Knitting Frenzy!

Here are some pictures of the project I'm working on right now. They're felted hunting mittens for my dad. The right mitten has a little hole where the trigger finger can easily come out of the mitten (and I never thought I'd type a sentence like that in my life...). I'm using the Adult Mittens pattern from the Beverly Galeskas Felted Knits book, and modifying it a bit for the finger hole. I found this hunter orange colored yarn in Cascade 220, if anyone is interested. Here are the pictures. The first is of the mitten half done, and the second is the mitten all knitted, but not felted.

After finishing the mittens, I plan on making a felted bag for my mom. I'm going to use the "At-Odds Felted Purse" from the Theresa Gaffey Designs and use my favorite yarn, Cascade 220. I attemped to make a center-pull ball out of two of these skeins. We'll see if it worked, or if I'm going to have one giant tangled-yarn mess on my hands.

Holiday Knitting

Please take a moment to share what you will be working on over the holiday break.... I've got two baby sweaters to do. One is for a boy, using red wool-ease in the ML Egan easy baby sweater pattern. The other is for a newborn girl. Not sure what I'll use, pattern or yarn-wise. Might be the Mason-Dixon baby kimino, might be the five-hour baby sweater.

Helpful webpage for crochet and knitting references

Anj mentions that it can be a little hard to follow a detailed pattern, especially, I find when you are not sure of all the abbreviations. There's a great webpage from the Craft Yarn Council of America that includes all sorts of helpful references for knitting and crocheting. Now that I've found this, I might be able to follow a crochet pattern! I also like the standard sizing charts for baby, child, woman, man and head. See Standards & Guidelines for Crochet & Knitting.

Rib-and-Cable Mitts Marji LaFreniere

I'm such a newbie. I'm still working on my Rib-and-Cable Mitts from the Spring 2006 issue of Interweave Knits. The pattern is great but I think it may be a little beyond my skill.
I have never:

1. Knit in the round
2. Knit cables
3. Followed such a detailed pattern
4. Made a "pair" of something

I'm finding it nearly impossible to finish the second glove. I think it would take me all of 10 minutes at this point. I'm a little disappointed because one glove is longer than the other. I'll post a picture when they're complete.

Lopi Stash & Lopi Cat

Photos of my Lopi Stash.....

On right, Lopi arranged in sweater possiblities.
Above, entire Lopi and Lite Lopi stash. I love the Lite Lopi but I've never actually made anything using it. Do you think I have enough to make a sweater? (or two?)

Here is my kitty with some leftover Lopi. I had to distract her from all the new Lopi on the island.

The obligatory Cat Shot...

All knitting blogs need a cat and some yarn juxtaposed in a cute fashion. I give you: