Trillian update

So I just realized that I first wrote about Trillian in August  of 2014! I've been knitting on this thing pretty regularly for the entire year and I am still not finished. I'm pretty darn close but it will probably be a while before it's complete, since I still have a second Ellafunt to finish first.

But I thought that it deserved an update!

It started as this stunning skein of lace weight Indigo Dragonfly Merino Lace Single in the color Beige

I cast on in August of 2014 and had to reknit this tiny triangle 2 or 3 times before I got the super simple pattern correct! 

I've taken it with me to soccer practice, games, Dr's appointments and other random places over the year and it is quite a decent size already. This was it two weeks ago. 

I could probably start the edging at any time now, but I don't want to be left with any of this amazing yarn. I keep weighing the ball to try to get to around 10% of the skein left so I can do the edging.. we will see if that works or not.  I think this super drapey and lightweight shawl will actually be perfect for summer evenings on the coast of Maine, so I'd like to finish it before my vacation hits. Wish me luck. 

There has been quite a bit of knitting

I always think I'll write here again soon… and then months have passed. Life seems to just keep on going and I keep forgetting to update this space with some of the crafting I've been up to. Part of the reason lately is just the simple fact that I started working again. Ever since my son was born I've been home with him full time, but he's 8 now, and in the 2nd grade and it seemed the right time to start dipping my toe into the world of work again. I chose to take a small job on at my son's school so it's only about 3 hours a day, and I think it was the perfect way to start back, but it still means that I'm working most all of the hours that my son is in school. I'm working on readjusting to having to do things like grocery shopping on the weekends or with my son along for the ride.

But I digress yet again. While all of the above was going on I was still knitting every evening. And I've got two new sweaters to show for it.


The first had been in my Ravelry queue for years. I'm not sure what had me waiting. I'd had the yarn for it for a long time too. It was a fairly straight forward knit. I was worried that the collar seemed confusing or difficult but in reality it was pretty easy, just all that twisted rib took FOREVER!! Here's my new favorite sweater, Larch…

Larch 

I've been reaching for this one a lot lately. The color is kind of a pinky grey and it just seems to go with everything. I also like that since it's an open cardigan it's not too hot for our weird climate here, but it helps take the chill off. I absolutely love the buttons I got for it at Stitches West from Jennie the Potter! They were the exact perfect choice!

The second sweater is Lifesavers by Tanis Lavallee of Tanis Fiber Arts fame! I saw her post a pic of the version she made for herself on Instagram and fell instantly in love. I kind of hounded her blog hoping she'd release a pattern for it and she did one better than that. She released the pattern and special kits to make the exact sweater she'd made. I had a little out of body experience and promptly ordered one! When I was in twisted rib collar hell on my Larch I spent one afternoon winding yarn for Lifesavers knowing I'd be casting on the minute Larch was on the blocking board and that is exactly what I did! And man was I crazy, I knit a fingering weight cardigan in a month.. that's a record for me. 

And I know it will be one of my favorite sweaters for the warmer months. It's the perfect weight to throw on over a t-shirt when there is a breeze or when it's cooler in the shade. 

And I have to share this photo because it makes me look way awesomer than I am in real life. A few weeks ago I 'ran' the She Is Beautiful 10k for the second year in a row. I say 'ran' because I only ran about 1 of the 6 miles and walked the rest. I keep wanting to say I'm a runner but I have this loud and very animated argument in my head every time I try to run for more than 5 minutes at a time. So during the 6 mile run I ran about 5 different stretches of no more than 2 minutes at a time, but this photo sure makes it look like I rocked that run! HAHAHA

Happy Monday! Now go knit something!

Twisted Trousers testing

It's Monday morning, the first day after "Spring Forward" which has me not wanting to spring anywhere except back to bed. I don't understand why we even continue with daylight savings time, but that's a conversation for another time.

Let's talk about trousers, more specifically Twisted Trousers from Titchy Threads! You may remember that their Small Fry Skinny jeans were the first pants I was ever able to sew for little dude that fit him perfectly and showed off his skinny frame to the fullest without being overly tight. Well when Laura put out the call for testers for a new pants pattern that was a pull on, with knit elastic waistband and piping, I immediately put my name into the hat to test them.

The results are very professional even in their first test phase iteration. She has since refined the pattern to slim the leg a touch, put more emphasis on the twist itself and to scale the back pockets down a touch. I can't wait to use the official pattern version to make another pair for my guy as he's been wearing this test pair A LOT!!!

The piping detail along the twisted out seam and the back yoke is a great touch and makes for some really fun trousers, especially if you are more adventurous in your color choices than I was!

The back pockets on this initial version are pretty large but I like them. The pattern contains options to add piping around the pockets too but I opted for plain. 

The knit waistband is comfortable and the rise is high enough there's nothing popping out even when he's bending down and climbing around. I opted to do grommets and cording and wish I had had a flat tape instead of the cord but it works. 

They made it through a beach trip in fine working order with pockets full of sand to boot. 

Thanks so much Laura for letting me help test this wonderful pattern!! I can't wait to make more. 

Stitches!!!!!!

