Kung Fu Knitting

Yarn: Blue Skies Alpaca sport weight (2 skeins) Hook: L Pattern: Crochet a no-chain, single crochet base for desired length (I alway use my couch as a scarf length gauge) Here's a tutorial for making the chainless foundation stitch. You can also find excellent videos on Youtube. It's a wonderful skill to add to your crochet repertoire and makes that first row so much easier. R2: Increase row, single crochet (SC) into each stitch twice R3 SC across R4: Increase row, SC into each stitch twice R5 SC across Fasten off SC across caston edge (same number of stitches as in caston) Repeat rows 2-5 fasten off and weave in ends block if desired and twirl up both sides of scarf

I am giving this to my mom for Christmas. Isn't it cute? Beth, who made the knitted ammonite from the Ithaca Stitch'N Bitch makes them. I had no idea until I came upon them on her etsy site . I was just looking to what other cute little creatures she was knitting up and selling. I think my mom is really going to like it.

Vintage Bubble Bag for my gift elf, Cayli1 Another gift for Cayli1. My version of Flourish. Free Pattern Here > Holiday work party gift. Spiral scarf made out of Knit Pick's Suri Dream

No school Today! You know what that means? A day of glorious knitting.

A secretive one! I have been working on holiday knitting. Especially my KR gift elf package. I've had loads of trouble with one of the knitted gifts and decided to restart from scratch with a good dose of positive energy. And with that in mind it's turned out lovely if I do say so myself. In fact, maybe this was the design I was supposed to send in the first place but somewhere along the line I didn't listen to my inner voice? That sounds rather true. I feel very at peace now that everything is ready to go and headed in the mail today. Om Mani Padme Hum Om Mani Padme Hum Om Mani Padme Hum But the real inspiration for this post came from the quiz result below: You appear to be a Knitting Guru. You love knitting and do it all the time. While finishing a piece is the plan, you still love the process, and can't imagine a day going by without giving some time to your yarn. Packing for vacation involves leaving ample space for the stash and supplies. It can be hard to tell wh...

And my official kung fu name is now Red Haired Dancing Crane . It's a nice name that happens to contain a good natured insult or two. Red heads -> temper -> dancing -> sometimes I look more like a dancer than a martial artist. The exam was 5 hours long! I won't go into particulars as I don't want to bore anyone, but it was physically demanding and I was so hungry by the end! Overall, I made some mistakes here and there, but I am particularly happy with the way I performed one of my sword forms. I think I did a pretty good job with technique for my level of swordsmanship. I haven't got any feedback yet about that. But I am pretty sure my spirit while doing the form was right on the mark. My fellow students said I looked nice and firey. That's means a lot to me as I tend to look like I am dancing and skipping a lot of the time. Someday I will get a picture of me and a sword.

I love it, Cayli1! Truly, I am so impressed. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! I love how you said that you enjoyed the whole process, but in your case it really was the whole process: your own sheep, your own spun and dyed wool, hand knitting. Amazing! Really, it touched me. I am so glad that I participated in the exchange. It's a wonderful thing to wear something that someone knit for you. It's just infused with their energy or chi or something. Awesome! I was lucky that it is so sunny here today. It seems to me that the sun must have come out just for this, like a Thomas Hardy novel. First I would like to reveal the loveliness of Cayli's Yarn. She's gifted me with ~200 yards of rambouillet from one of her former sheep which she dyed and spun. When I look at this yarn crocuses popping up through the snow fill my mind. It's so soft, too. Unfortunately my pictures aren't capturing the subtle colors in the yarn. Imagine, if you will, the presence of light indig...

I have a test coming up next Saturday. It's a big deal because it is the only one that will happen for a year. It's funny because my teacher feels that testing is not really important and that the class should know who is the best. Yet the examination will be hard, long and thorough. He thinks it will take something like 5 hours to complete. It won't all be physical though. There is a written portion. It's really unfortunate that I have had an injury. I was so strong just a couple of months ago. I could do more than 40 pushups at a time. I've had to give up training pull ups and pushups for my shoulder to heal better. Now I have a hard time doing 20. So there is part of the test that I will fail: push up hold. We have to hold a pushup in the down position for 30 seconds. There is no way I can do this. There are a couple of other shoulder intensive exercises, but I think I will be able to pull them off. My goal: All of this week I am going to practice my forms in the...

I posted pictures of it blocking, but since sometimes it can take me months to seem, I thought I'd show the actual finished panta. This is the first time I have actually been happy with the way I sewed something together. The cables matched up nicely! Pattern: I adapted the Panta pattern from the craftster.org thread and mixed in an adapted version of Alice Starmore's cable pattern for her Kittiwake hat from Aran Knitting . Yarn: Nashua Handknits Creative Focus Worsted 75% wool 25% alpaca 220 yards in a 100 gr ball Needles: US7 Gauge: 5st/inch and 6 rows/inch Comments: I really loved knitting with this yarn and I can see myself knitting a lot more with it in the future. I would use it just as I normally would use Brown Sheep's Lamb's Pride. As for the pattern, I would leave out a couple of border stitches that I used in future ones.