I Won A Contest!

Remember when I went on the Greater Boston Yarn Crawl and I received a pack of mini-skeins from Island Yarn Company?  This pack:

Led to these ornaments:

Which led me to winning this skein of Pagoda Yarn in the Twilight colorway from Island Yarn Company!

550 yards of super wash merino/bamboo blend - oh, the possibilities.  If you haven't checked out the Island Yarn Company, do so - they have lovely fibers in amazing colorways.

I've Been Busy

A few weeks ago I saw a piece in the local paper about The Wayland Depot.  It's an old train station depot which sells local handcrafts.  They accept items for commission.  So I looked through my collection of handknits which had no home/recipient and went on Monday to see if they would accept my hand knits.

When I got there I only had 4-5 items including my Vardon Vest, a few shawlettes and one mini Christmas ornament.  When I wished aloud for a computer, one of the staff pulled out her husband's iPad and I taught them the glories of Ravelry.  When I showed them my Christmas Wreath, they fell in love with all my ornaments and asked for more.

So, I have been knitting up these mini-sweaters.  Next some stockings and more of the snowmen.  I don't expect to make lots of money doing this but it is fun to have a place for these to go.

Today's Housekeeping/Cleaning Tip

Pick your knitting up off the floor before you start vacuuming!

One Week Wonder

When my godsister asked for a sweater for her daughter, she also asked for one for her son.  This pattern is a free one called Mystery Sweater and I had a bit of adapting to do to get it to his size (around an 8).  I used Knit Picks Brava Bulky which was surprisingly soft for an acrylic yarn.   The second photo is truer to the color.

I call this a One Week Wonder as I started it on October 1st and finished it on October 7th.  This speed was helped not only by the bulky wool but also by a lot of car time this weekend...we went to NJ and back which gave me 10 hours of knitting time.  I'm off to the post office tomorrow!

More Mini Ornaments

When I received my package of mini skeins from Island Yarn Company, there was a contest for those who wanted to knit up their mini skeins and post them in their Ravelry group.  So mini skein to me meant mini-ornament...a sweater using their wild Combo Fibers and a mini hat.  I had some fun and maybe just maybe I'll win a prize??

WIP Wednesday

I've got a lot on the needles right now - at least it's a lot for me.

A while back I started the Cotton Reel Mittens which I'm making with Aslan Trends Santa Fe.  I'm almost done with the first mitten and have seemed to stall as I'm afraid I'll get second mitten syndrome.  I like how these are looking and am thinking of gifting them to my cousin who has been so helpful in our move here.

I'm also inventing some legwarmers for the same child who requested a sweater.  You can see she's in 1st grade with the pink and purple theme working.  Simple cast on of 52 stitches, 2x2 ribbing for an inch, increase 2 stitches every 2 inches, then I'll end with 2x2 ribbing.  One almost done and one to go.

I also cast on a blanket for some of the Ecological Wool I received for my birthday.  This is monotonous but easy to put down and pick up later...in between knitting.  It is a free Cascade pattern.

And now I've cast on another sweater for my godsister's son.  It's called Mystery Sweater and we're using Knit Picks Brava Bulky in a lovely heathered gray.  No photos yet but soon enough.

Now you're caught up on my WIPs.

A Sweater and A Half

My godsister has requested some handknits for her kids which I am always willing to do as she pays for the yarn and I get to knit.  We chose the Libby sweater for her daughter.  She ordered Knit Picks Wool of the Andes as they have the best heathered colorways and she doesn't mind handwashing.  We chose Haze Heather as the main color and Icicle and Amethyst Heathers for the contrast color.

The pattern is written in a size 10 and her daughter is not a size 10.  She gave me measurements from one of her favorite sweaters and I got halfway up the front and realized it was too big. So, I ripped it out, adjusted my numbers and started again.  So for one sweater I've knit a sweater and a half.

Hopefully the next photo of this will be with her daughter's smiling face.

Mini Yarn Crawl

This weekend was the Greater Boston Yarn Crawl - it started on Friday and continues through today.  So in the pouring rain on Friday I made a mini yarn crawl and explored 2 yarn stores close by.

First I went to the Island Yarn Company in Waltham.  It's a small storefront in a strip mall and they dye their own yarns (in addition to carrying a lot of commercial yarns).  I fell in love with their colorways and found myself walking around holding skeins of yarn.  All of their yarns were 20% off - so don't look at anything else just their lovely dyed yarns.  I ended up with a skein of fingering single ply merino - I don't know the colorway name but that's okay it's lovely.

Then I received a free pattern and a bag of mini-skeins.  They have a contest where you can post things you knit with the mini-skeins...I see some fun mini-sweaters being made soon.

Then I found another store in Natick called the Iron Horse.  I was wary heading to Natick as it mostly is a mall/box store town.  But as I drove I found Natick Center which was lovely and this store was right off the town center.  It was a wonderful, welcoming store with an excellent variety of yarn brands.  They too were having a sale of 15% off yarns and 10% off books.

I picked up some Berroco Remix to make a baby sweater pattern I've had floating in my head.

