Lacy Picot Cardigan

Another new design. This one is a freebie. I designed it for an employee of Knit One North In Pittsburgh, always planned to include more sizes but never got around to it so... if it fits you great, if not, but you can figure out the math, even better. Enjoy!
 Lacy Picot Cardigan

Tyrolean Teddy Bear

We have a new pattern up on Ravelry.

Tyrolean Teddy Bear is a little ditty for your knitting pleasure. A sweet little whiff of stranded color work for the holidays. This pattern is available in a size to fit a very handsome teddy and a lovely toddler (sizes 2, 4,and 6) How about a matching pair for the cutie on your Christmas list?

This little guy started out as a tutorial for a stranded color work class I will be teaching at the South Hills Knitting Guild meeting this Thursday. So if you are in Pittsburgh and a member of the South Hills Knitting Guild I hope you can make it. Should be lots of fun.

Whoo! Hoo!

I got me new MacBook and I am wasting extraordinary amounts of time playing when I should be knitting or baking,  or cleaning, or exercising, or almost anything else you can imagine,  oh the joy! I think my honey is jealous and I know at least one of my kiddos is. The other one just doesn't know what she is missing yet. I am planning big things for this computer and I this winter. That is all.

Why Housework Should be Avoided at All Costs

This is the outcome when your beautiful cashmere and silk shawl meets the power nozzle of the vacuum cleaner. Luckily only a small part of the yarn was sucked into the vacuum and I was able to extract it, but the needle is a goner. Which is a shame because I love these Lace Addi's and they ain't cheap.

I have been sewing a dress to wear to the upcoming Art Gala at our High School. I always remember why I love knitting so much and sewing not so much when I am in the middle of a sewing project. I love the portability of knitting, the wonderful fibers slipping through your fingers, the joy of watching the garment grow before your eyes.

Sewing is a much more solitary task (at least at my house where my sewing room is in the basement and all the action takes place upstairs) and wraught with landmines of mistakes that can't be just be pulled out and reknit. It you mess up your sewing it involves another trip to the very distant fabric store and the waste of all the time and effort you have already invested. It just seems so much more anxiety inducing.

And then there is the whole fit issue. Knitting is sooo much more forgiving of a curvy figure than the sewing. So I am sewing this lovely dress in a very un-forgiving fabric with the almost certain belief I will not be thin enough to show it to it's best advantage. So that's kind of looming over everything as well as next Thursday's deadline.The vision of what you will look like and the reality are often very jarring. Maybe this is why I have been sewing so many drapes, slipcovers and bags over the last few years and not so many garments for myself.

Oh and just to make sure the time crunch is absolute. I decided I would need a lace stole to wear with this new dress to this fancy Art Gala, and of course only the new yarn I just bought would look right with the dark brown fabric I choose, not one of the other 6 shawls I have already knit. So there is that little added weight on my shoulders.

I am counting my blessings that the vacuum only ate my needle and not the actual knitting, then I might have thrown in the towel and called "Uncle."

But who can resist the allure of a cashmere stole?  (This is one I finished for a good friend a while ago.) Mine will be in Jade Sapphire Silk Cashmere color Wasabi. It is about half done and I wish I could just work on it to the exclusion of all the other obligations in my life. Wish me luck.

Loverlies

Foggy Fall morning in western Pennsylvania.

And  cute little teddy bears in sweaters.

And now I am off to do some knitting homework. Just got a call from Stacey at Knit One where I teach. Can I teach Melissa Morgan-Oakes 2-at-a-Time sock technique? Well, I have never knit 2-at-a-Time socks but I am pretty comfortable with sock knitting. I bought her book recently but haven't had the spare time to give it a test drive. Melissa's at Rhinebeck so I hope I can reach her on Facebook if I get lost along the way. Her directions look very clear and I am thrilled to curl up with a great knitting book and learn a new skill. It's cold, rainy and so, the prefect day for baking (pumpkin bread) and knitting tiny socks.

Have a nice weekend everyone.

Just a Quicky

Before they head off to Stitches East 2009, I thought I would show you the little darlings. I am reveling in their cutness and color. But I feel it was a momentary fling.

Look at the colors I pulled out of stash this afternoon. Browns and grays, but all good.

The brown is Shetland Jumper weight and the grey is Alpaca.

This is the view I enjoyed while knitting this afternoon. Tough job, but someone had to do it.











These dahlias are still blooming like it's August. Evidence that flowers don't watch the Weather Channel.

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Found this beauty hanging out on the leftovers from a previous post. These sunflowers have really earned their keep this summer.

And the is a little preview of a coming attraction. More on this later.

Knitting My Way Out of A Black Hole

Perhaps you remember this,


which I fondly refer to as the "Abysmal Black Hole of Despair". It has been converted to this.



Oh Happy Day!!!

Which means that I have successfully made 5 of these. (Shhh, these will be worn in a new movie being filmed as we speak, so that's a bit exciting, especially since they are finished.) Yes, I did in fact knit 5 sweaters in two and one half weeks. Remind me to tell you about my vacation at the FedEx offices on Nantucket. Does that make it a "Fedexation"?




And the antidote for 5 of those, is a little of this...

Jade Sapphire 2 ply Silk Cashmere(55% Silk, 45% Cashmere) in Wasabi
Lace Anyone???

and some of this...

Pretty in Pink

and in Praise of Periwinkle
Nashua Handknits "Julia"

Teddy Bear sweaters making their debut at Stitches East. Just a little more finishing and pretty buttons from SouptoKnits , some pattern writing and they will be headed to Connecticut.

Can you see what a joy it has been to design and knit these little guys after the bleakness. I designed and knit both of these in 1 day. The excitement of color was overwhelming. I could not stop. Oh, the joy.