This is the 5th??? year in a row that I have attended Stitches West. Sadly it was the first year my buddy P couldn't make it with me. At least she has a cute squishy new baby to snuggle to make up for it, and really we all know she has the better end of that deal!!

This year my dad and step mom were visiting us from the frozen tundra that is the Northeast this winter. They have gotten storm after storm, piling foot after foot of snow on their doorstep and so I think the break and the sunshine of a CA winter was just what they needed. We spent the week doing touristy stuff and smack in the middle Susan and I went to Stitches. I was kind of kicking myself for not being able to get into the market preview on Thursday night this year. I tried and tried to find a class that interested me but there was just nothing I wanted to shell out the money for. I think I made the right decision but once I found out that Jennie the Potter was going to be there, I was sure doubting myself. I knew her booth would get picked over big time during market preview. That's the #1 reason why I made us get there 1/2 hour before the doors opened on Friday and why I basically ran to her booth first thing when we walked in. It was the right decision, because a lot of her mugs had sold already. All that were left were the show special bear mugs which I didn't LOVE. Don't get me wrong they were gorgeous, but I had my heart set on one of her tree mugs. Since they were all gone, I looked at everything and carried around a few different mugs for a while and finally settled on this beauty! I also got two sweater ornaments and a set of buttons for my Larch cardigan. I could easily have spent my entire budget on her pottery!!

I have had every single cup of tea and coffee out of this mug since I got it. 

As usual I had a list of booths I wanted to visit and things I wanted to do. Next stop after Jennie was YOTH Yarns. They were new to me and I had only learned about them from reading on Very Shannon that she and Jane Richmond would be doing a book signing at their booth. I did some research and immediately fell in love with their palette of colors. Once I set foot in their booth it was over and I quickly settled on a sweater quantity of Big Sister to knit Epistrophy in. Look… how could I walk away without this, the colors sea salt and blueberry reminds me so much of Maine for some reason! :-)

Here's a lame iPhone shot of me at their booth trying to justify the armload of yarn I am carrying and was about to purchase. 

After YOTH I went right over to the Never Not Knitting booth where Jane and Shannon were book signing and had them sign my copy of Journey. It was a fun fan girl moment for me as I kind of have a crafting crush on these two. I even wore my Gemini for Jane to see.

They were totally sitting down! I am not a giant!

They were both super friendly and we chatted for a bit before I moved on to get the rest of my shopping done. They totally reassured me that I would not regret buying that yarn at YOTH! Next on my list of must sees was definitely Canon Hand Dyes. I love love love my green and grey self striping socks from last year and this year I settled on two new skeins to take home. 

It was seriously hard to choose with all this awesomeness going on, but I settled on the blue, white and grey skein (Netherfield Ball)  and one of the rainbow skeins (My Favorite Things). Now looking at this picture I'm wondering why that burgundy and grey one on the left didn't come home with me!! 

All in all it was a great day, although I totally missed my best stitches buddy P. I didn't buy a ton of stuff but I truly love each and every item I got. And, one of those sweater ornaments went straight to Colorado so P didn't feel like she missed out on too much. There's always next year!

Burrard take 2

I realized just now that I have yet to post modeled shots of my Burrard Cardigan. I put buttons on it and since we were lucky enough to have a little cold snap here in CA I was able to put it right on and start wearing it. I brought it with me to FL for Thanksgiving and since it was oddly cold there too, I wore it almost the whole week.

It did end up a little larger than I usually would want. I knit the smallest size which was 37.75 ".  This on my 35" bust gives me over 2 inches of positive ease as it is. but this yarn has very little memory which might be a problem over time because it keeps growing. But you know, I think I'm OK with having this sweater be a little big. If I were still living in a cold climate I'd want it to be big enough to layer a couple of T-shirts under. 

What I ended up with is  a super comfy and cozy sweater that is extremely warm without being heavy at all.  The collar will require a little bit of help to stay folded down all the say. I kind of wish it had a broader collar in general but I like the high v-neck and how it frames my face. 

Here's me and T being goofy on Thanksgiving. This sweater came off the needles and made it right into rotation, which is the true proof that it's a great sweater that will be loved and worn for years and years. 

2014 Recap

And so, on this last day of 2014 I decided a recap was necessary. Sometimes at this time of year I feel a bit down. I think it's the distance from family, the grey days and throwing in a little sickness never helps. But in an effort to remind myself of how much fun was had and how many things were accomplished in this tough year, I made some collages.

First up, cooking. 2014 became the year I learned to cook. Now by this I don't mean that I became some fabulous chef or something, what I learned how to do was meal plan and follow through. Granted there were days when we ate scrambled eggs for dinner but I still consider that a win, because I actually planned the basics and therefore HAD eggs in the house to cook! Of course this year I also did a lot of baking. I finally tried to make pate a choux, which was something I always assumed would be too difficult. YUM homemade cream puffs are tasty! I also deem this "year of the bundt cake"as I finally got myself a bundt pan! The return of the pizzelle also made this Christmas season a little tastier and I'm so happy to finally have gotten a new pizzelle iron!

