Stormont

A quick drive-by post to point you in the direction of a lovely pattern that was recently published by my dear friend, Kelly.

Stormount 2

Test knitting is always fun!  It’s great to work alongside the designer as their pattern is tweaked and fine-tuned before making it ready for publishing.  When Kelly asked me to test knit her hat pattern, Stormont, I jumped at the opportunity.

Stormount 1

Stormont was a great pattern to knit. This pattern allowed me to indulge in the cable fix that I always crave once the mercury dips.  The cable pattern is on the front as well as the back and a bit of slouch on the back makes for a chic topper for those bad hair days 😉

Stormount 4

This pattern is a winner with the wide range of sizes offered – 6 months to large adult.  Check out the many lovely versions of this pattern on Ravelry.

Stormount 3

Stormont (Ravelry notes)
Pattern: Stormont by Kelly Ashfield
Yarn: Tosh Vintage in “Honorine”
Needles: Size US 6, 7 / 4, 5 mm

I can’t wait to see what Kelly has in store for our needles next.

I have one more test knit on the needles for another knitting buddy and this time it’s a pair of socks 🙂  Warm head, warm toes :: I’m all set for Old Man Winter!

Posted by & filed under Accessories, Finished Knits, Hats. This post has 4 comments.

Sea Anemone

Outside, the colored canopy is incredible.  Rust, red, orange, yellow, bits of green all around .  Breathtaking. Beautiful.

The colors on this skirt will remind me of the magic outside long after every leaf has floated down and the branches are bare welcoming the pause and rest that is winter.

Sea Anemone, is a skirt designed by the very talented, Elena Nodel.  The cabled section on the otherwise plain skirt was a welcome twist while I was knitting this project.

The pocket is every little child’s dream, waiting to be crammed full of rocks and leaves and “treasures”.

The best part about this skirt is the ruffle at the bottom :: just perfect for twirling!

Details of this project…

Sea Anemone (Ravelry notes)
Pattern: Sea Anemone Skirt by Elena Nodel
Yarn: Tosh DK in “Alizarin”
Needles: Can’t for the life of me remember what size needles I used 🙁

Posted by & filed under Finished Knits, Kids, Rambling. This post has 8 comments.

Knit City 2012

Vancouver’s very own fiber festival, Knit City, was this past weekend and what a great festival it was!

There was much yarn and fiber to be squished and a wonderful gathering of designers, fiber artists and all-round yarn enthusiasts.  There were also various demos and classes (didn’t sign up for any this time).  Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera with me, so no pictures of the actual vendors and artisans and yarn, yarn, yarn.  I left with quite a nice haul, though 🙂

The highlight of my experience was meeting Jane Richmond (janerichmond.com) and Shannon Cook (luvinthemommyhood.com) in person.  Both of them are so sweet and so talented.  Jane was promoting her latest design collection, Island, along with the rest of her very wearable pattern line.  I managed to get one of the last copies of her book… total fangirl moment!

Also great fun was the Ravelry meet up.  Knitting and chatting with a lovely bunch of ladies including talented designer, Andrea Rangel (Andrea Rangel Knits), was one of the best ways to spend a rainy Saturday in the city!

Posted by & filed under Rambling, Yarn. This post has 4 comments.

Snail-Paced

On the needles, some sunshine to delay the frost a bit longer….

But… the frost will be here soon and when it arrives, I will be warm…

Almost off the needles, Ravi with a missing sleeve.  Yarn shortage is the culprit and replenishments are en route…

Completely off the needles but not quite ready yet, a ruffly skirt (Ravelry link)…

What’s on or off your needles?

Posted by & filed under Cardigans, Finished Knits, Rambling. This post has 6 comments.

Change

Can you feel the change in the air?  The air is crisper, the leaves are turning and sweater weather is almost upon us!

Ah September, the time for routine!  As much as I love the relaxed pace of summer, I embrace the structure of back-to-school with still some sunshiny playtime left. September also means that I can get back to my poor, neglected knitting basket!

I seem to enjoy knitting along with others and so when Carol Feller announced her Mystery Knit-along I signed up eager to get a sweater finished over the summer.  I did pretty good until Clue# 1 and that’s where my knitting mojo got wooshed away with the summer breeze 😉  The knit-along was done a while ago but I’m inching along on my sweater and almost done with the hip increases.

This sweater has some very interesting techniques, one of them being short rows.

I have a sinking feeling that I might run out of yarn.  Garter stitch is a yarn gobbler!  I might have to make this a short sleeve sweater like Kelly’s… isn’t her Ravi just lovely??  Talk soon 🙂

Posted by & filed under Cardigans, KAL. This post has 5 comments.

Purl

Remember I told you that during all of our travels this summer I visited only one yarn store?  It’s true!

I just had to pop into Purl Soho while we were in New York 🙂  The staff are really friendly and welcoming.

I did alright with my yarn diet and came away with only two skeins of Anzula For Better or Worsted in the “Juniper” colorway.

No pattern in mind yet.  For now, I just like petting the squishy, luxurious yarn!

