Blair, finally.

Sometime last winter I was looking for another sweater quantity of Madelinetosh Tosh DK, and Purl Diva was expecting a shipment. I had originally been looking for something in an earth tone of some sort, but when Ellen told me that she had the colorway Lapis, I couldn't resist. My plans for this yarn has changed at least half a dozen times over the last year. But then the Winter edition of Twist Collective came out, and I found the perfect pattern:

Pattern: Blair by Thayer Preece

Yarn: Madelinetosh Tosh DK in colorway Lapis

Modifications: My modifications somewhat stem from my inability to follow directions. I had planned on following the pattern as written for the size 35 1/2". Well, apparently I skipped over the section where the yoke increases only on the front and back and not on the sleeves. So, the body of my sweater ended up having the same amount of stitches as the next size down once I split the sleeves. Since it was knit "top-down", I was able to try it on and realized that it would still fit just fine...the neckline would just be a deeper V than the pattern calls for. I actually think it worked out perfectly. If I had not made that mistake, the body may have ended up being too big and baggy. The only other modification that I made was my sleeves are slightly shorter than the pattern calls for. 

Back.

I love everything about this sweater. The fit, the color, the eyelet detail, and the overall style. 

Buttons from BeadFreaky on etsy.

How about one more picture?

Seth made me climb the pear tree. This was the only halfway decent picture of about 20.

I have another, not nearly as exciting, finished knit.

Pattern: The Big Easy by Vivian Aubrey 

Yarn: Handspun MCN dyed by Two if by Hand

Modifications: None

The yarn knit up really, really lovely. It's amazingly squishy!

So, after I finished my Blair sweater I went a little crazy casting on new projects. I have another sweater on the needles (more on that in the next post), a shawl, and a baby sweater. 

What's that you say? You want to see pictures of the new projects? Okay, okay....twist my arm.

Saltwater Taffy Baby Cardigan in Wool Candy Fondant Merino DK. 

Scalene in Three Irish Girls Kells Sport Merino 

I have some new handspun to show you, too....but I think I'll write up a separate post for that later in the week. 

Love, 

liz 

1160 Yards of Handspun

That, my dear, is what I've been working on for the last week basically non-stop! A customer asked me to do some custom spinning for her...12 ounces of BFL and spun fairly thin for maximum yardage so she can hopefully knit a sweater with it. I finished it on Wednesday and ended up with 1160 yards of light sport weight yarn. It was dry this morning and I reskeined, labeled, and mailed it. But, I snapped a few photos first :)

Spun from Funky Carolina BFL Combed Top.  

Colorway Lily...beautiful greys, silvers and blues. 

It's going to make a really beautiful sweater! 

I don't have much to show on the knitting front. I'm still working on the sweater for Seth's Dad...but making quite a bit of progress. I did finish a Hydrangea Neckwarmer the other day, but it's still drying on the blocking board. I'll try and get pictures of that this weekend! 

I've done a wee bit of sewing, and am plotting and scheming about some bigger tote bag projects. I got a fat quarter pack of all the Heather Ross Far, Far Away 2 fabrics for Christmas:

I. LOVE. THEM. All the fabric is a cotton/linen blend so it's much sturdier than regular quilting cotton. 

I've been itching to cut into them, but also spending hours online looking through other people's projects to decide what to do with them! I also received an Amy Butler pattern book, which as TONS of cute bag patterns in it. 

For my first project, I thought I'd do something small and simple. 

Origami Bag. Isn't it adorable?!

Close up of the owl and cat. 

This particular pattern has directions for 5 or so different sizes, and I'm going to give some of the larger ones a try once I get some bigger zippers. The directions were really clear and easy to follow, which makes me hopeful for some of the more complicated looking bags in the book! 

Your sweater is looking great, by the way! And F's house looks awesome! Nice work! 

Oh...and one more exciting thing (or, at least I thought it was exciting). A pair of mittens I knit ended up on the Three Irish Girls blog!!! I did a little happy dance when I saw that :) 

Alright...off to do some spinning for the shop!

Love,

Liz :)

Sample Knitting and Baby Hats...

Since last week was mostly spent making Seth's Halloween costume, I don't have anything too impressive to share. But I do have a few small things...

