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!!!!

Capture a Tulip...in Summer???

While tulips have long since departed, I have been attempting to recapture their spirit while knitting this...



The "Tulips: A Colorful Cardigan for Baby", designed by the highly lovely and talented, Lindsay Pekny.....is a Dream in Color Design...and it is FANTASTIC!

Jackie and I decided, once we saw this sweater, that we HAD to make it. Jackie made hers first....and after hearing her rave reviews on the patterns' "Cheez-It" quality (can't stop eating/knitting it), I started my own on Sunday afternoon.

I finished it today. Only 2 days total of knitting and weaving in all the ends. If you love color, love knitting baby items and love something quick for instant gratification, YOU MUST KNIT THIS SWEATER!

No wonder the Yarn Harlot made 3 or 4 of them! I can easily make another one!

Now, Jackie thought that she had enough yarn left over after knitting this sweet cardigan to knit one more...I don't have a digital scale, so I can't tell how much, but I think I will buy one, just so I can see. I'm sure Jackie is right...though I have a history of running out of yarn. I used Knit Picks Swish Superwash for the yarn. At $3.29 a skein, the whole sweater (and possibly 2) is only around $26...plus the cost of the pattern. Jackie and I are thinking of swapping yarns around a bit so that we can each make another sweater out of the yarn, but in a different color sequence. Won't that be fun?? And economical. I'm sure that the Dream in Color yarn is fantastic, though....and the names of the colorways are sooo cute! (Like Happy Forest, Blue Lagoon, Spring Tickle, Giant Peach and Strange Harvest...I'm very curious about those yarns....!)

Okay, enough rambling....wanna see some pics of the sweater as it was knit???

Starting on the first three colors and the neck area..



Most of the back done...and colorwork



Tulip Sans Arms...



And, want to see something even MORE interesting???

Here is the whole cardigan INSIDE OUT!!!



Ian liked the sweater even more inside out...and the cool thing is that you could definitely use it that way, too. If you're pretty careful in sewing in the ends, anyway. The icord bind off and seed stitch make the sweater reversible (edging wise) and the reverse stockinette has a great texture. When you make your own, you can decide which you like the best.

Now, since you are my knitting buddies, I will share some little tips that I used while knitting this sweater that might help you:

-Use an open basket for holding all your yarns and arrange them in the order you want to use them.
(This one was inspired by Jackie)
-Use a row "clicker" around your neck to keep track of the color row changes and pen/paper for inc/decreases.
-When changing colors, leave a tail of at least 4 inches and make a slightly loose overhand tie with old and new yarn tails. After a few rows or rounds of knitting, you can go back and weave both ends in....making sure the end goes in the opposite direction (to avoid a hole) and you are weaving into the SAME COLOR!
-Keep your scissors and yarn needle out at all times, in easy reach...you'll need them pretty frequently
-I knit the icord/seed stitch edging BEFORE the sleeves. That is the opposite of the directions, but I found it to be the most helpful and didn't seem to make any difference in the pattern, except that the sleeves are the least pleasurable part of the whole sweater, so when I was done with those, I was completely done with the sweater.
-Take pics as you go along. It's wonderful to see the how one color can make the sweater look completely different.

Here is what I was going for with the colors that I chose:

Capri, Baby Blue and Deep Ocean-the sky above a beautiful garden.

Sunshine-the sun shining on the garden.

Ballerina, Bubblegum-the inside and outer petals of the tulip.

Dublin, Aloe-the leaves and stem.

Black-the wrought iron bench in the garden where you sit to look at the pretty tulips.

And, one more thing before I go....here are two pics of the photographs I had taken of the kids on Saturday...they are so fantastic framed! (Did I mention that the photographer had me sign release so that he could use these framed prints on the wall of Picture People????!!!! Isn't that fantastic!!)



and this one, which I love....



Hope you're having a great week.....tomorrow...Knitting Pool Party at my house! I can't wait!!! : )