Silk Garden BSJ

This is a Christmas gift for a Very Special Niece, so I'm posting super cropped pictures so there will still be an element of surprise.  

Look at all that YUMMY garter stitch!  

It shows off the self-stripy-ness of Noro SO well.

 It is hard to tell from this picture but I did an I-cord bind off and incorporated buttonhole loops right into it.  Fabulous Technique ... Absolutely will use it again ... Super Fun to do!

The buttons make me Happy.  =) 

Sleeve Detail

KNITERLY DETAILS:

1 skein of Noro Silk Garden Sock Yarn - number unknown due to thrown-away ball band

2 skeins wool/bamboo sock from stash in dusty purple - it came from Joann's.

Knit with one strand of each on #7 circular needle  I used my Hiya Hiya interchangables because I knew I'd need to switch to a longer cable mid project.  Started out on a 24" cable and then switched up to a 32" cable. 

I'm GEEKED with this sweater ... and have already cast on #3!!!!!

Love,

Erin

PS - A You Tube video helped me incorporate buttonholes into the i-cord bindoff ... check it out here!  Lorilee, the maker of this video, is from my hometown in Grand Rapids, MI.  =)  Make sure you watch all the other videos she has created ... they are Great!

Wordless Wednesday

HOME FROM THE GYM - HOT, TIRED, SLIGHTLY DAZED

Rainbow Grannies - Part 2

The weather is strange here in Delaware.  Very odd - cool, off and on rain/downpours, and yet pretty humid.  Can I please have some 100% authentic Fall weather????

My day needs a punch of color so I photographed one of the projects I worked on this past weekend.

Option #1 - Natural

Option #2 - Pewter

Option #3 - Charcoal Grey

Do you see what's peaking out from under the grannies?  My berber carpet hides dirt but it's BORING for a photography background.  So, I grabbed a pillowcase from my vintage linens collection and used it as a backdrop.  =)  

So what do you think?!?!?  I was pretty set on using Charcoal Grey but after seeing the pictures, I really LIKE the Natural.

What a fabulous-wonderful dilemma to have ... I'm blessed to have the time to play with my yarnie palette!

Love,

Erin

When a Quilter Crochets

GRANNY-STYLE LOG CABINS

My favorite ... I think the colors are just so perfectly PERKY.  =)

I'll be back later this week with a tutorial!

Love,

Erin 

Rainbow Grannies

Basket of Rainbow-Bright Wool Yarn

I used Patons Classic Wool - my Go-To favorite.  =)  The majority is from my stash with a few missing colors purchased:

Water Chestnut

Emerald

Royal Blue

Old Gold

Lemongrass

Currant

Bright Red

Leaf Green

Royal Purple

Orchid

The last round of each block will be Lions Fisherman's Wool in either natural or oatmeal - Bonus Points to you if you guessed that!

TRANSFORMATION!

Pile of Five-Round Granny Squares

Cool Tones

 Warm Tones

I love you ... sweet double crochet clusters!

These are actually "tester" blocks and I'm GEEKED to say that my idea worked!  That's Great News for you  ... I'll be working up my Very First crochet pattern.  =)  As with all my other tutorials and patterns it will be FREE.

Love,

Erin

Scrappy BSJ

TGIF ... thank goodness it's Friday!  

This congestion + sneezing + headache + honking really kicked my butt.  Thank you LORD ... I'm feeling better this morning.  It's AMAZING what water therapy and ibuprofen can do for a gal!

Oh my goodness ... the day just got better!  

I found the cable to my camera!  

That means I can share some pictures with you.  =)

BSJ (Baby Surprise Jacket) by Elizabeth Zimmerman 

#4 needles and sock yarn

9-12 months size

I knit this the beginning of August and I used the Expanded BSJ Instructions  (scroll to bottom of page).  The construction of this jacket is both unique and confusing ... the line-by-line instructions helped IMMENSELY.  It's one of those "just because" projects ... no I'm not pregnant.  =)

FRONT

BACK

I used up all the little balls of my Het Schaapje hand dyed sock yarn.  Shall I list them starting from the top?

Delft Blauw

Utrecht

Zeeland

Sinterklaas

KD Blue

Delft Blauw

Gronigen

Utrecht

Zeeland

Sinterklaas

Delft Blauw

This little sweater just makes me HAPPY.  =)  The colors ... the construction .. the buttons ... the seaming!  

I ROCKED the shoulder seams.  Never did it in my life and they are nearly invisible.  Yes, I'm stinking proud of myself.  =)

SHOULDER SEAM

MULTI COLOR BUTTONS

Thanks for hanging in there with all those pictures.  You are the best ... thanks for listening to my color-inspired ramblings.  Be safe this weekend!

Love,

Erin

 

honk ... Honk .... HONK

Did you hear something?  Was that a flock of geese flying overhead?  

No, dearies.  =)  That was me blowing my nose.  

