All Creatures Great and Small... Knit and Crochet...

I just had to post a picture of the beautiful tulips blooming in my yard right now. They're my favorite flower!

I recently found a pattern for crocheted Loch Ness Monsters - "Nessie" - and just had to make a batch of them! At first, I followed the pattern, and came up with the following two:
But, I wanted them to be bigger, so I held two strands of worsted yarn together and used a bigger hook, and came up with these:
It's a little hard to tell from the picture, but I am using the same book for reference in the photos.

They were a lot of fun to make! And my friends who requested them when I showed them the pattern are happy with the results. I will probably make more in the future, because they are quick (I can make one in an evening) and I like quick projects.

Last night, I wanted a small, quick project so I decided to knit a snail from a pattern I found online. Isn't he cute?

I put a quarter in the picture for reference. He's a wee little thing! I'm sure I'll make more of these too. I need to get the shell to spiral more. I think I stuffed it too much and it just barely curves around. I'll have to work on this as I make more little snails.

I'll leave you with another tulip picture:
I'm so happy that it's spring! I love the warm, sunny weather and long days!

Socks, Socks, Socks!

For the past 6 months or so, I have been on a sock knitting kick. My mom bought me some Panda Cotton sock yarn for my birthday last year. It is bamboo and cotton. I love it! It is so soft and I really have not found a wool sock yarn that I like. I couldn't wait to try it, but I thought I should practice with some other yarn first.

I had bought "Sensational Knitted Socks" (SKS) by Charlene Schurch and decided to try knitting a pattern from that book using some acrylic sock yarn that I bought at A.C. Moore years ago. I loved the colors in the yarn but hated the feel of the acrylic and also didn't like how the pattern I chose worked with that yarn. So, that remains a lone single sock stashed away in a closet somewhere...

I decided that I would have better luck if I used a yarn I liked (Panda Cotton!) and tried another pattern from SKS. I had much better luck with these socks and actually wear them quite often. I just wore them yesterday as a matter of fact!
It's not a great picture because that was still with the old camera. But you can see the socks fit quite well! I was happy.

I wanted to try some other non-wool sock yarns. I believe the next pair I knit was with Maizy which is made of corn. I liked that yarn as well, only I don't wear the socks as often because I don't have a lot of clothes that go with the brown and green sock yarn I chose. This was also a pattern from SKS.
Also notice - new camera - much better pictures!

I then wanted to try Wick yarn because I had read about it on some blogs and I thought it would make a comfy pair of socks that were quick to knit. I was right! These were a fun knit and I wear these socks a lot even though the Painted Daisies colorway is pretty funky. I want to get some more Wick yarn in some less wild colors and whip up a few more pairs of these socks. I used Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's knitting recipe (from her book "Knitting Rules") for these.


And after all that sock knitting, I decided to make some mini socks!
I love knitting mini stuff so you will definitely see more posts on that in the future!

If you want more details on any of these projects and you are on Ravelry, I am EtownKnitter.