Spring Shoots Cowl

Okay, I've had enough of winter already - time for spring please!  Yes, the snow is lovely and yes, it's cozy inside by the fire, but it's coooold!

So cold that I actually made the cat a sweater:

You know you're a crazy cat lady when...

Really, though, our poor baby had mats and we had to get him shaved.  I felt like the worst kind of cat mommy (what is wrong with me - cat mommy?), leaving my precious charge in an unfamiliar place so they could knock him out and cut off all his hair???  Someone call PETA on me.

But then he was just so sad and shivery and I couldn't let the poor, little thing catch kitty pneumonia, right?   So I did what any crazy knitting cat lady would do and I made him a sweater!!  Adorable, right?

ANYWAY, what I was trying to say is that all this cold has me dreaming of those little green shoots that mean rebirth and renewal and the return of warmer weather.  Hence the name of my newest original creation, the Spring Shoots Cowl:

It's a simple cowl in Shibui Knits Baby Alpaca that's knit flat to the desired length and finally grafted together to make one continuous piece.  This would be an excellent piece for a first stab at lace!

I know chevrons are (or were) everywhere right now, but I was playing around with lace patterns and this one just screamed "spring!" to me.  The lines are simple and clean, and inexorably shoot upwards with spring's eternal optimism.  Plus, the yarn is SO soft.  You will absolutely want to squish it against your face all year.  I think I might even wear it tonight!

I'm really in love with these photos, too!  Bristol Ivy and I went out to Mackworth Island for a little photo shoot and she did such a marvelous job.  Just beautiful and so flattering!  I'm sure you guys know what a genius she is at knitting design, but she has such a wonderful talent for photography.

Give it a try!  Let me know what you think!  I'm anxious to see how you guys like the pattern!

That's all for now - be well and stay warm.

-Allie

Leftovers Blanket

The day is finally here!  After 14 months of work and leftover bits from 34 different balls of yarn, mostly Palette, the Leftovers Blanket is complete!

That's 13 squares by 16 squares or 208 individually knit squares of sock weight  yarn.  You can see bits in there from just about all the fingering weight projects I've knit since around April 2010, including Autumn Rose, Venezia, Arisaig, Christmas Stockings, Ivy League Vest, and a number of others. 

I knit those balls of yarn down to their very last yards and sewed them all together into this blanket.  I didn't even have any extra squares--I had 208 on the nose! 

Now all that remains of my Palette stash is one half of the Asphalt Heather that I used for the icord border.  I had hoped it would finish that off, but I suppose kitties will be getting some updated cat toys instead.  Oh well!

I used a tutorial by Shelly Kang found here.  Her version called for knitting each new piece by picking up stitches from already existing pieces, but I preferred to knit each individually.  My way was more portable, but made for a lot more finishing at the end of the process--about a week's worth of sewing.  But now it's done, yay!  Here's a close up of the little mitred squares:

 My way also meant that my little diamonds don't all point in the same direction.  There really isn't a reason for this except that I was lazy and didn't think Branwen would care.  Should you decide to dive into this project and wanted to sew everything together at the end (not recommended on either count), there's no reason why you couldn't sew them all in the same direction. 

 In all it was a very easy project, but it was also majorly time consuming.  If you don't have an extensive collection of sock yarn bits, you should probably stay away.  However, it was great for using up some useless stash of mine and as a long-term project with no real deadline. 

My other big reason for knitting this blanket was as a distraction for Little Kitty.  For some reason I'll never understand, she loooves to knead handknit fabric.  This is a major problem for anything I might want to give away or wear later--no snags kthxbai. 

But now she has her own designated kneading blanket that she can enjoy without destroying more projects.  I've already found her kneading it a couple of times and she sure likes to lie on it.

She looks happy, right?  Enjoy it, Little Kitty!

Now that that crazy project is done, I can focus on my other WIPs, like Mel's shawl, a cowl for me, and more in my dishcloth series.  Next time, if I finally manage to give them away, I might have my crazy pay it forwards to share!

Car news: I have a new car!!  I decided to go with the Mazda3 and I'm already in love!  It's red and shiny and has all the new toys my Protege lacked (I mean, that thing didn't even have power windows!).  Very happy, yay!

