Brick Patio

I am offering the Brick Patio as a free pattern at my Knit A Little Store.
http://knitalittlestore.blogspot.com/search?q=brick+Patio
Thanks to Jami for knitting it up and finding the errors.

Miner's Guardian Angel

I designed this pattern after the West Virginia Coal Mine disaster. It would work for any miner or spelunker. It is available as a free pattern at my Knit A Little Store.

http://knitalittlestore.blogspot.com/search?q=Miner%27s+Guardian+Angel

I'd Walk A Mile For A Camel

I finished the first camel!
The others need to be stitched together, but are already knit.
As with all the figures there is a LOT of sewing to do. Sewing takes me a LOONNG time.
The camel is an Alan Dart pattern from the book Irresistable Gifts To Knit and is part of the Noah's Ark pattern.
There is a second camel in the book which is part of a Nativity set. That Nativity set is a new one, not his older Nativity pattern which I hope to someday acquire.
I made several changes to the pattern.
First, I knit it with two strands of Caron Simply Soft on size 9 needles.
Next, I thought the body according to the pattern was too deep so cut out four rows of plain stockinette in the body. I also cut out four rows of stockinette in the neck to keep it in proportion with the body.
I also cut out two rows of stockinette in the head
I thought the legs seemed a bit short so added four rows to the first leg section. I cut out one knee row so did the decreases as p2tog. I added three rows to the last leg section. I did not put anything but stuffing in the legs. The camel stands fine if stuffed tightly.
I used 12 mm plastic safety eyes for the eyes. I use a pair of pliers to squeeze the back on tightly. If you use pliers be sure to protect the eye surface from scratches with a cloth.
The ears are according to pattern. The tail is different. I used one strand of Caron Simply soft and size four needles to knit a three stitch I-cord. I added a couple bits of yarn for a tassle at the end and fluffed them by running my needle through the strands to separate them.
I did not add any facial features besides the eyes. I like her as she is.
The Wise Man is from Jean Greenhowe's Nativity in Christmas Special.

Fuzzy Mitten Lamb for C

This is my first time knitting a Fuzzy Mitten pattern. The lamb is free at
http://fuzzymitten.com/
I had enough yarn left from the Baby Surprise Jacket to make the lamb. The plain purple is Red Heart acrylic. I used safety eyes.
Safety eyes are harder to put on than I thought. I had to use pliers to snug the backing down well enough. If you do that be sure to protect the front surface of the eye from getting scratched by the pliers.
The design allows for the arms and legs to move to different positions.
I have been in contact with Barbara Prime of Fuzzy Mitten Toys and she has given me permission to knit and sell some for charity. I want to the proceeds to go to Heifer International.
http://www.heifer.org/

Baby Surprise Jacket for C

I have finally gotten around to getting a pic of the Baby Surprise Jacket from Spun Out Designs, http://www.schoolhousepress.com/spunout.htm , I finished early this year. The original pattern is by Elizabeth Zimmerman.
I made a LOT of changes. The yarn is a fuzzy, bulky acrylic that I lost the labels on long ago. I meant to document the changes but never did and I could not begin to tell you exactly how the changes were made.
I decided I wanted it to be a pullover instead of a cardigan. I also wanted a two button placket at the neck to help with getting it on and off.
I lengthened the sleeves and added a wide band of ribbing at the wrist that can be turned up or down. I also added ribbing to the bottom of the sweater.
I added the hood from the Tomten Jacket, also by Elizabeth Zimmerman.
Lastly I added a handwarmer pocket on the front.
I think it is at least a size three. I have not had little ones around for a while.
We have a wedding coming up in September when my step-daughter is marrying the intended recipient's father.
Little C is seventeen months old now.

Another New Book

The Second Book of Modern Lace Knitting by Marianne Kinzel. LOTS of wonderful patterns in this one. I especialliy like the Daffodil.

New Book

I went on a binge and bought two new books. They are both by Marianne Kinzel. This is her First Book of Modern Lace Knitting.

Star Light, Star Bright

Lace Star Cloth Knitting Pattern
Lion Brand Pound of Love in Denim color
Size 7 knitting needles

I was inspired to knit this baby blanket by this post on Linda's blog, Dances With Wools.

The original pattern can be found here.

The original pattern is gorgeous and I followed the basic pattern.
I did change a few things.
Instead of SSK, YO I did K2TOG, YO.
My reason for this was that I did not want the two sides of each point to appear identical. I wanted to achieve the play of light you can see in the photo so that each point had a dark half and a light half when light hit it. I achieved my goal quite nicely and am very pleased with the result.
The other thing I changed was the edge. My edge is two rows.
The first row is P2TOG all the stitches that would have been K2TOG, the YO's stayed the same.
The second row I knit all the P2TOG stitches and purled the YO's.
For the bind-off I was really worried about running out of yarn so decided to try my own idea. I knit 1, slipped 1 as if to purl, then passed the knit stitch over the slipped stitch. I continued thisall the way around.

Since my yarn was acrylic, I did not have to worry about the bind off being stretchy as my blanket would never be blocked,
All mine got was a quick run through the washer and dryer. It came out just the way you see it.
If the original pattern were extended, I would have worked it to row 92.
If you knit this you may want to spread out each section every now and then to check for errors. I frogged 16 rows once because I simply did not see an error. It was not a big one, and I am not sure exactly how I made the mistake, but once I saw it, it glared at me till I redid it.

Final measurements are 28" from center to tip of point and 19" from center to edge between points.
I think it will make a good baby or lap blanket. It does not yet have a special someone to go to.

Oh, and in case you are interested whether my worries about running out of yarn were valid, I had 63" of yarn left at the end.