Well, The Work of Her Hands is moving. I have tried for a long time to make blogger work because I didn't want to move, and it is completely free, and it's where I started. However, I can hardly get a post done without having it take three or four days, and it is just too frustrating. So I have moved. I hope you'll join me, and don't forget to update your bookmarks, bloglines, or whatever it is you use to track the blogs you read. See you over there!

I finished two more hats and booties for the Pregnancy Resource Center. I love the pale Easter like colors on the girls hat, although they don't look exactly right on my monitor. In real life, they are a pale sagey green, purple, pink and white. The colors on the boys hat I would have never thought of putting together, except Reagan recieved an outfit for Christmas that had those colors in it, and it's really cute. I knit all the stripes diffent widths, trying for a random mix, but acheiving that look is more difficult than you would think. I pray that the new families that recieve these things are blessed by them.

Jan’s Baby Hat and Booties:

Baby Bee Sweet Delight Baby Yarn (comes in a huge variety of colors. I get it at Hobby Lobby) Used doubled throughout (I wind the yarn into balls and use the strand from the inside and outside of the ball)
I don’t know the exact amount of yarn I use. I can get 2 or three sets from one ball of yarn.
Size 7 needles. I use a 40-inch circular

I use the magic loop method of knitting in the round. You’ll have to adjust the instructions to fit your method of knitting in the round.

This hat is pretty basic for a rolled brim baby hat. If I haven’t written the instructions out clear enough, I am sure you can find better instructions somewhere else. This is a very rough set of instructions, because I basically just cast on and knit this one without a pattern. I tried to write it down though. I hope it’s helpful.

Cast on 60 stitches and join, being careful not to twist the stitches.
For a hat with a ribbed brim, work 1 and ½ inches of ribbing, then work straight until hat measures 5 inches from base of ribbing. If you want a rolled edge, you just knit straight. Eventually, the edge will roll up to the position it wants to be in. Knit until the piece of knitting measures 5 inches from the base of the rolled edge.

Decrease as follows:
Dec round 1: knit 4, knit 2 together all the way around.
Round 2, and all even rows until row 10, knit all stitches
Round 3: knit 3, knit 2 together. Repeat all the way around
Round 5: knit 2, knit 2 together, repeat all the way around
Round 7: knit 1, knit 2 together, repeat all the way around
Round 9, and all subsequent rows: knit 2 together
When you have 3 stitches left, work 1 cord for 1 inch if you want a little nub,
For 2 inches if you want a loop at the top
Work for 3 inches if you want a little knot on top.

Once you have worked the desired amount of I cord, pull thread through the all three stitches. If you just want the little nub, run the needle down through the I cord to the inside of the hat, and weave in the end securely. For the little loop, again run the darning needle down through the I cord to the inside, then bring your needle up close to the base of the beginning of the I cord, bend the end of the I cord down and secure it close to the base of the I cord.

For the knot, I use the end of the yarn to help me tie the knot, especially if I ended the I cord a little soon. Once I get the knot tied, I thread the ends of the yarn through the darning needle, and hiding the yarn in the I cord and knot, run it through to the inside, where I weave in the end securely.

You can add variety to this hat by choosing a knitting stitch and adjusting the number of stitches you cast on, or knitting in different color stripes. It is a very quick pattern, and I can get one of these done in a few hours, if I work on it diligently. It makes good travel knitting.


Baby Bootees
Same yarn as the hat, used doubled throughout.
This pattern also assumes you know something about short row heels.

Like I said earlier, I use the magic loop method of knitting in the round, and I knit from the toe up. I use a figure 8 cast on, using the cable of my 40-inch needle as waste yarn, instead of a second needle. After I cast on, it looks something like this.

I knit the stitches off the first needle, then slide the needles around (if you know magic loop, you know what I am talking about) and then knit the stitches that were cast on over the cable.

If you knit on two circular needles, Cat Bordhi does something very similar in her Baby Life Ring socks found here (this is a pdf file, by the way). I also think she explains it much more efficiently, so read hers first!

So, I cast on 6 stitches using the figure 8 cast on, basically. This gives me 12 stitches total when I start the toe, 6 on each side. I knit one round plain,
The next round goes knit 1, Make 1(using your favorite method of increasing without making a hole) knit 4, make 1, knit 1. Repeat once over the next 6 stitches. You now have a total of 8 stitches, each side for a total of 16 Knit plain until sock measures 2 inches from the beginning of the toe. Knit 8 stitches, the heel will be worked on the second set of 8 stitches. This would be a good way to learn to knit a short row heel, as it’s very tiny, and doesn’t take long. A larger heel such as those for an adult are worked the exact same way, just over more stitches. I just work mine knitting back and forth, so I don’t have to purl, but I have written the instructions with the assumption you are purling the wrong side rows.