Cheers,

-Allie

When Bad Cats Happen to Good Knits

Up 'til now, our cats have been pretty good about my knitting.  They generally don't harass me while I knit, they don't attack the yarn balls, and Branwen has had only one needle chewing incident.  Sure, Jericho used to dive into my knitting basket as soon as I walked away from it, but since he passed, we've been pretty incident free.  Until this weekend...

It all started with a string toy.

You know, those long strings of felt attached to plastic rods for teasing cats.  After his catnip mouse, this is Arty's favorite toy.  Unfortunately, he also has a tendency to inhale string like spaghetti, so we had to put it up, out of his sight and out of his reach.

I don't have a picture of Arty's string swallowing--safety being the more important issue, but this is kind of what is looks like (except Arty is black).  Yes, the facial expression is accurate:

I order to prevent such scenes as this, we wound the string toy tightly and put it on top of a high book case in the living room, hoping that we would be able to reach it, but Goofy Kitty would not.  About a week ago Little Arty decided that he could and would not wait until regularly scheduled play time for access to this string toy.  He climbed up onto the arm chair and made a tremendous leap onto the top of the book case.  I think it must have looked something like this:


We found him the next morning, completely wrapped up in the string with a guilty look on his little face like "what?  I was being helpful and entertaining myself."  We immediately put the toy in the coat closet, where there is no chance he can get it.

I don't think Arty really understood what happened to his string toy because he suddenly became a lot more interested in jumping onto this bookcase.  There wasn't anything up there that he needed or wanted, but he continued to search for his lost toy...in the same place over and over.

Unfortunately for us, this is also where we (used to) keep our winter accessories--scarves, hats, mittens, etc.  We put them all in a big basket on top of this bookcase, so they would be out of sight of the cats, but not out of our reach.  I did not have enough foresight to realize that Arty was not going to stop jumping onto that bookcase and eventually something bad was going to happen.

It did.

I mean, just look at the mischief in his eyes:

One day, Arty gave up his quest for the string toy and opted instead to explore the contents of this basket.  He then found himself the finest, most complicated, most labor intensive project in there. And ATE it.

Can you guess what it was?

This one:

You remember my post about how difficult and complicated Estonian lace is and how important lifelines are? If I didn't know better, I would guess that Arty must have read it because my beautiful Laminaria now looks like this:

That stupid cat ate ALL three corners at least 12 rows in.  I looked and I really don't think there is any way to fix it--if I pull back that far, there is a very good chance that the whole thing will unravel.  I almost wish he had done this when it was still a WIP, when I still had lifelines in.  Now, the lace makes it next to impossible to throw a lifeline in.  Completely ruined.  Sigh. 

Moral of the story: no matter how well behaved your cats are, your knits are still in danger.  Lock them up!

Happy(er) ending: Feeling a little down on Monday (Valentine's Day is not my favorite), I went to my LYS on my lunch break and bought myself a replacement skein of malabrigo lace "from Arty."  He owed me another one, right?  I will still have to put the effort into another shawlette, but that's half the fun anyway.  It probably won't be another Laminaria, but hopefully it will come out just as beautiful.

Next time: Sneak preview of my blankie-in-progress for Vicki's little girl-in-progress

Cheers,

-Allie

Ivy Cardigan

It was a lot of work, but Ivy is finally finished.  Unfortunately, I am not altogether pleased with the result

It just doesn't fit me right.  After Goddess, I think I erred on the side of "too big" when picking a size and now you see the result is a bunchy, baggy cardigan.  I'm hoping that raising the height of the ties will help with the bagginess in the waist, moving some of the extra fabric to the hip/skirt section--something you can really see in this back picture:


But I have no hope for the sleeves.  I even followed the "slimmer sleeve" instructions, but there is still way too much space, even for my guns.  That's the downside (or one of) to knitting sweaters in pieces like this.  You don't know how it fits until the thing is finished.

I might have been able to get over the extra space in this sweater if the yarn was soft, but unfortunately, that is not the case.  Elann Quechua is itchy, splitty, and very unforgiving when I made a mistake.  The stockinette in the back looks very wonky and sloppy.  I am definitely never ordering this yarn again, and I will consider carefully before ordering from Elann again. I think the only thing I like about this cardigan is the color.  Blerg.

