Warming Hat & Scarf

So, things have been a bit odd lately. On the one hand I don't have time for things like dyeing yarn, but on the other I have time to knit. So, I thought I would spend that extra knitting time coming up with a new project. That new project is to knit warm things for the local warming shelter. I talked to Sarah of Knot Another Hat and she was totally on board. So, I went to work knitting the perfect man hat and scarf (rav link).

It is large enough to go over the ears or be folded up. I chose Rowan Pure Wool as the yarn, because I wanted the warmth of wool, but also machine washable. This is the hat and scarf I came up with for the project. Two balls make both hat and scarf. It is now available at Knot Another Hat for the project. The shop is collecting hats through December 22nd and is giving $3 in credit for every item donated. The idea is that the Warming Shelter is open all day on Christmas Day and they like to give out gifts to everyone who comes. A hat and scarf set is a wonderful gift to someone who doesn't have a home on Christmas. I have already knit 4 sets and I'm hoping to get one or two more done before the deadline. 

In addition, if you haven't knit stripes (which are optional) or a hat or scarf before I'll be teaching classes on both at Knot Another Hat. Hat class is November 15 & 22. Scarf class is December 6th.

If you aren't local and would like to donate items you can ship them to Knot Another Hat at their new location: 11 Third Street, #103, Hood River, OR 97031.

Mittens

I am getting a head start on fall / winter knitting. I find it is nice to knit small things in Summer. They are quick and easy and don't warm up my lap too much.

I have also been on a bit of a handspun kick lately. I love knitting with handspun. So, using Ann Budd's mitten pattern, I cast these on for my son. They were really fun to knit. I love that they came out almost identical for colors. He loves them and now his sister is begging for a pair too. 

Kids Projects

I have been finding myself knitting a lot for my kids these days. It's fun and projects seem to fly off the needles.

First up is a pair of socks (rav link) for my son from some Lorna's Laces yarn from my stash. These took less than 50 grams of yarn. I had a little trouble getting the size just right. They are a little extra long, but I figured they give him room to grow. He loves them a lot and is putting them away until fall.

Next, I knit up another skirt (rav link) for my daughter. A girl just can't have too many twirly skirts! This is the Lollipop Skirt by Bekah Knits. This is the second time I have knit this skirt and I love it! It is knit out of Sirdar Baby Bamboo. I think this is the last time I'm going to knit it out of this yarn, because the yarn gets quite heavy. I'm worried that if I knit a bigger size with it (This one is 3T) that it'll be too heavy to be practical. I have thought about knitting it out of a lighter weight wool, instead. I do love the 3 tier design, so I'm thinking about it some more!

X Hoody

I finished a hoody (rav link) for my son back in April. Of course, it's been so warm he won't really get to wear it until next fall. Good thing I made it extra long!

His sister is wearing the one that I made for him a couple of years ago out of Tosh DK. I really love this pattern from Debbie Bliss's Design It! Knit It!: Babies. It's really easy to modify, which I definitely had to do both times I knit it. The first time I made it longer. This time I used handspun I spun during Spinzilla, so the gauge was a bit different. I used Naturspun Worsted as the accent grey. Now, I can't wait for cold rainy days so they both can get use out of their sweaters!

Tonight I am speaking at the Tigard Knitting Guild at the Tigard Senior Center. If you are a member, I'm looking forward to seeing you tonight!

Mother Daughter Socks

I can't believe how busy I have been lately. It just seems like there aren't enough hours in the day. However, I have been able to eek out a new knitting time during the children's bed time. My husband reads them stories every evening. So I have started taking advantage of it, by knitting something for the kids. First off the needles is a pair of socks for my daughter (rav link). These went so fast with her tiny feet. Look the pair I made myself back in August of 2006! I just had to get a photo of them both together! She loves them! Now to knit a pair for my son!

Edited to add: I realized going back through Ravelry that I never added these socks on there. So I just did and there is now a rav link. 

