Spreading a little hand made love. . .

. . . just a sprinkle at a time.

That's what Leslie said way back in January when she posted about the 'Pay It Forward' exchange on her blog. I was one of the lucky 3 who commented on her post and said I'd love to join in with this great idea.

I didn't think it would take me this long to post about it and offer the opportunity to 3 other people but well, better late than never! Leslie did mention that it might not be tomorrow or the next week that we would receive our gift but it would be in the next 365 days :-) I could make the same promise but with the holidays looming I am being inspired to get creative right now and have my 3 gifts ready to mail out before the end of the year.

So here is the deal:

I will send a handmde gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet but there's a very high chance that it will be hand knitted (it is after all what I like doing best). So if that's ok with you go ahead and join in the fun. The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

A Friend for Charlotte!

At the risk of boring you to tears with yet more bunny pictures I'd like you to say hello to. . . .

Abigail! And no this is not Charlotte pretending to be Abigail by wearing a different color sweater ;-)

And to prove it here are the new friends together. Aren't they cute?

I swear these little buns get quicker to knit the more you do! It took one night to knit the bunny because I didn't bother stuffing as I went along like I usually do (for the simple reason I'd ran out of stuffing). So when I got more stuffing today all the pieces were ready and within a matter of hours I had another little gift completed.

OK, nuff of the bunny pics, I'm sure you've had your fill already! I think I will give bunnies a rest for a week or so and try my hand at the free Fuzzy Mitten pattern for the lamb. I have in mind to give the bunnies to my niece-lets and the lambs to my little neph-lets (the kids of my nieces and nephews).

Still on the subject of cute stuff, I was surfing Ravelry (as you do!) and came across a group for Shih Tzu owners :-) Yay, that's me, so I just had to join, (they are the cutest dogs ever) hence the reason you see two cute photos in my side bar of our sweet little Boo! Hey Bobbi, I think Simon and Oscar would want you to join us too ;-)

OK, in my next post there will be no mention of rabbits - I promise!

Dressed and ready to play!

Here's Charlotte in her 'cashmerino hoody'. Another quick little knit (if I could only make myself one so fast!). The left over yarn I had from the socks was the perfect amount for the sweater, I mean I'm talking about 20 inches of yarn left!

If I'm honest I would say I prefered the sweater before I put the hood on it. It just somehow looked cuter on her. The hood I think makes her look a little 'boyish' - or is it just me? It also made it a little tighter to get over her head, but as you can see we managed.

I may knit a few other clothes for her (if I have time) but before I do I need to cast on for 'Abigail'. Still a lot to knit and the weeks are going by too quickly.

Meet Charlotte!

Two nights is all it took to knit up sweet little Charlotte. I've named her after the little girl she will be gifted to. My niece's little girl is 4 years old, no doubt she'll name her little bunny something else, but for now I thought I'd name them for each child they are intended for.

This time I used Caron Simply Soft for bunny and I'm busy knitting a hoody for her in some left over Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino (yay I can finally use up all my left over yarn from my Rainy Day Socks!). She's a little smaller than 'Autumn but a little bigger than Baby Blue because he was knit in dk.

How 'bout a group hug!

Next up. . . . 'Abigail' :-)

Quick Little Knits!

Would you believe me if I told you these cute little bunnies take only about 3 nights to knit (and that includes the sewing up and stuffing!). This is the second 'Fuzzy Mitten' bunny I've knit. I can't tell you how much I enjoy knitting these, so I've finally found something that I want to knit for the 'niblings' this Christmas. If I can knit one per week I will be finished my gift knitting in plenty of time.

I've named this sweet little girl Autumn! Rather appropriate when our weather is finally turning cooler :-) and I rather think the colors in her dress remind me of the changing colors of the trees (as I remember them in Maryland, because to be honest we don't get them like that here in Texas). Isn't she sweet?

Yarn used for bunny is acrylic from stash. Dress is knit in 'Regia Silk' left over from my Monkey Socks!

Happy Friday everyone!

AND THE WINNER IS. . . . . .

Philigry!

Congratulations 'Philigry' can you email me with your address so I can mail the goodies to you.

denise@deniseschulz.com

Thank you to everyone that left a comment. To MissBree, there was only one entry per person, I wrote out all the names of those who wanted to be entered and had Kristen pick one from the basket. . . and to KristieMD, yes you were in time for the drawing but sad to say your name wasn't picked. Thanks for your comment though, hope to visit your blog soon!

I didn't mean to keep you all waiting all day, but today was just one of those crazy days that seem to go all too fast! Hubby left for Denver today (until Thursday) and Kristen has just gone to bed, so I'm off to knit more bunnies and watch the Coco Chanel story that I tivo'd at the weekend.

There's still time. . . . .

Giveaway Drawing Tomorrow!

You still have time to enter,
just leave a comment in the post below (dated Sept 5)

Christmas Knitting and Fuzzy Mittens!

