Another Knit Down...Litterally

Pun intended, this was knit top down. Took me FOREVER to get my butt in gear to weave in the ends on this bad boy. Not sure why, but I wore the day after I did and loved it. It's definitely too big but still cute with a belt, incredibly comfortable, and not too hot. Perfect fall sweater tunic.

Happy sunny autumn afternoons

Cerise

Blocking Out

This sweater was in the works not too long ago. I started it in March this year and trucked along pretty quickly with it, especially for fingering weight on a size 3 needle. I decided to knit both sleeves at once since the yarn was getting low and maybe if I ran out I could shorten the sleeves. When the yarn did finally run out, I realized this would not work well with the style. Alas, I had a sweater without it's full sleeves. I searched around for a skein in my dye lot to no avail so I took a risk and ordered one skein last week. After the exciting Wednesday of getting my Quince and Co. package in the mail I was even more excited to see that the new dye lot matched quite perfectly to my old stuff. So I've been knitting away every night this week on the last bits of the sleeves and finally finished around 1:30 am yesterday. Quite tame to my 5 am sweater completion a few years ago on my French Braid Pullover. I force myself to bed, not before considering some intrelac and the weird way I cheat my ssk's and if it really makes a difference or not, and woke up eager to weave in my ends and decide whether blocking was worthwhile. I'll admit I was more excited to get pumpkins first, even in the chilly drizzle of Oregon. With ends woven I laid my Lightweight Pullover sweater out on my bed, yes I need to invest in some blocking pads but the bed seems to work just fine for now, I sprayed and tugged away. Voila! I can't wait to wear it out the cider press party tonight. I think it will be perfect for a cold, grey fall evening!

Happy blocking yarn friends

Cerise

Kitty Sweater Toys!

I made a few cute kitty toys awhile back but didn't have a kitty to test them on. In the past, I would have tried it out on Katina, Cerise's cat, but since Dexter, her dog, has a habit of swallowing toys, I can't give her anything that isn't bigger than she is. So when Kelly made a special order through my Etsy site for a cushion that her cats had torn up, I included the cat toy in with her order.

The toy is made of an old wool sweater cut up and sewn into a little sweater shape. It is filled with catnip and cut pieces of wool. It has now been thoroughly tested and approved by Alistair (pictured) and Emma. Look for these kitty toys available soon. Thanks for the testing, Kelly!
Theresa, Ommama

Bella's Sweater

This weekend I made a little sweater for my "niece," Bella. It was my first baby sweater and it came out so cut! I took advantage of Knit Picks's cyber Monday sale and got a ton of yarn, some for specific projects like this one, and some for whatever comes along. Who could pass up Oregon Coast merino lace yarn? Dexter was also supposed to get a sweater out of this but apparently hyacinth is a purple color. Who knew? It's really not his shade. Bella's sweater was made with KP's Andean Silk in the colorway Cerise (cool, right?). This is my new favorite blend. Alpaca, merino, and silk, oh my! It's a fabulous as it sounds. A nice halo and a lovely sheen and it feels divine. The pattern is Lion Brand Yarn's Eyelet Yoke Sweater and it's a really great and fairly easy one to knit up. I want to make a million of these in every color! Fortunately I know a few baby and toddler girls who might need a sweater. After one other sock mate, my holiday knitting is done. Post holiday knitted gifts is another story...

Happy Knitting!

Cerise : )

P.S. If you aren't a blog follower get on it! Look to the right of this post to follow. Thursday is giveaway day and you can't win if you aren't a follower...

The Progressing Sweater

As promised, another post! Lately I have been discovering a balance between my sewing and my knitting and trying to fit that into my everyday life. With very little work in my week I have been able to focus more on this (I'm still trying to fit school in there somewhere too). Sewing is the best in the say time as my "craft room" (a.k.a. the bedroom) is nice and sunny and I don't need to strain my eyes in bad light (and I still don't have a bulb for my machine). Knitting is best at night while catching my favorite History, Discovery, and Travel Channel shows or while reading my knitting magazine. This has been working out rather well. My sweater is starting to come along and I'm beginning to think about how to approach the neck. The pattern I started with (Treeline Striped Cardigan from The Purl Bee) won't be helpful for creating a v-line neck with a big edge.


I am going to have to dive right in to creating my own pattern if I want this to be a v-neck. The big, ugly, chunky man-sweater I have been working on (the blue one I've been ignoring since I finally got the last skein I needed to finish it, remember that one?) might help me figure this out. I have many more little stitches on this purple and white striped beauty but at least looking at how to decrease may give me some insight. I was hoping to try the end of the sweater on to see how much longer I want to make it but the needle cord is too small to go over me in either direction. It definitely has a little ways to go but it's very exciting to finally see some actual progress that looks like an article of clothing. Unfortunately, the onset of summer is getting me winding down on sweater projects. I'll have to pick up a side project of something lightweight and cotton so my knitting mind doesn't get overheated with all that warm and woolly yarn.
Happy Crafting, Cerise : )

The not-so-long awaited cat nip sweater!

