Now you see it...

...and now you don't...

....frogged! My failure :(

I really gave it a good try, but I really did not enjoy this double knitted cow cloth. This is perhaps the most tedious knitted item that I have tried. The technique is not hard, but very slow going. Hard to tink back and fix mistakes as well. I have done double knitting before using Elizabeth Zimmerman's instructions for a pot holder found in her Knitter's Almanac. This was a couple of years ago before I had my blog.
What's challenging about knitting the cow pattern is the fact the picture is on both sides. If I was doing the same thing to both sides or had the back side be a solid color I think I could do that. Since I did not enjoy it I decided it was in my best interest to just move on. I rarely give up on a project. Now I'm not saying I'll never try it again....

Here's a picture of my Argosy Plain Jane dishcloth: This is the square version of the cloth. I love this cloth. It's a very easy pattern and I think it's great for variegated yarn. There is also another version which I haven't tried yet, but is an argosy cloth done on the diagonal just like the scarf and blanket.

I finally have a few more babies to knit for....there are 3 that I know so far. I thought I would try the cute petal bib that I've seen on so many blogs recently. The pattern comes from the One Skein book. I was lucky enough to be able to borrow it from my library.
Now I didn't follow the instructions exactly. The pattern calls for sport weight cotton. I used my AC Moore mill end yellow cotton which is definitely a worsted weight. The bib part is fine, but the i-cord ties are a bit thick. I think if I make another one I'd probably do something differently with the ties.

In the One Skein book there is a pattern for a spiral rib drawstring bag that I really liked, but this pattern calls for a chunky weight bulk yarn. Now I probably could have doubled up on the peaches and cream, but decided against it. Instead I made up my own pattern (totally different construction) but I borrowed the spiral rib pattern from the book. Here's the bag:

This is going to be a birthday present for someone I won't name just yet...in case she checks out my blog. I'm filling the bag with a bunch of my cloths. Most of them are chenille or part chenille. I thought she might like the soft cloths.


I threw in 2 large Dove chocolate bars and a bar of natural strawberry soap. Hopefully she'll like the drawstring bag fill with the goodies.

The last thing I wanted to tell you about is the Sakura Cherry Blossom shawl. I was really disappointed that it went for the minimum bid ($25.00) in my church's silent auction. That is what I paid for the yarn and all that time (over two weeks of pretty steady work) it took to knit although it was very enjoyable. It is really sad that people (general public) do not value a hand knitted item. I doubt that I would ever do that again. :( The only saving grace of the whole thing is that I found a very pretty inexpensive yarn, a beautiful pattern that I really enjoyed working with and so many nice compliments of my work from people (mostly knitters) inside and outside (knitting blog world) my church!

Happy Knitting everyone :)

"My Knit List " and some random facts...

Here's my knitting content for this post.

I copied my knit list from http://smariek.blogspot.com . I added a few things.

Here are the directions:
Bold for things you’ve done, italics for things you plan to do one day, and normal for things you’re not planning on doing.

I think this is a good inventory of my knitting skills and thought perhaps others might want to give it a try to see exactly where they stand.

My knit List:

American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)
Bobbles
Button holes
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Continental knitting (tried but didn't love)
Domino knitting (modular knitting) (have Vivian Hoxboro's book...looks interesting)
Double Knitting
Drop stitch patterns
Entrelac
Fair Isle knitting
Freeform knitting
Fulling/felting
Garter stitch
Garterlac
I-cord
Intarsia
Kitchener BO
Knitting with circular needles
Knitting with DPNs
Knitting and purling backwards (never thought about it)
Knitting smocking
Knitting small tubular items on two circulars
Knitting a circular item using the Magic Loop
Lace patterns
Long Tail CO
Moebius band knitting
Norwegian knitting
Provisional CO
Short rows
Slip Stitch patterns
Steeks
Stockinette stitch
Swatching
Textured knitting
Swiss Darning or duplicate stitch
Thrummed knitting
Tubular CO
Twisted stitch patterns

Two end knitting
Knitting with alpaca
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Knitting with banana fiber yarn (heard it's very disappointing)
Knitting with beads
Knitting with camel yarn
Knitting with cashmere
Knitting with cotton
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Knitting with linen
Knitting with metal wire
Knitting with soy yarn
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn
Knitting with self-patterning/self-striping/variegating yarn
Knitting with silk
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Knitting with wool

Afghan/Blanket
Baby items
Cuffs/fingerless mitts/arm warmers
Gloves
Hat
Hair accessories
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, towels, tea cozies…)
Jewelry
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Pillows
Purses/bags
Rug
Shawl
Scarf
shrug/bolero/poncho
slippers
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Stuffed toys
Sweater
Toy/doll clothing

Charity knitting
Graffiti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)
Knitting art
Knitting for pets
Knitting for preemies
Knitting items for a wedding
Knitting a gift
Holiday related knitting

Designing knitted garments
Dyeing yarn with plant colors
Dyeing yarn with acid dyes
Dyeing yarn with kool-ade and other food colorings
Participating in a KAL
Publishing a knitting book
Knitting to make money
Knitting for a living
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Knitting on a loom
Machine knitting
Olympic knitting
Resizing patterns
Spinning on a drop spindle
Spinning with a spinning wheel
Teaching a male how to knit
Teaching knitting classes
Writing a pattern
Knitting in public

-----------------------------------------

Seems like just about everyone who's blog I read has been tagged in the past few days. I've been tagged by knottykitty, Jeanne and Josee for the 8 (in Jeanne and Josee's case 7) random facts meme. I'll be a good sport and do 8, because knottykitty tagged me first!