The shop my Mom helps out at, Knit Wit Kreations, just got a new yarn line in and I offered to whip up a sample that they could hang with the yarn. The yarn is KFI Sweetness, a cotton, merino, nylon blend (50/40/10) that is great for kids knits since it is both machine washable and strong (due to the nylon content). The yarn doesn't have a lot of "give" to it, but it was nice to work with and created a soft but durable fabric.

Pattern: Baby Bolero from KFI Sweetness booklet (no ravelry link)

Yarn: KFI Sweetness (dk weight, 136 yards/ball) - 2 skeins

Modifications: None. However, if I were to knit another bolero, I'd probably pick a seamless pattern. There was quite a lot of seaming, which could be easily avoided by doing raglan sleeves instead of set-in sleeves. The pattern was fairly straight-forward, though and it was an easy knit. 

Apparently, it's been a week of baby knits. A friend from college is due for her baby this week, and she adores knit and crocheted baby hats. I whipped up a newborn size hat (which looks ridiculously small) and two 3-6 month sized hats. 

Pattern(s): Pink hat- Simple Baby Hat by Debbie Bliss (from "Baby Knits for Beginners"), Purple hats- Quick and Easy Baby Hat by Emma Waller (in 2 different sizes)

Yarn: Pink hat- Three Irish Girls Springvale Super Merino is Elsbeth, Purple hats- MadelineTosh DK in Nostalgia 

Modifications: None. I still need to add ribbon in the eyelet holes on the purple hats, but that requires a trip to Jo-Ann's. I'll hopefully add those today and be able to send them out this afternoon or tomorrow.

I also finished a Liesel scarf for Judy, the woman who watched Sailor while we were gone. But the weather was so dark and dreary that I wasn't able to get a good picture of it before Seth brought it to her. 

OH! I also have a brand new sewing machine, a Christmas gift from my Mom (that arrived in a box with SINGER written all over it!)! I'll have to do a post about it once I try it out and figure out all the cool things it can do! 

Love,

liz :)

Mom's Sweater....finally.

Well, Mom's Tea Leaves Cardigan took a hideously long time to knit. I could blame it on all the visitors we had this summer, but the reality is that it takes longer when you have to rip out an entire sleeve and re-knit it. I accidently used size 5 needles to knit a sleeve and didn't realize until I had bound off for that sleeve. I thought that the sleeve felt a little dense and the stitches looked smaller, but kept going. Lesson learned. After ripping out the sleeve, the sweater got put in the "time-out" pile for a couple of weeks. But, now it's done!

Pattern: Tea Leaves Cardigan by Melissa LaBarre

Yarn: MadelineTosh DK in colorway Amber Trinket

Modifications: None. I made the size 34 and followed the pattern as written.

Today I received my very first shipment of the Three Irish Girls yarn club that I joined. I'm particularly excited about this yarn club because each month I get at least 2 colorways to choose from. This month's yarn is Wexford Merino Silk. Whoa, this stuff is yummy. I have a huge double skein with 480 yards, and I have no idea what I'm going to knit with it yet. But here it is:

There's also some gorgeous pinkish-reddish tones in there that are hiding.

Seth and I drove up to Salem today so that he could look at new running shoes. On our way there we noticed a sign that said "U-Pick Peaches" and decided to stop on the way back. What we didn't know was that the U-Pick/We Pick place was a 15 minute drive from where the sign was. It was hysterical. We just kept following the signs until we arrived at this house surrounded by peach and nectarine trees. Since it is the end of the season, u-pick was closed but the guy had a bunch of nectarines and peaches for sale. First, he told us $1/lb....then it was $.75/lb. Then he gave us this huge bucket of peaches and nectarines that aren't perfect plus FIVE POUNDS of nectarines and about a dozen peaches. For FIVE DOLLARS. Yes, five dollars. We probably have 20 lbs of fruit. More canning is in my immediate future. He also gave us the cool metal bucket the fruit was in.

Seth was especially excited about the bucket. 

We're thinking about heading to Crater Lake this weekend, then camping and possibly going to Bend. 

I'll leave you with this cute picture of my two boys:

Love,

liz :)