Me Made May 2014 - First 2 Weeks

I have an outfit recap for you from the first two weeks of Me Made May.  A few of these are unblogged, sorry!

Knit Featherweight cardigan

Papercut Coppelia Cardigan 

Blank Canvas Tee

Blank Canvas Tee and Miette skirt

Beignet skirt

Ship to Shore shawl

There were a few days that I couldn't snag someone to take my picture, but I assure you that I'm keeping up with my pledge!

A Knitting Vacation

Last week Tori, our Mom, our Aunt and I went on a knitting cruise to Mexico!  Our Uncle is apart of the wonderful knitting community at A Good Yarn, in Sarasota, Florida, which put together the knitting cruise.  We booked the cruise about a year ago and registered for 3 of the many classes being taught on the cruise.  I registered for Elegant Beaded Scarf, Socks - 2 at a time, and Knitting with Silk Hankies.

In the Elegant Lace Scarf class, I learned how to add beads to my knitting!  How cool is that!?  The pattern we used is the Elegant Beaded Lace Stole by Anniken Allis.

Elegant Beaded Lace Stole

I splurged (actually my Mom splurged and bought it for me :) ) on some nice lace weight yarn for this project!  I got Anzula Wash My Lace yarn in the Claret colorway.

The second class I took was Socks - 2 at a time.  We used the Lucky 13 Bed Socks pattern by Julie Weisenberger.  I'm knitting these with my handspun yarn!

Lucky 13 Bed Socks

Last, but not least, I took the Knitting with Silk Hankies class.  For this class, we started knitting a simple cowl.  This is my first time knitting with silk hankies and I absolutely LOVE IT!  

I'll keep you posted on my progress with all three of these projects and will be back with more on the cruise!

FO: Mini Bunny Loves & Sockhead Hat

I have two finished objects for you. today.  First up, the adorable Mini Bunny Loves by Susan Anderson!

Here it is almost finished...

These are the only pictures I have of the finished project.  I was so excited about how cute it turned out that I couldn't wait to give it to my cousin's baby!

Look at that pom pom tail!  So cute!!

This is the perfect project for using up leftover sock yarn, however, since I used leftovers I didn't have enough to knit the legs.  Oh well, next time!

Mini Bunny Loves

My second FO is a Sockhead hat by Kelly McClure.  I originally knit it to participate in Molly's, from A Homespun House Podcast, fingering weight knit-a-long.  I finished the hat in time, but never posted my pictures to the thread!  Whoops!

I've been running a lot lately, and this hat is perfect for running outside.  (Yes, I STILL need a hat to go outside) The fingering weight yarn makes it light enough so I don't get too hot, and it is big and slouchy enough to fit my hair.

Finished Object: Footies

It feels like it's been an eternity since I've had a finished object, let alone one for myself.  This weekend I decided that I needed to remedy that, STAT!  I knit a pair of footies!  They are a slipper pattern that my grandma always used to make and put in all of our Christmas stockings.  The last pair that I had my dog chewed a huuuuge hole in when she was a puppy.  Since she is almost 3, these are long past due!

The pattern is super simple:

Worsted weight with size 7 needles

CO 32
Knit in 2x2 rib for 30 rows
Knit garter stitch for 30 rows

Sew up the heel (garter stitch end).  Gather the ribbed end for the toe, then sew the ribbing together until you reach the garter stitch.

On another note the website Treehugger has posted a couple good articles about knitting and why it's important.  If you have a few spare minutes, they are great reads!

Why bother knitting a scarf?

Don't stop knitting! It keeps you healthy.

I'm Loving...A Homespun House Podcast

I recently found a new podcast (actually a videocast) that I TOTALLY love!  It's called a Homespun House.  The Ravelry group can be found here.  I love love love to listen to knitting podcasts while I knit and highly recommend this one!

I also am a huge fan of The Knitmore Girls Podcast and have been a regular listener for months, maybe even a year.

Do you listen to any knitting podcasts?  What are your favorites?  I' always open to suggestions!!

Colette Pattern's Wardrobe Architect

As a knitter and sewist I tend to lean towards making more pieces for my wardrobe than anything else.  Lately I've been knitting sweaters and (attempting) sewing skirts and dresses.  The finished products don't always match with my current wardrobe and/or lifestyle which can be a huge downer... Enter the Colette Pattern Wardrobe Architect project!  When I saw the post on this project, I instantly knew that it was something that I wanted and NEEDED to participate in!  The Coletterie blog will be posting weekly on this topic helping us to take ownership of our own wardrobe and really make it what we want and need it to be.

