Spring Garden Tee The Second

I knit the Spring Garden Tee as a part of the Tops, Tanks & Tees KAL hosted by Shannon of luvinthemommyhood.  The first one was when I test knit the pattern for Alana way back in 2010.  This time around, I get to keep my SGT 🙂

luvinthemommyhood

I zipped through this one pretty quick and it is the most comfy tee to wear – cool, drapey and soft.

My gauge was spot on with this yarn (this never happens to me!!!) but when I knit my size as stated by the pattern, the tee turned out to be huge.  So, I ripped and restarted a smaller size which turned out exactly the way I wanted :: just the right amount of ease.

However, a few inches after the yoke, I was totally not cool with the color-pooling since I didn’t alternate skeins! le sigh!!  I didn’t want to rip a second time and decided that this pool-of-pink was to be a part of the “handmade charm” and kept on knitting!

Yeah… not sure that was a wise decision!!!

 Of course, the highlight of this pattern is the lacy cap sleeve.

I’m undecided about this yarn  – love the drape, but I’m not a big fan of the color pooling.  I have a skein and a half leftover.  Maybe a summer skirt for Kiki?  This pattern gets a thumbs up from me, like all of Alana’s patterns.

Spring Garden Tee (Ravelry notes)
Pattern: Spring Garden Tee – Adult Sizes by Alana Dakos
Yarn: Araucania Ruca Solid in color 120
Needles: Size US 5, 6/3.75, 4 mm

Posted by & filed under Finished Knits, KAL, Tops. This post has 7 comments.

A Postcard

Spring blossoms are so fleeting each year and right now the blooms are long gone.

Well almost….

A few of us signed up for a knitted postcard swap on the Amiras Group and this is the postcard I created for my partner.  I knit the background using different bits of yarn I had leftover from other projects and then embroidered the cherry blossoms and other flowers with french knots using embroidery floss.

I had to rely on YouTube to refresh my memory since I haven’t really embroidered anything since my Home Ec class in school!  It isn’t pictured here, I mounted the finished “postcard” onto card stock so that I could write a message to my partner.

It was a fun project trying to think out of the (knitting) box and my partner says she likes it 🙂  Score!!

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

Melting

 When I picked up Kiki from preschool on Monday she said in a small, exhausted voice, “Mama, my skin is melting!”  Sweet child of mine 🙂  With us west coasters waiting with bated breath for La Nina to leave and those groundhog predictions to actually be miscalculations, we finally got our sunshine in all its fierce glory!

Speaking of my sweet children, they made Mother’s Day so special (I’m sure Daddy helped them with their most excellent plans ;))

A fantastical Mom’s Day dinner cooked by my young chefs ending with…

…grilled pineapple, ice cream and maple syrup.  Over the top I know, but oh so scrumptious!

I hope all of you mothers reading had a special Mom’s Day 🙂

Posted by & filed under Family, Food, Kids, Rambling. This post has 6 comments.

Hiyadoin’

Hi!  Hiyadoin’? I’m doing great, thanks for asking 🙂

We were just away at The Emerald City visiting family and while we were there, look at what we stuffed our faces with!

If you’re ever in Seattle, you gotta eat at The Crab Pot.  The mess is definitely worth it!

You should also definitely check out this studio.  We were able to chat with the artist, David Smith, and watch him work on a very interesting piece of glass work.  As a person who embraces the joy of working with my hands, I was fascinated by the whole experience of being able to mould and create something magnificent out of shards of colored glass.  Perfect symmetry between art and science.

Speaking of working with my hands, all that driving time to Seattle and back meant that I had ample knitting time on the road!  Here’s what I’ve been working on.

It’s a Soay cardigan. I test knit this pattern for Gudrun last year and love wearing it so much that I decided to knit it a second time using a different yarn.  I’ve added a bunch of inches since this picture was taken and I might even be done soon!

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

Tops, Tanks & Tees

It’s time to pack away my warm woolies and pull out those fun little tops and swishy skirts and summer dresses because it is spring and I love spring ♥

My knitting is going in the same direction too with the latest project that’s on my needles… the Spring Garden Tee.

I test knit this pattern for Alana a couple years ago and that finished project, knit in Be Sweet Bamboo, was mailed out to be a part of her trunk show.

I’ve been wanting to knit a SGT for myself and a KAL hosted by Shannon of luvinthemommyhood was the perfect excuse to get going.

luvinthemommyhood

I swatched with some recently acquired Araucania Ruca.

The gauge swatch turned out so drapey and soft and the color of this yarn is a *delicious hot pink!

* I apologize if you’ve grabbed your sunglasses to read this post because the colors look completely blown out.  Thing is, my laptop’s on the fritz and I’m using the home computer to write this post and the pictures look completely peptobismolesque to me!!!  I’m such a creature of habit and even though my dead laptop is old and cranky and takes a half hour to fire up, I love her so and the colors aren’t so over-zealous!  New laptop’s on the way, in the meantime, I gotta make this work. 

Happy middle of Spring everyone 🙂

Posted by & filed under KAL, Tops, Yarn. This post has 2 comments.

Goodies Galore

The second Club Kit from Dubai Knits arrived at my door earlier this month.

