Back to Basics

I have a few things on the sewing table, but for the moment I'm just going to share this one:

It's a beginner's quilt - super simple. I waffled on the fabric choice because chevrons are beyond trendy right now - until I remembered that it's just as silly to avoid something because it's trendy as it is to do it only because it is. Hopefully this little quilt will last long after the world has forgotten that Pinterest told us all that we Must. Love. Chevrons.

I'm making the quilt for a class that I'm auditing in order to prepare to teach it later in the year. Super excited about that! I'm thinking this wee quilt will be the first item I stow away for our future children. I hestiated to write that - it seems like nowadays people think that's either A) bad luck B) crazy or C) too risky in case anything goes sideways in the family planning department. But critics be damned, I'm starting a for-future-baby-box. (Which can always become a ready-made-gifts-box if need be.)

The textured shawl is coming along just fine as well:

I am absolutely IN LOVE with this yarn (Aslan Trends King Baby Llama and Mulberry Silk). In fact, I'm in love with this yarn company. I have a few skeins of their Royal Alpaca waiting in the wings and I cannot WAIT to make something with it.

But for now, I'm just enjoying this knit.

Bandwagon

I called this scarf the Bandwagon Scarf because everybody's knitting it. With good reason!

I used Cascade 220 in an ivory tone and some pinky-purple Noro Silk Garden. I LOVE the end result. I was a little worried because some have said that Noro is quite scratchy, but now that I've worn this I can safely say that I don't find it scratchy at all. Win!

I knit this quite long because I wanted it to be super cozy and wrap twice around my neck. It's on the narrower side (5") but it's over 8 feet long! I finally invested in a digital kitchen scale (on sale for $10!), so I know that this took exactly 1.17 skeins of Cascade 220 and 2.34 skins of Noro. I really lucked out because a good friend happened to have some Noro scraps from her own striped project that matched my scarf perfectly! Otherwise this would have been too short to wrap twice and I don't think I would have been even half as happy with it.

The bind-off threw me for a bit of a loop. I generally start all projects with the long-tail cast-on and finish with a regular ol' knitted bind-off (unless otherwise instructed), but they look waaaaaayy different from each other and this is the first time it has been important to me that the edges match. After some failed experiments, I landed on this video and it worked like a charm.

So, on to the next! I'm thinking I might use the remaining Cascade to make an ivory hat to go with. (Is that too matchy-matchy? The only hat I wear at the moment is black and cabled.) In the meantime, I'm working on finishing up another WIP - the Textured Shawl Recipe in this gorgeous stuff:

(And there's some sewing on the horizon, too. But more on that later.)

Happy New Year :-D

Hey friends. It's a gorgeous Saturday morning and I feel compelled to swing by here, dust off a few cobwebs and let you know I'm alive and well. Happy new year!

I've spent a lot of time in the past analyzing the concept of new year's resolutions. I'm not going to do that this time around - I'll just tell you where I landed. This year, I decided to stick with the idea of "intentions" rather than firm resolutions/goals... but rather than stating specific intentions (which, really, is like goal-setting without being SMART and none of the follow-through) I decided to go with words. Two words, actually (well, three, if you're being persnickity): efficiency and problem-solving.

Basically, I'm trying to keep these words in mind every time I feel challenged, frustrated, bored, dissatisfied in every day life. And you know what? So far, it's working out pretty awesome and the Mister is totally on board. We've tackled a bunch of sources of day-to-day stress and focused on behaving a little more like grown-ups. I'm not sure this is the place to report in detail, but needless to say I'm feeling a bit more in control of my time and hopefully the trickle-down effect will be more sewing/knitting in 2013.

(There actually was quite a bit of sewing/knitting that just didn't make the blog at all towards the end of 2012... so I'll try to be better about documenting the coming year. I miss that.)

So, for now, just a quick update on what I'm working on:

Noro striped scarf. Originally this was meant to be a pattern-less project I could just tote to knit group and not worry about making mistakes or losing my place, but recently I've become a little obsessed with it and I'm dying to wear it. I'm making it nice and long so I can wrap it twice around my neck. I've run out of Cascade with about 8 inches to go, so it's off to the yarn store with me today. Last night I actually wore it all evening watching movies with the knitting needle still holding the stitches on one end! Like I said: can't wait.

Hope everything is good with you and yours this gorgeous new year.