Little Sweater Love

Introducing the adorable and super cute, Catharine....the sweet 16 month old baby girl that I made the Angel Sweater for. Her mom was wonderful and sent me some great pictures of her in the sweater and also the Sweet Leaf Toddler Hat I designed.




It made me so happy that the sweater fit well and the hat, too. I love seeing my knitted things being worn....plus, she is so cute in both....I just want to squeeze her cheeks!

I just sent off the Tulips Sweater with my sister....she's giving it a friend of hers that had a baby recently....a little girl named Aidyn. Can't wait to see her wearing that. Do you see a pattern emerging here?? LOL!

On the subject of little sweaters, here is the progress on Ben's "Inside Out" sweater:



I'm even farther along on it than the picture shows....the weather's been so overcast, I haven't been able to take a good picture of it. The body is 13 inches up to the arm pits and I've got one sleeve almost done. Little Ben is still asking me every morning, "Is it done yet?" and I show him how much I've done and he still says, "Is that it?" I'm working my fingers (and knitter's elbow) to the bone so I can get this done quickly. I forgot that he's bigger than a toddler now and I'm making the sweater in a 6 years size, so it's even bigger than his normal clothes. Whew! Keep...chugging...along....



Thought this cherry looked so interesting next to Ben's sweater....

I also have yarn to knit up the Pea Pod Sweater....Knit Picks' Merino Style in Cornflower....and the Sweater for Merry in Knit Picks' Lagoon Heather. Both are extremely sweet and I'm looking forward to knitting both. I can't believe the little sweater kick I'm on!

Along the lines of new yarn....Jackie brought me some gorgeous souvenir yarn from Washington, D.C. when she was vacationing with her family...where she visited the Stitch DC store.



I got two skeins of fabulously soft, 100% tactel nylon Suss Supple in white....so lovely...and also one skein of the super squishy warm Pear Tree 8Ply in blush pink. I am sooo lucky! (Plus, she gave me the Stitch DC bag as well....very cool!) Thanks so much, J!

I was also gifted some absolutely to-dye-for handpainted, handspun yarn by the very talented and always thoughtful, Cayli. We swapped some laceweight (from me) for some great, green Koigu (from her) and she sent me THIS yarn with my package:



It's a Cayli's Creations Handspun/Handpaint in the colorway, "Purple Violets"....130 yards of merino wool plied with cotton and strung with hundreds of glass seed beads. You can't tell quite how amazing this is from the picture, but it's not only baby soft, but truly well spun and the beads sparkle in the light. I have another skein of this yarn (though plied with silk not cotton) in a different colorway, "Sea Glass" that I may use with this new one to create something special. Only a really simple, but elegant pattern will show off the loveliness of this yarn. Thank you so much, Cayli!!!



As for fiber...yes, I promised some fiber and spinning updates, but things are still at a standstill because of the headaches. It's a bit easier to knit with a headache than spin. I can close my eyes for most the sweater knitting if I'm relaxed, but I really have to look when I'm spinning. I still have the purple/white angora/merino from Sereknity on my Joy and the pink/peach bamboo from HollyEEQ's Oceans of Fiber on the Traditional. Both are looking great...but no progress as yet.

Speaking of the Fiber Queen, HollyEEQ......I want to send her a very belated Happy Birthday wish (hugs!!!) and please check out her store and blog to see some gorgeous pictures and new fibers and handspun yarns. Believe me, they are so creative, colorful and you'll love the quality, too. I just ordered some more aqua cotswold lambie locks and also some other goodies, which I will take pics of very soon and blog about. I can't tell you how vibrant the colors are and how soft the fibers feel....I'm in HEAVEN!!!

Okay, what else am I forgetting to tell you? Hmmm....well, besides the ongoing headache problem, things are pretty good. I've got a few more rows done on the lace shawl and I'm determined to get it done in the next 2 weeks. I want to start my new lace soon....my fingers are itching to cast on with my handpainted yarn. What else? The podcast is one step closer to being done...I have the microphone out! Woo-hoo! Sigh...if only I had a whole day to myself...with quiet and Ian had the kids....then...then...it would be done. He is supposed to be coming home tonight. It's a 6 hour drive home from the trail he was at...he is hiking Mt. Katadan with his friends from work. Maybe he'll have some pictures for me to share....

Oh, I know!

Kiyomi from North Carolina knit up my Sweet Leaf Toddler Hat pattern and sent me a pic. Isn't it adorable?



She used Malabrigo in the colorway, "Cuarenta".

I promised weeks ago to put it in a new gallery, but still haven't had a chance to set it up. So, I at least wanted to show her beautiful work. Thanks so much, Kiyomi!!!!

If anyone else has pictures of things that they've made with my designs, I would LOVE to see them. Please send any pics to me and I will blog them, mention them on the podcast and, eventually, put them up in the Sleepy Eyes Gallery. (Oh, the procrastination!!!)

Happy Knitting!!!!

Frantic FO Friday!!! (and fiber!)

Whew!! I can't tell you how absolutely friggin relieved I am that the center panel of my "Large Rectangle" lace stole (from Victorian Lace Today) is done!!!

