Counted Cross Stitch - Oriental Touch by Lena Liu

I finally finished my cross stitch project! I bought this in 2006!!
The name of the kit is Dimensions Gold Nuggets counted cross stitch: Oriental Touch designed by Lena Liu.

I decided to frame the finished work myself.. Here are the things I bought from Michael's:

Frame - $8 (50% off sale)
Tacky glue - $2
Masking tape - @3 (with 40% coupon)

I had to take the glass out since the scroll is protruding out. I probably should have used the boxed frame to keep the cross stitch clean, but decided not to so I can get the 'rustic frame.'

Cabled Fingerless Gloves

An extremely cute pair of fingerless gloves. Too bad it's not that cold in CA, I can't seem to find the perfect time to wear them. I hope I'll get to wear them more often during Winter this year.

Scarves for donation

These are the scarves that I'll be donating. I knitted these scarves quite a long time ago and never really wore them. As you can see from the patterns, they're really simple. I was still a beginner when I knitted these.
For some reason, I love to knit things that I end up not wearing.. But I'm glad that I'll be able to put these scarves to good use - donating them to people who need them.

The charity I'm going to donate the scarves to is:
Handmade Especially for You
30065 Grandpoint Lane
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275
http://www.handmadeespecially.org

Another charity I'm really considering is:
http://www.scarvesfromtheheart.com They donate the scarves to cancer patients. Since they have a little more guidelines for the scarves, I'll donate the scarves I knit in the future..

Projects I did for Sale

I'm really happy to know that someone's happily wearing the projects I knitted. For this particular person, I did a bulky scarf for her, a striped scarf for her boyfriend (this one's a little challenging as there were 5 stripes with different colors..), a hot water bottle cover, and a hat.
Here are the pics of the finished projects:

Cables and Bobbles Shrug

Website

Started knitting this about 2 weeks ago.

At first, I was intimidated by the pattern, but I thought to myself, I can do this, I've done all those patterns before. I'm not really good at reading patterns off of a diagram. But I thought I should try anyway.

It's been 2 weeks since I started. I could have finished this shrug, but I had to frog my work about 5 times. I haven't gone past 6" probably. Anyone who's attempting this shrug needs to be aware that the pattern is not correct. Took me a while to figure it out. I'll post a pic of the pattern I've edited.

Hemlock Ring Throw

This project was featured in the recent Knitpicks' Speed Knitting contest. Of course, I know I won't be good enough to enter in the contest and win. The winner of the contest finished this project in 3 days. 3 DAYS!!! That's amazing. I'm only moving along the project slowly. It's absolutely a fun project nonetheless.

I chose a bright yellow Lion Brand Micro Spun yarn. I would love to have this throw on my bed or couch. I think the bright yellow will make a good contrast and brighten the room.

The pattern of this project can be found here.

Though intimidating, the pattern turns out easy enough to follow. I haven't reached the feather and fan section yet, that's for me to worry later.
Here's a picture of my progress. I started this project on Wednesday 2/4/09.




2/19/09 Update
More pictures. It's almost finished. I'm doing the binding off now.


3/20/09 Update
Ugh, so I finished binding off the Hemlock throw, but I still haven't blocked it yet. Can't really find a space in the house that won't be invaded by my dog.

Trial Patterns

I'm overwhelmed with the amount of patterns available out there. It's simply amazing!!
By trying out the different patterns, I can see what the patterns actually look like and how difficult it is to complete.

So, here are some of my trial patterns. They're absolutely fun to knit, but I haven't really figured out what type of items would look good with these patterns....