Mormorio

This project has followed me around for a year and a half.  I think I am actually having a bit of separation anxiety here in the space between projects.  The main body was a garter stitch breeze to knit, but that lace edge was not the "quick bit of lace fluff" that I thought it would be.

This has very little to do with the pattern, and mainly to do with my incompetence/fear of reading charts and hatred of doing purl rows in a lace pattern.  Then there was the day I picked it up and knit half a row in the wrong direction before realizing what I had done.  Thankfully, I have a very competent knitting emergency staff (mom) who was able to undo my damage while muttering "do you have to knit soooo tightly" under her breath.  I spent many hours thinking to myself that I should go do just one row, and very little time actually doing them.  I mean, it is only 20 rows of lace.  I am not a disciplined knitter.  I can accept this about myself.

Mormorio pattern

My ravelry details

Hurry up fall so this can take up a permanent residence around my neck!

City Gym Shorts - Toddler Workout

Whoo Hoo!  Third post this year, I'm on a ROLL.  Life with a two year old, blah blah blah... but look, I made SHORTS!  When I saw this post from the Purl Bee come through my blog reader, I just knew I would be carving out some time soon to try them out.  I spent most of the morning today sewing, and then the majority of the little miss' nap time, and by the time she got up I was ready to measure her waist for the elastic.  Ok, when I say most of the morning, I mean I spent a good hour agonizing over fabric and then got to work.

I have been hoarding several cuts of this Heather Ross cotton lawn, it is so gorgeous.  I really wanted to make these out of the unicorn fabric from this line, but I love it so much that I first made a trial run with this little flower print, which for some reason I have a ton of anyway.  Oh, and the bias edging I made out of an old linen shirt that I have had in the make-this-into-something-else pile for YEARS, so I even managed to recycle with this project.  Many pats on the back occurring over here.  I think these shorts turned out great, so hopefully some unicorn ones will appear as well.  Also, I got to finally use my bias tape maker thinga-magiggy and that thing is like pure magic.  These are the size 3 on the pattern, hopefully she will still be able to wear them next summer.

I Actually Finished A Quilt

I spent a lovely morning on Christmas Eve with a large cup of coffee and some binding to sew.  The pure pleasure I found that morning was primarily due to the knowledge that I was finally, after two years of procrastination, finishing this quilt for my own daughter!  Luckily toddlers need quilts just as much as babies do, and this one is generously sized to cover her for quite some time.  Actually it was Grammy that could be found snuggling under it Christmas morning, because the toddler was way too interested in her new tricycle to care one bit about a quilt.

I used the Zig Zag Quilt Tutorial on the A Quilt Is Nice blog, which is very easy to follow and did not contribute in any way to this quilt taking two years from start to finish.

The fabrics are Joel Dewberry voile from the Heirloom line.  The voile makes this quilt SO. SOFT.

One Gifted Two Received!

Christmas knitting was pretty slim this year as most of my spare time was spent finishing up a toddler quilt (blog post to come), but I whipped up one cowl for the tween next door and there were two cowl's under the tree for me!  Give and you shall receive indeed!

First up, my project.  Aforementioned tween showed up one morning wearing a cute cowl that belonged to her college aged big sister, and before I knew what happened I had blurted out "I could make you one of those if you like".  Did I mention this conversation took place two weeks before Christmas?  I had been trying to decide what to get her anyway. I knew it would be a quick knit, so a search on ravelry, a dive into my yarn stash, and just a few days of furious knitting resulted in a great present!  If you need a quick knit for a teen or tween or grown person even (I want one now), this is the pattern for you.  As with most great fast patterns it is all about the yarn and a fantastic way to feature two skeins of your favorite bulky deliciousness.  My choice was a Plymouth Handpaint Wool, which probably falls in the super bulky category, and this cowl is WARM.  Yarn details and such on my Ravelry here.

I was gifted a cowl from my Aunt and one from my Mom, both have been getting constant wear since Christmas so I can confidently recommend them both as great gift ideas if you are in need of one (never too early to start knitting for next Christmas).  This cream and blue one is the one from my Aunt, her Ravelry account is sadly neglected so I can't snoop and see if she used a pattern or anything, but it looks like a simple cast on of about 72 stitches, knit in the round in a knit two pearl one pattern with chunky yarn.  Simple but turns out totally cute!  This goes with everything.

My Mom is pretty good about her Ravelry account, so I was able to find out that she knit me Eufaula from the Scarf Style 2 book (Mom's Ravelry link with yarn details here).  The color she picked is one of those that goes with absolutely everything and since it can be doubled or worn long it can be more scarf-ish or super cozy cowl style.  With some low temperatures in the single digits for Atlanta next week I know this one is about to get a lot of use in that cozy cowl option!