I have successfully completed my first scarf for the Scarves for Special Olympics Project. It came out pretty well, considering I hadn’t done any knitting for well over 30 years. Here’s the finished scarf:

It’s approximately 6” x 60” with only the two visible stripes done in red. The pattern called for more, but changing colors was more hassle than I wanted to deal with while on the road.

I don’t have a new picture of the #2 scarf. It was shown in my previous post. It is now a little more than three-quarters finished. It will be half red and half blue. I may post a photo when it’s finished – or I might not. Unfortunately it rolls up like a tube and I won’t be able to block it until I get home in September. I think it will look good when done.

I’ve started on #3. I found a pattern on Ravelry that I really liked, so I’ve started that. Here’s a picture of this new scarf – so far.

It’s about six inches wide. It is done on #8 needles, so it’s going slower than the other two done on #10 and #9 needles respectively. There’s only one row to learn (and repeat) in this pattern. I’ve already messed it up a couple times, so I’ve found that I really need to keep my head on while doing it. Nothing wrong with that – just an observation. :-) I’m also thinking that I may add tassels to this scarf. It might jazz it up a bit.

I’ve got a couple other patterns picked out, but probably won’t start any additional scarves till I finish #2. I’m also toying with making another like #1, but red with blue stripes instead. It was easy, mindless and went fast. That may be a good thing for my next one.

Happy crafting!

I have done more knitting in the past week than I ever expected. As I sit down to write this, I have 26 inches of my first scarf done. I’m quickly approaching the halfway mark in my 60-inch project. It’s looking good, I must say.

This first scarf (for the Special Olympics) is a very simple pattern. It’s knit 2, purl 2 to the end of the row. Then it’s purl 2, knit 2 for the next row. Repeat until desired length has been reached. It’s an easy pattern, which is exactly what I needed to get started. However… it has become BORING!

So I decided to start a second scarf, just to break up the boredom and make me reach a little more. The pattern I’ve chosen for my second scarf is also not difficult. I’ve added a “yarn over” and a “knit two together” to the knit and purl routine. This puts “holes” in the piece.

Here’s a picture I took a day or so ago.

I now have almost 8 inches finished. I plan to make this scarf half red and half navy. That way both of the colors will be in the scarf with minimal color changes. (I’m not a fan of color changes. LOL) I do like having the two projects going so that I can change up what I’m doing. So I guess there will be at least two scarves done for the Special Olympics folks. And I really am enjoying it.

Happy crafting to you!

Some things in life go smoothly – others just don’t! But it had a happy ending.

As stated in my last post, I have decided to make a few scarves for the Special Olympics program. I also stated that I was unable to find both colors of the yarn I wanted to use. Well, that frustration continued!

The other day, I went to the local JoAnn Fabrics store. I was looking for that same pair of Red Heart Soft Yarns. They had a fair amount of Red Heart, but almost none of the Soft Yarn – and zero skeins of the two colors I want. So by that time, I’d been to three different stores and was the proud owner of only one skein of yarn. It shouldn’t be this hard to find that yarn!

We’d been planning a trip to Ocoee in the near future. We had a Groupon to try a restaurant we’d never been to. I knew there was a Michael’s near that restaurant location. So that plan got moved up in time.

I called the Michael’s store and asked if they had the two specific colors I needed. I was told there were 4 skeins of the red, but no navy. Well, OK, that would at least get me some of the color I didn’t have. With that information, we took off for Michael's and lunch.

When I got to looking at the red yarn at Michael’s, the numbers weren’t right! No, she didn’t tell me wrong, did she?!?! No, she didn’t – I was looking at the wrong number on the package. My bad! There were indeed four skeins of red, so I swept them into my basket and started for the check-out.

But wait! Why not double check for the navy? And sure enough, I was rewarded with several skeins of the correct color number. Woo hoo! I threw three of the navy into my basket and then headed again for the check-out.

It was a pain trying to find the yarns, but in the end I have more than I had planned on originally. By the time I found it, I was pretty committed to doing the project, so getting more is a good thing. I’m already looking at more patterns and planning my next scarf.

Now that I have the yarn I need, I have been steadily working on my first scarf. The pattern calls for repeated stripes of navy and red. OK, the easy stuff is handled, but how do you change colors? Enter YouTube – again! I learned what I needed to do and changed from blue to red.

From watching the YouTube videos, I decided to carry the one color up the stripe until it was needed again, thus not cutting and weaving in the colors. What I didn’t expect was how bad it looked. If it was a shorter stripe, or if the colors were more similar it might have looked fine. But I just didn’t like it – not professional at all. See it running up the left side? Ugly, right?

I’m not an accomplished knitter, but I don’t want to send anything I wouldn’t like to wear myself. So I’ve decided to cut the yarns at the color change and weave them in so they disappear. Here’s how much better the red stripe looks after I did that.

I’m leaving the tails hang, for now. They will get woven into the scarf in due time. Since I’m also basically lazy, I’ve decided to do the rest of the scarf in blue until I get to the other end where I’ll add another red stripe to balance it out. Then I will have minimal color changes and fewer ends to weave in at the end. And I think the scarf will still look great.

I’m sure I’ve given you way to much information. All of this has been rolling around in my head and now that it’s in print, I can forget about it. Tag, you’re it!

Happy crafting! And thanks for stopping by.

As I was walking my three-mile route yesterday, I got to thinking about doing some knitting again. We travel in our RV in the summer and I can be a bit of a backseat driver if I don’t watch myself. So I was trying to think of something I could do and still be able to enjoy the ride. Knitting came to mind.

I remembered that my sister had made scarves for Special Olympics last year. That type of project seemed like just the ticket – something that was easy and wouldn’t require too much of my time.  So I did some research when I got home and then wrote my sister for HELP!

I haven’t done any knitting in at least 30 years! So I went looking for help in casting on and other such important thing. Then I picked a couple of (hopefully) easy patterns from the Scarves for Special Olympics site. I made a shopping list and planned to have everything I needed by now.

We went to Wal-Mart which indeed stocks Red Heart yarns. They even had a few colors in the Soft Yarn… but not the two colors I need for this project! Luckily, I was planning a trip to Michael’s anyway. They had the Soft Yarn, but only the navy, not the red! (Insert frustrated expletive here.) I went ahead and bought one skein of the navy in hopes of finding the red soon. I guess I’ll have to plan a stop at JoAnn Fabrics this week.

I had visions of posting a picture of all my new knitting stash and it would be something t0 be proud of. It’s not what I’d hoped, but here’s what I’ve got so far.

All the patterns I found at Special Olympics were done on needles of size 8, 9 or 10. So when I saw this multi-pack with those sizes in it at Wal-Mart, I grabbed it. And here’s my one, lonely skein of yarn.

Hey, it’s a start, right!?!? I may have to modify a pattern until I get the red yarn, maybe half-and-half instead of stripes. We’ll see.

I’ll keep you posted. I’m excited about this project.

Happy crafting!

This is the sketch from Inchie INKlings for the current challenge:

This is the card I made, based on the sketch:

Thanks for stopping by.

Here is the Stars and Stripes challenge sketch for this week:

And here is the card I made, based on the sketch:

Thanks for stopping by.

Here is this week's Our Creative Corner sketch:

And here's the card I made:

This is another card made to be sent to the great people at Operation Write Home.