Yarn Crawl

For the Rose City Yarn Crawl, I was able to go on Friday to For Yarn Sake and hang out there all day with my trunk show. It was wonderful! The not so wonderful part was that my husband texted me that my daughter had a temperature. So, by Sunday, when I had planned to go do the shopping part of the yarn crawl, my family were all very sick. Mama to the rescue! So to make up for it, my husband said I could find a free Sunday and go that day instead. The best one was this last Sunday.

I went with my wonderful friend Janeann, and we visited 4 yarn shops: Twisted, Dublin Bay, Knitting Bee, and For Yarn's Sake. I got 2 skeins of Blue Moon Heavy Weight (in the back) to make socks for my husband. The red is Madelinetosh Vintage Worsted to make my son a sweater. The front is a couple of balls of Sirdar Baby Bamboo to go with some yarn I have for a skirt for my daughter. I think that covers everyone! I also scored some pretty nice yarn from Knot Another Hat's March Madness sale. It has been a busy yarn filled month! The pattern and the pen on the side were swag from a couple of the shops that felt that we needed a little something extra since we are yarn crawling. =) It was a wonderful trip and something I would definitely like to do again!

Soaker Pants

Ah, it's good to be getting back to blogging. I've been a bit busy getting back into the groove of things after the Rose City Yarn Crawl, which was awesome! I had so much fun and sold so much yarn! A big thank you to everyone who came out for the event!

Anyway, back to what's on the needles. I finished off these soaker pants (rav link) awhile back. 

I knit them for my cousin's new baby out of some delicious handspun I found last summer. It is 3 different strands of shetland wool plied together and then dyed. This yarn is odd because in some lights it is purple and others it turns out blue. The wool comes from the lady who spun and dyed it all in the Salem area. I was really impressed! It's perfect for soaker pants, since it is a nice hardy wool. The farm is Goat Knoll Farms and it looks like she will be at a lot of the same shows as me, so I may just have to get some more yarn!

Flax Sweater

I just finished a sweater for my daughter and I am so in love with this pattern!

The pattern is Flax (rav link) by Tin Can Knits. It's a simple top down raglan sweater design all knit in one piece. The bonus is the pattern is free with lots of diagrams and details to knit it on your own. It knit up so fast! I love it! The yarn is something I got from Knot Another Hat during their March Madness sale a couple years ago. It's Mochi Plus, which means machine washable single plied yarn. I loved working with it. It was super soft. My daughter loves it, which is the most important part.

Also, the sizes for this sweater run from newborn to Men's 4X, so you can knit it for anybody! If you don't want to do it on your own, my amazing friend Destiny is doing a class on it starting this Saturday, February 21st at Knot Another Hat.

Photo Friday: Photo Help

Shawl Shapes

I was very lucky to get to take a class with Veera Valimaki this last Sunday at Happy Knits in Portland! Here is what I made in class:

Veera walked us through all the basic shawl shapes. She had us start a simple shawl of any style and then start adding texture to it, any simple pattern. Then to add surprises she suggested adding short rows and color and other fun things. I enjoyed this moment of playing with my knitting of just adding things as I felt like it. It was very freeing. It was also just a lot of fun to take a class. Sure I could have learned all this stuff on my own, but really it was great to go take a class and try something new. It was an adventure! I definitely plan on taking more classes in the future! If you have a chance to take a class with Veera, sign up for it! She is a really interesting person and I enjoyed her class very much!

Christmas Round Up

A new toy I got for Christmas is a new light booth! So I've been having fun with it! I put it to good use photographing these Christmas gifts, which were too last minute to get photos before wrapping them and putting them under the tree. 

First up is a dolly (rav link) for my girl. She really loved the one that I made for her cousin, so I knew that I had to make one up for her too. I did pretty much the same things as the first. I doubled Dale of Norway Baby Ull. It was a lot of fun to make. I think it will be fun to make additional little outfits for her too!

Next up is a pair of felted clogs (rav link) for my husband. He mentioned twice that he would like some slippers, but not to bother if I was too busy. So, I set about to surprise him. I knit on these in secret, finishing them on Christmas Eve while he was napping with the kids. I'm so glad I got to surprise him! He loves them and says they keep his feet toasty warm.

My son really loves Toad from Mario Kart. so I set about designing a Toad Hat (rav link) for him. This is out of Cascade 128, which is superwash and bulky. He loves it and it keeps his head warm when he's playing outside.