A few days ago two packages showed up in my post box. Though both were addressed to me, neither of the them really was meant for me. One of them was a handmade surprise for my mum that was wrongly shipped to me and the other was Katina's little cat nip sweater toy. Of course mum hadn't forgotten about me. I got some sweet little froggy stickers and a wonderful book about a capy, one of the cute R.U.S.S., who lived with a family. But I couldn't give Katina her toy right then because my camera batteries had died, again. This morning I got up "early," did a few chores, and headed out the door for my yucky but conveniently located super market chain to get some batteries. We don't use batteries for that many things but we do go through them like crazy. I decided to buckle down and buy the recharge-ables and a charger since they were slightly on sale. just beat the wonderful rain back to the apartment I was happy to find out the batteries were pre-charged. I plopped the batteries in my camera and tossed Katina her toy I had been telling her about the past two days. Since then she has been sitting on it looking out the patio screen, tossing it around now and then, and trying to rip it open with her vicious little kitty teeth. I think she would give it two thumbs up if she had proper thumbs. I wasn't able to get the best action shots of her because she refused to act out for the camera. She is definitely an embarrass-able little kitty but I could tell she loves her sweater toy. Thanks Mum!
Happy Crafting!
Cerise : )

Knit Mania

Oh my goodness! I thought I was getting better about posting but I guess not. I have been overly busy with work and attempting to stay busy with the very little school I have going on this semester. But here it finally is!


I have been in a knitting craze lately, only throwing in a little sewing here and there. Knitting has become a outlet for me. Making all the tedious stitches relieves my stress from a long, high-energy day and soothes my nerves when I'm upset about all the clothes or dishes strewn about my tiny, boxy apartment. I can take it anywhere, like the baseball game on on a car trip, or enjoy an online radio show, a book "on tape," or my favorite cartoons on the boob tube and still knit away.
Not only does knitting relax me, I get a completed, wearable end product. Basic socks are now a breeze for me and I almost don't even have to look at the pattern. I feel overly comfortable knitting sweaters and am even comfortable with adjusting patterns to suit my tastes. I am amazed how how far I have come from my metal shish kabob sticks, the closest thing to knitting needles I could find in my house, and a scarf that was knitted on either side (as knitters know, this doesn't give you a smooth interlocked V side and an opposing bumpy side but rather a series of ridges known as the garter stitch) and no knowledge of purling. I have even taught three of my girlfriends to knit and started a little knitting group. I am up on Ravelry and listed all my projects and yarn. I now have an understanding of gauge, yarn thickness, ply, fiber content, needles of all sorts (single-pointed, double-pointed, circular), how to read the weird shorthand patterns, how to adjust patterns, bought a subscription to a knitting magazine to replace the no longer printed CRAFT magazine, and even have an understanding on how to spin yarn. Nothing in the knitting world is now scary to me. I am intimidated by sewing because I don't know how to size things, intimidated by cooking because I burn and miss measure things, and intimidated by photography because I don't focus well or take two rolls worth of pictures without any film in the camera. But with knitting, I dive right in without thinking about it and am able to come out successful and proud of my work.

I recently went through all my yarn and stashed it on Ravelry, setting aside unwanted skeins and weird projects from who knows when. I took a little box full of my unwanted over to my last knitting party and offered it up to the girls. I found the first knitting project I ever made, on those old metal shish kabob sticks. Two kids I babysat taught me how to knit one summer when I was in high school. They made it look easy while I struggled. But they did have real knitting needles. My friend thought it was cool and liked the yarn. I wonder if she'll frog it or add on to it. It reminded me how difficult and ugly the beginnings of my knitting were. Like many people, I started as a beginner, scared of gauge swatches, unable to understand the knitting shorthand, and not sure how to choose yarn. Now, I don't even care if I have a few funny stitches. Who will notice? What family member will care and give me a white ribbon instead of blue? (Of course, for the county fair next year it will matter.)

Even after I purchased my first knitting book with a Border's gift card I got for Christmas, I only did little samplers of different stitches and only got a few rows into my first sock attempt before tossing it aside (yes, that too was in my give-away box). The day I decided to knit a sock, to just go for it and not look back, was the day my knitting knack was freed. I'm now four and a half pairs of socks, one and a half and an arm into sweaters, and many scarves into a few years of knitting. It may not sound like much, but for someone who is easily scared away by imperfection of the outcome of her projects, this knitter is so far self satisfied and always impressed by the outcome.
Happy Crafting,
Cerise : )