Last Day of January

We finally made it to the end of January -- it always seems like a really long month each year. We had a little bit of snow all day and I was able to snap a quick photo of this beautiful male cardinal while I was eating my lunch today. There's nothing like a brilliant red cardinal to brighten up a gray winter day.

Yesterday I finished a little shawl that I started last August. This is the Multnomah Shawl, and you can find the free pattern by clicking here.

I like these little wool shawls because they're nice to dress up any outfit, plus they're actually pretty warm too. An added bonus of this shawl is that the green in this variegated yarn is an exact match to this godawful green blouse I bought on clearance at JCPenney's a few years ago. Now I know I'll be wearing this green blouse much more often (notice my happy face!)

The other neat thing about this shawl is that I got the chance to use one of the new shawl pins I purchased last week from one of my fellow Etsy shop owners. This cute little flower shawl pin is perfect on this shawl. If you're looking for a shawl pin, please check out some of Amy's other cute designs at this link to her website.

A couple months ago, a new yarn shop opened in Winona, Minnesota. It's called Yarnology and I've already made several trips down there where the wonderful shop owners have everything I need to satisfy my knitting addiction. Last weekend they had their grand opening celebration so Mr. Johnson and I made the drive to Winona again so I could take part in the grand opening event and sign up for a drawing. The really nice thing about going to Winona (in addition to Yarnology) is that we have usually have time to drive through the scenic Whitewater WMA and look for birds & wildlife, plus Winona has lots of restaurants and we get a chance to try a new one on each trip. Anyway, getting back on track here, last Sunday afternoon, I got a phone call from Gaby (one of the Yarnology owners) letting me know that I had won a prize in their drawing. Woo-Hoo!! And look at this fabulous prize I won.......

A beautiful lacy shawl pattern and 10 skeins of Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool yarn to knit it with (plus a little package of T-pins for blocking). On the way home, I also picked up 2 tubes of glass beads that will look beautiful on this shawl. I was so happy to receive such a wonderful prize and can't wait to get started on this shawl (as soon as I finish a dog sweater for a co-worker and the last Special Olympics scarf). I'll be sure to post pictures of this shawl once I get started on it.

Some Finished Knitting Projects

I've finished a few knitting projects in the last week and thought I would share them with you today.

Now that winter is almost over, I finally finished Sophie's sweater. This is the Biscuits and Bones Dog Coat - a free pattern from the Patons yarn company. If you really love your dog and also really love to knit cables, you'll really love this pattern!
I had this sweater half done and found that it was way too large at the first fitting session, so I ripped it all the way back to the "armholes" and started over. As you can see in the photo below, it's still too big around Sophie's chest, but it's done now and she's just going to have to wear it that way (because she's just a dog and none of her friends are going to laugh at her at school anyway).

Here's one more picture, just because I love tormenting her with the camera! Silly dog--why is she so terrified of the camera?

Here's the completed "North Star Scarf" that I started a few months ago from the Donna Druchunas book called "Arctic Lace." This scarf is one of my "pay it forward" projects, but I can't send it to the recipient until the end of May because I'm going to enter it "photo/art/crafts contest" at the upcoming Minnesota Master Naturalists conference. I thought this might be an appropriate entry because Minnesota is the North Star State.

This scarf is approximately 8.5 inches wide and 64 inches long. It was knitted on size 2 needles with a fine laceweight yarn called Kinair. The fiber content is nylon and superfine goat hair. Because the entire project was worked from a chart, I know for a fact that there are 32,508 stitches in this scarf! Amazing! The other really amazing thing about this scarf is how light it is. And to prove it to you, I put the scarf on my postal scale -- it weighs only 1.3 ounces!

as compared to this kiwi fruit which weighs almost 3 times as much at 3.1 ounces! I have quite a few balls of the Kinair left in my stash and next time I use this yarn I'm going to knit something for ME!

Here's something I did knit for me--a ribbed beanie. This is just some Red Heart acrylic yarn, but I really liked these earth-tone colors and since it's machine washable yarn, I can wash and wear this hat for everyday. And it sounds like I'm going to get the chance to wear it for a few weeks yet this year!

This is the "Bobbles & Leaves" tam-o-shanter, from another Paton's pattern book called "Where Did You Get That Hat?" I've never tried this pattern before and it's knitted circular from the center out. I think it turned out really pretty and because it's a tam, I got to put my dinner plate to use again as a blocking tool.

I have another knitting book that has dozens of charts for Fair Isle knitting designs, so I took one of the basic "96 stitch" stocking hats and created my own design for this hat. Hats are a good way to try new patterns, use up those leftover skeins of yarn from other projects and they go pretty fast (all of the hats in this post took me about 6 hours to knit).

I'm starting to notice a "nature" theme in many of the things I've been knitting lately, either with the yarns (earth tones or natural fibers) or the patterns (leaves, stars, snowflakes). When I started this blog, I called it Nature Knitter because I was a knitter and spent a lot of time out in nature, but now it seems that even my knitting has taken on a nature theme. Hmmmmm, what's it all mean?

Oh yeah, here's one more thing......you remember this little shawl I finished back in November and then I decided I didn't like the way it hung off my shoulders and I was going to try and fix that with some beads or something? Well, that's exactly what I did! I found some pretty, clear glass beads in the shape of a leaf (nature again!) and sewed one to each point on the edge of this shawl. The weight of the bead is just enough to give the edge of the shawl a little more weight and this makes it hang much nicer, plus the colorless beads don't clash with all the other colors in the shawl.

So anyway, that's the latest on the Nature Knitter scene. I'm looking forward to another weekend of marathon knitting to take my mind off the "winter storm" the weather service is predicting for us (6 inches of snow?? unbelievable!)

All Done by Christmas!

For the first time that I can remember, I managed to get all of my Christmas gifts completed by Christmas! I showed you some of the things in previous posts, but here are the rest of the items that were finished and given as gifts this year.

Shown below are a couple pairs of slippers (I was sewing them together Christmas morning!). Also shown is a little pair of mittens for my great nephew.

These half-mitts went to my SIL in California (along with the black "magic gloves" they're shown with). I hope she likes them.

This is one of Kathleen Taylor's Freebie Friday patterns (Easy Lace Fingerless Mittens). I love these fingerless mittens and wear them for most of the winter--at home and at work. The nice thing about them is if you wear just the mitt, your fingers are still free for typing or other work, but if you add them over a pair of gloves (like in the photo above), they really keep your hands warm.

And here are the last items--2 off-white dishcloths for a couple of co-workers and the blue & white variegated one for my sissy. This is Cathy Waldie's free pattern called Christmas Lace Dishcloth. She also has a pattern for a matching hand towel to knit, but I wasn't that ambitious this year. You can check out her "Wishing I Was Knitting at the Lake" blog here or click on it in the Knitting Blogs and Links section in my sidebar.

I have a goal for 2009 of trying to finish at least one old project every month. I would also like to try and get my Etsy site up and running with some knitting projects to sell. If there are any Etsy sellers reading this post, I would welcome any advice you have to share. And I also have a plan to do a confessional post about my knitting addiction sometime in the next couple weeks. I think you will be entertained (and also slightly horrified) reading about how something as harmless as knitting can take over a person's life (much like the way birding has also taken over my life!)

I hope you all have a good weekend. I'll be working now until next Wednesday to satisfy the end-of-the-year deadlines, but that means that time off I'll enjoy from January 1-4 will be extra sweet.