Introducing: The Windsor Vest

Sure, it might seem a bit early for Christmas posts and planning for most people, but for any knitters planning Christmas knitting, it's a good time to at least start browsing for your knitting queue. Interweave Knits Holiday, available via the Interweave Store (here: print edition or here: digital edition ), has you covered whether you want to treat someone (including yourself) to a gorgeous shawl or socks, whip up a quick hat or set of mittens, or make something special for a child. I was particularly delighted with the set of designs based on Jan Brett's illustrations in her children's books (The Hat, in which Hedgie the hedgehog has a run-in with a sock that blew off the clothesline of winter woollies, has been a favourite with both my kids), and I'm tempted for the first time ever to knit up a Christmas stocking as a result.

Photo by Harper Point Photography for Interweave Knits. Used with Permission.

My contribution to the collection is the Windsor Vest. When I sat down to play with colours and motifs on the computer, I asked myself, what would Ernie, from Sesame Street, favourite Muppet of so many children, wear if he had a traditional Fair-Isle inspired vest and wanted to dress up a little? Certainly he'd still want to wear some of his favourite colours!

Photo by Harper Point Photography for Interweave Knits. Used with Permission.

I had some SweetGeorgia Tough Love Sock in my stash in the Ginger colourway, and I knew right away that I wanted that to be the colour for the trim. I enjoyed looking through all the delightful saturated colourways available, and set up a palette that I feel works well for a slightly more formal yet still exuberant Muppet, or indeed for a cheerful child who feels that if she or he must dress up, let it at least be colourful and bright.

Photo by Harper Point Photography for Interweave Knits. Used with Permission.

The Windsor Vest is worked in the round from the bottom up, with steeks worked for v-neck and armhole openings. Stitches are then picked up around the armholes and neckline for trim.

Finished Size 23¼ (24¾, 26¼, 27¾, 29¼)” chest circumference. Vest shown measures 23¼”

The pattern can also be purchased individually via the Interweave Knits Store here: Windsor Vest Pattern

Photo by Harper Point Photography for Interweave Knits. Used with Permission.

Fall Knitting is for the Summertime: Presenting the OXO Pullover!

As a knitter, I say it's never too early to start thinking of Fall. I also say that Summer is the time to start knitting up sweaters so they're ready to wear in the Fall, not to mention the odd chilly day out camping during the summer. Luckily, Love of Knitting seem to be in agreement on the subject, as they have just released their Fall 2016 issue. I am also very happy to say that I have a design included in this issue!

Presenting the OXO Pullover!

Photo by  Carmel Zucker for Love of Knitting. Used with permission.

I was so excited to see these photos when they arrived in my in-box. The model is just so adorable, and they did such a lovely job!

Photo by  Carmel Zucker for Love of Knitting.
Used with permission.

The OXO Pullover is a classic child's pullover with a bold X and O cable pattern forming columns.

Worked in Patons Classic Wool DK Superwash, the wool is warm, cozy, soft, durable, and machine-washable; all things that are ideal for a child's sweater. This yarn comes in a variety of colours that will appeal to kids and grown-ups alike, and I had many comments on the beautiful emerald colour as I was working on the sample.

Photo by  Carmel Zucker for Love of Knitting.
Used with permission.

The single-rib side panels give the sweater extra stretch allow extra room as your child grows; this and the modified drop-sleeve style allow for a comfortable relaxed fit without a lot of extra fabric to get in the way of a day of play. Finished Size: 25½ (27, 28, 29½ , 31)" chest circumference. Shown in size 28".

Photo by  Carmel Zucker for Love of Knitting. Used with permission.

Photo by  Carmel Zucker for Love of Knitting.
Used with permission.

The Fall 2016 issue of Love of Knitting is coming to newstands very soon, but in the meantime, you can order a print copy here:

http://www.interweavestore.com/love-of-knitting-fall-2016-print-edition

or a digital copy here:

 http://www.interweavestore.com/love-of-knitting-fall-2016-digital-edition

Knackered

This post is rather a lot later than I meant to post it this week, but it took until today to recover from the long weekend.

Friday we went to IKEA to get a few things to organize the kids' craft area (it's a start, anyhow), and I had a soccer game later that day.