I am also considering giving this away to someone who wears a size or two larger than I do and doesn't mind itchy yarn or wonky stitching on the back.  So if you wear M-L and really want a cardigan/jacket, let me know.  A Finer Peace Socks are also up for grabs. 

In other (better) knitting news, I finished the Que Sera cardigan and totally regained my faith in knitting.  It fits well and the yarn is so so soft.  Knit Picks saves the day again.  I also received my shipment of yarn for a few fall products in the Etsy shop.  I finished a new baby hat yesterday and have the materials for 3 more cute little sets.  Pictures of Que Sera and a few other goodies are coming soon.

The reason I don't have any pictures of the above is because we found out just this weekend that Walker's grandmother passed away.  We have to make a last-minute trip to GA tonight to be with his family for the funeral tomorrow.  We come back on Wednesday and then the family comes up to visit us for Walker's birthday on Friday.  Since we didn't have a lot of time to prepare, we had to spend much of this weekend cleaning and packing for this long week of togetherness with the in-laws, yay.  I am honestly looking forward to their visit up here, but less so about attending a funeral in South Georgia in August heat...   Arty will be making his first trip to his grandparents' house, which I imagine will be fairly interesting, as he's never really interacted with a dog.  We might have some interesting stories when we get back...

Next time: Que Sera, Mary Jane Slippers.  Also after a lot of deliberating, Walker and I have finally made a decision regarding our move.  Announcement next time.  Stay tuned!

Cheers,


-Allie

A Finer Peace Socks

As you may have imagined, with the addition of birthday yarn and now with more Etsy yarn on the way, my stash has gotten a bit out of control.  So here's yet another (rather meager) edition of my stash-busting efforts:

A Finer Peace Socks:

The pattern is by Wendy Johnson and can be found for free on Ravelry (link above).
Enter at your own peril, however, for these socks are knit on (DUN DUN DUN) size 0/2mm needles.  I've never knit anything with needles so tiny, but I really really love the way these socks came out.  I would say that it took a really long time to finish them, but then if you were to visit my project page and see that it only took 10 days, you would probably roll your eyeballs out of your head.  I put in a lot of hours, okay...

Now how did I finish a whole pair of socks on teeny tiny needles without completely losing my mind, you might ask.  Well, the secret to that is frequent breaks (so your hands don't cramp up) and a very light touch with the needles.  That, and modifying the pattern so that k3tbl (scary on larger needles!) became S1, K2tog, PSSO instead.   I did break one early on the first sock, but I maintain that particular needle was faulty.  Knit Picks came to the rescue and sent me a new one immediately and without question.  I didn't have any other breakage problems...

The detailing is absolutely gorgeous:

I'm sorry it's so hard to see in that photo--both the yarn and our apartment are really dark. 

You might recognize the yarn from my Myrtle Cardigan earlier this year.  I had ~300 yards leftover and it was just the perfect amount to finish these little socklets.  In action they come up to about the top of the ankle on size 8-9 women's feet. 

I'm not sure if I'll be keeping them or not.  They are up for grabs if anyone would like to claim them as a "Christmas gift" (or "miscellaneous" if your name is Jodi).  They are very warm, the lace inserts are quite lovely, and they would be perfect in a pair of short boots/other fall/winter footwear.  Let me know!

In other knitting news, Ivy is now finished.  I'm not entirely in love with it, though.  I'll give you a full assessment in next week's post.   I am also trucking along with my Que Sera--almost done with the torso section and right on schedule to complete it when the in-laws come to visit next week for Walker's birthday.  And then after that, I actually plan to give Venezia another try.  Wish me luck that this second attempt proves better than the first!

And now a cute kitty picture to close out this post:

I just love him, don't you?

Cheers,

-Allie

Knotty but Nice

So sorry for the late post this week.  I actually went through with dying my hair red.  We did a foil, rather than dying the whole head, so it's subtle, but a lovely dark red/brown color.  I'm not sure that I love it yet (one reason why there are no pictures--the other is that the lighting in our apartment is terrible and my face ends up looking redder than my hair), but I'm sure it'll grow on me.

And to distract you from the lack of hair photo, here's a cute kitty picture!!

