Sad Endings, New Beginnings

I was so proud of myself. After my original Learn to Knit class at Ewe-nique Knits in Royal Oak, I joined the Wednesday night knitting circle and took on a big beautiful project -- a cardigan using 3 different colors of yarns.

Alas, I can't find the original pattern or the yarn information but here is a close-up of the pattern:

Beautiful right? Here's how it looks in pieces:

The problem? These are the pieces of a beautiful cardigan post-knitting, post-seaming and finishing. What happened? Well, I knitted up the medium size because I'm a medium size, right?
So I sewed everything up and what happened?
It was huge on me! Not just a little big -- it was BIG!
But after all that hard work and effort I wasn't going to let this go to waste --- so I pawned it off on my mother who is more of a large...
Her response... it will still too big!
So she has faithfully held on to the sweater, not wanting to hurt my feelings, but not really wanting to wear it either.
A couple of days ago, she gave it back.
We're going through a yarn shortage here -- my niece is living with us at the moment and she is a knitting FIEND! I've shared a good share of my stash to keep her busy, but the truth is... we're almost out of yarn!
So last night, giving up my cherished sweater that nobody was going to weart, we started frogging it in search of beautiful, yummy yarn that will someday take on a new life as something else.

Dreaming of summer....

It's February, it's still cold and I'm counting down the days to spring because it's the only thing that is going to get me through this month!

As a member of the Anny Blatt Lovers on Ravelry, I've been perusing their spring/summer catalog (you can find it here) and am just loving their offerings!

They've added a few new colors to their Victoria line that are just sumptuous...

I'm particularlly in love with the Cerise and Japonais and am thinking that this ribbon yarn would make a wonderful summer tank top!

I also fell for their Vianney pattern that looks just so soft and comfy....

-- and I definitely love the color.. It's made with Anny Blatt's Japonais - Victoria, Angora Super and Muguet.

What inspires you?

The Dropsies

So I took a break from Sylvi to work on this drop-stitch scarf for my sister-in-law and I discovered muscles I didn't know existed!



I'm not a wimp and not THAT out of shape, but this pattern calls for a ton of Yarn Overs and I'm using my arms in knitting in a whole new way. And slowly, but surely, my body cried "Ouch!"

Here's where it hurts:

When it comes to knitting I do it in the English style which means I'm a "thrower" and my right hand and arm do all the work! As the aches came on I've tried silly ways to modify my style, propping up pillows under both my arms and anything else you can think of, but it's just been getting worse and worse.

So now it's reversi time -- I took a break from the scarf to finish the second sleeve of my Sylvi coat -- it's knit mostly in seed stitch which seems to be easier on the body!

Drop Stitch Daze

I am just loving this pattern for the Easy Drop Stitch Scarf!

This is my first drop stitch project and it's a lot easier than I thought it would be.

Here's the project picture from Ravelry:

I decided to use this Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport in the Tuscan colorway. Wound up it looks like this:

So I cast on two nights ago and after a brief hiccup, I knitted a good five inches last night. The pattern calls for repeats that are really easy to remember and after a few rows I was off and running!

The scarf looks a little unkempt, but I'm convinced that after I wash it and block it, it will really open up!

Inspiration Credit

I found it! I read about the Easy Drop Stitch Scarf in Melody's blog at http://www.knitphomaniacs.com/

Faces of February

I don't know what that groundhog saw today, but here in metro Detroit the first day of February has brought us the gift of warm weather... 45 degrees! woo hoo!

The snow is melting -- Rupert the dog can finally move around the backyard in less than stomach-high snow and the Bird Girl has lost her snow cap (see pictures below).

Something about the warm temps, not having to wear two layers and not even wearing socks has got my mind spinning (knitting?) with ideas...

Oh yes, Sylvi is still in progress. I've finished one sleeve and started the next (That is Nikita, a.k.a. 2 of 5) in the picture. Knitting Kitty... Kitty Knitting....




But my timeline on Sylvi is long... next fall is my goal.... so I need to break things up with little projects. Reading someone's blog, I can't remember whose (sorry :( ) I saw this great pattern for the Easy Drop Stitch Scarf... read the instructions and determined I could knit this up pretty easily in front of the TV without too many opportunities for errors.




So I went searching through my stash and decided up this Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport in Tuscany -- I'm excited to see how it will turn out!

Of course I can knit without a recipient in mind so I've settled on this for my sister-in-law Kelly. (Well, she's not REALLY my sister-in-law, but that's another story.) I'm always talking about my knitting and what I'm making for who, but I've never made anything for her so I figure this should make up for things!

Cowl'd & Frosty Morning

Well, I just loved Kelly's Cowl’d and Frosty Morning pattern!

I could have knitted this up in one night, but I got distracted so it took me two. I've put the cowl in a gift bag and left it for Julie the mail carrier.

Sorry for the quality of the pictures -- I decided to use my phone's camera just to get the pix really quick before I packaged it up!