Saturday, soccer tournament (two games), Sunday, one more game for the tournament, and a lovely dinner with the family. We all played Rockband together and stayed up late, which was all very fun.

Monday the kids went skating with my husband's family while he took me out for lunch, then we all had dinner together, which was lovely. I also worked on sending out a submission and going over the final proof of another pattern that will be published soonish.

Tuesday, which was not the weekend, but is worth mentioning because it was exhausting, I coordinated the pancake lunch at the school, which basically gave me an hour off before it was time to pick up the kids at school and take them to their swimming lesson. Luckily my husband finished early and drove us all there, so I wasn't having to expend quite as much energy there!

Yesterday, I looked at my list of things to do, decided not to do them, and couldn't even muster the energy to relax properly (knit, spin, watch a show, etc.). I should have taken a nap, but didn't. I got extra sleep last night, and today I'm back to normal, so I'm getting a few things done.

In the meantime, here's what little spinning and knitting I have been up to over the last while:

Continuing on the Silk/Merino singles,

starting to ply the Rainbow Leicester, so here's the plying ball

and I made it to where the Contrasting Colour gets added to the Byatt Shawl. Very happy with my colours and with the pattern!

Hoping I'll have enough yarn of the main colour for the shawl! Also hoping I'll have enough time to knit far enough along to answer that question by early next week, but we'll see how things go. After all, this weekend looks busy too.

In Which the Week Goes by Quickly

So, Monday was mending, Tuesday the kids were off school and I can't remember what I did, but I did get something done, if only I could remember what it was. Wednesday I had one kid at home sick and I spent all day working out the best way to manage a particular and slightly atypical stitch for a work project. Yesterday was a half-day for the kids, and I managed to finish up a pair of socks that I've been working on since August.

I think it was time.

I had decided to make them slightly large for growing-in-to, which, upon reflection, works for sweaters, but not so much for socks. I just wanted them to fit for longer than five minutes, but of course, they're just too big, and that's that. They'll fit eventually, perhaps even soonish. But, my daughter is fond of them all the same, and wore them all day yesterday.

Also this week, I've been reading The Spinner's Book of Fleece by Beth Smith, which I have out from the library. It's excellent, but it makes me want to go and sample all the things to spin, which is not something I can spend time on at the moment. It's a good general goal though, right? I'm finding it quite informative, and will keep it in my wishlist for spinning books.

In the meantime, for my spinning, I'm still working on the rainbow Leicester locks, this time with the red, white, brown, and gray locks. At this point, I would just like to clear the spindle for other spinning, which is not to say that I'm not enjoying the project, but that I'm just that excited about the next project. It is, however, quite satisfying to beat those locks with the flick carder. Also, quite satisfying to draft the silky stuff that results, but less satisfying to deal with joining bits back together when I've let it go too thin. Snap.

Another source of distraction (and I mean that in the nicest way possible) is Karie Westermann's Byatt Shawl, which sent me to go look through my stash yarn. I think that this bit of gold Sweet Georgia sock yarn and the maroon sock yarn (there's another skein of it somewhere too) from Ali of Dandelion Fuzzies (that I bought, in both cases, I think, about 5 years ago) would be just brilliant for the Byatt, don't you? I might just have to give it a go and cast on after clearing my plate a bit!

First, Giveaway Details, Second, Much Cuteness

First off: Vanessa from By the Fibreside is offering a giveaway of the Knit Picks 2015 Fair Isle Collection e-book (you know, the one in which my Firth Waves Cushion is included)! For a closer look at the wearables from the collection, here's a great blog post from Knit Picks. This is a link to the By the Fibreside Podcast, and here's a link to the Facebook Page and the Ravelry Group.

If you've any interest in spinning, knitting or weaving, I'm sure you'll enjoy By the Fibreside. I get some spinning done while I listen to it, as it always gets me excited about spinning. It's also convinced me to make sure I head out for at least a day trip to Olds Fibre Week this year!