THANK, THANK GOODNESS!!! I thought I was going to go insane knitting those 10 rows over and over. I have some serious knitter's elbow and I was thinking maybe I'd snag Sarah and see if she'd work her magic on it. (Pretty please, Sarah??)

Here is just some idea of the agony of my lace knitting (though I did enjoy it overall...just not in parts here and there):

1. 360 ROWS!!!

2. Such fine, fine yarn (have I mentioned this already????? LOL!)

3. 18 non stop hours of lace knitting (approx. 1/2 hour per repeat)

4. There is one horrid mistake in the whole thing that I just noticed and it's near the beginning....and, no, Laurin, I am NOT frogging this baby!

Am I happy with it? Yeah, I have to say that it is incredibly soft and really beautiful despite the agony I mentioned above. If I can figure out the knitted on lace border and blocking, I'll be good to go. (I think.)

So, what else have I finished, you ask?

Well, I finally finished my Wavy scarf!!! (It only took 9 months to finish....nothin' to it! LOL!) Here is Tim modeling it for me:



I'm super happy with the outcome, but not sure if I'd ever make another one. If I did, it would be for some kind of payment (money or yarn) and definitely in a different color. Not sure how lovely Blogless Amanda has knit 3 (!!!) of them, but she must have nerves of steel or something.

Also, I dyed some Knit Picks Bare Laceweight yarn in a slightly varigated purples/blues/lilac colorway and will be using that for a special project soon. I was thrilled with this yarn! It is super, super soft and dyed very nicely. Only $3.99 for 880 yards!!! I'll definitely buy more. (one tip, though....this yarn is slightly thicker than laceweight, but not quite fingering.)



What do you think??

Here's my progress on spinning the bamboo I got from Cayli, who bought it from the fab-u-lous HollyEEQ. I WUV BAMBOO!!!



I can't believe how wonderful it is to spin...when they say it spins like "buttah"....it is SO true! It's like spinning tencel, but without the burn....shines brighter than silk and is so much easier to spin than silk. When drafting, it just floats out of your hands like ribbons of shiny clouds. I'd love a bed lined with bamboo fiber! Mmmm.....



I've only spun half the fiber so far, but I'm planning on spinning the other half and making a 2 ply fingering/sportweight yarn. If I get the yardage I think I will, I'm thinking of making a lace shawl out of it or mini Clapotis.

Hmmm...what else am I up to?

Oh, guess what I bought from Loop? An absolutely BREATHTAKING fiber called, "Kimono"....it's a handcarded 3 oz batt of alpaca, merino, sparkle and silk. You would not believe how gorgeous this is from my pic...click HERE to see better pics. It's driving me crazy....I don't know whether to just admire it, spin it or marry it. (I would. I really would.)



Oh, before I forget, my TWO NEW PATTERNS are now available in pdf form (free!!) on the right sidebar under Sleepy Eyes Patterns. Please check them out and print them out (full color makes them look REALLY awesome) and tell many, many people about them, okay? It's the "PicSock"....a cozy for your small digital camera or cell phone... and "Sweet Leaf" toddler hat. Comments?? Hugs??

Since Ian is still away in New Mexico, I am trying not to go insane. Tim is out of school now and....he is bored. My sons are both driving me to drink (well...just maybe some tonic water with lime).....all day long is bicker, bicker, bicker. No matter who I put in which room, how many hours they are out playing, or swimming or eating. Ahhhh!!!! (Jackie knows my pain.)

Speaking of Ian....

well, he loves geocashing. And he brought his GPS to NM with him. He tells me this morning that he went out after work yesterday TO THE DESERT with only 1 bottle of water and his GPS to hike.

No buddy, no extra food, no cell phone, no hat, no sunscreen, no first aid kit or supplies and.... no one he knows for hundreds of miles knows where he is.

K.

He tells me that he didn't really feel like following any trails (UM....am I the only one who thinks he is more insane than me?) and might have gotten lost for a bit. Um...yeah.

Luckily, he found a trail and was able to make it back without dying and raced into a Subway to get some food and water. He was so dehydrated that he could barely talk to order his food.

OMG.

You know, I TRY not to be a worry wort, but when he tells me things like this, I can only think that I may have to kill him for doing such dangerous things.

(sigh)

Anyone wanna trade three fertile males for a female alpaca or llama or something??

4 FOes and 4 Potatoes...New Mexico Style

Even though the hubby has been in New Mexico the past week (and also has plans to desert me again on Tuesday night until Sunday night....arghhh!), I was amazingly able to finish 4, count'm 4, finished objects. I can't believe it. It's mainly due to these factors:

1. Spending time with "my fiancee" Jackie and her kids....saving my sanity and getting lots of knitting done while the kids play.

2. Since I've been putting Ben to bed by myself lately (and that takes at least 2 hours!), I've felt like I've been neglecting Tim. So, I've been trying to spend time with him at night instead...we've been watching some good movies together, having popcorn and...that means... MORE TIME TO KNIT!

and

3. I'm trying to do well with my weight loss, so I've been spinning (yippee!), which burns a bit more calories than knitting. 4 hours of spinning is pretty good movement exercise...now, if I had a double treadle (like Ericka), I'd get even more calories burned!

