Kinko's is my friend

I've been wanting to do this for a while. I've found so many free patterns on the internet - especially now through Ravelry. They quickly get out of control. Especially some of the new shawl patterns are several pages with charts. Interweave Knits also published a multi-page 5 Top Patterns. I have them all saved on disk, but I like having the hard-copies. But don't want to kill to many trees, reprinting them. What to do?



Bind those babies! FedExKinko's is about 1 mile from my house. The trip was worth it - I brought my little expandable folder of patterns. And 9 bindings later I was a happy girl. I bound several lace shawl patterns, a great Shetland Lace book I bought on Etsy by Elizabeth Lovick. A great little mini-lace class with scarf, bookmarks, shawl, charts, lots of great info. But 65 pages, too much to manage loose leaf.

I'm going to bind some more when I have time to sort it out. It's easier to work with. I might even bind some knitting magazines - it would be much easier to work with the pattern when I can fold it flat. I wouldn't want to do it for every magazine. Just the ones with several patterns I love.

I'm making progress on my socks - Two of my socks who started the week at the gusset are now almost to the toe! Here is one of them, an Opal Rainforest yarn with colors I Love. Why did I take so long to get these on my feet!



Opal yarn is as good as it's reputation. It's deceptively soft, and I believe it will wear well. It just looks solid and durable. But the colors are lovely. Especially in their Rainforest series. This sock was the Peacock yarn, I need to decide what animal I will knit up next. I like the caterpillar yarn - a nice green with browns and yellows. Maybe that one.

And Doreen reminded me of a project that is over 10 years old. I dug it out to post pictures on Ravelry. I had one of these given to me as a little girl. I played with it in church, and Doreen did too. When I saw the pattern - before I had my babies - I knew I had to crochet it.



Everything except a bit of cardboard inside for stability and the doll is crocheted. I made this 10 years ago before I knew of "nice" yarn. I want to make it again with some lovely fingering. Maybe some hand-painted sock yarns?



It has a hidden basket in the bottom for extra clothes and dolls.


I
This tells you how much I used to crochet before I discovered knitting. It's a great art form - and I love it for projects like toys. It's sturdy and durable. Even though this is over 10 years old, and endured a toddler/little girl play from my oldest. It looks as good as the first day, except a few ends I need to weave back in. Of course - Red Heart yarn doesn't hurt. You can't damage the stuff from what I can see. Back then, Red Heart was all I knew!

I have several afghans I need to photo and upload to Ravelry, and I know I gave several away that I don't have any record of. It makes me a bit nostalgic for crochet. Maybe I need to find a nice crochet pattern to mix into my WIPs.