Row 1: With yarn in the back, knit 7. Pass yarn to the front, slip the last stitch, and pass yarn to the back,
Row 2: Turn work. Slip first stitch, purl next 6 stitches, pass yarn to the back, slip next stitch, and pass yarn to the front.
Row 3turn work, with yarn in the back, slip first stitch, knit the next 5 stitches, pass yarn from back to the front, slip 2nd from last stitch, pass yarn from front to back,
Row 4 turn work with yarn in front, slip 2nd stitch, purl next 4 stitches, pass yarn from front to back, slip the next stitch, pass yarn from back to front
Row 5, turn work, and slip the now wrapped 2nd stitch to right hand needle. With yarn in back, knit the next 3 stitches. Pass yarn from back to front, slip third stitch from the end, pass yarn from front to back
Row 6, Turn work, with yarn in front, purl 2 pass yarn from front to back, slip third stitch. Pass yarn from back to front.
Row 7slip stitch just wrapped. With yarn in back, knit 2pass yarn from back to front slip third stitch. Pass yarn from front to back
Row 8 with yarn in front, slip stitch. (third stitch is now wrapped twice) purl 2. Pass yarn from front to back. Slip next stitch. Pass yarn from back to front.
Row 9: turn work with yarn in back slipstitch now wrapped twice. Knit next three stitches. Pass yarn from back to front. Slip next stitch. Pass yarn from front to back.
Row 10: Turn work. With yarn in front, slip next stitch. Purl next 4 stitches. Pass yarn from front to back. Slip next stitch. Pass yarn from back to front,
Row 11: Turn work. With yarn in back, slip next stitch. Knit 5 pass yarn from back to front slip next stitch. Pass yarn from front to back.
Row 12: Turn work. With yarn in front, slip next stitch. Purl next 6 stitches. Pass yarn from front to back, slip last stitch, pass yarn from back to front, turn work.
Row 13: With yarn in back, slip next stitch, knit next 7 stitches. Pick up two stitches in the small gap there between where the heel started and ended.
Row 14Turn the work slip the first picked up stitch to the right hand needle, then purl the next 9 stitches. Now, using purls, pick up two stitches in this gap.
Row 15: Turn work. Knit next twelve stitches off back of heel, then the 8 stitches for what is now the front of the leg.
Row 16: Next, do a left leaning decrease, knit 8, do a right leaning decrease, knit 8
Row 17: Knit every stitch.
Row 18 Do a left leaning decrease, knit 6, do a right leaning decrease, knit 8
You have now reduced back to the 16 stitches you need for the leg.

I usually knit straight for an inch, inch and a half, and then do 6 rows of 2 x 2 ribbing. This makes a nice little cuff on the bootie. Another option that I use is to do 2 rows of ribbing, and then 4-6 rows of straight knitting. This makes a little rolled cuff on the socks that is really cute with the rolled brim hat.

I know this is a very rough pattern, but I did my best. There are much better explinations of a short row heel and picking up stitches out there, if mine is too confusing. Just use a search engine and start looking. Obviously, I am not a pattern writer. Hope this helps someone out there.

Next time, pictures of lace, I promise!

I just love blogger. I typed out a huge post last night, uploaded a bunch of pictures, and just when I went to hit publish, blogger went down for maintenance. So I'm trying again! (since I started this post, the power has gone out 4 times. It's a conspiracy, I tell ya!)

When the ice storm started on Saturday, I wasn't too concerned. I had heard about the destruction of the 2000 ice storm, but since we have lived in Oklahoma, we had never had an event like that. We had had some sleet, but sleet doesn't really hurt anything, it just piles up on the ground. Ice coats everything standing still, and it just gets thicker and thicker. I wasn't too scared until the trees started breaking. You would hear a crack like gunfire, and then the sound of a glass cabinet falling over breaking everything inside. It happened over and over. I stood on the porch maybe five minutes, and there was never a pause in the noise as tree after tree broke, the tops crashing to the ground. The tree that stands next to our garage was leaning over, it's top resting on the house, right over the car, so I went to move that and there was so much ice on the windsheild I couldn't scrap it off. I moved it hanging out the door looking behind me and managed to back into the half barrel that holds plants. That branch never broke, but another big branch on the same tree did, and we will probably lose the tree. It's the tree the kids have had a swing in since we moved here, it will be really sad to lose it.

We lost power early Saturday morning, about 3:30 am. Just as we were getting ready to head to my in-laws house, it came back on though, and went off and on all day as I rushed around trying to get clothes and things that we would need (my knitting!) packed up to go. Finally about 4 oclock, it went out again, and it didn't come back on until after dinner on Tuesday night. As I have said before, we were really blessed to be able to go to Chad and Judy's, they really made sure everyone was taken care of, we spent the whole time relatively comfortable.

It's amazing to me how the ice that caused so much destruction can at the same time be so beautiful. I wish I could have gone out and just walked around and taken pictures, but at the time it was pretty dangerous to be out there, and then it was so bitterly cold. We still have some ice today, but it is supposed to get warmer today and hopefully it will melt off some before the snow forcast for tommorrow (4-9 inches) gets here. I hope it does what forcast snow usually does around here, and never materializes at all.

