A few weeks ago, I made a garter stitch elephant from red cotton, and almost immediately wanted to make a felted version. So here it is. Another project on which I can use the horrid yarn from the yarn CSA!

This was a fun project - it’s knit flat and then seamed up. This is another one I made for the fair. It turned out a lot larger than I anticipated - the pattern didn’t give any gauge or yarn or needle suggestions, and it ultimately doesn’t matter, but as a consequence, I had NO idea what to expect! And, as is typical with me, I’m now going to make another one, but felted. LOL.

PS, I stuffed this one with old rags, so it’s vaguely lumpy. And I’m guessing that lumpiness (along with some inexpert seaming around the elephant’s butt) will keep this from getting very high scores at the fair. It’s entirely possible that my entire State Fair experience will be nothing but one long painful losing streak!

Another one for the State Fair. Rebel Alliance bag. I improvised the bag pattern, and used the Rebel Alliance Insignia chart from here: http://www.angelfire.com/space2/swcharts/knit.html

 I used up some more of the horrid 70s color scheme yarn from Willow Ridge. I thought the 70s coloring was appropriate for the Star Wars theme, anyway. I really like how this bag turned out, and might make more Star Wars themed bags to go with it. I could have a whole line-up of them, lol. X-wings, Death Star, Darth Vader, Yoda…

I actually knit two of these, identical to each other. The first one, I made for my friend Abby, and included it as part of my Unexpected Crafty Gifting task for my 101 Things project.

The second one, I made for me, but I am entering it into the State Fair, so I have not worn it. After I got it all done, I noticed a fairly glaring mistake, but I wasn’t about to go back and fix it at that point, so I’m guessing it’s not going to do too well at the Fair. Ah, well.

Well, the socks aren’t necessarily summer socks. But I finished them in the summer! I had the first sock of both of these pairs completed in March, and the second socks were lagging for one reason or another. The stripey pair, I needed more yarn, and then I needed to finish the purple pair. The purple pair, I guess I’ve just been busy! It took far longer than it should have to finish up that second sock!!

But I’m happy with both pairs. I LOVE the purple pair. The yarn is nice (it’s Joann’s Sensations Bamboo and Ewe, which knits up nicely) and I love the pattern (Harris Tweed). This pair was made for a friend of mine, at her request. I don’t think there’s ever any way to charge a fair price for a hand-knit pair of socks, lol. $1 million should suffice.

The stripe pair is from Knitpick’s Felici yarn. I love the yarn, and I like the pattern, with one exception - it’s baggy around the legs, particularly the cuff. Annoying!

I made these both with Willow Ridge Farms yarn CSA yarn, which is about my least favorite yarn ever, but at least I’m slowly getting rid of it, lol. The blue and purple one is basically just improvised pattern, the brown one is the Belladonna nighttime shorts pattern, which has disappointed in the past. I keep thinking it’ll be better if I keep using it, but it’s not.

The Chronicles of Prydain socks. The Chronicles of Prydain is a fantasy series focusing on a young boy named Taran, and his coming of age. It is actually a very engrossing set of novels, and I enjoyed them very much.

I chose white yarn for these socks, because Hen Wen, the oracular pig, is white. I liked this pattern because it is simple, like the characters in the book, but has a touch of royalty. The yarn is a heaver weight than is typical for socks, giving them a rough look, like I imagine the clothes of poor Taran to be. The pattern is Brigid.

The yarn is Soft Wave from Queensland Collection, purchased at Rose Tree Fiber Shop in Ames.

For the record, I did not enjoy knitting socks with a 100% cotton yarn.

Maner. Just a quick project for me, to use up leftovers and provide some mindless knitting.

I started this on spring break, but traveling by RV with 11 people, including your 17 month old, doesn’t give you as much knitting time as you might think. I think I got about 10 rows done on the entire week-long trip.

It is awfully adorable, though, and actually a fairly simple knit. It’s worked from the bottom up. The pattern calls for 3 skeins of the skirt color and 2 of the bodice color, but I only needed 2 of the skirt and 1 of the bodice (fortunately, because that’s all I had). I did use up every last scrap for seaming.

The pattern is Soli. The yarn is CotLin (cotton/linen blend) from KnitPicks.

So, you know, I have this bizarre thing where I knit a pair of socks for every major book or series that I read. These are the Chronicles of Narnia socks. The colors are brown (for Aslan), blue (the queen, the water), black (for the evil that exists in any world), and green (for the world when it was brand new). The wave pattern is for the ocean they traveled on in the last book. I love these socks.

The Yarn is Mountain Colors, I found it in Decorah. The pattern is Kalajoki.