{Hey! Hi! It's been a million years!}

Hi! Fancy meeting you here!  I haven't seen you guys in a while... I've been super busy settling in to my new post-graduation job and finding a routine.

Oh and then we bought the house! I know you guys have seen pics here in the past.  We moved the first week of December and have been settling in here. It's starting to feel like our own.

gratuitous living room shot.  And no - I'm not winning any mantle 

decorating competitions this year.  

But anyway! I'm here today because I found this sweater that I've fallen in love with!  I haven't been doing a whole lot of complicated knitting lately because a) not a lot of money for yarn these days and 2) (hehe) not a lot of time for heavy-concentration knitting.   Lately when I've felt the pull of the wool it's for something that I can do in front of the tv and turn off my brain.  And thinking back, it really was my winter and summer breaks where I got most of my big knitting done while I was in school.

So back to the sweater - I'm writing because it presents a dilemma for me.   First of all, this is it here:
Tilda in the Brooklyn Tweed new line up.  I love the raglan shape, the eyelets, and the delicate cabling down the front and even the little contrast edges at the bottom and the cuffs!  It has totally captivated me.  I haven't cast on yet though because there are a few things I don't like.  But what are a few uhh ... challenges... (cough cough)... when you're in LOVE?  We find ways to work around those, right??

Here's the thing though.  It's in worsted weight yarn, which I sorta promised myself I would graduate past because all the sweaters I've knit in worsted weight yarn tend to be too bulky on me. I really need to be down at DK and below.  BUT! I could just put in a bunch of shaping right?? Easy peasey on a top-down construction!  

This one is not top-down.  It's a seamed construction knit from the bottom up, as seen here in the WP4LookBook .   Go take a look at that link... I'll wait a second.

How in the world am I going to shape that without totally ruining the line of the eyelets that I love?? GAH!!  And why on God's Green Earth would someone design a raglan cardigan that has to be knit from the bottom up! DOUBLE GAH!!!

Help me out, Homies.  Help me to understand, even if you can't help me to knit this beautiful (if torturous) pattern.

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{Has it really been month than a half??}

I think it really has been more than a month since I last posted.  Crazy!    During that time I've knit a whole sweater:

This is A Very Plucky Cardigan by Kate Hiester and it's a fabulous knit!  Top down and one piece makes for a quick knit, then add in that it's also knit in worsted weight yarn and you get an entire cardigan in one month of weekend knitting.   The yarn is Vanna's Choice in a "grey marble".  It didn't feel all that great to knit with, a touch scratchy, but it's washed up nice and it feels durable all complete.   The fasteners in the bottom right of the photo are silver hook and eye closures  from Lyonwood on Etsy.  I just got around to ordering those the other day so they are still on their way to me.  I think this is going to be a favorite to wear in the winter!  I'll make sure I get a picture of me wearing it soon, once the temperature cooperates a litlte more.

Also, I bought one of these not long ago:

It is a single skein of Wollmeise in fingering, 100% merino superwash in colour Jeton.  I actually don't like it as much as I was hoping, considering I could have 2 other skeins of REALLY nice yarn for the same price, or 4 other skeins of pretty-nice yarn, ya know?  I wanted to knit a shawl with it, but it's only just this second occured to me that it probably isn't a good idea to do that in superwash.... will I be able to block it properly?

Ahhhh!  I'm already 3 charts in to The Dane Shawl!  Am I going to have to pull it out?!

{A Great Find!}

I was browsing around Ravelry for my next project, when I came across this gorgeous pattern for the first time:

For the Love of Remnants

by Kate Hiester

This sweater is amazing!  In fingering weight yarn, it's a perfect way to use up those ends and bits of sock yarn.   The possibilities with the colours are engless!   I think If I do it, I'll put in a v-neck, which I don't think would be very hard, and maybe a little shaping in the sides.

So when I saw that there were only 8 projects on this FREE pattern, I thought that was odd.   Why aren't more people making this one?  Well, it's only written for one size, but I don't think it would be hard to modify as it's just a sockinette tube, right?

If you've fallen in love and have to cast it on immediately - I apologize.

(not really) :P

{Two in One Day? That's Absurd.}

Well, technically the last post was for yesterday... I just didn't get around to writing it yesterday. Forgive me?


TODAY though - I finished my quilted table runner!! YAY! **horns & cheers**

pattern: Bargello Christmas Wreath by Becky Botello

The bargello technique is pretty cool -  You sew long strips together and then sew them in to a tube that you cut horizontally at varying widths so you get that regular repeating pattern.  It went together pretty quick once I caught on!

Also the machine sewing of the front AND the back is new and so so much faster than the hand-stitching I was doing before.  The trick is to iron over the binding to the back and then sew in the ditch from the front so you catch the binding on the edge.  I had to be careful, but I think it turned out really well!

One last glamour shot: the front and back displayed together:

I think I'll have to "lend" this one to mom, then sew her another one so I can get it back!  (It fits my table much better than it would fit hers, don't you think? :P)

{Yes, I know it's summer}

The 100 degree temperatures are going on their 8th day today I think, and I've been sitting inside all cool... knitting toques and scarves. From wool.  Am I crazy?

Yes.  the answer is yes.

