Potholder (Frenzy) #2

Do you know the expression about one's eyes being larger than one's stomach?  We use that saying a lot around my house especially when we see the kids pile huge portions of food on their plates at meal time, sure that they won't be able to finish it all.  Well, when I blogged about knitting potholders for a charity vendor fair, I thought I would have the time (and energy) to knit several in at least three different styles.  Oh boy, were my eyes larger than my stomach hands and time would allow.

Sheep O' Wool in Aquamarine

Still, I managed to knit one and felt one and send them off to Larissa in time for her fair.

Sadly a crease developed in the felting process

You may recall that I've only felted one time before and while I find it a magical process, I'm not experienced enough to fall madly in love with the process.  Felting this potholder was easy peasy, but somehow, I find it too plain and maybe even boring. (It's okay, you can say so, too).

Ah well, I didn't have time to knit more than these two, but I was glad to have contributed even in this very small way.  If you want to see how spectacular the other donated potholders are, head over to Larissa's Stitch Marker group on Ravelry.  You'll be in awe!

Potholder Frenzy

Hmmm, okay, maybe not frenzy but I will be spending a nice chunk of this weekend knitting up as many potholders as I can.  Why you ask? No, it's not for holiday gifts (although that's a thought....).  I'm going to be knitting potholders as part of a charity effort that's being led by Larissa Brown over on her blog, an effort that I couldn't resist getting involved in.  Larissa will be participating in a local vendor fair that will be part art installation/part fundraiser and she's planning to sell donated potholders with proceeds going to one of her favorite charities called Raising A Reader, an early literacy program for at-risk children in her community.  Literacy is close to my heart, too, and the combination of knitting and helping to raise money for such an important program was irresistable.

I spent the last few days scouring different potholder patterns and settled on these three.  Don't you think they're terrific?  I hope to post the FOs next week (you'll all hold me to this deadline, won't you?).

First up is Chra's simple and cheerful potholder pattern.  I think I'll knit one up in an equally bright color.

From Chra's Rav page

Next is VerenaF's felted potholder pattern.  I'll try to make a few so that I can felt them all at once.

From VF's Rav page

And finally, I'm excited to knit up DROPS' felted Christmas hotpad pattern because I love the texture of this design.  Seriously, aren't these bumps the best?!

I'll be going through my stash tonight and hope I have what I need. And since these need to be knitted in 100% wool (definitely for the felted ones), I'll also be keeping to my Wovember challenge. If I don't have the wool in my stash (hard to believe), I'll have to make a little trip to my LYS tomorrow.  I know, what a hardship!

I fell for felting

Okay, not really although having just finished my first ever felting project, I do feel like a magician and wizard.  How did these gigantic slippers ....

Cascade 220 on No. 13 needles

turn into these fabulous regular women's size slippers?

My wonderful friend Beverly is a huge fan of felting.  I've had many a debate with her about the "fun" of felting and had my doubts, but I wanted to make something special for my niece, Nicole, and she showed me a pair of felted clogs that she liked.  For her, I'll make anything so I promptly bought the pattern, went to my LYS, Knitting Nation, bought three skeins of Cascade 220, and started knitting.

The pattern is well-written but I had to pay close attention since there was a lot of counting and re-counting.  I usually can watch a movie or chat with a friend when I knit but there was no way I could do either while knitting these slippers.  In fact, if Mark (hubby) or the kids were in the same room when I was working on this project, I had to warn them that I would be rude and ignore wouldn't be able to chat with them.

Upon making the final touches, I realized that I have a front-loading washing machine which is not conducive to felting (or so I thought).  Ravelry came to the rescue with great advice from one of the forums.

After two hot cycles and one cold cycle

Just in time, too, as my family got together for Mother's Day at my mom's house and I gave Nicole her belated birthday gift.

Brand new felted clogs on my lovely niece