So, it has been a little while since I posted last.  I know.  Sometimes, you just knit a bunch, and then you don't want to knit anymore for a while.  And then you find your way back to it.  Or sometimes your hands just hurt from working with tiny needles.  Now, at some point I thought I wasn't going to post pictures on here of work done from kits.  Well, in the end, who am I to belittle work from kits, some of my best friends are kits.  No I kid, but seriously folks, when I'm doing work from a kit, that's what I've got to show.  So here it is, what has been keeping me from finishing that hat that was in the last post:

My family tree cross-stitch.  Now, this thing has spaces for four baby names, so really I have no buisness working on it right now.  Also the excuse about my hand hurtting really doesn't hold a lot of water as a reason to work on this thing, because it causes the same problems.  For me, though, cross-stitching is quite possibly the most relaxing thing a person could do.  And though I don't want a giant cross-stitched portrait of the Pope, or Princess Diana on my wall, a family tree seemed like a really appropriate cross-stitched item.  I just have to finish the boarder on the left hand side and put in more little children and then I will start adding the names.  That is probably the best part of cross-stitch, the plan of attack.   Less Zen, more constant strategy. 

The real shame about all this work that I put into the cross-stitch was that the hat from the last post was so close to being done.  I know how close it was, because I finially finished the knitting.  In 3 days.  Well, slack a lot, work a little.  Of course now I've gotten it into that dangerous time where it is almost done, but far from finished. 

Thinnesses of yarn and changes of needles mid project aside, this will be a warm soft lovely hat if I can get my act together.  But then, other projects are beckoning, saying things like "It is too hot for a hat now, he won't need it till winter" and other equally bad things.  But I'm pretty dedicated to the idea of this sucker being finished by the weekend.  If that comes to pass, then two posts in one week!  In this corner of the above picture is a back view of what this hat will look like.  The two selvege ends of this, the short ends of the rectangle, get sewn together into the back of the hat, and then the top gets sewn into four corners.  My favorite part is that braid stitch, at the bottom and at the top.  It looks like it is done after the fact, but it is really just a matter of twisting the yarns as you knit color A and then color B over and over again.  I think i mentioned last time, the patterned part is mosaic.  Don't know why you would do it another way. 

My gosh, I made a list of all the projects, like, full concepts and colors selected, etc, that I would like to work on.  There were twelve items on the list.  I don't know too much about the life cycle of a crafter, but it must involve forgetting planned projects at some point and just starting the list over.  Oh, just a final note about the hat.  The grey colored yarn is a lovely hand dye, lots of subtle variation in the color, which comes out more in the ball than in the knitting in the picture.  But the dye came off on my hands while knitting.  Not a whole lot, but enough.  So I got some dye fixative.  I'm nervous about using it but also excited to see if it works.  Update on that later for sure.  Whatever the outcome, I'm sure I'll have something to say about it.

 

The beaded scarf is finished, looks lovely, and was received with much joy and surprise by my mother-in-law.  I highly recommend this sucker as an introduction to bead knitting.  Again, I'll just say, I got it from Heartstrings Fiber Arts.  They have lots of other lovely patterns which I will some day investigate once I run out of things to do..  ha ha.

In other project news, I will include a photo of a baby blanket I made for my cousin and his wife who are expecting their first child in about two months.  I made this blanket during my period of unemployed-craftacular-movie-watching-time.  As anyone who has been through a period like this knows, it isn't all it is cracked up to be, but you sure get a lot of crafting done. 

This blanket is filet crocheted in panels.  Originally it was supposed to have ribbon woven in between these panels, however, what I learned is that ribbon is not stretchy, and yarn things are.  This annoying paradox (of course not guessed at until much careful weaving had been accomplished) resulted in a blanket that would either un-weave its ribbons every time you wrapped it around a baby, or a blanket that would try to cinch the baby with its steel-girder like ribbons.  So the ribbons removed, the blanket was sent on its way, off to become a useful member of blanket society. 

And finally, a little sneak peak of a hat I'm working on for a Boston friend.  It is mosaic, so when I do work on it, it is very quick.  I only have really two more vertical squares worth of rows to go and then I'll sew this puppy together and send it off to Boston.  I'm sure it will still be snowing there.  Even if I don't send it till May.  No, really, I hope to finish it soon, if only because it seems like I don't find the impetus to post without having finished a project, a practice I would love to remedy, but really, who are we kidding?