Crocheted and Knitted Dishcloths

Hello readers!

I know it has been a while since I posted in this blog. In case you do not know already, my friend Em and I are currently writing a blog about knitting all the patterns from 60 Quick Knits. You can read and check out our blog here.

Though I have stayed busy knitting all the beautiful patterns from Cascade Yarns: 60 Quick Knits. I still have taken a few breaks in the last few months to express my creativity in different ways. Some of these include, decorating my music classroom with bulletin boards, scrapbooking, and a few knitting and crocheting projects not from the book. I would like to catch you all up in the next few weeks with my many projects.

Today, I am going to share the dishcloths I made a few months ago. In May, I had a friend from high school get married. For a bridal shower gift, I decided to make something rather practical that I know anyone can use. I decided to knit and crochet several dishcloths.



The ones pictured above are knit out of soft cotton. The colors were so vibrant and my friend, Rachel, said they were so pretty she was almost afraid to wash dishes with them. You can find the pattern for these dishcloths here. The blue dishcloth is the basketweave pattern. The green dishcloth is the bramble pattern, and the pink dishcloth is a creation of my own.



When you take a closer look at the dishcloths you will notice I added the letters different ways. I experimented with chain stitching and back-stitching. Personally, I prefer to just knit the letters in. If I were to redo these that is what I would do.

Along with the knitted dishcloths, I also took the time to make three crocheted dishcloths:






All three of these patterns are free patterns that you can check out too! Pattern #1 - Simple Dishcloth, Pattern #2 - Basketweave Dishcloth, and Pattern #3 - Granny Square Dishcloth. For these I used left over Sugar and Cream yarn.

Altogether, I was VERY happy with the results. I hope you enjoy them too. If you have any questions about the patterns just let me know! :) You can also check out more pictures of this project and others at my Flickr Account.

Happy Knitting and Crocheting,
Brittany

Cascade Yarn and 60 Quick Knits

Well, I have not been working on any projects that are not in the 60 Quick Knits book since Em and I are trying to finish all the projects. As of yesterday we had 17 projects completed. If you would like to see more about how that adventure is going check out our blog 60 Projects from 60 Quick Knits.

Anyways, what I would like to blog about today is how much I am LOVING making all these patterns with Cascade 220 yarns. I had almost finished with project #22 - Cables and Bobbles Cap, when I found that I had run out of yarn.



Normally, I would have been worried as I bought this yarn at a LYS that closed this summer. Luckily I knew the exact color and could buy the yarn online. I went to Yarn Country and ordered LOTS of Cascade yarn to use for more 60 Quick Knits. Below you can see a picture of all the yarn that I received in the mail.



It is so fun to buy yarn online because you get the package in the mail and then get the excitement of opening the box to see what is inside. It can be a little risky because you do not know the exact color, but it is still really fun to receive it in the mail. It is obvious that I received large quantities of yarn, but do not fear I have projects in mind for all of the yarn. You can see what I'm expecting to use the yarn on by looking at my pictures below:

Project #1 - Chain-Link Scarf


Project #10 -Diagonal Stripes Hat


Project #15 - Striped & Bobbled Hat


Project #24 - Mitered Scarf


Project #42 - Ribbed Pillbox


If any of these projects catch your eye keep checking our blog for updates!
Brittany

60 Quick Knits Duel Blog

Em and I decided that it would be easiest to keep everyone up to date with our New Years Resolution by creating a joint blog. I will still probably write a bit about some of my progress or put links from this blog to that blog to remind you to read my posts. However, it did make a lot of sense to make something that I did not have to constantly update. This way Em can put more information on the projects she completes and I can do the same. If you are interested in learning more about our Adventures, please go to our blog and follow us. Also, if you enjoy the 60 Quick Knits book as much as Em and I do, feel free to join the Ravelry group for 60 Quick Knits. There are all sorts of people that can help with your own projects.

Completed 60-Quick Knits

As of February 7, 2011 all updates will be talked about on our specific blog for our 60 Quick Knits projects.
--->Here<---
Thanks for your continued interest.


60 Quick Knits by EMBellished Knits and Britter's Little Critters

This post will be edited over the course of the year to show EMBellished Knits and Britter's Little Critters progress on their New Years Resolution. Next to each one it will say in progress, complete, or waiting. Purple font stands for Britter's Little Critters and green font stands for EMBellished Knits. When the project is completed I will also have a link on the completed so you can see what it looks like.

