sometimes knit happens

pattern: The Wonderful Wallaby
designer: Carol A. Anderson of Cottage Creations
yarn: Spud & Chloe's Sweater yarn (2 1/2 skeins) in Turtle and one skein of Koigu Kersti (totally forgot the colorway - helpful, I know)
needles: Addi Turbo 24 inch circs in US size 6 (for the cuffs and waist ribbing) and size 8

While this sweater was not quite ready in time for Rhinebeck festivities as I had hoped, I was knitting the neck that weekend and had completed the knitting portion of the project just a week or or two later. Then I did what I often do with knit projects - I let it sit in a bag somewhere in our apartment with the ends waiting to be woven in for the next few months. It was marinating, of course! Other projects came up, and then I was pregnant and tired so I couldn't stay up to do it, and then more projects came up, and then... and then... and then.... Blerg. You know the song and dance. 

But lo! It is done! The hood has been kitchener-stitched (hastily), the armpits also (shoddily), and all those yarny bits have been woven in (finally!).  Which is great timing since it fits the kiddo *just* right. I'd say he'll get a few weeks of wear out of it before it's too small. Being as it's a lovely cotton/wool blend, it'll be the perfect sweater for this whackadoodle spring we're having where it's 80º F one day and 40º the next. 

That Spud & Chloe Sweater yarn is so freaking fantastic. I want to knit all the kiddo knits with it. It's is squishy, soft, and sproingy, and I love this shade of green immensely.

The pattern itself is a breeze. As much as I appreciated its clarity, I also enjoyed the conversational tone in which it was written. It's very EZ. And really, any pattern that instructs you to "treat yourself" is my kind of pattern. My only challenge was that I tried to integrate the instructions for striping as on the purl bee for the size I was doing which must have been different from theirs as I was coming up with slightly different numbers, hence different striping results. I managed to keep the stripe spacing at four rows, but that entailed some finagling when I started the raglan decreases at the shoulders and when I stopped knitting in the round for the neck opening. If that sounds confusing, it's because I was completely confused. Not that it was a big deal as I was able to keep it up with the striping, but it was just a little frustrating to have two ends of the contrasting Koigu going at once in order to maintain the spacing. Maybe I overcomplicated things; I'm not sure. Not to perpetuate the whole "pregnancy brain" bull, but my thinking was not as clear or rational as I would have liked at that stage in the pregnancy. The hormone fluctuations were doing something unfunnily funny to my logic. Next time I knit a Wallaby, and there will be a next time since this is so cute and easy, I'll use either a solid or a self-striping yarn. I'm not going to bother striping it in that manner again, as pretty as it looks.

The best thing about this sweater, though? The kiddo's fascination with the pouch. He kept shouting, "Pockets!" during our little photoshoot. Makes me happy to see him appreciating something I made for him!

spring sewing

I've been whipping up stuff for future classes at gather here. If there's one important thing I've learned about writing up patterns for class it's that I should always test the patterns out as I write them. So there's been a lot of that - sewing and writing and more sewing and learning InDesign as I go. I'm more than a little in love with InDesign. I am in deep deep love with it.

So this sampler... I'm picking out traditional blocks that will both teach people the basics of patchworks and also kinda "tell a story" as it goes. So far, I have 7 blocks down, maybe 5 more to go. I'd like to do more, truth be told, but we'll see how that goes....

why hello there, you!

Hi! So what's crackin'? Me? Laughing at myself because I don't have the dedication nor attention-span to stick to a simple photo project. I've also been crazy busy, so there's that. I've made a few quilts for classes (finished shots to come soon), sewed a dress for myself, cut out a couple for the new wee, have been finally catching up on bee blocks, and have started a sampler for next month's class. And I even finished knitting the kiddo that Wallaby. I'll tell you more about it later. For now, here's a sneak peek at my happy project, the one I go to at night when I can't sleep - my scrappy granny blocks.

Oh, and one more thing... gratuitous kitty shot!