That's the wrap up for 2014! If you want to see all of my 2014 projects check out this page I made: http://lavendersheep.blogspot.com/p/2014-projects.html

I can't wait to see what I make in 2015!

Baby Shower

My cousin is going to have a baby in another month or so. It's a second baby, so no official baby shower. Instead I made her a few things, so the new baby will feel special too.

First up, a nice pair of felted clogs (rav link) to keep her feet nice and toasty during her hospital stay.

For the bottoms I used puff paint to create some traction patterns. No slipping on those hospital floors!

Then for the baby I knit Helena (rav link) and a baby bonnet (rav link) out of Tosh DK in color Posy. I love this yarn so much! My daughter does too. I might just have to get some more and whip out some super cute girly things. For Helena, I ended up adding one extra repeat. I thought the chest measurement of 19.25" was a bit much, especially since my 2 year old has a 20" chest! This way it will get a lot more use! I also added buttons instead of doing the ties, because I like them better. 

For the bonnet, I pretty much followed the pattern. Other than for the ties I CO 50 sts, picked up around the hat as specified by the pattern, then CO another 50 sts. Then I loosely BO all the stitches. It saves sewing in 2 ends, which makes it worthwhile to me!

I finished Helena before the new year and the bonnet on New Year's day, making this my last project of last year and the first project for the new year! Now I just need to share with you all of the Christmas knitting and we will wrap up 2014!

Litla, a Little Shawl

After all that holiday knitting I think a quick selfish knitting project is in order:

Introducing Litla, a little shawl. She is knit out of 2 skeins of Superwash Bulky in color Ginn. The pattern is part of the Beautiful Wreck Collection by Larissa Brown. 

I had one of my trusty sample knitters knit it up this last fall and I finally got just the right light to show it off. It is so cozy! I just want to snuggle with it!

Kits are now available in the shop with a 10% discount on the yarn! Pick one up and start the New Year out right!

Year of the Scarf

Happy Holidays to everyone! We had a wonderful Christmas, now onto a wonderful new year! This year I ended up making quite a few scarves as gifts. 

First up is a scarf for my mom. Linen Stitch (rav link) scarves have been very popular lately and I thought I would finally jump on board the band wagon and knit one up! I had a lot of fun picking out the colors for it. I started with red Alpaca Sox from my stash and then matched it with a skein of Blue Moon Silky Socks That Rock in color Hollydays, which I have been saving for something special. The finishing touch was a ball of Paillettes, which have been very popular at my LYS. They give the little sequin sparkles you can just barely make out in the photo. I love them a lot. I knit until I ran out of the Paillettes and then knit an extra row of the Alpaca Sox and then did the bind off. It was a fun mostly mindless knit that went nicely with a busy holiday season. 

Next up I wove this lovely blue scarf (rav link) for a friend of mine. The warp was originally intended to be something else, but I had a sudden vision for this scarf and knew it would be perfect for my friend. The warp was Alpaca Silk Lace in Natural. The weft was  ball of Mini Mochi from my stash. I really love how the color shifts throughout the scarf. It was really fun to weave. I got it done just in time for the class I was teaching. 

Lastly, for the weaving class I taught, I had my husband pick out a skein of yarn from my stash to weave a scarf. He picked out Blue Moon Socks That Rock in limited edition color Doctors Without Borders. I wasn't really attracted to this skein in my stash, though I enjoyed buying it for a good cause. I really love it woven up. it surprised me how lovely it turned out. It looks like faux plaid. It went in my husband's stocking, even though he knew what it was. He has tried it on and hopefully it will help keep his neck warm this winter. I might have to play with some more sock yarn in my stash and see what other awesome scarves I can weave!

I have more projects to share, just need to get them photographed now that they have been unwrapped! Also, new colorways coming in 2015! I'm so excited to share all sorts of things here on the blog!

BFL Hoody

I knit this hoody based off the one I knit for my son ages ago for a friend of mine.