Awwwwwwww!
Kitty update: Arty is getting so big!  He's about 5lbs now (was 2 when we brought him home) and he can now jump and reach things he couldn't when he was tiny--uh oh.  We think the ringworm has largely been eradicated from our house.  Arty still has a little bit on his back, but it's almost all gone, hurray!

And now Knitting:

Welcome to yet another edition of stash-busting.  I almost never use all of the recommended yardage for my big projects and here are a couple of results of the leftovers:

Even after the Gretel Beret, I still had a fair amount of the Elann pink alpaca and after scouring Knitty for a while, I found this little number.  The pattern is Knotty but Nice and was written by Natalie Larson.  It was originally written for a man, but what self-respecting man wants to wear a hat made of pink alpaca?  None that I know.  So I sized it down by using smaller needles.  It fits my medium-ish sized head.

The pattern itself was very straightforward.  The cabling looks like it was hard, but so long as you're paying attention, it looks a lot more demanding than it really was.  An excellent choice for a quick Christmas gift.

For some reason 2010 has been a year of pink for me.  Lots of pink sweaters and therefore lots of leftover pink yarn. This is the very last of the angora from the Arisaig sweater.  It was sooo soft, it really had to be used to comfort someone's hands and so I chose Knotty by Julia Mueller.  Funny that both designers came to the same name and same design independently--I wonder if one was inspired by the other.  In any event, the two projects (even if they're not EXACTLY the same pink) will make a nice set for someone for Christmas--I can think of a lovely budding photographer would might appreciate some fingerless gloves...

As you can obviously tell, I didn't have quite enough yarn to make these full gloves, much to my chagrin.  I don't usually like fingerless gloves/mitts, but I didn't have the heart to tear out such a pretty cabled pattern.  Plus they'll be great for photography practice!
I will definitely make these again--and finish the pattern next time!!

Next week I'll have to post twice to make up for lateness this week.
Next time: Finished Goddess Top

Cheers,

-Allie

Meet Myrtle

At last, Myrtle is complete and she is just as pretty as I  hoped she would be!

Unfortunately, the weather's been much too hot to wear it out in public yet, but soon enough it'll be fall and I can start parading my creations again!

This particular pattern was written by Snowden Becker.  It's written more like a recipe than a pattern, though.  She charts out the "building blocks" you need for the sweater and outlines the basic structure, but the exact construction (and shoulder shaping) are up to you to execute.  The shoulder decreases were especially difficult working with such a complicated lace pattern.  This sweater is certainly not for the faint-hearted or the perfectionists out there.  I had to do a considerable amount of "fudging" to get the stitch counts right in the shoulders.

The only modifications I made were to add one pattern repeat to the waist section to make it longer and my gauge was MUCH too loose for the recommended needle size.  I had to go down two needle sizes.  If you do try this sweater, check your gauge first!!

I'm really glad I stuck with it, though--the results are excellent:

I like the back a lot better than I like the front.  Maybe this sweater would have been better as a pullover?  I still love it!

The yarn I used was Berroco Ultra alpaca fine.  You might recognize it from the Blue Mirasol Sweater (beware, Jericho pictures in that post).  I decided that since I really love this yarn--so airy and warm--and don't wear Blue Mirasol, since I made it much too short, that I would frog it and start over with that yarn.  I'm so glad I did.  Myrtle is definitely an improvement.

Here is a picture of the lace detail:

Pretty, no?

Next time: a pink edition of my stash-busting efforts--I'm down to 5.75 miles now!

Kitty update: everyone (except Walker and I) still has a fungus.  We think Arty's is starting to go away now, though and it's only a matter of time before Branwen's does, too.  We've started treating them with a lime sulfur solution that smells horribly like eggs.  I'll be really glad when everyone is fungus-free.  We think Arty feels bad about infecting Branwen, though.  We caught him trying to bathe her head last night, as if he were going to clean all the ringworm off it--too cute.  Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of that, but I do have some other photos just waiting to be uploaded that I'll have to share with you next time :)

Other than that, our little family is doing just fine.  Walker is plugging away at his accounting classes (just 2 more weeks!) and after that we'll start discussing what our next step is going to be--exciting and scary at the same time!

