Merry Christmas to all!

At last, Merry Christmas! Best wishes for the holidays to everyone, young and old, sick and healthy.

Oops on the bookmarks

Well, the news from last night is that the bookmarks aren't bookmarks -- they're knitting needle holders. Oops!

Some of the much older wooden needles inherited from a friend's mother earlier this year will be going into them today.

The i-cord trivets went over well, but I forgot to get photos of them before they went out. However, the patterns are available for free on the Lion Brand web site.

Shamrock: http://cache.lionbrand.com/patterns/BK4K-0603005.html?noImages=0
Celtic Knot: http://cache.lionbrand.com/patterns/BK4K-0603003.html?noImages=0

For both of these, I simply made a 4-stitch I-cord on size 9 DPs instead of using the spool knitter (or "corking" tool, as it is historically called). The Shamrock was done in 100% cotton yarn, and the Celtic Knot was done in 100% wool in dark and light purple.

It's a bad sign when the cat doesn't trust you with a knife

I haven't cut myself with a knife for over a year. And yet my MIL is convinced that hubby is terrified of me using a knife. She bought me cloth butcher's gloves (the non-commercial kind) because of this supposed fear. Hubby, of course, was nowhere around in order to help me defend myself against the accusation. (I do a lot of defending on my own for 3 months every winter while my MIL is here -- what else can I do when 2 British-Canadians gang up on an American, no matter how non-typical she is?)

Fine. Everything had settled down, and Mum and I were going to have some cheese and crackers for lunch that day. Our male cat Oscar is a lovely, random little boy who feels (and often IS) guilty about a lot of things and will suddenly tear off around the house. I pick up the knife to cut a slice of cheese, an what does Oscar choose to do at that moment? Yup, nails into the carpet, and off goes the grey streak to the other end of the house. What does Mum say?

"It's a bad sign when the cat doesn't trust you with a knife!"

Fortunately, we had a good laugh about it and continued on. Having your MIL living with you for 3 months is not for the faint of heart. This is now the 3rd year of this arrangement (I won't go into the details of why), and we seem to have most of the problems worked out. Granted, I'm running around so much that very little designing is getting done, but when I finally do say that something must be done that isn't on her schedule, I'm allowed time to do it. So it's a matter of putting my foot down at strategic times.

Also in this process, I'm learning how to knit socks! It's using a photocopy Mum has from a 1940s pattern book, and I'm using size 3 needles instead of 2 (because when I was ready to start, I didn't have a set of 2s), so they're a little bigger than they should be, but one sock is done, and the other is ready to have its heel turned. Woohoo!


Oops. Thanks, Zoe. Let's try that again...


Also on the finished project list is a cabled scarf from Big Needle Knitting. This is my first cabled item ever. I've finally figured it out! I've also discovered that I really kinda dislike working on the bigger needles. Go figure!


A couple of fun bits of news. 1) Lulu.com sales continue. (Yay, and thank you, whoever you are!) 2) I'm now on Ravelry! I think there's a sidebar option for that here, so will attempt to add that shortly. Screen name: horsenround.

Well, it's time to go. I'll try not to leave you hanging for another 13 days this time. I have a friend & client coming over to go through web site things this morning. However, before I go, here's a lovely pair of bookmarks from a costumer friend whom I will be visiting tonight...



Aren't they gorgeous???

Surf Practice - Another Free Pattern

Whew! some of you may have heard that we've had a lot of flooding in the Pacific Northwest this week. Fortunately for us, most of this was in urban areas (gutter overflow) with all the rain melting several inches of snow in less that 24 hours. The rivers in our area peaked, but not at record highs, since it was still turning into snow in the mountains, and we were able to successfully get out of Duvall (which has a tendency to become an Island State during flooding) and rescue Mum-in-Law from the airport. My husband's mum, from the Toronto area, will be staying with us for the next 3 months.


With nothing else to post for now, here's the other free pattern from my Crochet 101 class. As always, you can also download this as a PDF file from my web site at http://www.horse-round.com/shop/freepatterns.html. Enjoy!



Surf Practice




Ride the waves of this scarf using single, half-double, double and treble crochet stitches. Cowabunga!

Foundation: Ch 22.

Row 1 (right side): Sc in 2nd ch from hk. *Hdc, dc, tr, dc, hdc, sc. Rep from * across, ending with a tr. Ch 1, turn.

Row 2: Working in back loops, *hdc, dc, tr, dc, hdc, sc. Rep from * across, ending with a tr. Ch 1, turn. (The row should line up so that you tr in a sc from the previous row and vice versa.)

Rep Row 2 until the scarf is as long as you like.

Finishing
Weave in ends. Add fringe to the ends of the scarf, or any other finishing touches you would like to add.

Free crochet scarf patterns

Here I sit at exactly 1:01 am. Hubby and I were exhausted from all the cleaning (his Mum is flying in tomorrow and living with us for 3 months), but my brain refused to shut off. Part of the problem is that I'm teaching my first Crochet 101 class tomorrow afternoon, and I promised we'd be doing scarves in the learning process. I didn't have any public domain scarf patterns! So now I have some great ideas for a few of them.

Also in the process, I've updated the poll. Vote now!

These are such simple stitches, though, that I can't see charging for just the patterns, so they are here for the printing and will soon be available on my web site at http://www.horse-round.com/shop/freepatterns.html.

First scarf pattern from Crochet 101, coming right up!

Filet Lace Scarf




The open mesh created for this scarf gives any weight of yarn a luxurious lacey feeling. It also provides a base for weaving in a novelty or ribbon yarn.



Foundation: Ch an even number of stitches until you reach the width or the length desired for your scarf.

Row 1: Dc in 5th ch from hook. *Ch 1, sk 1 st, dc in next st. Rep from * to end of row. Ch 4, turn.
Row 2: Sk ch-1 sp, dc in next dc. *Ch 1, sk ch-1 sp, dc in next dc. Rep from * to end of row. Ch 4, turn.

Rep Row 2 until scarf is as long or as wide as you would like.

Finishing
Weave in ends. Add fringe to the ends of the scarf or weave in fur, ribbon or other contrasting yarn.