Update

Well I finally started picking up stitches for the border. I am making up my own border. A little from this and a little from that. What i'm doing is this- the seed stitch on the top all the way around with a knit stitch that would be carried all the way down going in to the ruffle. So it would be like this- row 1- k, p, k, p, k- row 2- k, k, p, k, k, (remember I'm knitting in the round) row 3- k, p, k, p, k. The seed stitch will only be 3 stitches. I don't know how many rows or inches I will make it. I will decide as I go along. The knit stitch (highlighted in red) will be carried down into the ruffle. Once I am happy with the length of the seed st area I will start adding stitches. I am doing the ruffle in rev St St. I've tried different ways of adding stitches. Yarn overs, making one, and in different spots. The way I liked it the best was to add 1 st at the beginning and end of the knit stitch that is carried down (highlighted in red) every other row. And again I don't know how long I will make it until I see it and feel it's long enough. I also for the increases, as I get bigger, might change to every 4th row. We will see. As for the corners I am going to add a stitch at both sides of a twisted knit st by doing a yarn over. This will create a lace effect hole and I will do this every other row working it into the pattern. There was alot a calculations in working out how many stitches to pick up because the golden yarn was a little bit heavier and I'm using a bigger needle. Along the sides a picked up every other row & across the top & bottom every 5th row I skipped. So it worked out to be 144 stitches on each side, 124 stitches on the top & bottom, with 1 stitch in each corner. Total pick up 540 st to start. With a 4st repeat.

Dyeing day- March 19
My knitting group was invited to a fellow Raveler's house who happened to live on Fire Island to learn how to dye yarn. She is a very talented knitter who also spins her own yarn and then dyes her yarn. It was a very special day for all. We learned how to dye with Kool Aid & food coloring. It was much easier then I thought. I don't think I would be spinning my own yarn but I'm sure I would be dyeing more yarn again. It was a lot of fun. She was a great teacher and I'm sorry that she is leaving us at the end of April. However, since Ravelry has brought us together, I'm sure we will be able to keep in touch.

Dying day- March 25 (no pun intended)
On Wed 3/25 we had to put our beloved cat Mr Missy to sleep. She had cancer. A big fat tumor on her kidney. We are broken hearted. She was the best cat we ever had. She found us about 3-4 years ago. Everyone in our community loved her. She was Robbins Rests' mascot. She came to all our communities parties. She played hide and seek with me, which was so funny. She would hide behind a door, I would look for her, once I found her she would run to another door. Then it was my turn to hide. And so on. She only went outside. She was so smart. When she had to go she went to the door and waited for us to open the door. To come back in she would go to the window and look for us. I miss her little face in the window. By the way, she turned out to be a he. I never knew until the end. RIP Missy

All for now-

Updated Blanket & Tiny circular needles

These are the tiniest circular knitting needles I've ever worked with or ever saw. They work great for Richards ankle high socks. It took a little getting used to. The wood part is only 1 1/4", then metal 1/2" with smooth joins to a 5 1/2" nylon cord. All equalling to 9". I'm using these in place of Double Pointed needles. This should get rid of the ladder effect you get when you go from one needle to the next. Though I hardly ever had that problem. They are fun to use. You do have to put markers so you know where needle 1 & 4 is, so you can put the heel gusset in the correct place. As I have been using them, they got darker and shiny. Also smoother. They are US#2 1/2 3mm. They were made by Shanghai Hiya Co.,Ltd. HiyaHiya www.hiyahiya You should check them out.

This is the latest picture of Blue with some more of the embroidery work done. I still have to do Pail & Shovel and some work on the tree. I'm not sure what. And of course do the border. Doing the ankle sock gives me a break from doing the embroidery. Little stitches.

All from now. Oh yes- Crocus' are blooming. Just starting. the yellow ones first.

Taking a big step- Selling Patterns

I have decided to take a step closer to selling my patterns of my baby blankets. I am going to start with the "Fairy Blanket". I"ve have gotten much more requests for the pattern of the "Fairy Blanket" then any of the others. I also feel that this one is easier to knit and will be easier to graph out on the computer. Right now I'm in the info gathering stage. I don't know a thing about where to start. I want to do this right. You hear all the time about errors in patterns and I don't want my very first published pattern wrong.
On Wed 3/4 I stopped off at my favorite yarn store "Knit" to pick up the yarn I ordered for the border of the Blue's Clues Blanket. I talked to Audrey, Ellen & Esther about selling my patterns. They said it was about time. They gave me alot of info. They told me about a computer program for writting patterns and one for the graphing, which I'm more interested in. Also about going to the Knitting Show in Conn. this fall. The show has classes that I could take. Classes in writting patterns, learning the computer programs, learning how to teach, & etc. Plus alot of well known designers will be given classes that I may also want to take. Big problem though, I really don't want to wait until Oct. to first start working on graphing the pattern & written the instructions. So I will have to find a way to learn the program by myself. And give it a shot, then I'll go from there. They also told me where to sell my patterns. They said not only to put them up in Ravelry but also in Etsy.
In the mean time, I still have to finish the Blues Blanket. That will take some time. I like the way the embroidery is looking. Going slow but you can't rush the needle work if you want it to look good. I also cast-on and started Richards ankle length socks that I am using that tiny circular knitting needle. That's in place of using double pointed needles (where I can). They are so cute. Sheila would just love them. She loves tinny tiny little things.
So as I said- act 1- the gathering of information- I will take some photos later and attach it to this blog but the sun just came out and I want to go out side for a bit. It's warm 59, Get it while you can.