I made a sweet little turtle shell cape for a baby-to-be that belongs to a gal who works for my mom. She showed my sister a picture of this baby photo prop last year and asked if she could make her one. My sister's knitting and crochet skills are there, but she doesn't really knit much anymore, so I took it on myself to create this little beauty. I bought the pattern on Ravelry for $6 and I made it in one afternoon. The pattern called for Vanna's Choice acrylic yarn, which made my heart sad, but I used the same yarn anyway for the sake of new mamma being able to easily wash it. I hear babies dribble all sorts of gross liquids in their first few months. Gross.
I've been teaching some knitting workshops at my museum this season, and I dragged out my project planning book to show my newbie knitters. The page for paulie is one of the more intense entries I did for a project because I was so determined to make something right so it would actually be wearable. I followed the guidelines from Little Red in the City for taking my measurements, and then I made two generous sized swatches to check my gauge. I got stitch and row gauge for once in my life, and I'm a happy little camper.
This is paulie's progress report as of this morning. That's me, modeling in my pj's (it's my day off and I have no intentions of getting dressed, deal with it).
The body is completely finished, and I'm 3/4 of the way finished sleeve #1. I'm constantly checking for sleeve length, which involves whipping off whatever sweater I have on so I can freeze ever so slightly for a few minutes since it's bare arm town on the other side right now. I'll be glad when my house will be consistently above 18 degrees soon. Come on spring!
Paulie's body, before sleeves. Look how pretty!
I also owe you a stash update, readers. The following yarns have been added to my collection as of September, and I only just got around to taking pictures and officially adding them to my Ravelry stash.
Zen Yarn Garden Serenity 20, my draw prize for being a volunteer with the KW Knitters' Fair this year. It's got 20% cashmere, so I'm thinking really hard about what to make with it that is worthy of the luxury.
My Christmas 2012 gift from dearest Catherine, and also my very first 'tosh, believe it or not. The handsome rusty orange will be a fine pair of socks for either me or Fuzzyhead.
Birthday sock yarn from Catherine! This is Miss Babs "Yummy" hand-painted sock and baby yarn, 2 ply superwash. She ordered 2 different skeins online and let me choose the one I wanted. I'm a sucker for greens and any natural-ish colours, so this one was a clear winner.
I taught my first lace knitting workshop yesterday to one attendee (who knew quite a bit about lace already, despite being a brand new knitter as of December 2012), and I've been jonesing to pick up a lace project. Here are the next two on my list:
Say hello, this is Annis. I love her. She will be made out of this:
My single lace from indigodragonfly that I bought at World Wide Knit in Public Day in June 2012.
The other lovely on my list is this elegant lady:
This is Triangular Summer Shawl by Nancy Bush with a beautiful lily of the valley pattern. I'm leaning towards this as the yarn:
I'm hesitant about the long colour change and if that will blur the pretty pattern. I've been madly looking through the Ravelry projects for this pattern to see if anyone else used a striping yarn, and I saw one, but it wasn't the ombre style that I have with this yarn. I'm still thinking on it some more.
That's full time for me this morning, happy Monday to you!
Onward,
vrock