Wanna see my FOs???

EXHIBIT A

The Angel Sweater by Oat Couture:



Knit for a sweet little girl of friends of ours. I LOVED knitting this. I used 3 skeins of KP Elegance in the "Wild Rose" colorway...this yarn is wonderful....slightly shiny from the silk and exquisitely soft due to the baby alpaca. If you haven't tried this yarn, you have to! (I think it's on sale now on the website) This only took me 8.5 days to knit and it was fun, too.



EXHIBIT B

Sweet Leaf Toddler Hat by SleepyEyes:



The pattern for this I am finishing up right now. It's almost done and it will available FREE here on my blog in pdf form. The pics on my pattern of this show Jackie's little sweetheart daughter as the mdoel, who I love to pieces. Melt-your-heart adorable. You'll have to download it and see!

EXHIBIT C

PicSock by SleepyEyes:



Another pattern that is SOOO quick to knit that I'll have on my blog for free early next week. It's my own handspun! I used 1 oz. of Ashford Bay corriedale in fushia for this and did a navajo 3 ply. The yarn is slightly bulky...or a heavy worsted weight. It fits my Canon Powershot ELPH perfectly and has a nice wrist strap on the side. (You can't really tell how cute it is with this pic and I couldn't take a pic of it with the camera in it, you know?)

EXHIBIT D

Two Handspun Yarns

This should probably count as two FOs, but one of the skeins is small, so I lumped them both in together. The first is a single ply fingering weight that I spun from Oceans of Fiber's Cotswold Lambie Mohair Locks in Aqua that I was given by the fabulous HollyEEQ herself (!!!) for my bday. I can't tell you how much fun I had spinning these locks and I was finally able to get over my spinning slump! Yay!!!



I'm trying to order more of this, so I can make a lace scarf with it. The color is AMAZING!!!!

The second is a brand new batt from "i-love-her" Amy of Spunky Eclectic. She sent me this batt in colors that I am calling "Sour Watermelon"....bright pink and even brighter green. And WITH SPARKLES!!!! I had so much fun spinning this and I alternated the colors as I spun, so they'll come out to be self striping.



You can't tell how sparkly this yarn is from the picture, but believe me..it's awesome! Again, I'm not sure how many oz. it was, but I got 119 yards of 2 ply sportweight from it. It's my baby!



I'm currently spinning lovely Heather's fiber....forgot what colorway it is (Heather???) in a 50%/50% lambswool and angora blend. You can get some from her Sereknity shop...it's SOOOO soft!

It's a bit more challenging to spin since the angora fibers are so short and I've had to predraft very carefully and then do a short draw draft as I spin....only moving my fingers 1 inch at a time. But, it'll be totally worth it because the halo this yarn is getting is beautiful!!

Did I show you the gorgeous Sereknity yarns I bought from Heather on Wed night?? The top one is her Sock Options superwash merino in "Seriously Citrus" and the bottom one is, I think, called "Belladonna" in a soft, laceweight kid mohair. I have been drooling over them since that night. YarnGasm!



(I've also just started spinning HollyEEQ's bamboo roving in the colorway, Bali Hai...pinks and apricots. It's my first time spinning bamboo and I'm LOVING it! It's got a shine brighter than tencel and silk....and even spins more easily than tencel and silk. When I was drafting it out, it was like bright, sparkling ribbons of butterfly wings....oh! It's so hard to describe. Cayli recommended this bamboo to me [and gifted this roving to me for my bday] and I'm hooked!)

Now, you're asking....what about the podcast? Yes, I'm still in the works on that...and since hubby has been away and going away again, it's very hard to find time (QUIET TIME) to record it. I promise to get it up soon.

Speaking of hubby, I have to tell you that he's had a funny (but annoying) experience while out in New Mexico. He's working for NASA at the moment and they are very strict about having "clearance". He wasn't able to get a certain level of clearance in time (it takes a LONG time apparently), so he just has a badge. This badge doesn't let him go anywhere except where he is working....meaning this one room. So...say he needs to go to the bathroom....know what he has to do? Ask someone with "clearance" to go with him. They actually have to stand outside the door (and that's not so great if you've been eating a lot of yummy Mexican food). Same deal if he wants to go smoke or even go into another room to access another computer! Jeez!

I wonder if he dropped a pencil and it rolled out into the hallway, he'd have to go and get someone to come out with him to retrieve it????

Wanna see some Potato Heads????

(Ben and I have been playing with these the past week....they are SO much fun!)

Pirate Potato



Lady Potato



Darth Vador Potato...he's missing an arm



And, my favorite, Transformer Potato, who is named, "Optimash Prime". Do you love it???



Will finish spinning and working my mom's lace shawl....oh, and the podcast. Lots of stuff to do and hope I can get some done while Ian is gone this week. We'll see. If only I was the one who was traveling....all those wasted hours waiting in the airport could be put to good use!

Have a great day everyone and wish me luck this week!!!