Their blog post explains the process best:

"We’ll start with several posts on defining our own styles, and how it relates to who we are. We’ll then get into more pragmatic techniques, like creating uniforms and planning capsule wardrobes. Last, we’ll talk about editing and culling."
-excerpt from Coletterie

I'm so excited for it to get started and am planning on regularly blogging on my progress!  If nothing else, I am hoping that committing to regularly blogging on it will make me more accountable to stay on track.  Wish me luck!

Is anyone else planning on following along?

About That Hat...

So, about that hat I knit my husband for Christmas.  I mentioned before that I gave it to him and that he wore it everyday.  He loved it!  Leave it up to me to lose it.  UGH!  He had it for less than a week before I lost it somewhere in the house.  To top it off the temperature has been in the single digits the past few days.  Right now, it is 1 degree Fahrenheit and the wind chill is in the negative teens. What's a girl to do?  Well, I'll tell you...knit another hat, that's what!  Andi from Untangling Knots just released a new free men's beanie pattern.

An Easy Beanie by Andi Satterlund

Talk about perfect timing!

New Projects

I'm super excited about a couple new projects that I have in the works.  Sadly, I don't have any finished projects to show off.  I'm STILL working on my yellow Featherweight.  I'm on the sleeves now, so it's just a matter of time before I can show that baby off!

Now onto the new projects!  One of my besties just had her third baby, yay!!!  For some reason I didn't think about what to knit for this baby until the very day that she was born...I am a total slacker.  Now that she's born, I've decided on the adorable baby sweater, Sweet Pea.



I'm thinking of knitting it in either Cascade 220 or my usual default baby yarn, Plymouth Encore.

Next up, I'm starting a tatting project!  I can't say too much about this, since it's going to be a surprise, but here is the pattern picture...

The pattern is called Fairy-Tale Doily and is from the book Traditional Tatting Patterns Edited by Rita Weiss.  Based on my educated guess, I'll be done in about 5 bagillion years.

I'm Loving...One Sheepish Girl Blog

Have you stumbled upon the blog, One Sheepish Girl?  If not, I highly recommend it!  Seriously, check out this icord knit ampersand!  Life doesn't get any better than that :)



She has a bunch of super cute yarn-y tutorials (all of which I want to do ASAP) and lots of fiber eye candy!

Carpooling

Recently, my husband got a new job which is right around the corner from mine and with the same hours!  It only made financial and eco-friendly sense to carpool.  Of course, an added benefit of carpooling is more knitting time!!  I started the Motte Shawl on April 15th before I went to bed one night.

Since then, I've only been working on it while we carpool to and from work.

It's only been about a half a month since I started and I'm already this far.

 I feel like I've created a 25th hour in each day!!

I'm Loving...Andi Satterlund Sweaters

Have you seen any of Andi Satterlund's sweater designs?  They are seriously too cute!

Marion

Chuck

Agatha

One of each....yes PLEASE!  I think my next project needs to be the Marion sweater!

Oh, one last thing... Andi Satterlund also has a super cool blog, Untangling Knots, but be careful, you could lose a few hours time perusing it!

Me Made May 2013

It's here!  It's finally almost May, and that means....Me Made May (MMM)!!  Have you ever heard of it?  MMM is a challenge in which you challenge yourself to wear your handmade garments.  Whether you knit beautiful shawls, sew clothes, or make jewelry, you create a challenge for yourself in which you incorporate your handmades into your daily wardrobe.

I know for sure that I'm going to sign up for MMM '13, however, I'm not sure what I'm going to set my challenge for.  I reallllllllly would love to challenge myself to wear one me made item everyday, however, I'm not sure that is obtainable.  In order to do that, I would have to sew/knit one thing EVERY DAY until the end of April to get a decent sized wardrobe.  Realistically, that is totally not doable.  So far I have the following wearable things:

3 skirts
1 almost finished skirt
1 tshirt
1 knit shawl
1 almost finished sweater

Yesh, I hardly have anything!  I better scale down my challenge.

Is anyone else planning on participating in Me Made May 2013?  If so, what are you challenging yourself to?

I'm Loving...Podcasts

This week I'm loving knitting and spinning podcasts!  I've been listening to the SpinDoctor podcast and Knitmore Girls.  I highly recommend them.  Do you listen to podcasts?  Which ones?  I would LOVE to know, I'm always open to new podcasts!