Rules:

• Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.
• People who are tagged write a blog post about their own 8 random things and post these rules.
• At the end of your blog you need to tag 8 people and post their names.
• Don’t forget to leave them a comment and tell them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.
  

I really didn't think I would get to do this fun exercise for awhile, but while I was doing my weekly cleaning today I was thinking...thinking about this random facts meme....and I found my cleaning going amazingly quickly. Did I mention...I hate cleaning, oh there we go #1:

1. I HATE cleaning, but force myself to do it ;)

2. My first name is Debbie. I was named after Debbie Reynolds. If I were a boy, my name would have been Keith. My mother loved that boy's name.

3. I'm addicted to knitting, oh that's right you already know that fact! Well, I'm addicted to chocolate, too. A small piece every now and then makes me very happy :)

4. I'm a Medical Technologist by trade, with my speciality being Microbiology. Currently, I'm just a stay at home mom.

5. I'm allergic to just about everything. I get 3 allergy shots a month and I still take Allegra in the morning and benadryl at night.

6. My great-grandparents on my mother's side immigrated from Germany. My grandparents on my father's side immigrated from Hungary.

7. I refuse to use a port-a- potty no matter what!

8. I'm a pack rat. I love all thing OLD and antique. Old things are much more interesting than new items. The only drawback to loving old things is that I really have a hard time getting rid of anything :)

Well, that wasn't too bad. Now I have to tag 8 of my blogging friends. Finding someone who has not been tagged is going to be difficult, so if you are reading my blog...consider yourself tagged :) I wouldn't want to leave anyone out, now would I? ( Please let me clarify this...participate only if you want to, ok? )

Have a great weekend and hope there is lots of happy knitting going on :)

Sakura Cherry Blossom Shawl

Well, I did it! I finished Monika's Sakura Cherry Blossom Shawl last night. I was under a tiny bit of pressure, because I am donating it to our church's silent auction portion of their flea market next Saturday. I sure hope someone will want it. The church really needs the funds right now. Since I don't have the pocketbook for some of the more luxurious yarns like silk, I did happen upon this new yarn by Caron...Simply Soft Shadows. This is an extremely soft DK weight acrylic yarn that is self striping. It is very reasonably priced. I used 8 of the 3 oz. skeins. "Mardi Grey". Plus I think the easy care is a bonus. It's machine washable gentle cycle and machine dry low heat.
Today is Mother's Day! Happy Mother's Day to all mothers everywhere! So far I have had a very nice day. We all went to church. I receive a lovely carnation. It's tradition in our church to give all the ladies in the church a carnation. Then my boys took me to Longhorn Steak House for dinner. It was delicious as usual. Sunday Dinner is the perfect time to go, no wait and very fast service. Not only did they give me a $5.00 gift card to use on our next visit, but they also gave me a gorgeous long stemmed rose. That was so nice. It really made my day :) The only other thing that would have made my day better... having my oldest son with us. He is hunkered down at school finishing up projects and finals. Then once schools over he'll only be home briefly and then back to school. He's staying on campus for the summer. He got a wonderful internship working with unmanned autonomous undersea vehicles. He is very excited about this opportunity. Hopefully if all goes well this will lead to a research assistant position for graduate school. He's on the fast track to finish his master's degree (computer engineering) one year after his B.S. in Computer and Electrical Engineering next year. I am very proud of him. He has done phenomenally well and I hope he continues to do so :)

One last thing before I go...I have a new addition to my knitting library.
No, it's not a mother's day gift, but I got it yesterday with my 50% off coupon at AC Moore. I could resist the bargain ;) Now, I have lots of new pattern stitches to try out.

Happy Knitting :)

P.S. I almost forgot....check out:

My Ball Band Mop Cover Pattern has been published! I was very flattered when Sandra wanted to publish my pattern in Fiber Femmes Magazine. Thank you Sandra!

Door Prize

Here is a quick picture of a door prize I'm putting together. Next week our middle school P.C.C. is putting on a teacher appreciation luncheon. They had plenty of food donated already, but were in need of door prizes (about a $10.00 value). I added 3 of my dishcloths in matching colors to a flower pot set. Hopefully the color will work for whoever receives it. I think it makes a nice little gift. Now I just have to wrap it :)

Then the next picture is for Teenuh, who wanted to see the backside of the diamond drop cloth.
"Teenuh said...How neat. I love how that turned out! Actually, I'm curious of how that stitch pattern looks from the back side. Would you post a pic of it on your next update? :)"

Well here it is:
I'm still working on my latest project, Monika's Sakura Cherry Blossom Shawl . Mariella hit the nail on the head as well as a few others who guessed that I was working on a shawl. I'm using a totally different yarn than what Monika used...doesn't look quite the same, but I like it. I will post more later when I'm finished. The rows are getting longer and longer...it may take awhile, but I HAVE to finish it by the 19th of May. Wish me luck!! Happy Knitting everyone :)

Nothing finished to show you...

...not even a cloth! How can this be? I am working on a cloth, which is very tedious (I know you can't believe it, but it's true!) ...so I put it down to start on a new project:
Any guesses as to what I'm knitting ? :) I'll keep you in suspense until I have more to show you....
Happy Knitting :)