I love this pattern so much, I think I'm going to have to knit another one for my son in a bigger size. My kids are so skinny I can often knit them patterns in smaller sizes and just add length. This one comes from Debbie Bliss's book Design It, Knit It: Babies and is called simply the Hooded Pullover (rav link). The yarn is Debbie Bliss Blue Faced Leicester Aran. When I first picked it up I wasn't sure if it would be soft enough, but knitting with it was really nice. Then when I blocked it, the yarn became extra soft. It's also machine washable, which I know from experience, is very important when knitting for little boys.

Happy December!

Welcome to December! Can you believe it's only 3 more weeks to Christmas? I can't! So here is what I have done to help you out!

I have created a Holiday Gift Guide that fits just about everyone on your list! You are sure to find some great inspirations there! Now I am off to knit like the wind, Christmas is coming!

BW: Lichen Shawl

When I created the 5 colorways for Beautiful Wreck I never thought that I would fall so in love with one particular color. That colorway being Betta. As you may have noticed, I am a purple sort of girl. I also love a lot of greens and blues. Oranges, browns, and golds usually not much at all. However, that changed when I made this colorway. It just is so earthy and breathtaking. I want to knit everything out of it!

So, when Larissa Brown suggested we knit up a few of her shawls inspired by the book out of my new colorways, I instantly knew I needed to have a Lichen Shawl out of Betta. After all, different lichens are just what Betta used to dye with. 

I also couldn't help draping said shawl around the beautiful oak tree in my yard. Doesn't it look like it just belongs there?

The yarn I chose for this project is the new MIO Columbia Sport. Grown right here in Oregon and then dyed by me. It makes for a gorgeous combination. It reminds me of the golden hills of Eastern Oregon, much like the area where this wool was grown. Best of all, it only takes a single skein!

I also decided not to block the shawl as vigorously as the pattern shows. I liked the slight curl of the edges, because it looked more like lichen to me. As you can see it can be worn a variety of different ways. Kits are available in the shop and are ready to ship out today!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! I plan on spending mine knitting and getting ready for the holidays! Don't forget: Luxury Yarn Sale ends on Sunday!

BW: From the Fields Shawl

I'm pretty excited to finally have up on the website a collection of patterns designed by Larissa Brown while she was writing the book Beautiful Wreck. I have had a couple of the patterns knit up in colorways inspired by the book too. 

The first one is From the Fields in Cashmere Blend (MCN) Sock color: Har. It uses only 1 skein! 

I love the back panel and how it looks like waving wheat in the wind.

Then the front has another panel of lace, which folds around the front.  

When I spoke to Larissa Brown about the pattern, she said the shape is designed so it won't fall off your shoulders. It simply wraps around and sits there. Which means you don't have to use a shawl pin to keep it on! Though, I think it would look stunning with any of the Plover Copper Shawl pins.

This is a perfect holiday project. Knit it for a special someone or for yourself! Also available in kits, perfect for the love one, who can make their own!

Epic Saga Hat

It all started with Larissa Brown's wonderful book Beautiful Wreck. I was inspired to dye colorways based on the characters from her books. Then I made little mini skein sets of 5 colorways. I got to thinking, what is a project that would use up all 5 mini skeins? This is what I came up with:

The Epic Saga Hat. It starts at the ocean, then goes through fields of wheat, and then on through mountain peaks. The motifs I used are based off of traditional Icelandic sweaters. It was a joy to design and an adventure to knit!

So, start an epic journey of your own and knit this hat today! It will be an adventure you never forget!

Dolly

Quite a few years ago I bought a copy of Jess Hutchison's Unusual Toys for you to Knit and Enjoy. The book has since gone out of print. I have held onto it, knowing I would knit something from it someday. 

Today is the day! I knit this little dolly (rav link) for my cousin's daughter. It was a lot of fun and knit up quickly. I think I might need to make a couple more of these. The only thing I added was the hair. I doubled Dale of Norway Baby Ull for the yarn and went down to a size #6US needle for the slightly finer gauge. The reason I did this was because I had the yarn in my stash and it was flesh colored, which is actually pretty hard to find. I also only used a single strand for the border around the dress, because the ruffle kept coming out too big. Overall, I love this little dolly. It's just the right size for little hands to hold onto.