A First!!

A friend of mine is having a birthday next week and I realized that I had not made her a present.  I've been making birthday presents like crazy lately and I knew she would feel left out if I didn't make something for her.  Then I remembered that I had actually started a project for her a long time ago, but set it aside.  It is my own little pattern, and my first. (this is not the project I had intended to be my first project, but I haven't had time to work on my silly lil' hat.)

Both myself and the Birthday Girl have a few Eddie Baur Water Bottle (of course I can't find any online now.).  They are great, but have one problem...They get condensation all over your desk or table.  The BG had suggested that I make something to fix that problem almost as soon as I had started knitting.  I have some 80s cotton yarn left over from my first project at the age of 16, which was never completed (a horrible 80s sweater).  So I cast on for this ages ago, but got excited about some other project and never finished it.  Well, now the fire was lit so I finished it up real quickly.

I don't know how many of you out there have this brand of bottle, but here are the simple directions:

CO 12 and divide on to 3 needles (4 sts each) join in the round.

Row 1 - K

Row 2 - *K2, M* around (18 sts)

Row 3 - K

Row 4 - *K3, M1* around (24 sts)

Row 5 - K

Row 6 - *K4, M1* around (30 sts)

Row 7 - K

Row 8 - *K5, M1* around (36 sts)

Row 9 - K

Row 10 - *K6, M1* around (42 sts)

Row 11 - K

Row 12 - *K7, M1* around (48 sts)

(This part of the pattern is exactly like Very Pink's Orb-It pattern - Ravelry pattern.  Thanks, Staci!!)

K 14 rounds

BO 4.  K 44

You are no longer working in the round, but will knit and purl back and forth in stockinette stitch for 4 rows.

BO.  Weave in both ends.

Since it doesn't seem like this bottle can be bought online anymore, there probably won't be too many people who need it, but it's my first pattern. :) And I wanted to show that you do not need much experience to make a pattern of your own or change another to meet a completely different need.

Also, more excitement in my knitting world,  I finished test knitting my Sugar Cane Skirt for the lovely and talented Miss Andrea Rangel.  She has not release the pattern yet, but I will let you know when she does.  It is a lot of fun to knit and it was my first skirt!  My husband is very fond of the results! :D

I'll talk more about this pattern once it is released.  I learned a lot and enjoyed every minute of it!

Yarn Cake!

What is a poor knitter to do when she has some lovely, squishy yarn that she needs to wind into a center pull ball without a yarn ball winder or swift?  She improvises!

Take one used toilet paper roll:

Cut a slit into one side and stick the end of your yarn through it:

Wrap your yarn around the toilet paper roll.  I sit in my comfy chaise with my knees up and put the skien of yarn around my knees in place of a swift..sorry no silly  pictures of that.

And, viola, you've got yourself a yarn cake.

It ain't pretty and it takes a bit longer than using a ball winder, but it does the job nicely!  No, I'm not the first person to figure this out, but I there are probably others out there that didn't know this little trick.