Trim the Fringe

I have been going back and forth on trimming the loops and making regular fringe or leaving the loops on this afghan. This makes my decision for me.... Trim!

Dog Sweater

This dog sweater is a pattern from the Lion Brand Yarn website. I acutally used a Caron soft pink with Bernat Boa instead the Lion Brand yarns, I feel kind of guilty for that, but this is what I had on hand to try the pattern with. I have a few more colors that I'm going to try and now that I've done one by hand, I think it will be very easy to convert to the bulky machine. My cousin, the pet groomer, is getting requests for the upcoming cold season. I think I need to either get a small dog, or find a stuffed poodle someplace to use as a maniquin. I'm sure E.J. will opt for the stuffed one :)

DPN Rolled Holder

I finally had enough of having to size my dpn's and dig dig dig through my drawer to find a full set of the same size needles that I got busy the other night and made myself a roll up pocketed holder. I've numbered the slots by size, the front pockets hold the shorter (5"-6") sets and the back pockets hold up to 14" sets. As soon as I dig up some of my fabric paint, I'm going to permanently number them so I will always be organized. Well... as long as I put them away where they belong :) I used a safety pin to hold a few stitch holders and the last pocket holds a few crochet hooks.
Fold the top down, roll it up, wrap an elastic band around it ( I used a hair band) and Viola! Organized! No more digging through bags and drawers. I wish I would have made a pocket to hold my small sizer. Hmmm.... I saw a ring type needle sizer that I may have to buy and then I could just put it on the safety pin inside with the stitch holders. OH! I think I'll add another safety pin and use it to hold some stitch markers too! Perfect!

The USA Afghan is going to Canada!

Here it is. All done. I ended up knotting the fringe after all. It kind of looked like it was just coming unravelled without the knots. Now it has a more finished look, like it's supposed to be that way. I think next time I will make the knitted on band wider with a doubled up stitch pattern so it will show off the edge more. I did a pie crust edge on the sides. Alex thinks I should make some stars and add them to the blue sections. A budding designer?
He loves the blanket so much that he has begged me to let him have it when he goes home at the end of summer. He sleeps with it every night, even before I had the fringe done and just goes on and on about how it's "so warm and snuggly Grandma". What a kid! Guess my air conditioning is a tad bit cold for him. It's only Red Heart Super Saver and we all know that even though it is a very durable yarn, snuggly isn't one of it's attributes :) Oh, I used Soft Navy, White and Cherry Red. Maybe I can get some Red Heart Soft in the same colors. Now that would be snuggly!

Due to popular demand, I've put the instructions for what I did to create this afghan on my free pattern page. The link is at the right :)

Patriotic Afghan

It's almost done. Didn't quite make it for Independence Day, but there are several holidays that the red, white and blue are appropriate decor for so it will not go in the UFO closet. I hope to finish it this week and also finish up a couple of dog sweaters I've started. Having a 6 year old around makes knitting time a little difficult. Fortunately he has made friends with the neighbor boys so I'll get a little done while he is outside playing :)