Posted by & filed under Travel, Vacation, Yarn. This post has 4 comments.

New York, New York

5 days of amazing!

It’s hard not to constantly look upwards…

…and spot something very interesting!

A city with so much history and well-loved by all.

In fond remembrance.

The view from above is just as breathtaking

This city is also about people.  Contrary to popular belief, New Yorkers are super friendly and helpful.

And the food… oh my!!  We were too busy eating to pause for picture-taking.  It was too hot to drink soup in New York, we did get this picture though 😉

We will never forget…

Thank you for your hospitality New York!

Posted by & filed under Travel, Vacation. This post has 4 comments.

Southern Charm

I hope that everyone is having a fantastic summer so far.  It seems like I fell off the grid for a while and it’s only now that I’m connecting back to my usual routine.  So, where have I been and what have I been upto???

That’s right, vacationing!

Our summer vacation this year was 3 weeks of fun along the Eastern US.  We visited family, saw lots of amazing places, ate some incredible food and even attended a family wedding.  Definitely a wonderful 3 weeks!  Of course, we took, like, a million pictures and I thought I’d share “a few” of my faves on the blog.  Don’t worry, I won’t post everything all at once 😉

With all of the travel time you’d think that I got tons of knitting done.  I have to confess that despite packing many knitting projects, I knit a couple rounds on the flight back home!  I visited one, yes… ONE yarn store the entire trip.  More about that another time!

First up, we went to the South where Vineet’s sister and her husband live with their cute dog.

The Southern charm that is associated with this part of the country… all true!

It was hot and humid and in true Southern style we were downing gallons and gallons of sweet tea the whole time to stay cool and it really worked.

Hangin’ with the local ladies, lol 🙂

Even the architecture in the South is charming!

The perfect way to spend an afternoon… fishing.

We took a road trip to the Great Smoky Mountains and indulged in some theme park fun along the way.

After all of the stomach-churning, heart-stopping rides, it was time to relax and really enjoy the beauty of the Smokies in our very own cabin.  Well, it was ours for 3 days 😉

I could get used to waking up to this view!

We’re huge Guy Fieri fans, and his recommendation for food at The Beacon didn’t disappoint.  For a drive-in, the chow at this place was amazing!

Satisfied and happy, we got ready to travel northbound.  Next stop, NYC baby!

Posted by & filed under Travel, Vacation. This post has 4 comments.

You Did What?

I totally forgot to share this on the blog.  I’ve had a sewing machine for ages but it sat wrapped up in its packaging because I was terrified of sewing.  A couple months ago, I bought some curtains to spruce up our guest bedroom but they were too long for the windows and needed to be hemmed.  I could have bought the iron-on tape that automatically hems things up, but I decided to be brave and SEW those hems!  Hem those hems??  Still new to sewing lingo;)

I read the manual which made zero sense to me but I was determined to keep going. I’ve seen my mom and grandma sew a lot when I was growing up and so I knew that you had to string the thread over a maze of spots all over the top of the sewing machine.  Oiy!!  Luckily my sewing machine has these “spots” numbered and so with manual in hand, I followed the numbers and voila my thread was secured.

Now it was time to sew.  Not!  I tried to sew a straight line on some scrap fabric and nothing happened.  Just a line of holes on the fabric and a tangle of sewing thread.  Back to the manual I went and when that didn’t help I Googled it, something I should’ve done in the first place because there are videos and illustrations and tons and tons of help for newbies like me!!!!  Turns out I need to fill up a bobbin with thread and that’s what makes the stitches on top of your fabric interlock with the stitches on the bottom and you get a line of stitches not holes 😀

I got those curtains hemmed that day!  I even made a couple chair pad covers and then I decided to take this further and make a project bag for my knitting.

I begin to see that there is a potential for fabric stash joining my yarn stash!  Uh oh, this could be a problem!!

I used this tutorial and I have to say that she explains everything so clearly that not only was it easy to cut the pieces and put them together but it was fun too!

I made this, yee haw!

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Ranger

Finally, finally the sweater for my oh-so-patient son Prithvi, is done!  It turned out great and he loves it.

Remember how I blogged a while ago that I ran out of yarn while knitting this sweater and had to order more?  The extra skeins that were mailed to me matched perfectly!

The sweater turned so incredibly soft after I washed it and he absolutely loves wearing it.  I wish I’d gotten a bit more ease because when he buttons this cardigan up, it looks a bit snug. But teenagers aren’t into the whole button-down thing anyway, so it worked out fine.

I made a whole bunch of modifications to this pattern and didn’t do a very good job of taking notes.  I mostly knit things to size and changed up the numbers for the various increases and decreases.  The overall design is the same, but the numbers were adapted to my gauge being different and a smaller chest size than what the pattern was written for.

Ranger (Ravelry notes)
Pattern: Ranger by Jared Flood published in BT Fall 11
Yarn: Malabrigo Rios in “Paris Night”
Needles: Size US 6, 7/4, 5 mm

Posted by & filed under Cardigans, Family, Finished Knits, Kids. This post has 5 comments.