I've mentioned that I want to knit some gifts for my 'niblings' this year (my nephew and niece's children in England). I thought I had decided on 'ladybug' mittens and hats for 2 little great-nieces and I was working on the sweater for one little great-nephew, but then I kind of changed my mind!You know how it is - if you don't feel like knitting something it will feel like such a chore and chances are it will take forever cos you'll never feel like picking it up! That's how I felt after doing just one ladybug mitten. So then I decided I'd try making 'Itty Bitty' hats for the kiddies and make a fleece scarf to match. AND THEN. . . . . I discovered Fuzzy Mittens on Ravelry :-)

Yay! Now THESE are something I want to make, and what better reason than a gift for a child. I bought the bunny pattern that very night, and he was made in about 3 days! So without further ado, I give you my first Fuzzy Mitten (which Kristen and I have named) 'Baby Blue'.

I have a really good camera but you wouldn't think it to see these pictures, I can't for the life of me take close up 'in focus' shots!! But I did my best - here's a few more of the little guy.


The scarf you see behind him is my 'finally finished Chicabean Scarf! It needs blocking and then I can show 'real' pictures of it. You'll notice too that I did a little scarf for bunny in the same yarn.


The yarn for bunny was some left over Sirdar Snuggly DK that I made the Girlfriend Shrug for Kristen in. He was really just a 'test bunny' but he's turned out quite cute and soft that he will be a gift to my niece's new baby boy (due in December)!

I'll be making more of these for sure!

100 Posts!

THIS IS IT! This is my 100th post! I thought I would be announcing the winner to my giveaway in my special post, but then I thought, "that means I can't blog again until next Monday!" So I decided instead to just have a little celebration in here to commemorate my big day. And to do that I thought I'd make another 'photo shoot' which shows the things I've made (and am still working on) in the past year.

99 and Counting. . . . . a Bloggy GiveAway!

THIS is my 99th post since I started my knitting blog. To celebrate my upcoming 100th post I decided to have a 'give away'. Here are the rules. . . actually there aren't any rules! All you have to do for a chance to win is leave a comment in this post (and this post only). Just a quick hello will do, or you can be really nice and tell me how much you like my blog and my knitting ;-) (a girl needs to hear these things once in a while, ya know)! You don't have to be a knitter to enter, but the prize is very much 'knitting related' (this is after all a knitting blog) What is it you ask?

Well . . . . the winner will receive :

Natural Knits for Babies and Moms' by Louisa Harding. I have my own copy of this but saw the book on sale while I was in England and couldn't resist picking up another copy deliberately to give away to a 'friend'.






I will also include an old but unopened copy of Simply Knitting magazine ( my friend sends me it from England every month, but another friend got me this copy while she was home in the UK, so I had two copies). The mag is November 07, issue 34 and includes these free gifts, a pocket diary, knitting cd and bonus Debbie Bliss pattern. This issue also has the cute Alan Dart 'Snowmes' pattern (which I still haven't knit, but want to very soon!).



2 balls of my favorite yarn - Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. I love using this yarn for the 'Rainy Day Socks' pattern, which thankfully is now available on Ravelry as a free download (after Magknits.com closed down)!







And finally, I recently won a competition at Jill's blog and received her new gift cards as the prize. I wanted to purchase some of these but then didn't need to when I won, then I decided to buy a packet anyway and give them to the lucky winner. These are so cute, you'll love them too.






Here are all the goodies together (well actually the gift tags are mine (I already opened them) I'm waiting on the ones I ordered to be mailed to me) Hopefully I will have them by the time I announce the winner :-)


I will announce the winner next Monday (Sept 15th-oooh that's my Mam's birthday!) :-)

Pretty In Pink - an FO!

I finished the pink bolero, and I LOVE it! I seriously want to knit this pattern in all kinds of colors :-) I think I'd like a brown one and an orange one for the Fall. Now all I need is cooler temps.

This one was knit using Debbie Bliss Merino dk. I made a little photoshow - hope you like it.

Has it really been a week?

Well nearly! It's Tuesday already, nearly a week since that last post, and yet it feels like I just added those pictures of Pikachu 2 or 3 days ago? I'm trying my best to get some projects finished but I seem to be procrastinating and not getting anywhere!

And yet I know I'm accomplishing some things, just nothing worth taking pictures of yet. I only have half a sleeve left to do on the pink bolero (no pics of that until I have an FO for you!). I only have one sleeve left to do on the 'Ribbed Yoke Sweater' but I haven't yet cast on for it! I started to make some 'ladybug' mitts for my nieces instead of the Lucinda Guy tank that I was thinking of doing, and I brought Chicabean Scarf out of hibernation yesterday thinking I might finish it off for a friend's birthday gift and do the hat to go with it?

So as you can see (well you can't actually see cos I haven't posted photos) but you can tell that my knitting seems to be all over the place right now.

Hopefully next time I post I'll have some photos to share, and perhaps I'll have a giveaway to do too - although to be honest, I think I'm still 3 posts short of a 100!!!