Cheers,

-Allie

More Stash Busting

Remember that adorable Cable and Cowl Neck Sweater I made a couple months ago?  Turns out the pattern called for way more yarn than I actually needed, especially since I decided at the last minute to leave it at short sleeves.  So what do you do with 400 yards of bulky yarn?  Turn it into accessories you'll probably never ever wear, especially not in the middle of June.

And that's how this little beret was born:

Nothing extraordinary, just a simple moss stitch with a sort-of cross decrease detail, but it's rather understated in its elegance.  Here's a close-up of the moss stitch:

Very easy--excellent mindless tv knitting.  Unfortunately, I didn't take any notes on the construction of this beret, so if anyone wants to duplicate it, you are SOL.

But the beret, of course, did not eat enough of the ~400 yards I had left, so I dug into Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting Around and decided to give the moebius scarf a try:

I'm still not entirely sure how to wear it without strangling yourself, but I guess I'll figure out when it gets colder.  I was thinking about listing them and a pair of mitts I finished a little while ago on Etsy, but have been putting it off because 1) it's waaay too hot to want to buy an alpaca shawl thing and 2) I haven't been seeing much action on Etsy since the summer really started.  I'm thinking I'll leave the shop be for now--probably until September--and then start gearing up and marketing it for winter/Christmas.  No sense in wasting my energy while there's no interest in my market, right?

So although I'm not so wild about this stash-busting endeavor, at least I finished that yarn and freed up some space in my stash for something more exciting (down to a modest 6 miles now...)  Next, time: something I'm really, really excited to show you.  I finished the Myrtle Cardigan and it fits!!!  I finished it late last night, so no pictures yet, but soon!

Kitty update:  Arty definitely has ringworm.  We got the lovely lime sulfur treatment this morning, so we'll get the full measure of how awful it is tonight.  We saw a vague sign of it on Branwen, but it hasn't been getting worse, so we're not very concerned.  It looks like Arty's symptoms are already starting to abate, so we're hopeful we won't have to deal with this much longer.  Poor Goofy Kitty :(.

Cheers,

-Allie

Entrelac Socks

I'm back!  So sorry for the long wait.  My motherboard truly was fried due to a faulty video card and I had to completely replace the machine.  My computer guy was telling me about all the recalls HP has been doing lately, so I decided to go in a completely new direction and am now the proud owner of a brand-new Asus!  So far it runs great and I couldn't be happier.  All my data is loaded in and I am back in business.

 In the interim, I got a whole lot of knitting done.  The entrelac socks are finished and blocked, Moebius Cowl and Hat are done (but not yet photographed--too hot!), I finished a quickie lace pullover, the February Fitted Pullover (also waiting for a cooler day for a photo shoot), and made some excellent progress on my Myrtle Cardigan.  I'm really excited about Myrtle.  It's going to be in a lovely dark teal alpaca/merino blend and (hopefully) will be pretty.

I'm also pretty excited about these entrelac socks, too.

The pattern is by Eunny Jang and I used two of the ~2 million balls of Palette I have in my stash, these were Teal and Hyacinth.  The only modification I did was to make them much shorter.  The original pattern resulted in knee-length socks, but I knit these up to mid-calf--because that's how high my snow boots go.  Awesome, yet practical.

The hardest part for me was knitting them from the toe-up.  The Turkish cast-on was really difficult to wrap my head around (har har) and took a great deal of frustration and cursing before I finally got my first toe going.  The second time was much easier.

After that, at least for a while, the entrelac was really fun to knit!  Even though it looks like woven bands of knit fabric, it is nothing of the sort.  You actually knit each square individually in short rows, so a finished tier looks something like this:

And then the inside looks something like this:

See?  No weaving and the only sewing is sewing in a couple of ends.  Waay easier than it looks, but it does get a touch tedious toward the end.

Kitty update:
The Good News: Everyone is getting along great!  They are playing and wrestling and generally having a good time.  I do, however, think Arty feels more comfortable with Branwen than she does with him.  I've seen him try to rub his head against her or snuggle and she shies away, confused and agitated.  I don't think she's quite figured out that she can have kitty friends in addition to her human friends, but Arty remains as cheerful (and purry) as ever.