Second: I finally finished my second shawl knit from my handspun. "Shawl" is overstating it, really, as it's more of a scarf. I had nowhere near as much pink as I needed, but I used leftovers from the first of my handspun shawls to stretch it out. A rectangle is what my youngest wanted from her share of the first bits of roving I picked up to spin (she picked the Candy Pink fluff), and stripes were readily agreed upon.

She has declared it perfect, and that she is going to wear it every day to school.

Photo shoots with kids require lots of photos to get just a couple of shots that are not too blurry, too silly, too posed, or hiding the knit object too much. It's still a lot of fun, and I don't mind including a few of the silly ones here so I can share the cuteness:

Sew, Knit, Sew, Nearly There...

Christmas is just around the corner, and I'm still working on gifts. I finished three of them today (two of which I will share below), but first things first. I am so proud of my youngest, who is starting to go around writing notes, to-do lists, schedules, books for her friends, and sewing patterns with diagrams (albeit mildly confusing ones that take a bit of work to puzzle-out).

Here's her sweet little note for Santa:

And here she is with her completed doll quilt! We worked together to seam the strips by machine (she had hand-sewn the squares into strips of four), and then together again for machine quilting. I admit I did the binding (and I am so happy to be able to say that I remembered how to do the mitred corners without looking it up), but the rest was all my 6-year-old. She loves to sew, and has several ideas for her next few projects!

Now, finished gifts!

I am knitting exactly two things this year, one of which I finished this morning, and the other of which, I am casting-on tonight.

Here is thing one:

You'd think, with all the patterns for toques with skulls on them out there, whether free or paid, that I would find exactly what I had in mind, but nope, I did not. I made this one up as I went along, and I dare say it turned out rather well. My husband was very kind to humour us by getting his photo taken (never his favourite task, but he's sweet enough that he doesn't grumble about modelling duties).

The other thing that I can share today is a sewing thing.

I'm less ambitious than last year, and have only sewn my husband a quick long-sleeve t-shirt intended for a pyjama top. There were a few issues with the collar band (I need to practice those, but I don't sew knits as often as I'd like), but other than that, things went great. I highly recommend the walking foot. I think it looks way too big, but I measured against another of his PJ tops, and it's actually about the same, more or less. I can always take it in later if needed.

I also recommend not only cleaning your machine properly (not just the shuttle race, but pulling out all the bits you're supposed to, remove the plate, clean the feed dogs, everything) after sewing with fun-fur, but also to clean it again next time you use it in case you are incorrectly remembering that you had cleaned it last time, and even if it miraculously behaved just fine while quilting with your daughter, and worked just fine while testing your tension on a scrap. Ask me how I know.

One more thing to knit, one more thing to sew, and a few things to make in the kitchen...

Whaddaya Mean One Week?!?!

I promised I'd let you know how far behind on Christmas I am, and so here goes.

I'm very behind, but I am catching up (I hope).

Normally, I start planning in October. Nothing too intensive, but I enjoy daydreaming in October about cookie recipes and handmade gifts. This year, I got as far as buying my usual baking magazine about November sometime, gave it a brief flip-through, and got back to work.

Usually in November, I have a spreadsheet put together so that I don't forget which people I am buying/making what thing(s) for.

I threw something together in the way of a spreadsheet in early December.

This week, I started gift knitting, which is definitely something I usually start in November or earlier. Now, I only have two items to knit, and they should be quick (I love Worsted weight yarn for this), but I'm only mostly through the first one so far.

Now, I did start one thing early, in September, but I won't be able to tell you about that one just yet (if no-one else pops by the blog on a given day, my Mom sure will, and I'm keeping your present a complete secret Mom, so you can keep on visiting. I even have cute pictures of grandkids today).

So what can I tell you about what I have been doing?

Well, we kicked off Christmas plans at our house by pulling out the advent box so that the kids could set out all manner of stuffed toys, books, videos, and odds and ends. We baked with Grandma, and then ate leftover icing.

For the St. Nicholas Day weekend, we met up at my Mother and Father-in-law's place for a party with friends of the family. I made Olliebollen for the first time. It's a traditional Dutch doughnut that is eaten on New Year's. Grandma had chocolate initials for everyone, which is another Dutch tradition (this is all very sweet, because I was the only one there of Dutch heritage, and, well, what can I say but it's lovely of my Mother-in-Law to make it a special day like that. She's quite good at Christmas, and I'm pretty sure not nearly as behind on things as I am).

