Toddler Feet

I think only a mom could say this, but there is nothing sweeter than toddler feet. I had some yarn bits that I didn't know what to do with so socks it was!


I think this picture shows the colors better


I also finished a pair of longies, a hat, and a shawl (boy am I behind on photos!)

And just so that Elliot doesn't feel left out, here's a picture of him wearing the Everyday Pullover (which he in fact does wear every day!)


In business news, I have pretty much every one of my usual bases in stock at this moment. I have a huge coop coming up so I am going to be busy with that soon. But before I start on the coop I hope I have some time to work with my most favorite base, the Ambrosia MCN. I have waited for two months for this yarn to come to me and its as lovely as I remember it from last time!

Stehekin

Vacation was incredible. We stayed at http://stehekinvalleyranch.com/

An all inclusive rustic ranch resort. As a work at home mom it was nice to take a week off of cooking, doing the dishes, and cleaning.

I've never been good about writing. Here's an excerpt from an article about Stehekin

You can do it all, sample one or two of the activities, or simply do nothing but curl up with a book and doze off in one of the conveniently situated hammocks or Adirondacks at the Ranch. As you breathe in the fresh air and feast your eyes on the glorious scenery, you‘ll realize just how much you needed to disconnect and disengage from that rat race you call life. Your senses will come alive in this natural, unspoiled piece of paradise and you’ll understand why so many folks make Stehekin their annual pilgrimage.

http://www.nwnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4655%3Astehekin-the-jewel-of-the-north-cascades&catid=90%3Atravel&Itemid=125

And the pie was to die for! mmmmmmmmmm pie

Here's my "captain's chair". The Adirondack chair I called home every evening.



And if you're curious about the knitting project. It is the "Dark and Stormy" cardigan, knit with my own yarn.



I hope we can return again next year....

Lullaby

I am taking my commitment to only knit with my own yarns pretty seriously. What I am discovering is just how much I love using my own yarns, talk about a "farm to table" approach. Now if only I could have my own sheep, and spin my own yarn - a girl can dream right?

This is a colorway that I did using a low immersion technique. What I like about it is that colors maintained their integrity but still mixed to give a random color distribution. This dye was done on a tester skein of organic merino. I am considering adding a supplier to my repertoire but I wanted to test the yarn prior to committing to it. This organic merino is not the same as what many know as "Gaia". I would say the strand is fluffier and reminds me much more of a cashmere/merino blend than a merino. Yes, its that nice.
Since I only had one skein, all I could make was a newborn set.

In other news, I am thoroughly enjoying my first co-op. I was very anxious as I was waiting for the group order to come in. But once the order was in I just settled into a hyper dyeing mode and now two weeks later the 60 skein order is more than 50% finished. I'm a little sad that I am taking the summer off, dyeing is quite an addiction.

Bee Mine

I can't get over how cute this set is! Knit with my Chickadee Overalls pattern. I striped yellow and black cestari (the yellow was dyed by me). On the chest panel I embroidered two flying bees. The hat has little antennas and I'm working on some matching black leg warmers that will have little bees embroidered on them too.

I swear I'm not procrastinating!

I've been so busy working on patterns that I have forgotten to give myself a few extra minutes to write in the blog.

This past week I released the Charlotte Collection pattern, the pattern can be knit as either a tank or a sleeved dress, tunic or sweater. I've been told that it has very modern and stylish lines. I am pretty sure I've shown it off before when I knit up the samples, but here it is anyway.

Tank:

Sleeved:

Both were knit with my Rhea Silk blend yarn.

Of course in parallel I have also been working on a new cardigan design, here's Reid modeling :)

As usual I'm playing catch up

Things have finally settled down around here and I am no longer feeling the pain of saying goodbye to our beloved sitter. The baby is now in childcare twice a week for a total of 6 hours. I have also had the husband help me clear out the garage and now I can officially say I have a studio! It was so much fun moving everything out of the kitchen and into the garage. The biggest perk is that I now have a new microwave and kettle!