And then I found a 50% off bin and couldn't resist this Fibre-Isle Pearl Bison in a lovely Cranberry Pearl colorway.  Each skein has 218 yards so I can get something lovely out of this...they were originally $25 each.  Got to love 2 skeins for the price of 1!

I'm tempted to go back out today and find some more bargains but I'm being prudent and staying home.  I love what I got and enjoyed finding two new stores to add to my repertoire.

Now I get to think about what to knit - unfortunately, I have so many things I'm working on right now that I can't start anything for a while.  I'll do a WIP Wednesday this week so you can see what I've been up to.

Fenway Firsts

My lovely cousin had tickets to go to a Red Sox game...she couldn't use them so she gave them to my family.  None of us had ever been to Fenway - a first for everyone.  Camera was packed, knitting was packed, layers were donned and we head out.

It was a lovely fall night last night and the house was packed as the Red Sox went up against the Rays. I have to share the knitting part of this though...

While discussing with my husband our plans to go to Fenway for a game, I told him what knitting I had ready - the conversation was as follows:
DH: Are you sure you can bring needles into the park?
Me: Yes, in fact some parks have special knitting nights called "stich n pitch".
DH: Really?
Me: Yes, Bridgeport Bluefish has an event every year. Also, Major Knitter always brings her knitting to Mets games.
DH: You know they should have a league wide annual event where knitters go and are given free yarn at a game...then they get tickets to come back later in the year and show what they made by walking around the bases holding it up....(then more ideas keep coming).
Me (after listening to another minute or 2 of ideas): My love, you'll always be a marketing guy and you've been married to a knitter for a very long time.

Self Timer Spot

Most of you know I had my classic spot for my self-timed photos of my hand knits.  It was taken leaning against a door while the camera was on a desk.  Here's a classic one:

Well, we moved and I haven't found my new spot - the key is getting the right height for the camera.  I used a different desk which is in our living/dining room and here's the shot.

Not my new favorite spot - I need the lean for the look and you can't lean here.  I'm working on it.  The usual desk is in the basement which looks like a disaster area.  I'll keep at the location.  Anyway, this is my Perry sweater by Michele Wang.  I used Cascade 220 and I love it.  I also used the great button band technique.

Almost 100 - A Contest!

When you design patterns and put them on Ravelry there are some cool tools that help you keep an eye on how your patterns are doing.  While my for sale ones aren't doing gangbusters, I have 2 free ones that have lots of "hearts" (favorites).  My Farfalle Cardigan has 91 favorites!  It's almost to a hundred!

Now, the advertising person in me gets thinking.  It is to 91 (with only 5 projects)...how do I improve these numbers.  A contest!

Whoever makes the Farfalle Cardigan hit 100 favorites will be gifted one of my for sale patterns...I hope to have more soon.

Wait - I'm not done yet!  Whoever knits any of my patterns by end of year (should be easy as they are small) will be entered in a drawing.  What's the prize?  Let me work on that one...I'll get back to you.

So go to my designer page, check out my patterns and get knitting (shameless plug, huh?).

Little Knits

This past Saturday we were supposed to attend the ordination of our youth minister.  Josh is a special person in our lives and his wife, Hannah, and his daughter are special to us as well.  Hannah and Josh just moved around the same time we did which made parting a little easier for all of us.  Hannah was due with baby girl #2 in October.

We got a call 2 nights before the ordination that Hannah was in the hospital - her placenta was failing.  So the eve of Josh's planned ordination, they became parents for the second time - baby and mom are fine.  She's 6 weeks premature so I figured they needed something for her to wear.

I dove in my stash, found some Sirdar Baby Bamboo and found the Paxton pattern for preemies on Ravelry.  I wanted the blue sweater to be girly so I added an eyelet bit at the edge and got some lovely buttons with flowers.

A little knit for a little angel.

Found Among the Unpacked Boxes

This little guy was half done - he had his body but no head as I ran out of fiberfill as I was making him. I never got to the store last winter to finish him off and he got stuck in a bag which I found while rummaging among the boxes in our basement.

So in my errands yesterday I found an AC Moore, got some fiberfill and finished him off.  Now I want to make more.  Last year Jennifer made a whole slew - they really are fun to knit.  The pattern is called Let it Snowman and it is free!

Time to get some more white yarn - I used a soft white not pure white - kind of prefer that.  Then for the hat and scarf I grab any old leftover little bit of yarn.

There's time for everyone you to make one for everyone on your Christmas list - better yet, you can put them on wrapped presents as a decoration that later goes on the tree.

Between Project Knitting

After finishing my daughter's sweater, I felt a lull and lack of inspiration to start a big new project.  I have lots of ideas but I needed some "go to" knitting.  So I cast on a few Christmas ornaments.  These are earmarked for a silent auction for the kids' youth group back in CT.  They will decorate a wreath which I hope will do well in bidding.  I need to whip up a few more but I had fun making them.  I'm including a close up of the 2 sweaters - I used to follow mini-sweater patterns but now I make up my own.  Good way for thinking of future sweater inspiration.

Finally an FO to Show!

I just finished this for my daughter - it is in Nashua Creative Focus and it is Peabody which is part of the Brooklyn Tweed Fall 11 collection.  She asked for longer sleeves and it fits her like a dream!