Gobble Gobble

Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving! We have our christmas tree up (already!), and Norah couldn't be happier! Our fridge is full of leftovers that I DIDN'T cook (thanks mom!!!), there is a little boy dancing around in my belly, and I finally have some of that lovely yarn on the needles for the first time:

Hope everyone else is as feeling as thankful as I am! :)

Buttons!

Just ran and got cute blue buttons and sewed them on my finished baby cardi.... voila!

Wound up

I wound up a ball of the Purl Soho yarn, but haven't knit with it yet. It's ready and waiting for me though! :-)

In other news, I am blocking a wee cardi for my friend's little boy. This time (first one I made see here) I did the tapered sleeves instead of the straight ones, as I think it will be better to stay close to little newborn arms. I still need to get buttons but here is a progress pic from when I was still knitting it:

Pattern: Puerperium Cardigan
Yarn: Alpaca with a Twist - Baby Twist

Currently on the needles is a pair of fingerless gloves for my friend Natalie. She sent an amazing package in the mail which contained not only YARN, but hot chocolate mixes AND homemade (yes!) marshmallows. YUM!!!! In exchange all I "have" to do is knit the yarn up into things. The yarn is super amazing, so it's really just like one big treat for me!!!!

Yarn: Shepherd's Wool (Stonehedge Fiber Mill) - worsted weight

It's super springy and cushy for 100% wool! Plus when I was winding it up it DIDN'T shed little bits of fuzz like a lot of wool has in the past. I'm a big fan of this stuff! :) As for the glove pattern, she had sent me a photo of some gloves she had seen in a store that she liked. Working roughly from that, I am really just winging it with my own pattern. (scary!) Here is what I came up with:

I borrowed the amazing stitch pattern from this hat: Claudia Hat

The rest is cobbled together and I am hoping they will suit her tastes!!!! I will keep you posted to see if I can make the 2nd glove the same size/pattern. LOL. (I took notes but it's still hard!) I might also have some ideas for the rest of the yarn (seeing as I am going to have plenty leftover!).

Last and also least, I finally gave it up and frogged that sweater I had started for Norah. It just wasn't what I wanted, and I'd much rather make something we will both enjoy wearing and using. Oh well!

Thank you Purl Soho!!!

Yes that's right folks - I am a WINNER! Specifically, I won an online giveaway! I occasionally comment on blogs and enter myself in various giveaways but have never won something. UNTIL NOW. The best part is that I won one of the best things in the world..... YARN!

I've been reading/following the Purl Bee blog (run by the Purl Soho company) for awhile now, mostly because they have GREAT free knitting patterns! Besides being free, the patterns are stylish and things I would actually want to knit. All-in-all it's a great site. Recently they decided to go into the yarn biz and introduced their first yarn, Super Soft Merino! It's a beautiful super bulky merino wool. (Click through that last link to see all their colors!)

Anyway, if you clicked the link you will see they had a giveaway on the blog of some free yarn in honor of their first production. Of course I entered! Lo and behold... I WON. I still can't believe it! They sent me the nicest email and asked what colors I wanted for my FREE 10 SKEINS OF YARN. 10!!!! ZOMG! It took me awhile to decide (and frantic emails to a few friends lol) but I finally emailed them back using 1 zillion exclamation points. Not even a week later this arrived on my doorstep:

_{(4 peacock blue, 4 oyster grey, and 2 yellow yellow)}

Is it not amazing??!?!!!? This is the best contest I could have ever won! :) I had my assistant helping me to open and asses the yarn:

...and she knew exactly what to do with it (rub it on your face to check the softness!):

Needless to say, the name of this yarn totally lives up to the hype. IT IS SUPER SOFT. Like butter. I am sooooo excited to get this on the needles and see how it knits up, but as it is in the skeins I am more than pleased! I promise I will share when I get something cast on. In preparation I have created a folder on my desktop in which I am saving knitting patterns that would suit this yarn. I hope to be able to get as much as I can out of this amazing free yarn!

THANK YOU AGAIN PURL SOHO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I promise I will buy from you in the future! :)

Growing boy

My post title is not referring to my little unborn baby boy (although man is he getting big in there!!!).... I am talking about my nephew Holden!

Back in August of 2011 I finished this adorable striped sweater (and never blogged about it? what??) for my then three-year-old nephew. It was supposedly sized for a 4 year old, and I thought I was playing it safe. Well it ended up fitting, but it was BARELY long enough to cover his stomach. (boo!)

Pattern: Child's Sweater Size 4
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease
Mods: Stripes inspired by Ravelry user's sweater: DomesticImpostor

I had the bright idea that I could lengthen the sweater (seeing as I had some of the yarn leftover in the stash) so that he could wear it this winter! (I hate to see a sweater grown out of so fast, hehe!) I had my SIL give me the sweater and then I got to work. First issue: the original sweater I knit flat and sewed up the pieces. For the lengthened part I knew I wanted to do it in the round (plus how else would I do it... it'd be really awkward to try and do it in pieces for an addition!). My solution ended up being to just muddle through and see what happened. :)

I put the stitches at the bottom of the lowest (green) stripe on a large circular needle. Next, I cut off the grey ribbed edges and pulled out any leftover bits until I was left with just the green stripe on the needles. For the leftover seams I just tried to tie them off as best I could. If they ever do unravel I will bust out some sewing thread, but for now it seems good to go! (whew).

Next I grabbed my spare yarn and added a blue and brown stripe, and then redid the grey ribbed edging. I think it blended in pretty well - I wish I had done a tiny grey stripe between the blue and brown but I was worried about not having enough for the edging.

I plan on giving it back to my SIL next time I see her... I hope I lengthened it enough!!! Cross your fingers for me!

Mittens for a butterfly

Woah, it's November? And I am zooming in on 30 weeks pregnant this weekend? CRAZY. I have managed to get some knitting in here and there. I continue to work on my secret xmas project (to be announced later), which is going fine.

Back before it was Halloween (I need to keep up on this blog better!) I was working on my daughter's costume. We had these gorgeous monarch butterfly wings that she has gotten from my MIL sometime last year, so I thought a butterfly would be an easy enough costume! We already had black sweatpants, and I bought a plain black long sleeve tshirt. Oh and I found some cute antennae on sale - originally meant for a bumble bee, but the yellowish orange color worked well with her wings! 

In that photo she is not wearing the part of her costume that I knit.... fingerless mittens! I assumed Halloween would be cold and dreary (and of course halloween night was GROSS out), so I busted out some wool in the closest matching shade I could find and made these:

Yarn: Patons Classic Wool (and some black scrap wool of some sort I had lying around for the hearts)
Pattern: Sucky Thumb Mitts
Mods: CO 26 sts. Followed directions except did K12 instead of K15 and left out a few rows of ribbing at beginning and end. Original pattern was too loose for my girl's hands with my gauge!

Since Halloween night lived up to its weather expectations, we added a winter coat and those mittens to her ensemble for trick-or-treating. Here she is all ready to head out into the drizzle.

I think we did 5 houses... it was enough for mom and dad! :-) We did get a few comments on the mittens, which was really fun for me to hear. Hooray for successful last minute costume knitting!