my circle I had over 50 years of knitting knowledge - and you can bet I tapped that knowledge every chance I got.

One handle market bag
with honeycomb pattern
center

Now four years later I have made many wonderful handmade items for friends and family and I was convinced recently to sell some of those items.  I thought to myself that selling my creations would turn it more into work rather than the relaxing stress reliever that it has become over the years.  But some friends just refused to take "no" for an answer and insisted on paying me.



So here I am wanting to share with others my passion and hopefully you will enjoy the handmade items as much as I enjoy creating them.



The market bags you see here are my first attempts at making these and as you can see they came out great.  The are great for shopping, library books, or just about anything you need them for.  I've used them at times as a purse when I go to the Farmer's market and don't want to carry a purse and a market back.  They stretch quite a bit and you can fill them with so much, you will really enjoy their versatility.



Felted slippers - ladies fun fur & orchid
men's dark purple

Now the felted slippers were a big hit last year for Christmas, all my nieces and nephews got a pair and they loved them!



Personal bath set: towel, washcloth, &
soap/bath salt pouch

The personal bath sets are great as birthday gifts - which I gave to two of my sisters and if you pair them with some handmade soap and bath salt you have a great gift basket idea.