Monday, December 26, 2011

Wooly Christmas!

First, I need to show the mother/daughter project results of our Vitamin D sweater! My mom looks great in hers! She showed up in it Christmas morning so I ran and put mine on too. It was fun to do a project with my mom. She's a fantastic knitter! And a very fun momma!
 My daughter has been busy making these little felt ornaments this year and this set belongs to her lucky sister:
 This set belongs to lucky me!:
 She also made me these little notecards, somewhat similar to last years'. They are new little critters playing with yarn again! If you are interested in her etsy shop, it is here:{ helloyellowbird}
 My husband was sneaky and asked my friend about getting me a yarn swift and ball winder without me knowing about it! I am having such fun winding up my skeins!

I forgot to add this shot earlier... my sis in law gave me this sweet ornament which is a knitting bag filled with yarn and needles and says "Queen of Knitting". Cute! Hope you had a warm and Wooly Christmas!

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Owl Gloves

A little bit of Eco Wool and size 10 dpn's and a few cable rows,...voila! Owl gloves! These are based on the "Owl Study Gloves" pattern off of Ravelry.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

"Idaho" Falls Cowl

A friend of mine brought me alpaca from Alpaca Direct -Hayden Idaho, and it's beautiful 3 ply worsted weight, 200 yards. Using size 5 needles I did a little cowl pattern out of it: Origami Falls Cowl. My first try I thought I would run out of yarn so did it as above, however it was too narrrow, so I redid it to make it wider and hopefully will get enough pattern repeats out of it to make it nice!

The little scalloped edging is nicely designed using a series of yarnovers in a row, and then by folding a hem over at the YO row. This yarn is soft to work with! And the cowl kept me (almost) warm in the 37 degrees walking around the Bellevue Botanical Garden d'Lights this eve!

Monday, November 7, 2011

Back For More Coffee

 
Ta Da! My Coffee Bean is finished and fits me! Amazingly enough. Considering all I put it through. It's a very lovely sweater indeed. This yarn is a dream to knit with. (Elsebeth Lavold,Silky Wool)
Better pics to follow, I hope!


 My Coffee Bean Vitamin D shown here blocking on a beach towel. Blocking does wonders, let me just say. 
Fall is here, the sunny days are waning, but the leaves are beautiful. A few days left for walking outside...Time for the cozy days of knitting and for coffee bean Vitamin D sweater progress. Shown here, the front side with all stitches on the needle and done with the short rows and wraps.Wraps, wraps, wraps and more wraps, short rows and wraps....this sweater has more short rows and wraps than any on the planet. Well I'm sure I am only exaggerating. It is a lovely pattern of course. One must be careful when doing this sweater of keeping good track of your increases and then making sure to pick up wraps when you pass them as well as counting when to make the wraps carefully. I sure hope I picked up neatly all the short row wraps on the reverse side. I have a bit of trouble with the purly ones. Well it is coming along and actually seems to fit, which is great seeing as how I changed yarns and needle sizes from the original pattern and guessed on the size, M1. I was able to try it on briefly and it is coming along. Made it through the second set of short rows and wraps, with only one slight detour and me having to fudge a few rows. Next are the last sets of the front radials and then it's off to the "finishing" stage, then blocking. I love, love this yarn. I hope I love, love this sweater! I do love the feel of the yarn, the color, and the radials in the back. My mom is making progress on hers also and I hope to be able to show them both when we are finished.

I have now finished, and realized I used size 4 needles for the entire lower portion, by accident, as they were the needles that I used as "holders" at one point...and this sweater is so very forgiving. It might just still look dandy even with my dandy errors worked lovingly right into it. As a matter of fact, I think that it might be a blessing in disguise that I used smaller needles due to the overall room I have in the sweater. I may have been ok to do the size small even, given the amount this yarn "gives", however overall I am very pleased with the outcome of it. And have worn it out and about already. My daughter is making me just the necklace that will go perfectly with the browns and coppery tones in it.
And below....my mother and I in our matching sweaters! Hers is not blocked yet, but it came out more beautifully knit than my own!

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Third Time, Definitely Charming

 What a group of Seattle knitters! I'm in that top picture about so many rows towards the back and I can see me, but you can't see me! But I'm there!

Hearing Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka, the Yarn Harlot speak for the third time, was a thrill again. As always it brought many laughs and is such a fun event to be shared with a roomful of knitting ladies and gents. I managed to bring along my neighbor, who loved it. And this is the best picture we could get with my new phone battery dying. So the picture taken after this, if had turned out, that is,.... was more happy :) I let a cute baby cut in line ahead of me, ...oh and a lady with a cute sock monkey too. Of course I am wearing my Freeport Shawl Collar vest proudly. The Yarn Harlot sounded like she was on the end of a long tour and had a coffee bag explosion in her suitcase, so that is probably why she doesn't have on a sweater!

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Need Some Vitamin D? Settle for Coffee Beans

Ta Da! Mom and I in our finished matching sweaters! Doesn't hers look so great on her? I love that we did this project together!