My first dye project was Koi Pond, along with other vivid girly colors. I also dyed Princess Buttercup, Wildflowers, Full Bloom, and Spring Delight. I must have hit the spot with these colorways as most sold out within minutes of stocking!


Knitting wise I am an effort to only knit up with my own yarns. So I used Rogue on Licorice Twist to make a super cute pair of overalls.

Happy New Year!

Well its certainly has been a while since my last entry. The holidays came at me with full swing and sadly I had no time to dye, though I did get some knitting in.

I got two large scrappy rompers done. I thought they were going to be the end of me! Its been a long time since I had to weave in so many loose ends. But all the hard work was worth it, they came out super adorable.

Size 6M, Tessa Ann buttons, lots of scraps!



Wildwood romper pattern!

Beach Knits

Had a wonderful time at the coast with the family last week. Didn't get as much knitting done as I was hoping, but I did manage to finish a sweater for Mr. Elliot :)
Its a new pattern I'm working on, very easy top down with a lovely cable work down the chest. Hopefully I can publish it in the coming weeks.

It was my second time knitting with Eos superwash merino. The two ply yarn is thick and soft with a great twist to it. I was concerned that the sweater would pill on my active kiddo, but so far its holding up amazingly well with practically no piling.

Ruffled Sunhat Pattern

Before packaging up the romper and hat to be shipped off this afternoon I just had to do a quick photoshoot with Reid in the hat. I'm going to hang on to these until his senior yearbook >:) Doesn't he look just darling.

I also wrote up the pattern for the hat and its now up for sale on Ravelry

Reid's Romper in the Pheobe Colorway

Gosh I just love how this colorway has knit up. I always like knitting my own colorways as it gives me good insight into my color placement and repeat.

The hat is a top down pattern I made up, maybe one day I will write it out. Its super easy. The hat is going to be a surprise. I had a bunch of yarn left over and I just thought it would look totally adorable on the little girl.


Top down view of the hat

New and Exciting

The last few weeks have been a complete whirlwind. I finished knitting two versions of the Charlotte Collection; a tunic and a sweater. I wrote up the pattern for said collection and have sent out copies for testers to work on.

For the sweater option I went with a 50/50 silk merino blend dyed in shades of lilac. The yarn has incredible sheen and drape and is baby soft. Perfect for a holiday dress. I think the satin ribbon ties the look together.


For the tunic I went with the same yarn base but in a different color. The emerald green is absolutely stunning.


I hope that the testers can get through the pattern in the coming few weeks and then the pattern will be up for sale on Ravelry. I have also began working on two additional patterns. One is a modification to the romper, and another is a quick and easy cabled sweater.

New Colorway!

I'm so excited how this colorway turned it, I envisioned something bright bold and beautiful and I got exactly that! I'm calling it 'Electric Rainbow' and its fantastic.


I have so many ideas and so many things in the works. I wish I had more time and more hands to get it all done.
The dress pattern is coming along nicely. I have sent it off to my testers this week. I imagine that there will be many revisions in the coming weeks. I still need to finish the sweater option, but sadly I cannot find my size 5DPNs and magic looping is not working well with the teeny sleeves. So hopefully today I can pickup some new needles for myself.

Weekend Knits

What a busy and fun filled weekend we had.

Saturday we ran from a birthday party to a lantern walk at Elliot's preschool. I managed to finish one glove on Friday day, then the next glove was done on Saturday. To my dismay I realized that the gauge on my second glove was much tighter than on my first, so I had to redo the first glove to make it snugger.
Then on Sunday we went hiking and I cast on for the lacy Julian hat. I got most of the hat done during the drive to and from the hike and then finished it off Sunday night.


The yarn was absolutely amazing to knit with and has reignited my love for handspun yarn. Last week I also made a matching feather and fan cowl/scarf but haven't had a chance to photograph it yet.

Here comes another coffee infused post from yours truly

I'm having a lot of fun photographing yarn. Here is what I'm putting up this week for the Wonderland congo. Its really too bad that calendars are becoming obsolete, I would love to do a yarnie calendar.