13/60 Projects - Completed
10/60 Projects - In Progess
37/60 Projects - Waiting to be Started

60-Quick Knits

My good friend Em and I have made a knitting New Years Resolution. That is to knit EVERY pattern in the 60-Quick Knits book by the end of the year. Between the two of us we have already almost completed half the patterns in the book. I can't say why we are so addicted to it, but I think it has a lot to do with the simplicity yet the detail of each pattern. When you look at some of the projects highlighted in this book they seem to be so difficult or intricate, but as soon as you start them you realize the simplicity. They aren't simple to a point where you get bored, but also not so difficult that you get confused and have to take your project apart over and over again. When we do complete all of the projects we will probably make a post with all the pictures, but for now you will have to wait.

Anyways, currently I am working on three different projects from the 60-Quick Knits book. I am working on the #11 Wave Scarf, #17 Plaid Mittens, and the other is the #23 Smocked Fingerless Mittens. I started the Smocked Fingerless Mittens (pattern #23) on Friday after buying a beautiful purple heather cascade 220 from someone on ravelry. As soon as I saw the color I knew they needed to be something beautiful and I had my eye on the Smocked Fingerless Mittens for quite sometime now. Since Friday I have finished the left hand one (other than the buttons) and I have started on the right one. I am really happy with the first one and just had to show them off.


And yes, I am wearing a Green Bay Packer's jersey. I am currently watching the game and hoping that the 14 Packers - 0 Bears will lead to a Packers win!!! Packers in Superbowl 2011? I hope so!

EDIT 1/23/11 - 6:42 PM - THE PACKERS WON WE ARE GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL!!!

Christmas 2010 Presents Post

I made all of the Christmas presents I gave this year. Because of that I decided to make one massive post with all of the Christmas gifts I gave out this year. Below are pictures and descriptions of each project and who it was given to.

Starting with my family, I made my sister a Noro scarf. These scarves are made by many many people and there are a lot of different styles and shapes. I picked a brown Noro that is very neutral colors and then I chose a skein that is full of all of the rainbow colors. The actually knitting is also simple as it is starting with an odd number of stitches, then every row you knit 2 then purl 2 across. Because of the odd number of stitches it creates the nice zigzag look of the scarf. Here a few photos to see what it looks like:

Click the picture for a picture of my sister wearing the scarf

For my brother I knit a hat. I was very inspired by the rather new 60 Quick Knits book. I was so inspired that about 6 of the winter projects I created were from the 60 Quick Knits book. This particular hat is called the Tweed Watch Cap. I chose Cascade 220 yarn in the following colors: #9458 - Bainbrige Island Heather (brown), #2424 - Heather Summer Night (blue), and #2452 - Turtle (green). Here is a picture of my brother wearing his Christmas present as well as a few close-ups of the hat:

Click the picture for a picture of my brother wearing his hat

My sister-in-law was gifted some beautiful mittens. These mittens are the Tweed mittens from the 60 Quick Knits book. The colors I used for her mittens are the following: #2419 - Heather Aster (purplish-pink) and #9921 - Caribbean Blue.


I made my adorable niece a soft sweater for Christmas. I used a pattern from Lion Brand called the Little Princess Cardi. I used Plymouth Yarn Dreambaby DK in a purple, blue, and green. Here is a picture of my niece's sweater.

Click the picture to see my niece wearing her sweater

My mom received a pair of mittens from the 60 Quick Knits called Checkered Mittens. I don't know the exact Cascade 220 colors I used for her mittens as I have no documentation for them at this particular moment. However, I do know I used a light blue for the cuff while I used a dark blue and magenta variegated yarn for the checkers. They were finished already over the summer and my mom finally received them on Christmas Eve. She really liked them and said her hands will probably stay very warm. Here is a picture of them:


My dad was the final family member I made something for. He also had a gift made from the 60 Quick Knits book. His gift was the slip-stitched hat. I made it in a burgundy and gold color. The specific colorways are Cascade 220: #4008 - Heather Ruby and #2415 - Sunflower. Here is a picture of the finished product:


Hope you enjoyed, Comments and Critiques are of course welcome!