So we got home late Wed. morning, and started cleaning house. I had a zillion loads of laundry to do, I got the kitchen cleaned and mopped, my room straightened out, the living room clean, when Reagan came to me and said, Mom, Look what Yoda did!

Well, on top of all the stress of the last 5 days, I cried. This was my first piece of Fair Isle work, Anne from She Ewe Knits helped me pick out the colors and figure out gauge and then posted a picture of the finished hat on her website. He also ate a piece of the ribbed brim, and the thumb of one glove. I was really upset that I was going to have to throw all that work away. It was too shredded to try to re knit the area and I don't have any of the yarn from that project left anyway.

So what I did was I used the closest matching yarn I could find and whip stitched the edges of the hole closed, and did the same on the chewed thumb. Then I threw them into a pillow case closed with a ponytail band and put them through a wash cycle.

I think they actually fit better now, since they were a little big to begin with, and you can hardly tell where the chewed areas were. So if you have a disaster with a knitted item, try to fix it somehow before you just give up on it, it might not be perfect, but if you have an attachment to something, anything is better than throwing it in the trash. My thoughts behind felting them were that even if they felted down too small, Reagan might still be able to wear them. I'm really glad they still fit me though!

I have had a request to post information on the baby hat and booties I have been knitting, and I promise to get that up the next time, as well as some pictures of my current project.

Well, we have survived the Oklahoma Ice Storm of 2007. If you have seen Muskogee on the national news over the last couple of days, that's what it looked like here. We didn't have power from 3:00 on Saturday until Tuesday evening, we didn't have water for most of Tuesday, and the phones went on and off at will for most of that time. We are blessed in the fact that I have wonderful in-laws, who bought 2 generators when the one they had didn't work, who let all of us, plus Sean's sisters family come stay with them, as well as fed us and let the kids watch tons of cartoons. We fully recognize that compared to a lot of people in the area, we had it easy, so we aren't complaining. I have pictures, but the phone lines are so bad it isn't letting me upload them. Hopefully I will get to post pictures the next time.

I did get more knitting done during the storm, although I haven't got to take pictures of it yet. I finished another baby hat and booties, plus a toddler hat for a friend of my mom's, and I started a lace project I am really excited about. I had a request for the information for the hat and booties in the comments, and I promise, I will post it as soon as I can. However, I have a lot (a LOT) of laundry to do, and we need to get back to school, so it might be a day or two.

On an exciting note, they had the Weight Watchers meeting on Tuesday. I went, despite the fact that I hadn't had a shower and looked horrible, just so I could weigh in...Not having access to your own refridgerator for 3 days results in a loss of 2.6 lbs, LOL. That brings my total to -32.6 lbs since I started Weight Watchers.

The last couple of days I have been working on another baby hat. Sean requested some time ago that I knit this lady he works with a hat for her baby, and I did. But, as you know, babies grow. She really wanted another one, but in navy blue, I guess to match his coat.

Have you ever tried to find navy blue baby yarn? It doesn't exist, at least not at Michaels or Hobby Lobby, which were the only two sources available to me since I needed to get it done by this weekend coming up.

I think the first hat was basically the same as the ones I have been knitting for the Pregnancy Resource Center, a rolled brim, plain stockinette, and an I cord loop, button or nub on the top. This one I did a little different. I knit in k2p2 rib for about an inch and a half, and then did a knit two, purl two, twist two, purl two rib. Knit for a while, till it seemed a little longer than necessary, and then did a series of decreases. And ended with the little I cord button.

It's pretty cool to be able to whip something up without really needing a pattern, but I am beginning to need a challenge. Time to email mom about her sweater, and see if I can figure out what she'd like.

I got a lot of knitting done over the weekend, despite a short bout with food induced illness.

The first thing I finished was Reagan's mitts. She loves them. She is wihtout doubt the easiest person I have to knit for, as she loves everything on my needles, gushes over it endlessly, and then, if the knit item is for her, doesn't take it off for days. Santa brought her fake fingernail polish for Christmas, and she insists on painting every finger a different color. I hope she outgrows that. She has also had an allergic reaction to the lip gloss he brought her. She looks awful.

I also got two hats and two pairs of booties finished for the Pregnancy Resource Center. I decided that babies probably did not need socks knit at 9 stitches to the inch, since they weren't going to be doing a lot of walking. I am knitting the booties toe up, with doubled yarn on size 7 needles. I can do a sock an hour, compared to at least 3 hours per sock before. That's going to really speed the knitting up.

So this week, I have to finish a baby hat for a friend of Sean's, start planning a sweater for my Mom,( who deserves a sweater more than anybody) knit a pair of fingerless mittens for Sean and maybe for me. Actually, I have a long list of things I'd like to knit for me, but I'm thinking I'll wait until summer to start, since I don't want to knit stuff to fit me now, because I'm pretty sure it won't fit next winter.

Well, it's back to school today. I'm so glad. We have been out of our schedule for so long it will be nice to get back into a normal routine.