The Bad News: Poor Arty may have ringworm.  I am supposed to hear back from the vet today, but we're pretty certain our little kitty has a fungus.  It's not life threatening, but he seems itchy and we'll have to give him medicated baths to get rid of it, yay...  I haven't seen any signs of it on Branwen, though--thank goodness.  Giving her a bath would be terrifying.  Here's hoping it doesn't spread and it's easy to eradicate...

And here's hoping it doesn't spread into my stash...


Next time: February Fitted Pullover by Amy Herzog

Cheers,

-Allie

Autumn Rose in Action

Here's another blog post about how blocking works miracles.  Autumn Rose the finished object was a touch too tight for me, an unflattering squeeze in too many places.  But after I soaked it and pinned it out, it is absolutely perfect.  I couldn't be happier with the finished result:

I love the waist-shaping, the sleeve length, and the neckline.  I did have to modify the neckline a little--I used the chart from the size up from mine because it just dipped too low for the 35" size and I want to be able to wear this baby to the office!  Too bad the weather has been too warm to wear it out in public yet.  I am dying to take it for a test drive!  Tuesday's supposed to be a little cooler.  Maybe that will be the day.

What a beautiful sweater and a fantastic pattern.  The whole sweater was charted out, so there was no guessing on where to increase or decrease.  Despite the complicated colorwork, the construction was very straightforward.  Quite the masterpiece from Eunny, I think.

An excellent testament to Jericho's memory: handsome, full of energy, and I absolutely adore it.

Speaking of kitties, I will be making a big announcement later this week, providing everything goes smoothly on Tuesday.  Wish us luck!

-Allie

Goodbye Jericho

I really did mean to post some picture for you last week, but as many of you know already, Walker and I experienced a bit of tragedy this week.  Our beloved bad kitty, Jericho, passed away very suddenly Thursday night.  The vet thinks he had an undetected heart condition and he slipped into a cardiac arrest.  It was very quick and the poor thing didn't really have time to suffer, but he's left an enormous hole in our lives.  Walker and I are utterly heart broken.  Jericho was an integral part of our family and without him, the house has a palpable loneliness.

Of course our sweet Branwen has been a great comfort, but she lacks the confidence and unapologetic friskiness to fill the void.  We can't decide if we should quickly try to replace him, giving Branwen a companion and filling the energy hole in our lives or if it's better to let the sting subside before asking another cat to fit into Jericho's very large shoes.  We will have to think on this some more.

So this weekend I did a great deal of knitting-as-therapy, which fortunately means I finally finished the Autumn Rose pullover!  It was a little snug when I first tried it on, so here is a picture of my attempt to wet block it.

The steeks worked out great and I really really loved that the only sewing I had to do was the zillion ends from all the color changes.  Plus it is a beautiful, beautiful design.  It was still wet this morning, so I haven't gotten to try it on yet, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it fits.

This one is especially emotional for me because this'll be the last sweater to have Jericho's fur knit into it.  I was working on it when he passed and I'm dedicating it to his memory, pouring all my happy thoughts of him into it.  Jericho, I'll think of you every time I wear it.  We love you.

Here is your giraffe, your partner in crime to see you out.

 Goodbye, dear friend.  Rest in peace.

-Allie

We're in Business

I'm sorry this post is so late this week, but a lot has been going on, like my first AND second sales!! Okay, the second was to my mom, but the first was to a total stranger! And I even got a request for a custom item this past weekend, so I am officially in business!

If you haven't noticed yet, I finished listing the rest of my inventory, both baby and adult accessories. I also made a few more baby sets this past weekend. This strawberry one is my favorite:
Too cute. I made them in KnitPicks Shine Worsted, so they knit up really fast, are 100% washable, and really, really soft. I just love the mary jane booties, don't you? I have 2 other sets up there in the same material. Check them out!

I also made a facebook fan page for the shop this week, so if you're not a fan, the link is in my sidebar. Become a fan and suggest the page to your friends! Please help me get the word out.

Enough about Etsy, though. I have found the time to knit for my family and me, too. Apparently, I have little to no self control when it comes to yarn. I had nothing to do one lunch break, so I thought I would check out a yarn shop I'd not yet visited. I told myself I would just browse, but I walked out with two hanks of Shibuiknits Sock yarn in the perfect peachy pink and superwash merino. I used Mother's Day as an excuse, but we all know that's a big lie...