This past weekend, we finally started the baking that is usually underway by early December with a batch of gingerbread (we should really get the rest of them iced tonight), and, on my eldest's insistence, a fruit cake.

Now, my daughter loved the idea of trying fruit cake, and we couldn't just buy some (nut allergy), so we modified a recipe to use apple juice instead of brandy (though I should have tripled the juice I think), raisins, apricots, mixed peel, and lots of coconut. (My husband abhors candy cherries. I'm not sure we're supposed to admit they exist, let alone bake with them).

The resulting cake, not meant to keep long like a traditional fruit cake, is not quite so moist as might be desired, (hence my note to add more juice), but not half bad either, is very lemony and was topped with cream cheese icing last night.

Now, as for gifts, the other day I told my husband I worked all day, but had nothing to show for it, because I worked on one of his presents, and so couldn't show him. However, I have exacted from him a no-peeking-at-the-blog promise, so I can show you:

I don't normally do much embroidery, and this is my first go at cross-stitch in particular. The pattern is from World of Geekcraft, which has several amusing projects. While the pipe in the pattern is meant be brown to more closely resemble the painting, I enjoyed the Mario green version. It was very fun, but took a bit longer than I thought it would, so I'm behind on my sewing plans (which I will tell you about soon).

Halloween 2014

Presenting Zombie Marie-Antoinette and the Lion!

Quick Halloween Photos

I finished sewing (at least the important parts) of my daughter's costume last night while my husband and kids were carving the pumpkin. Sorry for the poor quality of the photos; no natural light at all during prime photo-taking time during the next several months, I'm afraid.

As I mentioned before, she's going as a lion. The pattern is McCall's M6106, and was pretty simple to sew (except for the part where fun fur is involved, and I seriously question the "fun" part). It was a fair bit of work to cut out the pieces, but thankfully, my Mom had suggested I bring the work down last weekend when we went to visit, and we cut them out together.

I still have to whip up the spats and mittens (well-worth it, as it's fairly chilly here today), but am having trouble talking myself into getting around to it. I'm working on work knitting instead, so it's fairly easy to justify putting off finishing the sewing. I shall finish it before dinner at any rate.

I stopped short of including the fur bands around the ankles (see again part about fun fur being not fun), but got through the rest anyhow, and my little lion thinks it's purrrrrfect.













They were to dress at school today, so I only did their makeup this morning, and don't have full proper pictures of my lion and zombie (the zombie put together her own costume!), but should have some by tomorrow at any rate, posted by Monday if not sooner.

A Bit of This and a Bit of That

Over the weekend, I worked a bit on a few things, but never did finish anything. I still hope to finish Oranje this week, and might just get there. I have woven in remaining ends, and have hemmed the bottom and collar facings. I have still to sew on 15 buttons and hem the cuff facings (after pressing them). I might tack down the steek edges as well, but likely not before finishing everything else, as I can still wear it without worrying about that so long as cuffs and buttons are done.

I spent some of my weekend knitting time working on my daughter's shawl, reasoning that it's so close to being finished that I should just get it done:

 

However, trying to employ the 'pick them off one at a time' method of getting around to things meant realizing that there's no particular deadline for that shawl, so I spent a bit more time on these mittens for a friend:

These are a one-off custom design that she bought at a fundraiser for our football team, and we've worked out something that speaks to her love for her choir and for music in general. Trust me, they will look much better after blocking. I am just finished the cuff on the second, and the first still needs a thumb, so there's a bit of work yet. I'm hoping to take a bit of time to finish these between now and November (she'll need them for sure by then; it's cold in November here). I also have important time-sensitive work knitting to do, but I absolutely must get these done as well to avoid causing cold hands.

But, before I get much work on any of these, I have to make this:

into a lion costume for Halloween as soon as possible so I can get back to my work with no (project-related) distractions. I may have a couple of late nights ahead of me this week, but if I can finish the mittens, the costume, and Oranje before the weekend, I'll be pretty pleased. Wish me luck!