Finished one, starting another

I finished knitting Dan's hat last night. Except for the weaving in of ends; I was too tired for that chore and did it today. It's a pattern from Knit Simple Holiday 2006. I used the Zara Plus, as recommended and found it nice to work with. I actually made two of these hats last year, for my sons and found that they came out too small, even after measuring heads and swatching. So when I made them again this year I made them the next size up and also used a size larger of needles. I'm so worried about loose stitches that I knit way too tight. Son #2's hat was yellow with black (he wanted to look like a bee), and son #1's hat is grey with black--the opposite of Dan's. He wanted silver and black, but this was the best I could do. And Dan's was made up with the leftovers. Which reminds me that the pattern called for 1 ball of each color, but you really need two balls of the main color if you make the larger sizes.

I actually wish I had taken a picture while it was still on the needles. I really love, in knitting and needlework, to see the work in progress. My favorite part of any needlework project is the first few stitches, when you can't see what it's going to be, but it looks like the stitches are growing out of the fabric. This could explain why I've started so many projects and finished so few.

In fact, I have 35 projects started, and I'm working on those rather than starting new ones. Danielle will be happy to see the next one I'm working on:



Sorry it's sideways; I'll learn how to fix that. Anyway, it's Summer Queen by Mirabilia and you can see a finished one here:

http://www.mirabilia.com/crossIndex2.html

You'll probably have to click on to a specific page, it's #22. I love Mirabilia and have several of her patterns. Titania is one of my 35 UFOs that I intend to finish. You can see it at the same site and it's #38. I hope that she designs the October fairy soon.

And since I cannot carry that project around, I'm working on my Christmas angels from the last three years, starting with last year's. Here are my raw materials:


Gosh, I hope that's not too blurry. Things to learn: How to link directly to a website's picture, how to take a decent picture. Anyway, I don't have a finished picture to link to; this is one of the free patterns from Told in A Garden (http://www.tiag.com/). She's another of my favorite designers and this angel is the one from 1996.

Tomorrow (or soon) I will put up pictures of a craft project I'm working on, as well as the projects I am alternating with this angel.