Weekend Update

Sunday morning perfection...

Apologies

Apologies guys for my lack of blogging lately!  To tell you the truth, I don't have anything to show you.  You see, I have this problem...I always start knitting things then decide that I just don't like something about it.  Maybe I don't like the pattern, or the yarn isn't perfect for the pattern, or my gauge is waaaaay off.  Then I end up frogging it. 

Recently I've decided to use up my stash, so I went downstairs to peruse through said stash.  I have 5 skeins of turquoise Lion Brand Recycled Cotton that I bought at Joanns years ago on clearance for 97 cents/skein!  It was on CRAZY sale, how could I resist! :) 

After I picked the yarn out that I wanted to knit, I searched Ravelry for a pattern.  I wanted to knit something summery with this yarn, since it's cotton, and I wanted to pretty much use it all up. I have about 900 yards, so I could make a tank top, however, I read the reviews for this yarn.  Many ravelers (is that what you call people who use Ravelry??  haha) said that this recycled cotton yarn doesn't keep its shape well after washing.  Some people said that it stretched a ton, others said it shrank...So do I really want spend all that time knitting a tank top, only to have it shrink/stretch after washing?  Eventually, I decided to knit a baby blanket with it.  The pattern I chose was Surprise.  Welllllll, about 10 rows into the blanket, I decided the yarn didn't show off the pattern and decided to frog it.  Back to the drawing board.

Last night I spent ungodly amounts of time surfing Ravelry (again) and finally came up with this...

 

Sophia! What do you think?  I think this sweater will be PERFECT for that yarn!  The sweater is loose enough that if the yarn stretches some, no big deal!  I'll just be super careful while washing, so that it doesn't shrink.

I'm curious, has anyone ever used Lion Brand Recycled Cotton?  If so, what were your results with it?

Fingerless Mitts

Another FO!

 

I knit myself a pair of fingerless mitts out of some of my own handspun.  Believe it or not, this is the first thing I have EVER knit out of my own handspun...GASP!  I know, crazy isn't it?  I've been spinning for years and have never actually used the handspun.  I generally like to hoard it.  This way when I'm having a bad day I can just go and smoosh my face in it, haha.  I mean comon...you have to admit yarn makes everything better.

The pattern I used is Siren Sleeves.

Somewhat Herringboney

I have a new FO!  I recently finished the Men's Mini Herringbone Scarf by Purl Soho.  I knit it for a friend's sister, however, I think she may keep it for herself!  Seriously, it's too gorgeous to giveaway (I secretly have another two skeins of the Freia yarn in Sand for myself, hehe).

 When I began knitting the pattern, I did have a problem with the stitch.  It wasn't turning out very herringboney, it was more cross stitchy.  Since I absolutely abhor cross stitch, I ended up fudging it and making it up as I went.  On the right side of the scarf I knit two together through the back loops, and only slipped one off the needle.  On the wrong side, I purled two together and only slipped one off.  To create the nice finished looking edge, I slipped the first stitch of every row.

Fiber Fiesta Weekend

Instead of enjoying the unseasonably warm weather this weekend like I should have been, I was hunkered down in my basement playing with fiber.

Handpainted fiber drying:

I've also been working on a few sweaters.  The first is for my friends 3 month old baby girl. Of course my dog, Sidney, had to get in the picture.

I used the Little Coffee Bean Cardigan pattern.  Instead of changing colors every 2 rows, like the pattern calls for, I made my stripes 4 rows each. 

The second sweater is for my husband...his first hand knit sweater:

 It looks like a huge oversized hat! 

I'm using the raglan sweater pattern from the book Knitting without Tears by Elizabeth Zimmerman.  I obviously have only knit the body and haven't gotten to any of the hard parts, so we will see if it really is indeed knitting without tears!

~Mary

For Travel

Since I ended up absolutely LOVING my first shawl (shawlette), Sunshine Shawl for Sad People, I started another one!  Yay!  This one is called For Travel.  The pattern is by the lovely Caitlin Ffrench.  If you've never heard of her, you HAVE to check out her stuff...It's totally awesome!

So, I feel like I'm doing something wrong with the pattern.  My shawl is triangular...

The one on the pattern page looks more rectangular...

What the heck!!  I've re-read the pattern a gazillion times, and I'm doing it right.  Ugh, I don't know....I'm just going to keep knitting.

Does anyone have any ideas of what I could be doing wrong? 

FO!

I finally finished something for myself!!!

Yay!  It's the Sunlight Shawl for Sad People