Reiana's Slipper Socks

We found the slipper socks! They were hiding with a box of books... They've been worn a bit so they're broken in looking, but I still love how the pattern on top turned out :-)

Hats

Recently fulfilled a couple of requested knits, both hats. The above pic is of a basketweave patterned hat requested by my son. He wanted something with a pattern but nothing too crazy. I didn't have the size 8 dpns called for so I used size 7. I didn't make any adjustments to the pattern otherwise though because it was meant for an adult and I was knitting for a kid. Plus the pattern indicated that it turned out pretty stretchy. It did feel like it was going to be too small, but I can actually fit it on my head, so it's just a snug knit.

I made the above hat for my sis after she saw the one I made for myself. Of course, I forgot to photograph mine! It's made with Lion Brand Homespun using a pattern made by Lion Brand just for this yarn.

Recycled Knitting Pics

2 pairs of kids jeans cut into strips and knit into a scarf and then ends weaved together; worn by an adult above; worn by a girl below

Jean Scarf with better coloring above

Recycled pjs, knit into a light scarf, above

This is as far as several hours painstakingly unraveling a sweater has gotten me!

Blankets for boys

My boys wanted some warm blankets so let them pick out Lion Brand Homespun in their favorite color and I got to work. BTW, blankets take forever, even with this thicker yarn! I started the red one first and it took me about a month to finish. I did a simple seed stitch to play off the lumpy style of the yarn. I then did the green one and it took longer. I was back home by then and it was also started to warm up so I was short on inspiration. I still finished it in less than 2 months. This was done in a 2x2 rib, just for a different look. I cast on about 180 st for each blanket. I guesstimated that 4 skeins would be a nice blanket size so I just knit until those were used up. Turned out perfect, just around 4 feet long. They fit a kid just right, and could be a lap blanket for an adult.

Awesome Dishclothes

I bought a bunch of cotton yarn on sale and was looking for a quick project so I found some dishcloth patterns. I started out with the one on the right, called Double Bump. Then as I was searching and searching I came across the peace sign pattern. I thought it went well with the tie-dye-ish yarn colors so I cast on the Peace Washcloth. Both very easy wash/dish cloth patterns that look great in solid or patterned yarn. I even found a nice hippy to gift them too :-)

Recycled Knits

I've got kids that wear through clothes like it's going out of style... They get stained, holey and too small all the time. As I was sorting what winter clothes would get packed and which ones were done for I remembered an e-newsletter I gotten around Earth Day that talked about knitting with recycled materials. So, instead of trashing the worn out stuff, I decided to cut it up into strips and try knitting with it.

My first project was with two pairs of holey jeans. I wasn't sure what I was making, I just had a couple ideas in mind. I tried a couple different size needles and ended up having to use my size 50 needles because the jean was too thick for anything else. I was hoping to make a bag of some sort, but the jeans I had didn't go that far. I ended up with a longer cowl-ish, necklace-ish thing. Haha... I was thinking if I add some flashy embellishments it could fit in on Etsy. So, while not what I had in mind, it's certainly not a failure either.

Next I had a pair of PJs that were too small for my daughter. I was able to make a cute little lightweight scarf for her. She thought it was hilarious because she could have people touch what they thought was a scarf and then tell them it was her pjs :-)

So, after cutting and knitting a couple of items I learned some things about working with recycled materials. The most important is to cut out all the seams, pockets, and lumpy parts. I tried working with the seams on my first two and came across two problems. The first being that, especially with jean, it's just too lumpy. Secondly, with the pjs, the seams can become unraveled during knitting and leave you with a hole.

After I cut out all the lumpy parts I start cutting my strips. I try to make the longest continuous piece possible, using the "z" way of back and forth cutting. When I have all my strips I make a ball out of it, just putting ends of strips together, not knotting them together.

I've started on my first unraveling too. The yarn is pretty thin, it was quite difficult to find a starting point, and the process itself is very tedious. I'm not sure how many more unraveling's I'll be doing because my fingers are starting to hurt!