Most cooked new dish of the year: Beef and Broccoli/ Crock Pot Yogurt

Biggest fail of the year: Modern Beef Bourgiugnon 

Next up is sewing (with a little basic crafting thrown in)! I have branched out bit this year and have sewn things a bit out of my comfort zone! It still continues to be a fun and rewarding hobby and one that helps with my general restlessness!

reminder **don't pin pics of my child**

Biggest sewing accomplishments: Jeans/ Designing my own purse pattern/ P's Quilt/ Anakin Costume

Biggest fail: T-shirt sewing 

Rounding out the year is Knitting, my first crafting love! I was pretty prolific again this year and hope my knitting mojo remains intact through 2015 and for years to come.

Biggest Knitting Accomplishment: Burrard Cabled Cardigan. It was a labor of love!

Biggest knitting fail: Inland Cardigan (too bulky, doesn't fit right, total MEH!!)

Most knit item of 2014: Socks! I knit at least 7 pairs this year!

2014 brought its challenges, that's for sure, but my friends, family and my crafting really helped me through all of it. When I feel restless to be "doing something" I remind myself that there was a LOT of fun this year, I mean c'mon I have the surfing scar on my knee to forever remind me that I checked Hawaii off my bucket list this year! 

Here's wishing you and yours a very happy, healthy 2015 in which you get to do all the things and spend time with all the people you love! Now I'm off to continue to KNIT ALL THE THINGS, after I clean under all the beds, can't start 2015 with dust bunnies!! 

The Sweater that started it all!

My mom was a very talented and prolific knitter. I don't really remember a time at home when she didn't have needles in her hands or some hand knit sweater on her back. She used to tell me how she knit through all of her college lectures and how she knit my dad a sweater while they were dating. We often wore mother daughter sweaters that itched like CRAZY and were almost always made of some sort of mohair blend in a strange 70's/80's brownish color way. The fact that there is no photographic evidence of this is odd to me but I'm sure that at the time I made a point of avoiding cameras while we were wearing them, after all they almost always had a puffed sleeve and being that I am very broad of shoulder means they didn't look that awesome on me!

This photo is a pretty good representation of a lot of my memories of her.  Knitting everything on long straight aluminum needles. And yes I had to take a photo of a photo because that's how old I am!!

These two are the only photos I could find of me wearing hand knit sweaters made by her. This seems insane in this day and age where there are a thousand photos of EVERYTHING, but that's the way things go. And can you see that to take the 'selfies' above I had to use a long cable attached to my camera on a tripod. A manual camera, with FILM in it. I don't think my son will ever really know what film is! But I digress. 

This sweater in particular is extremely special to me. I still have it tucked away in my cedar chest. My mom made it for me when I was a junior in High School. As you can see it's an incredibly intricate pattern. Even the background stitches over the ENTIRE sweater are basket weave! This is a 40" chest people, that's a lot of switching from knit to purl. The most insane part of all of this is that even though I lived with this woman I never saw her knit a single stitch of this sweater. It just appeared on my bed one day folded in all it's immaculately new glory. How she managed that I can not tell you. Nor can she tell me, since she passed away 20 years ago,  just a few years after this sweater was knit and those 'selfies' were taken. 

I'm pretty sure that I was drawn to really learn how to knit by some need to connect to her. I didn't learn for real until I was out of college and working for a children's publishing company. My mom had tried to teach me a million times but it ever really took. Then as a 28 year old working at my publishing job the call went out for test knitters for our new Knitting book. I told the editor that I was a knitting novice and that I hadn't held needles since I was 7 or so, but the magical thing was that when I picked them up again and started knitting, it clicked. Somewhere deep in my brain was the knowledge my mother had given me years ago. It was still there and I haven't put the needles down since that day! I feel connected to her whenever I knit and it almost feels like she's knitting with me. 

Fast forward to this  year. I kept wanting to knit a cable sweater that would remind me of her, but be one I could actually wear now. Somehow that 40" chest seems outrageously humongous now! How I ever wore it then is a mystery. Ahhh the early 90's when girls wore enough clothing for 3 people instead of barely enough for one. 

I purchased yarn and pattern for Burrard thinking it would fit the bill nicely. I cast on last JANUARY!!!!!!! and started knitting away. I got the sleeves done in no time. Then on to the back where I got stalled for a few weeks because I mis-crossed a cable and didn't have the bravery I needed to drop down those stitches to fix it. My best knitting friend P helped me get over my fear while she was visiting for Stitches West. Then I moved on to the fronts and halfway through the first one I bottomed out. It went in a bag for the entire summer while I happily knit socks and hats and other small mindless items. 

This Fall when I picked it back up I realized I was no longer intimidated by it. I could anticipate the cable crosses and I could sense when a mistake was about to happen before it happened. And then ***Poof*** it was finished! 

It still needs buttons and a serious photo shoot outside on a bright day since this color is impossible to photograph, but there it is. My 21st century rendition of the cabled sweater my mom made for me. I think putting it on will feel like a warm hug and I will pretend it's a hug from her. Thanks mom for teaching me that you can do wonderfully amazing things will a ball of string and a couple of sticks!