I've been putting a lot of effort into the Chickadee Overalls pattern. In fact just as I felt it was finished up I made a major design change and now will need to have the pattern tested again.
I've also knit two samples now, using the same traveling stitch design as the Julian vest. Hopefully during our Seattle getaway this week I can write up the instructions. Here I am modeling the hat. I really wish I had used a different yarn, something I could actually wear. But I'm a total snob and find plain wool to be too scratchy. And red, I am not a fan of red!

Pattern Release Party

So Reid's Romper is ready to be released. I have gone over it with a fine tooth comb, over and over again. I think its ready. Monday is the big day and I'm really excited. I decided to post a last minute $3 off yarn coupon for that day too, plus an auction for a custom dye job, and two pattern giveaways. I admit its kind of fun to watch the store traffic spike.

I'm slowly starting to dye up the new bases. I tried the Dolce BFL first, and dyed "Full Bloom" which is a really gorgeous colorway everyone seems to like. I also tried dyeing twice as much yarn, probably shouldn't experiment so much all at once in the future. But it worked out fine. I changed the color repeat a bit though, and so it has less brown than usual.

Also the new image reflect the change in my yarn photography. I'm really enjoying taking the round bowl shots.



Next I dyed 3 skeins of Eos Merino for my husband's vest gift. He doesn't follow the blog (though he should :P) its going to be his holiday gift. I'm going to attempt at reworking the Julian vest pattern to fit adults. It was my first time working with Eos and wow it did not disappoint. The yarn is as soft as clouds. I kettle dyed it with shades of moss green, going all the way from very dark to very light and some silver. Hopefully I will have some pictures to show soon.

Julian Vest Debut

This vest is a debut of a new pattern I have been working on. This vest is knit in a bottom-up fashion; starting with a rib stitch detail on the bottom and a lovely "V" design down the front. The vest also features a V-neck, and a two button closure across the left shoulder (which makes it really easy to get the vest over a baby's head).

The yarn used is a semi-solid teal colorway dyed by me on Mountain Meadow Rambouillet.

Coastal Susnet Hat

Elliot was in love with this hat. So I promised him I will make him one just like it. I have two more customs coming up, but after that I hope to make something for my sweetie. I'm thinking I will make him a scrappy hat.
Knit with Mosaic Moon's Coastal Sunset on Mountain Meadow Rambouillet. YUM!

Gotta love his undies!

Black Rainbow Custom Longies

I am really excited about these longies. They are 100% me from beginning to end. I dyed the yarn and then knit it up!
The colorway is a custom request, a customer requested a black rainbow with black trim. I have done a similar colorway before called 'Pink Floyd' but in that case I muted the colors to give them all a slightly gray feel.

I can't wait to see some action shots!

Scrappy Romper

Finally finished the custom romper I was working on. I always forget how long bigger sizes take to knit up! I also had to be the one driving out to Sunriver (5 hours away) so that cut out 10 hours of work for me. Very unfortunate (only a knitter would understand) but the vacation was amazing and we had a great time.
We did all that Central Oregon has to offer. Biking, hiking, swimming, caving, and of course eating! My husband and sister climbed Souther Sister. I am very proud of my lil sis for making it to the summit. Hopefully next year I can join them.

The romper will be adorned with wooden buttons as soon as those arrive here! But I simply could not sit on these any longer, I just had to share.


I present the scrappy romper. Three colorways and two trims give an amazing color combination. I believe the colorways are Mosaic Moon's Woodland Tale, Isode & Tristan, and Shallot. Scrappies are a great way to use up left over yarn. Knitting wise they are not much different to do, but oh boy I had a lot of loose ends to weave!

Custom Romper

Still needs to be lanolized and blocked, but soon this romper will be on its way to a very lucky baby in Florida.
Knit with Mosaic Moon's Sea Glass on Gaia bulky merino. The yarn is to die for (or should I say dye for) the colors are just gorgeous and so soft and cuddly. It was a good experience knitting with bulky weight yarn, I got a good idea of how to modify the romper pattern.