My First Design

So I designed my own project! I can't believe this is the first thing I've ever designed myself.  I've been knitting well over ten years, but anyways, I've finally done it.  I designed a hat for my best friend Lydia.  I was worried that it wouldn't fit her because she's super tiny, and I have the biggest head ever.  I kind of designed the hat to fit me.  But I made it extra slouchy, and when she folded up the brim, it fit her and was still a little slouchy.  Awesome.  I published my pattern for free on Ravelry.  Check it out here.  It was a fairly quick and easy knit, and it looks super cute with a pompom.  I added one after it was done.

Here it is all finished

Here's a close up of the lace stripes

Here it is on my huge head 

Baby Sweater... Finished!

It's done, and it's beautiful.  I can't wait to go pick out the rest of the outfit to gift to my friend.  Unfortunately, I'll be back at school before I'll see her again, so my mother will have to deliver it.

So Cute

I wanted to use little leather buttons on it so that it would look super manly, but I only had three leather buttons that were the same color.  So I used yellow buttons instead.  It definitely gives it more of a kid vibe.

Detail of the Front

I really love the way the yarn looked when knit.  It has so much depth and interest to it.  I highly recommend dying your own yarn. It makes everything so interesting and unique!

On a technical note, I didn't steam block this sweater like the instructions suggested.  I wet blocked.  I wet block almost everything.  I like to give all my projects a good soak after I finish to clean them up and make sure they smell good.  I'm glad I did.  I think it looks perfect! 

A Baby Sweater

So a member of my Bunco group is having her third baby boy.  I've decided to make a little baby sweater out of my green hand dyed yarn.

Here is the yarn again. 

I've even found a baby sweater pattern that incorporates leaves! What are the chances!

Here is the pattern on Ravelry.  It's pretty adorable.  Of course mine doesn't look so great yet.  I think I've already made a mistake and put the buttons on the wrong side.  I don't think that's that big of a deal though.

Cowls Cowls Everywhere

I've been on a huge cowl kick lately.  I stop paying attention for a few minutes and I'm knitting another one.  I think it's because I've been hand dying single skeins of yarn and it's hard for me to find one skein wonder patterns that I really like.  But, I've never met a cowl I didn't like.  

So recently I completed another cowl.  This one is a smocked stitch cowl called Ziyal.  The pattern is here on Ravelry.  This is the first time I've ever done a smocked stitch, and it is fantastic.  It looks really complicated and cable-like, but it is so much simpler and faster than cables.  

I used one hand dyed skein of Patons Classic Wool Worsted kettle dyed with broken Wilton's black icing coloring.  

Look at those pretty stitches!

I've been knitting a lot lately since I've been a little sick.  I hate being sick but it gives me a great reason to be knitting and crocheting as much as possible! :)

Great for hiding cold sores too. :(

Dyeing Yarn with Kids

 So I am watching a 6th grade girl and a 2nd grade girl this week.  I'm trying to find fun things to do with them and learned that the older girl crochets... so... time to dye yarn!

Their yarn came out so much prettier than anything I've ever dyed.  I'm jealous, and I want to keep it. I won't that wouldn't be nice.

So Pretty!

Dyed by the 2nd grader. 

Dyed by the 6th grader.

Look at those gorgeous colors.  I especially like the blue and orange one.  As it was dying I was thinking, "Ohno, muddy colors!" but I think it turned out perfect.  Ugh, I want to keep them so bad!

Pickles!!!

So I'm making my first pickles tonight.  They are refrigerator bread and butter pickles.  I used Alton Brown's Recipe.    They should be awesome.  They smell awesome.

Here is my beautiful jar of pickles waiting to cool. 

One of the best parts about making pickles is pickling spice.  It's a combination of cloves, nutmeg, mustard seed, hot pepper flakes, and a few other spices.  It smells like Christmas in a jar.  I could just sit around and smell it all day long.  

Delicious!

River Deep, Mountain High Cowl

 I recently got back from 6 months in Leipzig, Germany.  It was wonderful, but I was busy all the time.  It's nice to have a little free time, and I've been filling it with knitting.  Here is one of my first projects since I got home.  The pattern I used is here.  I used size 8 straight needles however and seamed it up the back.  There is a visible seam, but for me it's not an issue.  

This is another hand dyed yarn.  It was also Patons Classic Wool worsted.  This is Wiltons broken violet which breaks into this pale blue and purple.  The heathered gradient is a result of the yarn being wound into a cake before being dyed.  To retain a lot of white in the center of the ball of yarn the yarn is not presoaked.  Presoaking helps the dye wick along the yarn and would result in the blue color penetrating deeper into the ball of yarn.   

I love the way these colors turned out!  The gradient turned out a lot stronger than I anticipated.  

This is probably the most interesting yarn I have ever worked with.