First Sweater Ever!!!

Oh boy, I am SO excited. I've finished my first ever sweater! Woo hoo!! Does this make me an 'official' knitter now?? I'm so glad to move past the scarf and hat stage onto more challenging projects. The details....the pattern you can find here: http://www.interweave.com/knit/interweave_knits/Galleries/bonus/fall_2006/sienna1.asp the yarn you can find here: http://yarn.com/webs/0/0/0/0-1001-1294-1323/0/1075/3279/. The pattern is from IK Fall 2006, the Sienna cardigan, I knitted it wiih Lana Grossa Soffice yarn. This yarn was really dreamy to knit with, I have no compliants and enjoyed watching the subtle colors changes. It is actually machine washable yarn, though of course I will wash it by hand.

I am so amazed by this sweater and it's completion, I feel like I should put it in a frame and never touch it again. Too funny. Of course I had to wear it today to the movies, it kept me nice and toasty. Hooray for me!! I would recommend this pattern to anyone wanting a little more than basic cardigan for work/play. The pottery buttons came from here: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=81891 - 6 pottery buttons for only $6!! Really nice too, I highly recommend her. Have a nice night.

Monkeys on the Bed

My little munchkin is almost 3, it's so hard to believe! Here she is.....some life, huh? Must be rough. I whipped her up some of Aunt Maggie's slippers last weekend: http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/maggieslippers.html - aren't they cute? I embroidered a moon and a star on them. These went so fast, I'd love to make some for myself sometime.

Made some progress on "Wicked", here's a shot as well. I hope I like this colorway in a whole sweater! Hope I can get motivated to finish my Sienna cardigan before the winter is over. Well, have a great day!

A Scarf Grows in Asheville....

For my brother. His birthday was *only* a week ago, and there is enough snow up there in PA now that he could use this. I got my hubby to model it for me....well O.K., so I just draped it over him while he was surfing. The pattern is from the beloved Vogue Stitchionary, it is such a cool pattern, you can't really make it out but it is a series of squares. Each square actually consists of two triangles. Very geometrical, and almost identical from the back side. Knitted with Rowan Tweed yarn. Hope he likes it!!

First Knitting Bag

Oh, I almost forgot......looky what I got today! My very first "knitting" bag! This bag was recommended by someone in the Knitter's Review forum, and I thought, "this is the one!" It really seems perfect for my needs. I wanted a bag that I could use as a knitting bag AND a purse, so I don't have to lug two bags around, which I often do. So I got my Haiku bag today (http://www.haikubags.com) and I have to say I'm really impressed with the construction.

Oh course I could make myself a bag, but I don't know how to sew with leather/suede and I wanted something that would really 'take a beating'! This is the "To-Go" bag, it has two nice zippered compartments, so I can keep my makeup and whatnot in them, and lots of pockets for tools and anything else I can think of. The pockets on the side can even hold a bottle of water! Yeah, I'm excited to give this baby some use. Another cool thing is that the whole thing wipes clean, a great feature when you have kids.

I'll update when I actually start using it. I think I could carry just about any project in here, except for an afghan.

Baby Goodness

Well now. Let's just start off by saying that I will NOT be making any more baby blankets, EXCEPT if one of my two best friends decides to get knocked up. Maybe they don't all take this long. In fact, I'm SURE they don't. I can safely say it will be a long, long time, if ever, that I use boucle yarn again. Ugh. Sewing this blanket together was a huge pain in the kisser. If I hasn't already spent so much time knitting up the squares (which was the easy part!), I'm sure I would have tossed the whole thing. But I preservered, and this is what the final result was. Oh, the pattern was the mitered squares run from the book, I think it was just called "Knitted Rugs". I would recommend if you make this to sew the squares as you go along so it doesn't seem so long and tedious at the end.

This is for my co-worker's new baby, sweet little "Ella Sandra", too cute for words already from the picture he showed me. I really wanted it to have a fabric backing, but the blanket was so stretchy and I was concerned about the shrinkage factor, even if I backed it with pre-shrunk cotton. You just don't know how it's going to hold up to multiple washings. So I went with no backing. Which means there is definitely a 'right' and 'wrong' side. But I really hope they like it and little Ella gets to play on it too!

The little hat was a 'last minute' addition, I just love making hats and who better than a newborn?? The pattern was actually my own, I just used a twisted ribbing for 1", then made a little lace heart panel all the way around (stitch pattern from my beloved "Stitchionary"), then simple decreases to the end. The yarn is a handspun, possibly the softest merino I've ever felt.