Chauntel Ensey

We had a nice, relaxing but eventful weekend here at our house! Tracy & I had plans, big plans, for our Saturday; lotion making and machine knitting! We first (I should say Tracy, I was busy with work junk) got the machines all set up on the table out in the play room.

Then we decided we would go to our original plan of making lotion bars first thing, then spend the rest of the day, maybe night, knitting charity blankets.

Tracy has made the lotion bars before & they were very well received so we decided to make them again but different shapes this time. Using ice cube trays and fresh cut lavendar flowers & leaves we made us some bars!

Don’t they look fabulous?? So creamy and pretty with their lavendar and orange essential oils. They make me happy! So does my new table cloth they are on. Ross, of course!

Once they were poured & cooling we went back out to the playroom for our extended knit-a-thon. Jayme had given me a ton of donated yarn, mostly red heart but all acrylics, a year or so ago to store & use. We thought it was damn time we got rid of some of it! We have all said over & over how we should use it up on charity blankets & items & then it doesn’t happen. So we got on the ball!

Mind you, Sadie took most of my pictures and didn’t realize that the camera was set on closeup shots not distance so they are all blurry. Sorry ’bout that.

Here are Tracy & I hunched over my machine while she shows me just how NOT to do some things! Gee, I wonder why our backs hurt so much! You can go to Tracy’s blog to see better, more clear pictures of the whole event also.

That is the first blanket that I did, over halfway done. I did have a bit of a hard time on the first half of this blanket. I had to learn the mechanics of the machine, how much tension to hold when and just how the machine feels while it is knitting.

How nifty is that?? A row counter, it’s too bad we can’t use it on our regular knitting, every time you pass it up it keeps count, Genius!

Here is the pink blanket being bound off. I like this part, Tracy does not. So we would swap, I would bind hers off while she cast on my next blanket. Nice huh?? We so compliment eachother!

So here is the sum of 6 hours of machine knitting. 4 charity blankets, 2 girl (I made those, the 2 pinks on the back of the couch), 2 boy (Tracy made those, the 2 blues on the arm of the couch to the left) and finally Tracy made herself half of a blanket, 3’x6′, using some awesome cotton yarn, that is the stripy blanket on the couch cushions. She will do the other half of it another time, we are a tad bit machine knitted out. Although I do still have one set up in the playroom & I will be doing a bit more knitting with the machine until I just can’t stand it anymore. I am thinking shawls, a couple more charity blankets and then some washcloths, dishcloths, handtowels.

I will finish off those 4 charity blankets with some crocheted edges, wash them and iron the hell out of them to get the curl out of the edges. The machine knits them so tight that even after an edge & washing they will have a tendency to roll in. I think the colors are HORRID but I am very pleased that we did something we have been talking about for years!