I know it's been a long time since I last blogged - I'm sorry. Our Fall schedule has been a lot busier than I anticipated. But, I'm back with a bit of exciting news. Grace and I are featured on the Ravelry homepage today as a part of their Community Eye Candy series. This week is featuring matching families.

We're on the right - I'm in my Alice and Grace is wearing her Goldilocks. Both patterns are by the fantastic Justyna Lorkowska.

I am so flattered that Christina (of the Ravelry staff) picked my knits to be featured. There are so many beautiful matching sets out there. Trust me, I've looked. I have a thing for matching, or coordinating as I like to call it. To say I'm excited is an understatement. Christina contacted me last week to ask if she could use the photo of us since Grace is a minor (I thought it was really awesome of her to ask permission, by the way). I had to keep this a secret for an entire week. If you know me, you'll know how hard that was. If you want to check out the rest of Christina's picks, which I highly recommend, you can see them all here.

9/6/13

Larch - FO Friday

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If you follow my blog regularly, you may have noticed that I took the month of August off from blogging. I decided that instead of focusing on knitting and blogging, I wanted to focus on the last month of summer with my family. My oldest child starts preschool next week and our entire schedule will be changing. I wanted to spend my days running through the sprinkler, playing in the sandbox, chasing fireflies, lighting sparklers, and just enjoying my kids. I spent a lot less time knitting than I usually do and therefore, didn't have much to write about. I hope you'll forgive me. At least I'm back with a pretty great FO.

I finished my Larch Cardigan. It was a test in patience and perseverance, to say the least. It took me about 3 weeks longer than I expected to knit this sweater. Maybe that was in part to my reduced knitting time or maybe it was because I re-knit the collar twice. Twisted rib on size 5 needles wasn't so nice on the hands and caused me to take even more breaks than I wanted, but I didn't want to hurt my hands. I also learned how to do top-down set-in sleeves (the pattern calls for bottom-up seamed sleeves). Full disclosure - I was a little intimidated to do the sleeves, since I've never done set-in sleeves on my own before. Going rouge! Luckily, I found a really fantastic tutorial on YouTube (part 1, part 2) that made it easy to do, once I found the courage. You can read all of my modifications on my project page.

Project Details
Pattern: Larch Cardigan by Amy Christoffers
Yarn: Madelinetosh 80/10/10 Sport in Grasshopper
Needles: US 5 (3.75mm), US 7 (4.5mm)

7/31/13

Larch

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After finishing Alice, I decided to finally cast on for a Larch Cardigan. Larch has been in my queue pretty much since I started knitting. I don't know why I put it off for so long. I'm using Madelinetosh 80/10/10 Sport in Grasshopper. The MCN sport is amazingly soft and drapes so well. This sweater is going to be like wearing a hug. A hand knit hug.

I started Larch a week and a half ago and while I'm making progress, it really doesn't feel like I am. To this point, I've only knit top-down sweaters for myself. I don't know about you, but I get all kinds of "new project excitement" and generally fly through the first several inches of any project. When a sweater is top down, the rows are shorter and I can move much faster. Since Larch is bottom up, I'm knitting all of this stockinette at the widest point of the sweater and it feels like I knit forever with no progress. I've started clipping stitch markers to the edge to prove to myself that I am, in fact, making progress. I have a few more inches before I can shape the neck and divide for the fronts and back.

I'm not totally convinced that I have enough yarn, so I'm going to attempt to do top-down set-in sleeves (another first for me). If I can pull that off, I can knit them two at a time and ensure that I will use every last inch of yarn available. Anything to avoid another yarn debacle. I'll keep you posted.

7/22/13

Alice in Wonderland

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Over the weekend, Justyna Lorkowska released her newest pattern - Alice in Wonderland. I had the absolute honor to test knit it. It's the adult version of Goldilocks, which I knit for Grace last month.

Alice has an amazingly flattering silhouette - a low scoop neck, fitted through the bust and then a-line to either tee, tunic or dress length. I opted for the tee length, but the tunic and dress versions I've seen are also fantastic!

And because I couldn't resist, here is a picture of me and Grace in our matching hand knits!

Project Details

Pattern: Alice in Wonderland by Justyna Lorkowska

Yarn: Malabrigo Sock in Violeta Africana

Needles: US 4 (3.5mm)

7/17/13

Superman Stripes - FO

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I finished Jack's Gathering Stripes last week and as predicted, he wanted to wear it on the hottest day we've had so far this year. I guess that means he likes it.

I really love this pattern and I can definitely see myself making it again as my kids grow.

And with this being off the needles - I've finished my July sweater. Knocking it out early this month. For those that asked, the buttons are custom made by Digits Designs. Judy was lovely to work with and the buttons are fantastic!

Project Details

Pattern: Gathering Stripes by Veera Välimäki

Yarn: Cascade Yarns Heritage in Marine; KnitPicks Palette in Serrano

Needles: US 2, US 4, US 5

7/10/13

Superman Stripes

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This little sweater has been languishing in my WIP pile since the beginning of June. I started it at the end of May, quickly made it through the body, promptly tossed it into the WIP basket and forgot about it. Oops! I'm not in a hurry to finish a long-sleeved, cowl neck sweater for my "always runs hot" 3 year old. By his own choice I'm sure he'll wear it constantly. Unfortunately, he doesn't quite understand dressing for the weather yet.

I ordered some custom buttons for it around the same time that I tossed this into the WIP basket, and when they arrived last week I was reminded that I should probably finish the sweater. It's another Gathering Stripes. Jack needs a decent sweater and since he likes stripes it seems like a perfect match. He picked the color combo, which reminds me of Superman.