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)

Perfect fall sweater (for a perfect little girl)

I think about 2.3 seconds elapsed between when I cast off The Middle Child's sweater and when Last But Not Least started whining, "But where is miiiiiiine???" And as I worked on it over the past couple months, the kid was like a slave driver. "Aren't you done yet, Mommy?" "Knit faster!"



Anyways, I am so happy that I was able to crank it out in time for her to wear this fall....and to capture the gorgeous color of the yarn amongst the gorgeous colors of nature!



Knit it a couple sizes big....you can bet if I am going to knit it, I am going to make it big enough to last awhile!



Tested and approved for running and frolicking purposes.....



Had fun walking through the park and snapping photos. The Middle Child was the "director" of the photo shoot and would swoop in after each shot to rearrange hair and offer suggestions to her sister about hand placement, etc. Suggestions were usually taken graciously. Ah, sisters!





More details on my Ravelry page here, for those who would like to know :)



Linking up at Rachel's Celebrate Color contest :)

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 ;)