A Fall Sweater Made On Summer Vacation

9.12.2016


Right after my summer quarter ended we headed out of town for the most wonderful and needed vacation.  Part of it was camping up in the San Juan Islands and part of it was hanging around Tofino over on Vancouver Island.  Both parts were breathtakingly beautiful and fun but I also knew that the trip would involve a fair amount of driving, ferry rides, and hopefully some leisurely mornings and evenings which, of course, meant that I needed a knitting project to keep me busy.

Now, I should probably point out that the last sweater I made was back in 2013 and I really haven't  given much thought to knitting since that time, so I started the whole process by digging through Ravelry patterns to see what piqued my interest.  I knew that I wanted top-down construction and something with some interest, but nothing that would be too difficult.  In the end I settled on the Maya Swater pattern by Svetlana Volkova and I have to say that it was a great choice.  Yes, there was a point that I had to pick back four rows (Grrrr!) but other than that it was smooth knitting.


But even more than the actual knitting, I just love how the sweater came out.  The fit is right on (I added some length in the sleeves and body - really easy to do with a top-down sweater) and the yarn is incredibly soft.  The yarn is a merino/cashmere blend from Knit Picks and I'm really happy with it. We don't have a yarn store near our house and with finals I didn't have time to go find one, so this was a great option and I'm really happy with the product.  O's pretty impressed with it too because as soon as she put it on she exclaimed "it's not even scratchy!"


Also exciting is the fact that the pattern includes adult sizes and about two days after finishing O's sweater, I casted on for one in my size.  If it turns out half as nice as hers, I'll be thrilled.

What can I say - knitting may have found its way back into my heart.

New School Year...New Undies

9.08.2016


Well, it's that time of a year when the kids head back to school and we all show off the handmade outfits that we've made for them for their first day back.  This is also the time of year when I hang my head in shame because I never got around to making a first day of school dress for either of my kids.  In my defense, things have been crazy around here.  Good and fun and lovely and I wouldn't change a thing, but crazy nonetheless.


I did, however, manage to make one back-to-school item - underwear!  No where near as glamorous as a back-to-school dress, but I can guarantee you that they'll get more wear.  O was still wearing the same undies that I made for her over two years ago and they were looking pretty ratty.  And who wants to wear ratty underwear, right?


Even though the underwear were falling apart they still fit her so I sewed up a new bunch of size six undies using the That Darn Kat pattern (again!).  Amazingly, I'm still using some of the fabric I bought for the first time that I made underwear using this pattern.  And I was also able to use some scraps leftover from other knit projects.  In fact, I didn't buy one new piece of fabric to make all these undies.  That is possibly the best part of making children's underwear.  Stash busting at its best!