last of the purple sweaters, I swear!

Okay, I may have finally gotten the "purple sweateritis" out of my system.  Though I love this one as much as the others.  If you missed the boat on the other three , they are posted here, here and here.  All with my favorite ever super soft purple Malabrigo yarn.

 

I made this sweater as a thank you gift for my sweet friend, Tracey.  Well, it is actually for her adorable daughter, Scarlet, but seeing our babes all dressed up does a mama's heart good, doesn't it?  I wanted to send her a little something in thanks for all of the time she spent on the graphics of my hockey quilt pattern.  Lord knows it would have never came to be without her!  She is always cheering me on with my knitting, so I decided this would be just the thing.

I used the tiny tea leaves pattern, which I have made a couple times before for my girls, but this time modified it to make the neck not so wide.  I added a few lilac pearl buttons, since Tracey was such a fan of those on my niece's sweater.  Inside, I stitched in a label by Izzy and Ivy I still had from my Sewing Summit grab bag in 2011.

And speaking of Tracey, not sure if you saw her Blogger's Quilt Festival post, but she has now finished and gifted the amazing scrappy sprouts quilt to her good friend, Chelsa, who is fighting cancer.  This is an absolutely gorgeous quilt and sentiment, and I was so happy to be able to contribute some blocks to its making.  I think I need to make one for me!

 

(photo by traceyjay quilts, used with permission)

what I am working on now....

It has been a slow crafting start to 2013, just busy with life in general, but I always have my hand in something, or else I would have no excuse and have to clean up my tornado of a sewing space ;)

Quilting-wise, I am really excited about the newest improv top I have started.  I am using a bunch of my favorite fabrics and slashing them up, no measurements, and then am piecing them together as I go, adding bits of neutral scraps here and there.  I came up with the idea and had a rough sketch drawn in about 3 minutes, and usually my favorite quilts start that way, just done for the love of stitching.  I have a recipient in mind for this, but no timeline, so I will pick at blocks here and there. Here is what I have so far.

In the knitting arena, I decided a new year warranted casting on a new sweater!  The pattern is the top-down cable yoke jacket by Cotton and Cloud, and has the sweetest braided cable yoke and a hood. This will be a longer term project, and is for The Middle Child, who is so sweet and my biggest crafting cheerleader.  She was asking for a purple sweater and this yarn, Malabrigo Rios in Purpuras, is knocking me out with its softness and gorgeous tones.  Might need a big-girl one!  It is coming along quickly thanks to my latest obsession, Downton Abbey.  I treated myself to seasons 1 and 2 as an early birthday gift and so that has planted my arse on the couch with my knitting needles more frequently than normal.  In fact, I have named this the "Downton Sweater" and have joined up with the Downton Abbey Knit Along over at luv in the mommyhood.  Good fun!  Just started Seaason 2 and really enjoying it!

I have a couple other quilts to finish up, and a swap project to work on, so I am hoping to get some time to get at these!  In the meantime, my sidekick and I are likely curled up on the couch like this.... :)

I knit a sweater!! !!!

I feel like I should do about 17 posts on this one sweater, for the time it took me. I am guessing about 50 hours over the last 2 months or so, including the entirety of our road trip. I like knitting, but it really does test my patience. I am a mover and a shaker....I like to see results, and knitting, at least when done by me, is so SLOW. But, I DID IT!!! Anyhoo, I have been sure to point out to the hubs about every 5 minutes:

Me: "See each of those loops in this sweater? They represent one stitch. I made them. Each one. There must be a million of them!"
Hubs: "Does each one represent a swear word I heard you utter on the road trip?"
Me: "Um...could be."

Yes, I admit the learning curve was steep and the language colorful, but I made that d@#* thing, and I am f&^#ing proud! With the help of You Tube and Knitting for Dummies (yup, that includes me), I figured out all sorts of new skills like how to pick up stitches under the armpit to make a sleeve, how to add a button band and make button holes. I also learned the definition of "frogging" (rip it! rip it!) and how to pick up dropped stitches....these mishaps accounted for 90% of my foul language!

The pattern is the Tiny Tea Leaves Cardigan, perfect for a beginner like me. More deets if you want to know the ins and outs can be found on my Ravelry page here. But if you want to just admire along with me, away we go...

I made this for The Middle Child.

Doesn't the blue look wonderful with her eyes?

Here is a view of the back:

She picked out the buttons herself.....she already has a thing for bling!
She has now asked if I will make a matching one for her American Girl doll (the answer is NO).......

I added a label to the inside, which doubles as a loop for hanging the sweater up on the hook in her classroom. No unsightly holes or stretches in this baby, please!
All in all I am beyond pleased with myself for this accomplishment. I know I make crap all the time, but knitting a sweater makes me feel connected with hardy pioneer women or something. Don't get me wrong, I won't be doing this all the time, but am set to cast on another for Last But Not Least, and will, someday, knit ONE sweater for myself ;)