This month’s club had a bunch of goodies.  Heart shaped stitch markers from Fripperies & Bibelots, a much needed cute little measuring tape from The Sexy Knitter, aka, Sarah Wilson and the most adorable hand crafted polymer clay buttons from Tessa Ann.  How cute are these 🙂

The star of this package was the yarn!  Beautiful blue “Squishy” yarn dyed by Jocelyn, the owner of Dubai Knits.

She named this colorway, Up The River after a story she shared of the memories she has as a little girl visiting the famous Pagsanjan Falls in Laguna Bay in the Philippines with her family.  That’s not all, Jocelyn included a pattern in this kit for an infinity scarf she designed herself called, Boatride.

Cables and Texture in this gorgeous blue colorway – what can be better than this!!

Posted by & filed under Accessories, Dubai, KAL, Rambling, Scarves, Yarn. This post has 2 comments.

Oh Pickles!

I’ve been knitting the Ranger sweater for my son, Prithvi, for a while now and despite some gauge checks that had to be done mid knitting and the fact that he seems to be growing faster than I can knit, I was progressing at a steady clip on this project.  I joined the sleeves to the body of the sweater and kept making my way up the yoke decreases when I went to my bag of Malabrigo Rios to pick out my next skein to join and continue.  Nothing there!  I have run out of yarn, folks and I’ve got plenty more sweater to knit! Gah, gah, gah!!!!

I’ve got two skeins on order from Jimmy Beans Wool and I’m really, really, really hoping the dyelots are similar otherwise, he’s going to have a sweater with a big band across the yoke in a different color.  Oh, and different colored button bands too.  Buttonbands, I can live with but the band across the yoke… not happening!  I could overdye it if the colors are way off but seeing this is a navy blue, I’m not sure what color my overdye experiment will achieve.  I hoping not muddy brown!! What I’m really, really, really hoping for is that the dyelots match!

To cheer myself up, I cast on for Jocelyn’s first pattern, “Boatride“.  I’m so proud of her! More on that next time.

Posted by & filed under Cardigans, Family, Kids, Yarn. This post has 6 comments.

Mystery Revealed

The mystery sweater knit-a-long  that I have been a part of is done!  It looks quite adorable – poofy sleeves and all!

Since this year’s spring is warmer than normal for most folks, the majority of knit-alongers decided to knit short sleeves on their sweaters.  I, on the other hand, opted to follow the pattern for long sleeves so that Kirtana could get some use out of it later this year too.  The longer sleeves provided for some interesting knitting and the poofiness adds the perfect bit of whimsy to the finished sweater.

The sweater is knit from the top down and has a very interesting lace yoke.  Different sized needles are used to knit the lace section ensuring that the pattern is undisturbed while automatically “adding inches”.

Elena is a talented designer and this is the second pattern of hers that I am knitting.  Her designs are always interesting and the finished objects turn out cute as well as functional.

Presenting My Honey worn by my honey 🙂

My Honey (Ravelry notes)
Pattern: My Honey by Elena Nodel
Yarn: Tosh DK in “Baltic”
Needles: Size US 4, 6, 7, 8 / 3.5, 4, 4.5, 5 mm (lotsa needles!!)

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

It’s All A Mystery

Even though I haven’t been blogging all that much lately, I have been knitting and I’ve got three projects going.  One of them is a mystery knit-along ♥

This pattern is for a child’s sweater by the very talented, Elena Nodel.  The members of this mystery knit-along or MKAL get emailed instructions in pieces or “clues”.  Here’s my progress with Clue #1 done from a couple days ago…

Soon, I was working my way through Clue #2 and happy that I was making good progress.  Sadly, when I tried it on Kiki it felt really tight.  I ripped and re-did both the clues again using larger needles.

Much better.  I tried it on her again and it fits and is turning out to be quite cute!

I haven’t finished a Kiki-sweater in a while and this is a great way to get one done!  Clue #3 is already in my inbox!  I’ll report back with more progress or maybe even a finished sweater 😀

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Tortuga Twist

Happy first day of Spring everyone!  I hope you are enjoying your bit of sunshine today 🙂

I know, I know I’ve been remiss with blogging but, I’m back!  We kicked off Spring Break with a vacation to Oregon which was great fun.  Cold, but really great fun!

I even came back with goodies (uh huh, I fell off the yarn diet… slightly! ;))

Onto the knitting… I finished a pair of super fun socks last month!

This pattern was part of the Dubai Knits Yarn Club and I definitely think I got my sock knitting mojo back 🙂 The designer is Cristi H. Brockway known as turtlegirl76 on Ravelry.  I loved the mirrored patterning on each sock and the mock cabled heel and some other design features that were totally new to me.

The yarn!!!! This yarn from Dubai Knits is super soft and squishy.  Get this… the name of the yarn is “Squishy” – it couldn’t be more perfect!  Jocelyn’s got some mad dyeing skills and she hit it out of the park for this first round of club mailings with this gorgeous red colorway called “Devotion”.  Well done, Jocelyn!!

Tortuga Twist Socks (Ravelry notes)
Pattern: Tortuga Twist by Cristi H. Brockway
Yarn: Dubai Knits Squishy in “Devotion”
Needles: Size US 1.5 / 2.5 mm (yup, teesny!!)

These socks kept me so warm while we were in Oregon.  I’m looking forward to the next mailing of the Dubai Knits Yarn Club!

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