Anyway, I did knit some lovely slipper-socks for Mom. She has been working too hard lately and needs to find a little time to relax on her own, so these socks are strictly for relaxation time.
I used the pattern Voronetz Socks by Tia O'Connor and while they came out nicely, the constant cabling was a bit of a pain in the butt. Socks aren't really my favorite thing to knit, so I don't know why I picked such a labor-intensive pattern. Silly me. At least there is a lot of love in these socks--Happy Mother's Day Mom!

While I've been waiting for the yarn for a couple of custom orders, I've been doing a little knitting for myself, too. I made a lot of headway on the Swallowtail Shawl, so next week I hope to show you some before/after pictures of the magic of blocking!

Here's a shot of Branwen being a kitty parrot to end this post:
Enjoy the rest of your week!

Cheers,

-Allie

A Very Wilkes Christmas

So here is the partner post to the previous post: a showcase of all the gifts I knit for my family this year:

For Miss Caroline, I knit Interweave Knits Tilted Duster by Norah Gaughan. I used Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Maple Syrup. Had I unlimited funds, I obviously would have used a more luxurious fiber, but their wool is very sturdy and all makes all that ribbing look great. It will also keep her very warm.

I managed to knock this baby out in about a week, but I credit that to it being Thanksgiving week and spending a lot of time in front of the tv with my family. And unlike Venezia, I had her try it on to make sure it fits and it does, yay! What a relief.

For the newest addition to the Wilkes family, Sandy, I also knit a sweater. Caroline said the poor thing had been shivering whenever she went outside, so now she has a little sweater to keep her nice and toasty.

I used the Rainbow Pooch Sweater pattern by Caron and knit it with Cascade Eco +, which is an 80/20 Acrylic/Wool mix. Normally, I really hate working with acrylic, but for her dog my sister wanted something she could throw in the wash because there's no way that thing will stay clean long. Surprisingly enough, the 20% wool kept the yarn from feeling too icky. Not a bad route if you need something acrylic.
My mom, of course, had the most outrageous request of anyone in the family, more so than a duster: she wanted a shawl like the one I made for my wedding, but in black. Obviously, I did not want to knit the same thing again because that is very boring. So I mined Knitting Lace of Estonia by Nancy Bush for something different. I found the Leaf and Nupp shawl, which I think suited my needs very nicely.
I omitted the nupps because I just plain don't like knitting them and I used Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud, which is 100% baby alpaca and unbelievably soft. My only complaint with this shawl is that I was not able to block it to the proper dimensions, largely due to my lack of proper blocking materials. A towel on the floor just doesn't quite cut it. It's still super soft and will make my mom very happy. Branwen liked it too.I am still currently working on my Christmas stocking and then the next installment will feature the completed pair, even though pictures of Walker's stocking are already up on Ravelry. After that, I am all done with my Christmas knitting (unless I decide the kitties are deserving of some new catnip toy. I have some scraps, that might happen). And then I need to get to making myself a hat, since it has gotten VERY cold all of a sudden and my poor little head is freezing :(

Walker and I are off to GA on Wednesday, so I should definitely do another update before then, as the stockings both need to be done.

Hope all of you are almost done with your pre-Christmas obligations: finals, shopping, etc. And if you're not, I hope you are soon.
Cheers,

-Allie

Back to "Normal"

Well, we're back from Paris and settling back into normal schedules. It's weird not having wedding planning to do anymore. And, as you all know, I have a hard time not having anything to do, so I've thrown myself headlong back into knitting!

Firstly, I finished the Kingdom gloves:
Despite not being wild about the pattern, I like the way they turned out. Now my only complaint is the way the cuff is set up, so I decided not to keep them. Vicki will enjoy them much more than I will. I really liked working with the Knitpicks Gloss yarn, though. Highly recommended.

