Something for me

I don't like making things for myself that much, but I needed a brimmed hat for the winter.  That is why I made the hat that I posted before and is shown below.  I have been working on the scarf since I finished my other projects that needed to be completed.  I finished it last night.  It should have been longer, but I ran out of yarn and I just bound it off when I didn't have enough yarn to complete another round of the pattern which was four rows long.  It is plenty long enough for me.  It is 50" and it was supposed to be 68" long.  It is meant to be long enough to loop or tie in the front, but it is too thick for me to like the feel of it that way, so I am happy with the length that it is.  I just throw one end over my shoulder to the back.  It doesn't feel as bulky that way.  It also makes it so that I can pull the scarf up over my nose to keep it warm.  Since my surgery, my nose gets really cold, so this will be a great help.

My completed set of hat and scarf.  I like it.

 Now comes the disappointing news.  As I had feared, the neck on the charcoal sweater that I made was too small.  I need to bring the sweater back and do it over.  I sure hope I can do it without cutting any of the yoke.  I really do not want to do the whole sweater over again.  It is so hard to take out something that has been hand sewn into place like it is on the neck.  I will find a way.

Rhonda's Second Sweater

I just finished Rhonda's second sweater.  She wanted it to be the same pattern as her first one, but the same color of the one I made for her daughter. I think I will be done with sweaters for awhile, although Rhonda did say she was very fond of the charcoal one that I made for her friend, Donn.  She said she knew she needed to stop because I'm breaking her.  I agree.  I am thankful for her business, but she has paid me a lot of money.  Donn said she wanted another one, too, but now I think she has decided not to have another one made.  She said maybe some other time.  So, here is Rhonda's sweater.  It looks like the other cranberry one that I made.

Not much to say since it looks like the other one.

I have also been working on a project for myself.  I actually finished part of it in October and I have been wearing it, but I have not been able to finished the rest of it because I have been so busy making the sweaters and socks.  I plan to finish the rest of it now.  I was going to wait to show the whole project, but since it may take awhile, I have decided to show the first part now and will show the rest when it is finished.

This is the hat.  I will show the scarf when it is finished.

I wanted to make a hat that had a brim to protect my nose. I loved this pattern, but wish I had chosen to make it out of the plain light brown yarn that I also had purchased.  I have a brown coat, so I wanted something that would match so I bought two different colors of yarn to choose from.  This does match, but I don't like the color on me so much.  I think the plain would have been better.  I do like the hat, though, so I decided to go ahead and start a scarf to match.  It looks really pretty, but the cabled pattern makes it take a long time to do. The scarf is really long, too, so I hope I will be able to finish it in time to use this winter. I am not really a hat and scarf type of person, but I should be wearing hats to protect my nose and the scarf was just pretty, so I decided to make it, too. The reason I do not like wearing hats is because they make me itch and a scarf just makes me feel choked.  I made the hat out of cotton yarn, hoping that it wouldn't make me itch.  I'm glad that I did.  I actually don't mind wearing it.  It fits loosely, so I think that helps, too.  I'm hoping that I will feel the same about the scarf.

Pink Puppie For Portia

My granddaughter, Portia, was down from Maine this week for the holidays.  She fell in love with Lexi's pink puppy in a puppy carrier.  She asked me if I could make her a pink puppy to take back to Maine.  I made the puppy, but she wasn't that happy with it.  It was when I saw how she liked putting Lexi's in and out of the carrier and carrying it around that I realized she was really liking the carrier more than the puppy. So, of course, I looked at Lexi's carrier and designed one similar to it for Portia.  Mine does not stand up because I didn't have stiff enough piping to put around the edges, but it still looks a lot like Lexi's and Portia loves it.  When you are three, it doesn't take too much most of the time.

Portia with her pink puppy that she thought looked like a bunny because of the floppy ears.

Portia holding the carrying case on the end that has the netting so you can see the puppy inside.

This shows the carrier on the material side.

I had planned on blogging the pillows that I made for my friend Nancy and for Marty's family, but I realize that I forgot to take pictures of them, so no pictures of the seven other pillows and covers that I made for Christmas.  I've started working on the other sweater that I need to knit for Rhonda.  It is going slowly because I don't have a time schedule to meet.  I will work on it when I feel like knitting.