Doting Aunty

After J left, I decided to take the time I have off work to do some sewing. I was inspired by this simple children's dress pattern.

I bought the fabric on Thursday and had a finished dress on Friday night!



I got the fabric at Joann's for $1.99 a yard. The fabric I used for the facings, 100% Egyptian cotton in white, cost three times as much. Savannah is in a dress phase now. Also, she's becoming an actual person, which is truly exciting. When I went over to give her the dress, she jumped up and said, "Hi, Kristen!", which is a first. Then, when I showed her the dress, she got all excited and said, "Daddy, help me put it on!" Once it was on, she said, "I look like Aurora!" She thanked me multiple times, which as any crafting aunt out there knows is more than enough reason to keep making things for her.

Back from the Coast

I spent last week in "sunny" southern CA, once again my trip to San Diego coincided with a spat of Boston-like weather (in fact, I think it may have been nicer back here than out there). Despite non-cooperative weather I had a great time visiting with K.

I arrived late on Wednesday and K & I went to Mellow for a glass of wine and a bite to eat. In honor of our planned wine tasting trip, I had a Qupe from the central coast and K also had a central coast wine.

On Thursday we left for the San Luis Obispo area. Along the way I bought some fabric to make a skirt and we stopped at the Yarn Lady so that I could buy some "cheap" size 4 circs (I ended up with a set of lantern moon destiny needles-only I could go looking for cheap and buy the highest price needles in the store). As we were riding we ran into unusual weather conditions:

wet stuff was falling from the sky! If I were in Boston I would know exactly what this was, but this was the LA area and I am told that rain doesn't exist. Unfortunately by the time we arrived in SLO the tastings were done for the day.

On Friday we began wine tasting in earnest. We hit 6 vineyards and the Hitching Post II. In case you didn't see Sideways, or didn't believe the movie, let me tell you, they make some really good wines in the Central Coast region of CA. There were a ton of wineries there, most of the tastings that we did were very reasonably priced $5 for 5 or 6 wines. I had the opportunity to taste wines that are beyond my price point, which was fun too. The scenery was quite lovely with fields of tended grape vines and mountains in the distance.

On Saturday morning we visited two more wineries before starting the return trip home. I left the area with 9 bottles of wine (only 6 were coming back to MA though).

Sunday was the day I traveled cross country for. K, as readers already know, received her Masters Degree, Sunday was the graduation ceremony. Can I just public mention how impressed I am with her? She went through a lot of schooling and a lot of hard (HARD) work to get to this point.

Monday and Tuesday were both pretty low key. K and I did some knitting and some sewing, but not much else.

Wednesday there was more sewing, I finished my skirt, my first every sewn skirt. We also made it up to La Jolla where I saw the baby seals (La Jolla is just gorgeous-I wish I could afford to buy a place there, and that I had a job lined up to make moving an option)

My final photos to share are of my finished skirt-an indoor shot and an outdoor shot.

If I remember right the skirt is from a Simplicity pattern. I don't remember who designed the fabric. The pattern has a yoke around waist band.

Lots of Knitting

This past weekend I had one of my knitting heavy weekends. I managed to finish up and block my Flutter Sleeve Cardigan.

Knit with Webs Longmeadow in Willow on Size 6, 5, and 2 needles. I will get an in use FO shot sometime soon.

Ornette has reached toe shaping point on both socks.

The second Nutkin was started and finished.

No photo yet, but the second Rhiannon has been started too.

Um, I guess that about covers it.

Josephine FO

I finally got some rechargeable batteries for my camera, so I'm able to bring you the following FO shot:



This is Josephine which I knit using Queensland Cotolino that I purchased 50% off at Lori's Frames, Fibers and Frills in Alpine. The gauge of the yarn is DK, but the pattern calls for sportweight, so I had to make a different size. It seemed to work out well. I totally lived on the edge in terms of running out of yarn. In fact, I got so freaked about it that I used a coordinating yarn for the neckline trim just in case. It matched the ribbon that I used for the tie, so it actually looks cute. The pattern calls for the tie to made out of yarn, but since I was low on yarn, I decided to go with a ribbon. I also altered the proportions of the pattern so that the tie hit me immediately below the bustline so it would be more flattering. I'm very happy with how this pattern turned out - I've already worn it a couple of times!

