An Early Christmas

My cousin just shared with me the most funny and special gift! :)  She gave her girls an early Christmas gift from me (my dolly blankets from Adventures with Inherited (Remnant) Yarns) and here's what my funny girls did:

This sweetie l-o-v-e-s dolls

 so, she found her favorite doll and wrapped her up.  

*whew*  I'm so glad that my first "blanket" was big enough for her doll. :)

This sweetie is our "outdoors" girl and found a frog (don't worry, it's a plastic frog)

 and here's what she did:

Well, it's cold where they are so Mr. Frog might 've been cold and probably needed a blankie! :) 

(Although Hubby thinks it's more along the lines of making a frog burrito rather than "warming" him up. :P  This could be true as we do eat frog (totally tastes just like chicken!) and this little one is an adventurous eater! ;)  If you feed her, she'll eat it - for now! ;P)

Adventures with Inherited (Remnant) Yarns

As you (may) know, I've inherited a whole bunch of remnant yarn from my hubby's aunt.  Of this stash, most of the yarn was unmarked, meaning that its wrapper was gone.  I had no idea how much of it I had, what's it made out of or what brand of yarn it is.  I had just a small handful of yarn that was still marked in its original wrapper so that I knew what brand it was, what it was made of and how much I had to use.  

Of the remnant, unmarked yarn, I had tons of this cream coloured yarn (more on that later) and just three (3) small skeins of these various pink coloured yarn: Dark, Light, and Salmon.  I tried to weigh and decipher how much yarn I had of each various pink skeins but I couldn't because 1-3 yards of each one was too light. :(  So, I decided that I would try to use all the pink colored yarns in various knitted objects for a friend of mine who looks great in pink.

So, I started with the Dark pink yarn; it was on the bulkier side and I thought it would look great as fingerless gloves for my friend (plus, it would match the shawl scarf I had made her last Christmas with the yarn that was marked).  I split the ball in half and proceeded to make a pair of fingerless gloves.  Part way into the first side of the glove, I realized that I wouldn't have enough to make the pair.  In despair, I thought I might be able to squeeze a skinny scarf out of it (don't ask ... it was late and I had already spent an hour trying to figure out if the gloves were going to work or not ... I was (obviously) becoming crazed).  I casted on 28 sts (a record low for me) and proceeded with a double moss stitch pattern.  (Again,) halfway into the ball, I realized that if I was lucky, I'd be lucky if I could squeeze out a doll sized blanket or rug out of it.  And, guess what?  That's exactly what I managed to squeeze out of that skein.

Lucky for me, I have two wonderful little girls in my life who l-o-v-e-s dolls and has a lot of them.  Hopefully, they can find a doll who can use this 24 cm x 17 cm (9.5 in x 6.5 in) item either as a blanket or a rug . ;)

After that mini adventure, I moved onto the Light pink skein.  That skein seemed to have more yarn then the Dark pink one.  So, (yet again,) I hoped to make a pair of fingerless gloves for my friend.  (As you probably figured out by now, I really wanted to make a pair of fingerless gloves for my friend.  Her place can be a bit chilly so it'd be perfect for her to keep her hands warm while she works at home.)  And ...  I was lucky! :)  I had just enough for the main body of the gloves.  I supplemented it with my itty bitty stash of hot pink Tofusie (hence, being able to use even more of my stash! :D *yay*).  With the hot pink Tofusie, I re-enforced the finger tips part, added the thumbs, and finished off the cuff.  I hope my friend likes it! :)  Here's what it looks like:

Outside

Inside

Not bad for my first foray into mitts/gloves at this, huh? ;)

Now, for that last salmon coloured skein. For this one, I envision a (skinnier) scarf for my friend.  Something she could use outside.  (I found that she was using the scarf/wrap I made her last Christmas as a wrap/blanket and for some strange reason, she refuses to take it out of the house. She said it was too nice to use outside. Hence, my goal it to make her something she'd use - outside! ;)).  With that in mind, I picked up two (2) skeins of Caron Simply Soft in grey heather and planned to incorporate the salmon into it so, the scarf would have some pink in it without being overwhelmingly pink.  I decided that this would be my adventure with using two (2) colors and learning how to have alternating colored stripes (which would look great with the yarns).  So, with my US 8 needles, I casted on 48 sts, used the double moss stitch pattern (to match the fingerless gloves without being too matchy ;)) and merrily finished the scarf.  Here's what it looks like:

Being blocked

Finished

Then, I felt guilty that there was only one (1) dolly blanket for my two (2) girls so, luckily for me, I had some multi-rose colored cotton yarn (I had a itty bitty bit of it from a free knitting seminar that I had gone to with my mother-in-law and she "gifted" me her itty bitty bit; so, while this isn't quite inherited yarn, it's sorta inherited yarn. :P).  With that, I made this dolly blanket for my other little girl (the pattern is based on a lap blanket my hubby received from our good friend and my knitting buddy, D.  Thank you, D for inspiring me and giving me a learning tool (learned how to make a mini version of your lap blanket)!!):

Being blocked (because it's cotton)

(Don't worry, Cousin ... when it gets dirty, just toss it in the washer and dryer.  This is just for looks; the girls won't care if it's misshapen after awhile. ;P)

Hopefully, this 20.5 cm x 28 cm (8" x 11") blanket will fit one of their dolls (or else it can be used as a lap blanket or rug). ;)

Now, lastly, that cream coloured yarn ... If you recall from prior blogs, I was slowly using it up as "test" yarn.  I had used it in: to see how to make a pair of socks, to make six (6) feet of lucet cording, and for my cable blanket Knit A-Long (KAL).  Since, I'm still working on my cable KAL, (and, it takes 2 skeins to make 2 squares) and I still have oodles of it left, I'll most likely use the rest of it to finish off my KAL and make a (hopefully big) blanket for myself. :D  (Although, I suspect it might take me quite sometime to actually finish it since I have loads of other projects in my queue to accomplish this year.)  When I'm able to actually finish using this yarn (and its associated intended project), I'll be sure to blog about it then. ;)