After all those tiny cables, I wanted to work on something with a bigger gauge and a much simpler pattern, so I found the Francis Revisited Sweater by Beth Silverstein. The gauge was so big, the whole thing only took me about 5 days, 5 glorious days of mindless stockinette. This picture doesn't really do the sweater justice--it makes the thing look a lot more see-through than it really is, but you can see how loose the gauge is. The opacity is a lot more like the previous photo and the color/fit is like the one below.Really comfortable, really cute. Here's the back.Next on the agenda is my slew of Christmas gifts. Since we're doing Christmas with the Matthews this year, my list has expanded quite a bit and, as you can see by the sidebar, I've started early. I've been working on the batch of Matthews gifts first (partly because the Wilkes have asked for considerably more complicated gifts!) and once I finish with the last one (about halfway done) I'll dedicate a blog post to all of them. I decided it would be easier if I split the two posts up.

In fact, I should have started posting this stuff ages ago, but the reason I waited was because I wanted to include some wedding photos in my next blog post! Yes, they're up and if you really want a print, you're more than welcome to order one from her site! I don't have the hard copies or the digital disc yet (should get them later this week), but I wanted to share them with you guys as soon as possible!

Happy stalking! And to wrap things up, here's Jericho making a fort out of a yarn shipment box.

Cheers,

-Allie Matthews (!)

Dum dum da dum...

Only 7 more weeks left, yikes! We've actually got almost everything under control. We're in the middle of a month-long lull, waiting for my dress to come in and for everyone to RSVP (hint hint). Once September hits, things will start getting crazy, but for now, I'm enjoying the extra knitting time!

Firstly, Dad's birthday is coming up on Monday and I had no idea what to get him. So I decided to find something obnoxious to knit him and I found some patterns for some patterned golf club covers!

What guy wouldn't want pink argyle protecting his driver? Actually, I enjoyed knitting the Dots and Spots one better. Slip stitch is a lot easier than argyle--there are fewer strands in the way and the argyle one is pretty scrunched, which is a shame. I think he'll enjoy them all the same. I knit them with two different Knitpicks yarns: Maine Line (pink and green) and Shine (ivory). I have to say that the Main Line was a lot easier to knit than the Shine; cotton is not my favorite material.

I cannot say the same thing about alpaca, however, for the shrug I designed myself for the rehearsal dinner is finished, a vision in Knitpicks' Elegance, a silk and alpaca blend. I’m VERY pleased with the way this project came out. This was a totally improvised project and it fits and looks exactly the way I had imagined it, yay! I love love love the yarn, too. Knitpicks’ Elegance is so soft, I didn’t want to put the project down!

The only problem is that I didn’t keep meticulous notes while I was knitting it, so I only have a vague idea of what I did. Basically, it’s a cropped raglan with seed stitch trim on the sides and bottom. I added a picot edge to the neckline and a lace edging from Knitted Lace of Estonia, I forget from which project.

Unfortunately, I didn’t account for how much it would ‘swing’ in the back, resulting in a lot of curling, so I pulled out the needle and thread and nipped it in on the sides. So now it fits great, but you can’t close it at the bottom, which was not what I made it for, anyway. I’m so excited to wear this to our rehearsal dinner in October. I think it’ll look great over the pink floral dress I got the for the occasion. Yay!

Here's the picot edge:

And the lace cuff:

I've also had some time to work on the Venezia Sweater, which is not progressing very quickly. I have, however, finished knitting the bulk of the torso. Here it is with the steeks uncut:

Looks funny, doesn't it? Since I took that picture, I have cut the neck steeks and have been working on the neckline, but I don't like the way it's turning out, so no pictures yet. I might have to rip out what I've done on the neckline and try again, but that's irritating me, so I've started the left sleeve (pictures of that when I've made more progress).

Here's a close-up of the pattern stitch. I'm very pleased with the color selection I spent so long making. Totally worth the deliberation.

I still can't predict how this sweater will turn out, since I can't try it on until I cut the arm steeks and I'm afraid to do that until I have a sleeve to put there. I love the pattern, though, and I really really hope it turns out well, especially since it's taken so much time to get to this point. I want to finish it before the wedding, which may or may not happen, depending on how busy September gets. I really don't know why I gave myself that deadline--maybe because I want to show it to people coming into town? Maybe I just can't wrap my head around any date after October 10th? We'll see. Apologies in advance if this is my last post before the wedding. It's not because I don't love you guys, but because I'm too busy preparing things for when I see you in October!

Oh, here's a silly Jericho picture to wrap things up:Cheers,

-Allie