 The back:
 The front:


Well in Seattle, you can't wait around for the sun to come out,...you have to just take your Vitamin D where you can get it. In the coffee beans!  This lovely little Vitamin D sweater is coming along well in the coffee bean shade of Elsebeth Lavold silky wool. The original version is a lovely golden color, however I fell in love with another Ravelry member, TwoKnitWit's version using the silky wool. If you go to her link, you can see why. I love brown, and cinnamon brown and just couldn't stop thinking of her sweater. I love knitting with this silky wool yarn, and had a great experience using it on another project prior to this one. The radial increases are interesting to work along the fronts and back. The sleeves are worked next and then the body will be knit downward, with more radial increases along the drapey front. I am making the M1, using size 6 needles on the sweater, with size 5 for the sleeve cuffs. I have tried it on and it fits over my shoulders and hopefully my guess on the sizing is correct. My Mom is also making this same sweater as a mother/daughter project. Hers is a beautiful blue, in the same yarn as I chose.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Penguin PJ's

Penguin PJ’s -animaltracks.today.msnbc.msn.com is the story link that I saw on Facebook. It captured my attention!

 I guess it already went viral and they have had a great response...and sadly for me, enough Penguin PJ's are already knit up. I just loved the story though:

As you may be aware the oil spill & potential disastrous effects to wildlife & environment off the coast of Tauranga is frightening. A small number of little blue penguins have already been caught in the oil spilled to date with growing fears that more will be effected. Skeinz has been asked to help with the penguin relief by knitting small Penguin PJ’s to help protect the birds & prevent them from preening their feather & ingesting the toxic oil. If you can help out by knitting a penguin jumper – send them to Skeinz at the address below.
Then they gave an address in New Zealand, however as I mentioned in  a recent update they indicated they had overwhelming response and had enough "jumpers" to suit the poor penguins up. Aw, I wanted this to be my next project...They said any other sweaters they receive will be put in storage in the event of another need for them.
                Here's the pattern:   
Penguin Jumper in 8ply - Must be 100% Wool Yarn
1 pair 3.25mm , 1 pair of 3.75mm needles , 1 set of 3.25mm dpn’s or circular
Cast on 36 stitches using 3.25 needles.K1, P1 to end of row. Repeat this row 7 times. Change to 3.75mm needles and K2, P2 rib. Work 4 rows increasing at each end of every row. (44 sts)
Continue until work measures 15 cms.
Decrease 1 st at each end of every row until 28 sts remain.
Decrease 1 st. in middle of next row (27 sts.)
Leave on needle.
Make second side the same.
Transfer the 54 sts from both pieces to 3 of the set of 4 3.25mm needles.(18 sts on each.) and work a round neck in K1 P1 rib for 10 rows.
Cast off.
Stitch up sides to decreasing to 27sts (opening for flipper). Add elastic to the top and bottom to prevent the penguins getting out of them. Top: 15cm of elastic; bottom 17 cm (knots allowed). Flat elastic OK.


How about you? Have any penguins to knit for?

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Fall Is Sprouting With Blankets, Gadgets and Coffee Beans

Here is my second "Sprout" Blanket completed, but not blocked yet. Taken on my new fancy smart phone. I am getting alot of practice using it and learning how to focus and such.You can see with the larger needles and different yarn, it came out a bit bigger than the original Green Sprout.               I had my eye on a lovely pattern, Vitamin D. I saw another Ravelry user who did the pattern with Elsebeth Lavold silky wool and I fell in love with hers: TwoKnitWit's turned out so spectacular in the Coffee Bean shade, 54, I just had to get some of my own and try my hand at it. Since we live in Seattle, it is appropriate that the Vitamin D sweater be knit with a yarn named "Coffee Bean" I think, since coffee is our Vitamin D almost year round here. This meant a trip to Weaving Works with my mom. I convinced her that it was a great pattern, and that she must also do it along with me. This is called "enabling." We took several hours to wind our skeins of yarn, and had an enjoyable afternoon doing so. This shade of brown has a lovely tinge of cinnamon in it. I adore it.


And of course, I got a chance to try my picture-taking skills out once again while there. Today I tried my skills out again before eating this lovely chocolate truffle cake at The Oyster Bar on Chuckanut Drive.

Even the butter was pretty.... I think those flowers were edible.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Counting My Cards and Blessings

Our anniversary and my daughter's and my Birthday stack up right next to each other in September. Here was today's Birthday blessings at my office by my wonderful co-worker and friend, Carol. She knows my weakness: PUMPKIN SCONES...

and she knows about the OTHER weakness,... well, that is obviously YARN. She found me some fantastic alpaca in Boise, Idaho. Squishy! And a cute handknit card that reads:   
And on the inside it reads:"Me neither." Perfect.

Also, another friend Sue knows one of  my OTHER weaknesses (gee, I have alot of weaknesses...) and that is Fainting Goat GELATO. YUM. Oh, and JEWELRY. Another weakness. How many does that make?

 When I look at the array of cards jamming up my kitchen window for our anniversary and my Birthday, I think to myself, each one represents someone special in my life, in our lives. How very blessed are we to have all these people in our lives.

Friday, September 16, 2011

George, the Sock Monkey Coffee Cozy

With a little bit of Fisherman's Wool and some Paton's Classic Wool, George, the Sock Monkey Coffee Cozy has come to life tonight. After all, every coffee cup needs its own little sweater. Especially if it lives in Seattle where the weather is fickle.


This was the first version, but I added more red to the mouth and spaced the eyes farther apart.
 The little cozy warmer is nice just on its own actually, before adding accessories such as ears and face:
This was a free pattern on Ravelry and it was finished in a matter of hours. Size 5 dpns were used. Fall is in the air and that means more lattes!