Hobbit Blocks

This weekend I decided I'd finally assemble the Northshore Cardigan. Despite measuring carefully the buttons would not line up with the holes. I finally laid the thing out and realized that the right front is three inches longer than the left front. I know that there's a way to undo knitting from the bottom, but since I don't know how to do that the cardigan is banished into storage again.  I've also been busy working on the Hobbit quilt. The final lay out was announced at the beginning of the month and I'm working to catch up. I still have quite a few more blocks to go, but here's a few more of the new blocks.

It plays more heavily in Lord of the Rings, but I don't think you can do a Hobbit quilt without the ring of power.

The bridge to Rivendell

I think Sting is the most challenging block I've done so far for this quilt. The original design called for a blue tip, but since the entire blade should glow blue I chose to do it all in silver and use a blue background.

Owl Sweater

In March I saw the cutest sweater ever. I knew I had to have it. I headed over to Ravelry and purchased the pattern. That's when the trouble started. I didn't have the yarn recommended but found out that many people made the sweater with Lion Brand Fisherman's Yarn (which happened to be in my stash.) I cast on only to realize I had the wrong size needles. I ripped back and changed to the right size needles and started again. Everything was going great until I realized I'd forgotten to do the shaping for the back. Finally I got everything right and in mid-April finished the main part of the body. Then I realized that I didn't actually know how to do cables or how to attach the sleeves. At this point I was so frustrated with the thing that it got banished to the bottom of the stash for the summer.

As the days began turning cold I decided to bring the owls back. It turns out the sleeves weren't as I difficult as I was making them and the cables for the owls were actually really fun to make. I managed to finish this sweater at the end of October and have finally gotten pictures to share.

Don't you just love those owls?

Halloween, a bit late

Sorry for the long absence. I wish there was a good excuse, but there really isn't. I tried sharing these pictures Halloween weekend, but couldn't get the internet to co-operate enough to upload the pics. (The joys of harvest. No, we don't farm, but the dust in the air pretty much takes out the internet here.) Last February my brother-in-law and his wife made me a very happy aunt. Then in the summer one of my friends from college had a baby girl who I couldn't resist spoiling. I'm determined to win the title of craftiest aunt (even if I'm technically only aunt to one.)

I found this adorable hat on Lion Brand's website a few years ago and have been anxiously waiting for someone I know to have a baby the chance to make it. This was a really fast knit (I think it only took me one evening to make each hat.)

*If anyone is curious, I used the yarn suggested by the pattern.

This summer I was in the grocery store waiting to check out. I looked down at the magazines and there was a purse on the cover that looked exactly like a monster. I was so excited I immediately grabbed it to add to my cart. As it was heading towards my cart I got a better look at the "monster" purse. Apparently normal people don't make monster bags in July. What I thought were teeth were just half square triangles along the bottom and the eyes were just the handles knotted through some grommets. It was a cute purse, but wasn't nearly as cute as the monster bag I thought I saw. 

Then I started thinking and realized that I could make half square triangles and create my own monster bag. I wanted to really make it look like a monster so I replaced the knotted handles with square-in-square blocks. 

I struggled to get a good picture, but this gives an idea of what they look like. As I was laying out the blocks my husband suggested I turn the HSTs to make bigger teeth so credit for the green bag goes to him. 

Sadly this is the best shot I got of the yellow bag. The original picture I saw only had one row of HSTs, but I thought that two made it look much more like a mouth.