Since then, I've also finished my Something Red, but have no finished photos. I ended up being really happy with how it turned out, so I'll get some FO shots at some point.

On a personal note, this has been a good week for me career-wise. I got two job offers! I'm so thrilled because I've been interviewing for a couple of months already. I haven't totally decided, but I think I'm going to end up working at General Atomics Aeronautical Systems. Also, Joe has an interview next week at Northrop Grumman, so fingers crossed for him. I picked out two outfits for him to wear. I picked through piles and piles of discounted shirts and ties at the Nordstrom Rack and I think I did really well. There was a lot of ick there. Which one do you like best?

Test Knitting Progress

Ornette is moving along. I have knit the heel flap and turn for both my right and left sock. I have also finished my gusset decreases on the right sock and am in progress of decreasing the gusset on my left.

I am enjoying working on this sock. I like the twisted faux cables and the traveling cable panel. This is clearly a pattern that takes a lot of thought to create. I definitely would have bought this pattern, but I am thrilled to be able to test knit it instead.

My left sock isn't as far along as the right one because I made a bit of a mistake and had to tear out the gusset decreases. This actually seems to have been a good thing because it is easier to follow one sock at a time than to try to knit 1/2 of a right sock then 1/2 of the left sock then vice versa.

Flutter Sleeve is nearly done. The body is all knit and i am working on the sleeve cuffs now. This weekend I hope to buy buttons, next week I may have an FO shot!

Next week I am heading out to So.Cal for a week's vacation! K has kindly offered to help me sew my first skirt. We will have to see if I actually have time or if we will keep ourselves too busy to sew. If I do sew a skirt then I will happily share an FO shot of that.

Not Much To Say

From a hike in the Blue Hills on Saturday:

New yarn: First finished Nutkin:

Heel of Nutkin:

Cuff of Nutkin:

Fluttering Along...

Flutter sleeve is slowly moving along. I managed to finish the left front this weekend. The button band is knit separately from the body and attached by a mattress stitch, which I found a bit annoying since I prefer to minimize seaming. At least though the seeming was fairly simple.

I like the way this cardigan is turning out. The color (which is not accurate in any of these photos) while not what I wanted for Erin is perfect for Flutter, summery and light. I now have only the right front, sleeve cuffs, and tabs to make.

In addition, I have decided that this cardigan will look very cute with the Lacy Skirt with Bows from Greetings from the Knit Cafe, which will be knit in pewter Hempton. I just received my Hempton today and photos will come eventually.

In addition to working on Flutter, I have started test knitting Ornette by Cookie A. I didn't have time to go buy some new sock yarn, so I reached into my stash and pulled out...

Fawn Knitpicks Essentials (expecting something fun and exciting? Sorry when I get fun and exciting I knit it up pretty quickly). So far, this has been a fun pattern to knit. I started with the left sock then decided I wanted to try the right one as well (we are only supposed to be knitting one, so I guess I am cheating).

Well, I guess that is about it. Have a good day!

Fluttering Along

Slowly but surely my Flutter Sleeve Cardigan is moving along. The back is finally off the needles. There is a nice little seed stitch detail up around the collar of the back. When I started this seed stitch section I thought I was nearly done, but the seed stitch section kept going and going (it felt like it took longer than it looks like it should have taken). After finishing the back I, of course, started the right front straight away. I am at about the midpoint of this front section and so far there is smooth sailing. I have some stitches on a holder/needle they will be knit latter up along the front borders.

The nice thing about this cardigan is that most of the sleeves get knit at the same time as the body, so once I have both front halves done there will only be a little knitting left. :-)