Positively the cutest thing ever.

This might be the cutest picture ever. You can buy these adorable knit hats over here: Bella Knitting Shop

Although, as I'm a DIY'er at heart, I can't pretend I won't try to figure out how to make it myself. :)

Next on the Needles....

Ms. Green, from the Spring 2007 edition of Knitscene magazine, designer Katie Himmelberg.

I c/o for these shorts last night, in a bright royal blue color. I'm not sure how I feel about knitted shorts at this point, but they look SO comfy and I bought the yarn for them a while back so I'm going for it. They actually seem like they will be a quick knit. We'll see. WIP pictures to follow soon.

Slink, Complete.

It's FINALLY FINISHED!! I really like how it turned out, although it is a bit heavy for an almost sleeveless knit. I wish that it had been done on a finer gauge yarn. Here are my notes:

Yarn: Classic Elite Rockford Cotton. This is an Egyptian cotton yarn that is currently discontinued. My mother found this for me at a yard sale in Massachusetts. I had enough of the eggplant color to finish this top with about 6 yards to spare. It was meant to be, me thinks.

Pattern: "The Slink" by Jennifer Stafford, found in the book DomiKNITrix: Whip your knitting into shape. Great pattern, almost no mistakes that weren't corrected on the website (I did find a misprint on the schematic, but I emailed Jennifer about it. She was very sweet and even sent me a free t-shirt for my trouble. Totally not necessary, but very sweet).

Pattern Notes: The top is cast on using a provisional cast on, knit sideways around the body, shaping for the armholes and neckline and then the provisional c/o is removed and the sweater is "seamed" using kitchener stitch. Can I just say right now that I had never used kitchener stitch before. The result isn't the neatest looking seam in the world, but it is hidden by my arm, and my SNB girls assure me that it is barely noticeable. If it bugs me too much, I may take it out and re-do it. I love that I have that option.
The sideways knitting proves a unique challenge. More than ever before, my ROW gauge was more important that my STITCH gauge. The wonderful thing about this pattern is that for the very first set of sized repeats, Jennifer gives a measurement of how long your piece should be. VERY helpful, because while my stitch gauge was dead on, my row gauge was apparently off a LOT, and while I was attempting to make one of the larger sizes, I realized that due to my row gauge issues, I would have to use the smallest size for all the length repeats. Turns out that it fits perfectly, so I must have done something right.
Finally, what I love about this pattern is the leeway that is given. You can make a cropped top or a tunic length, the neckline can be plunging, revealing or modest. Jennifer is very specific about where to add or subtract from the pattern to make the top all your own.

I must say the most gratifying thing ever was putting the book with the pattern on the shelf after I was completely finished with the top. As this was my very first large wearable FO, I'm proud and happy!

Slink Progress

I swear the Slink is so close to being done I can taste it. My goal is the end of the week.
See?


This picture is a tad on the blurry side because I think that the color looks a lot more true to life without the flash, and well, let's face it: My camera sucks.

I'm back!

I've finally gotten back into knitting! I've worked on The Slink basically nonstop for the past couple of days. I was starting to think my knitting mojo was gone for good. Expect finished pictures of The Slink soon, at the rate I'm going!

No Knitting!

I haven't posted in so long because I haven't been knitting lately, I've been sewing! I'm actually still working on The Slink, but it is kind of slow going, so I'm working on sewing projects as well.

Here is my very first sewn garment, which I made a couple of weeks ago:


After that, I was on a roll. Here is my second skirt:


This one is a bit shorter, and a bit better made. I'm really pleased with it.

This is sort of a work in progress. It is half a dress. I plan on doing a back stitch all around the top of it and then knitting the bodice. This might take a while, because I'm not knitting on anything except the Slink right now.


Also, I'm working on a graduation gift for my friend, Leanna, who is about to graduate from Marshall with her BS in Biology...a t-shirt quilt!


And finally, I've been looking at this style of dress for a long time now, and I finally broke down and bought a pattern for one (a pattern!). I have worked from a pattern before, but I'm not great at it. We'll see how this goes.



The dress on the far right is the one I'm making. The black fabric is for the main part, and the white is for the trim. The best part? The black fabric has white outlines of kitties and the white fabric says "meow" all over it. I think it is going to be SO cute! I bought a bit extra of the white fabric because I think I'm going to add white trim to the bottom. So, as soon as I'm done with my spring cleaning (I'm donating OVER HALF of my clothes to goodwill today!), my reward is that I get to work on my dress. Yeah, so I'm going to get back to work.

Slinky Slink

The slink is coming along fine! I only have about 97 more rows to knit on the back...erm. Well, it's not too bad, because I'm excited about it.

Also, today just happens to be my darling Penny's FIRST BIRTHDAY