Little Pumpkin

A quick update on the little pumpkin. Audrey is 18 months old this week! Time flies! And more good news - she will be a big sister in June!

Her pumpkin hat is fibertrends pattern CH-14, Patrick's Pumpkins. The green is Cascade 220 Superwash #801, and the orange is Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK #18014. A fun knit!

She is wearing a sweater that I knit before she was born. It is a Yankee Knitter pattern, done in Encore Colorspun Worsted.

Breakwall

Hey folks!  Sorry I've left this blog for so long.  Thanks to all those who still check it anyway!  

I may not have been blogging, but I HAVE been knitting.  I just finished this sweater last week:

It's knit in two pieces, a left half and right half, from cuff to center.  Seams at center front, center back, and side/under sleeve, leaving slits at side hems and front neck.  The main color is knit in garter stitch, with the contrast color in stockinette.  I hope to have the pattern for Breakwall sized and ready soon!

Yarn: Rowan Cotton Jeans

MC 361 Jute

CC 360 Canvas

Needles: Size 8 bamboo circs

My first booth!

Hi all.  I know I've been absent awhile, but I have a good reason.  I have been working like crazy to prepare for my first trade show booth!  I launched my patterns at TNNA last weekend, and it went really well.  Here are a couple shots of the booth:

This was a trade only show, so I was selling to other yarn shops around the country.  I was in a "new vendor" section of the floor with neighbors like Shannon and the Stitch Cooperative.  (more great patterns!)  I also got to see the yarn harlot talk for the first time!  She was great!

To prepare, I reworked the format on all of my original patterns and had pictures taken by Maribeth.  They came out great!  I started shipping patterns last week, and am waiting for another batch from the print shop to get out the rest.  I'm putting together a website as well, and I'll let you know when it's finished.  Maybe I'll tell you about some of my recent knitting too!  

Welcome hat for Baby C.

Pete's cousin and his wife are expecting a new baby boy this month.  New babies and showers mean baby knitting!  

I made this hat for the shower with Plymouth Jean-nee, a nice soft blend of cotton and acrylic.  It comes in some great colors.  I chose the lightest and darkest blue for a one-row stripe spiral.  The technique is really cool, but confusing until you do it.  (Even when I knit it, I didn't quite get it, but it worked!)  You can see the tutorial from Grumperina that inspired it here.  

"Thanks for letting me model, Mom!" 

 

Pete didn't want to be on the blog, so I tried to crop out his grumpy morning face as much as I could.  Sorry you're still there honey!

That's Life!

The shop was featured on Fox 8 this morning!  You can see the clip from That's Life with Robin Swoboda here, as well as some other Chardon businesses.  Enjoy!  I'll post soon with pics of Audrey's Easter knitting, and my newest sweater project.  

A new addiction?

Yes, the rumors are true.  I learned how to spin last week, and it was awesome!  If you've never spun before, you've got to try it just for the mesmerizing effect it has.  Imagine the zone that knitting puts you in when you're doing stockinette in the round, wool on bamboo, and it's about 10:30 at night, and you just drank half a pot of Sleepytime tea . . . times ten . . . zzzzz.

I was so "in the zone" that I didn't get a picture, even though my awesome teacher Sierra left me with her wheel and merino for almost five hours. 

This is the first photo taken- when we were winding my first yarn onto a swift in order to ply it.  That's Sierra on the floor behind me.  She plied my yarn for me, and it came out quite pretty!

I spun 60 g total - enough for a nice hat - if I can stand to knit it!  It's just so pretty!  I washed it and set the spin since this photo, and the wool did bloom nicely, while retaining the "designer slubs."

Thanks again Sierra!  I loved it!  

Baby Elf

You may have noticed, if you peruse the sidebar, that I have not posted a single one of my "recently finished projects."  I'll try to correct that quickly.

I made this hat for Audrey a couple of weeks ago at Thursday Knit Night.  It took me an hour, plus a bit of time the next morning to replace a roll-brim with ribbing.  There never was and never will be a pattern.  I just worked an i-cord for the top, increased until it seemed a good size, knit straight for a bit, and did the brim.  Tada!

I think she likes it, as she's been wearing it every day since!  The yarn is Twister Space from Universal.  A nice knit!  More FO's to come . . .

Sock yarn, anyone?

We've gotten a bunch of new stuff in the shop recently, mostly since Shelly and I went to our trade show in January.  The New Year often inspires diets of many kinds, and some people even entertain the idea of a "yarn diet" to slim down their stash.  Just a friendly reminder to say: "SOCK YARN DOES NOT COUNT TOWARDS YOUR STASH!"

So enjoy, guilt free!  

Plymouth Happy Feet

(ravelry)

OnLine Supersocke

SWTC Tofutsies

all new colors!

(ravelry)

Noro Kureyon Sock

(ravelry)

And, last but not least, Dream in Color Smooshy Sock!

(ravelry)

Yippee!!!!!

sweet treats

"Do you like my new leggings?"

I made these for Audrey this morning.  I felted an old sweater in the machine, and cut these little legwarmers from the sleeves.  The sweater was wool, angora, and 10% nylon, but still felted well.  They came out so cute and soft!  Now I just need to decide what to make with the rest of the sweater.  Toys?  Tea cozy?  Baby hat?

I've been knitting too.  I finished this first Neopolitan Sock a couple of weeks ago.  It is knit with solid brown and variegated pink Aussie Sock.  (ravelry)

I knit one round plus one stitch for each stripe, making the jog swirl around the sock.  I finished with a star toe shaping, which I think came out a bit short.  I'll do something different when I finish the second one, then rip the first and reknit.  Any suggestions besides the plain old "flat toe with kitchener"?

don't drop those needles!

I keep forgetting to take super blog pics while knitting, or at the shop, so I just have this video to share with you today.  I found a link to it here, which I linked to from knitgrrl.  

Off to the show!

I'm on my way to the TNNA show in Long Beach, CA in the morning.  A fun-filled trade show weekend of seeing all the fun new knitting stuff, and buying for the shop.  Yippee!  If you see me there, and we've never met, please introduce yourself.

New coat, new knitting

I got a new coat this week, and all of you fellow knitters know what that means!

I have to knit new accessories!  I am thinking of convertible mittens with the cream tweed on the right, and a scarf from two of the other yarns.  I might use a pattern from Knitting New Scarves by Lynne Barr.  You can see a gallery of the projects here.  I like the flapper, as well as some of the other linear/geometric ones.  We shall see!

Christmas knitting

I did do a bit of knitting for Christmas this year.  This is a felt tote that I made for my wonderful mother-in-law:

The yarn is Rowan Scottish Tweed Chunky,  with various wools for the needle felting, and Grayson E. leather handles.  I love how adding the handles and a little bit of embellishment can finish it off.  

The matching Christmas hats were meant for father and daughter, but I knew even while I was knitting that Pete wouldn't really wear his.  That explains why I got to model it here!  The yarn is Cascade 220 wool, solid red and cream, and one of the Handpaints for the green.  The colorwork is just a simple slip-stitch pattern.  I think they came out quite cute!  Audrey never did get a pom-pom, but I will add one for next year.  It should still fit her with a mild elastic adjustment.  

Happy New Year!

Audrey and I were in the Plain Dealer yesterday.  You can see the picture here, and you can read the article here.  Sorry I couldn't find them on the same page!  

I added a list of the blogs I read regularly to the sidebar.  Just in case you were interested, or bored, or whatever.

I tried to do a longer post, with pics of some of my Christmas knitting, but I wasn't able to load any photos tonight. Bummer!  More updates on my current knitting soon.