Don’t miss Twist Collective Winter 2010

I LOVE Twist Collective.  It’s what introduced me to my favorite designer, Ysolda Teague, and lead me to create the Vivian sweater.  The Twist Collective Winter 2010 issue is out.  Here are a few of my favorite things from this issue:

1. They have cute little viking toys that remind me of the How to TrainYour Dragon movie that came out recently.  I love knitting toys and these are super cute and original.
2. The history on my favorite color, purple, is explored in an article called the Purple Prose.  The dye was increadibly expensive to make at first which was why it became associated with royalty!
3. They also have some great tips on How to make a sweater fit. Along with a measurement worksheet that is so important!!  They suggested to crack a bottle of wine at knit night and take each others measurements.  I’d be up for that – how about it knit nighters???
4.  And the winner for the most orignal design is this neat cabled hat that is knit so that the cable goes around the head, rather than from the bottom of the hat to the top.  Pretty cute!

There is a ton of other really cute designs out that I didn’t mention and I always love their Swatch It article. 

Crochet!

First of all, check out this cute bag that my best friend gave me!  What better to put in it than a big afghan project??  But, did you notice what is sticking out the top??  Is that a hook????

I actually started my yarn addiction by crocheting.   I made a baby blanket for a friend with the bubble stitch while pregnant with my son, nothing for my own baby!  Then I moved on to knitting and don’t often think about crochet… that is, until I think about doing a blanket.  I have a hard time doing the same thing over and over again.  That’s why I prefer socks, or sweaters to scarves and blankets.  But, lately I’ve been craving crochet.  I think it’s being a mom to two kids – there’s something comforting about being able to pick up a project and just not think too hard about it.  And being able to put it down at any moment is a big plus. 

So, I picked up this project that I had put down two years ago and find that I’m loving to crochet 🙂

Yoyo Cozy #2

My husband has a thing for yo-yo’s.  Not just your run of the mil local hobby shop yo-yo, no, these are nice fancy ones that musn’t get scratched at all cost.  I made the Magical Pouch for his first one and here is another, more manly designed, one to keep his yo-yo in perfect condition.  They are pretty fun to make.  This one took about an hour and a half.  It’s made out of Plymouth Wool with size 8 needles.  This also happens to be the yarn that I have stashed to make him a sweater out of some day.  If I start now, maybe I will have it done by next christmas!

Quietly Knitting

I’ve had my hands full with the two kids, but still finding time to do some small projects… less time for blogging about them, sorry about that.  I have quite a few things I want to share, but only a tiny bit of time for taking photos and getting on the computer.  I’ll try to catch up with this little xmas project that I did for my mom.

I had a knitted washcloth that I loved and wanted to copy.  I thought I could reproduce it without a pattern no problem.  Wrong!  It ended up taking me a few days just to figure out something so simple!!  It turns out I had the wascloth upside down the whole time and that simple mistake turned into a day and a half of confusion.

I was trying to re-create this:

No problem right?  Just knit, yarn over, and k2tog, then garter.  And do the yarn over one stitch sooner each row… seems like it would work, but it turns out, you can’t do this!  If you want a right leaning line of yarn overs, you HAVE to do the k2tog first… as in this picture:

After I figured this out it was a piece of cake.  Very fun to make and such a delightful gift to give.