I skeined up my graduation gift yarn  - Madelinetosh Tosh Sport in Robin's Egg and cast on this cute set. First the Pooling Rivulets Stole by Yarn Floozies (obviously without the pooling) and then Hermoine Hearts Ron hat by Christie Aylesworth.  I love how the repeating yarn overs mimic one another so it looks like a set without them matching perfectly.  They both flew by really quickly too, which made for some great  non-investment knitting - exactly what I've been searching for lately.

This whole working-full-time thing has really taken the wind out of my knitterly sails.  I think I always saved my really complex knitting for the summer months so I could concentrate on it for long periods of time. All my big sweaters and shawls have been done during school vacation times!   I'm not sure what I'll do now... have I relegated myself to small projects like these?  We'll have to see, I guess.

Oh speaking of small... does this hat look tiny on my head or is it just me?

{Quilts in Progress}

     Quilting! Sewing! I'm so excited that I'm finally going to get the chance to experiment with free-motion quilting today.  I'm going to start super duper basic, using this video here by lcvday for instruction.  She's got a TON of  videos, each progressively harder and they totally make me believe I can do this - so I'm excited!

     I got to go to the local quilt shop called Sew Many Quilts to pick out backing fabric today. Here's what I came up with:

     This is a quilt that will belong to a very special little girl.  This is the first of two for a set of twin girls.  I thought I would make them very different from typical frilly girly and then also very different from each other too.  Avoid all the stereotypes!

        The quilt is made out of a collection of fabrics from ConnectingThreads.com, which is sort of like the Knit Picks of fabrics: very cheap but usable.  I figured out why they're so cheap, though.  The thread count isn't as high as some of the nicer cottons.  In fact, I think you can see the difference in the sheen on the backing fabric versus the top I made there.  Also, when you buy their precuts (which they don't charge extra for!) you don't get a very good mix of fabrics.  You get a lot of solids and a lot of weird prints you that don't necessarily "balance" a quilt, if you know what I mean.  I didn't end up using but half of the fabric I'd say.  So does that still make it cheaper if you have to buy twice as many precut packs?  Yes, but not by as much as you'd think.  

     This is the table runner that I showed you here.  It's been done for a while, but I hadn't decided what to back it with.  Isn't this fabric PERFECT???  Even the theme of the fabric, that swoopy leafy feathery design, is very similar to most of the motifs in the fabrics of the runner.  I'm pretty much in love with this times 100, but it's promised to my mom.  Maybe I'll have to make her another so she'll trade me back. :P

    So I've already spray adhesived the quilt sandwich together and I'm experimenting on a scrap with the free motion stuff.  I'm going to have so much fun!  I'll let you guys know how it goes. :)

    What are you working on this weekend?

{Current Goings-on}

Hello all! Oh how I've missed you!  I do read all of what you are doing, even if I'm not writing as much anymore.   I've been busy doing all kinds of post-graduation things.   Like working. (mostly working).

The Job is going well and I have no complaints in that area.  Like any industry I've had to start at the bottom and therefore don't have glorious and exciting things to tell you, but I am learning a TON every day about the world of banking and wealth management.

Hubby and I have been house hunting at the same time and it is SO EXCITING.  This is the one we're eyeing right now:

credit: fair field farms realty

There are more pics of you click the link.  It's not 100% perfect but there are so many things in it that we never thought we'd get.  Major pros: beautiful new kitchen, pantry, fire place, 3brs, refinished hardwood floors, right beside a creek, tons of character. Major cons: not in the area we were looking for, no open floor plan, way over priced, right beside a creek (floor insurance).  We're working on getting officially pre-approved this week and then we'll enter in to the bidding process me thinks.

I've not been doing much at night after I get home because I seem to be totally wiped at the end of every day.  I hope this is not going to be the case forever, because I would like to take back a few of my hobbies. lol  I have had my outlet on the weekends though.

Just today I decided to take my new sewing machine for a spin after I spied this tutorial on Pinterest  (click if you'd like to see what my pinterest is all about) about how to make a zipper pouch on Skip To My Lou.   You see, I have never ever sewn a zipper before and I was WAY scared but the tutorial make it look super easy!  I pulled out my sewing bin and found a few pieces of silky fabric that had coordinated patterns.  I was worried that the fabric wasn't strong enough to hold up as a working pouch so I altered the pattern just a touch and included some scraps of quilt batting to give the fabric substance.  I suppose I also could have interlined it... is that basically what I did?  huh.

The result:

Super cute, right??  the stitching along the zipper isn't perfect, but it's dang good!  I messed up the sides royally once and had to unpick some stitching, but I'm happy with the finished result.

I'm also working on the Tara socks by Janneke Maat in a sock yarn that Jenny sent me AGES ago! (click on her link to read her brag about how she knit a pair of sock in 5 DAYS. Gah!)  I think it was my birthday last year, maybe?  It's called " handfargat sockgarn" and it's really great to work with.  It's durable feeling without being super scratchy.  It is pooling a bit, which is my usual complaint with multi-colour sock yarns, but I'm enjoying the pattern and the yarn anyway. :)

Other than the exciting stuff listed above, my weekend has been filled with laundry, gardening, eating our garden spoils, and time in front of the tv, which is just about as much action as I can handle right now. lol