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!

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.

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?

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.