Monday morning I woke up with a scratchy throat that decided to move into my nasal passages on Wednesday night.  Sleeping propped up with pillows = backache = Grouchy Mommy.

There is one thing about having a cold that is very nice, though.  I get to use my Grandma's hankies.  =)  Most of them are plain white, but I do have a few flowery ones.  They are SOOOO soft and they still smell like Grandma even after all these years.

Pretty hankies for sale @ Etsy.com

Just what my nose needs with all the Honking it is doing!

Love,

Erin

First Day of Fall

This morning was the Get Acquainted Brunch to kick off this season of Coffee Break.  I'm the new Director of this Womens Ministry at our church.  Director ... such a fancy-smancy word!  Could it be possible that I'm really old enough to do something so important.  =)

Anywho, it went VERY well.  The veggie chips that I bought from Aldi were a big hit ... along with the DARK CHOCOLATE.  Aldi chocolate is the BEST!

Tonight is Knit Night ... woo hoo!  I'm making a big pot of soup and a salad to share with all my knitting gal pals.  What project do you think I should bring - crochet grannies or knit socks??

I love it when you leave comments ... they totally  make my day!  I'm also just an email away.  =)

Love,

Erin

Ga-ga for Gorgeous Grannies

I ran into a bit of a hic-cup with my afghan.  Flickr is one of my favorite places to visit for inspiration, so I clicked over to to see if I could find some ideas on how to border my granny 'ghan.  =)

Here is a mosaic of my "favorites."  I'm completely SMITTEN with that little 3 double crochet cluster. 

All pictures taken from the Attic 24 Inspired Flickr Group

The wild & crazy color combos make me so happy-happy-happy ... I can hardly stand it!!  

Which one is your favorite???  My vote is split between the big granny with the red flower in the top row AND the solid grannies bordered in cream set in rainbow order.

Love,

Erin

PS - Thanks to all my recent visitors from Ravelry's "We Love Lucy" group.  I love all your comments!

Good Morning!

Housekeeping and remodeling continues today ... I added pictures to the tabs across the top.  Take a peak and tell me what you think!

QUILTING

SEWING

HAND DYED YARN

What a nice trip down memory lane as I clicked through my Photobucket albums.  =)  I didn't realize how much I sewed when Abigail was a baby/toddler.

The funny thing ... I'm such a decluttering freak that I only kept 2 or 3 mama-made outfits.  At least I have pictures.  =)

My right hand is cold and numb from all the C&Ping so I'm going to go warm it up by work on the border of my latest project ... a granny afghan using only stash yarn

Sarah London's Nanny McPhee yarn package

Worsted weight wool (really?!) in very Nanny McPhee colors.  Woo Hoo! I love it and can't wait to share it with you!

Love,

Erin

Wonderful Wool

I tried really, really hard to be an "equal opportunity" fiber artist.  There is this acrylic yarn called Vanna's Choice that lots of crocheters are using to make ripple and granny afghans because it comes in great colors.  I bought a boat load of it at AC Moore so I can make Abigail another blanket and crocheted a few swatches this weekend.  Hum ... good thing I saved my receipt.  =(

What can I say?   I absolutely LOVE wool!  Does that make me yarn snob or fiber elitist?  "Connoisseur of natural fibers" has a nice ring to it, don't you think.  =)  I know ... it's because I'm Dutch and grew up in the snowy-coldness of Michigan!!!! 

Here are my recommendations if you've never worked with wool yarn before and want to give it a try:

Patons Classic Wool

This is not my picture, but I have all these colors in my Stash!

$4.99 @ Michael's

Lions Brand Fisherman's Wool

It comes in 3 natural "wooly" colors + 2 tweeds

$8.99 @ AC Moore (use a 40% off coupon and it will be even CHEAPER!)

There are over 12 skeins of it in my stash ... yes, I love this yarn!

Hey, if those Peak Oil people are right, I'll be ready for Armageddon!  

We may go hungry, but we won't be COLD.

ETA - This yarn is GREAT for dyeing.

Wool of the Andes

It comes in GOBS of different colors and since they are 50 gram balls, 

I can have a huge rainbow of colors in my stash without putting out a lot of cash.

Ha Ha Ha ... Sorry. I'm such a dork!

This yarn is $1.99 each from Knit Picks.

There are a lot more pricier yarns out there that are really nice but I am very content knitting and crocheting with these three.

Love,

Erin

Pardon the Dust!

I'm bored with my blog so I'm going to do a little housekeeping.  

The layout is very BLAHHHHHH so I'm going to tweak it a little.

Add some color.

Add some graphics.

Add some pizzaz!

It will probably get worse before it gets better so bear with me.  =)

ETA:  That was MUCH faster and easier then I expected.  A big thanks to Abigail for picking out the new "Dutch girl" clipart.  Comments and suggestions are appreciated ... as long as they are positive ... hee hee! 

Happy-Happy Hooker

Hello there! 

I have a confession to make.  I'm ready to come out and say that I am having an affair.  It started out just re-kindling an old friendship and then ... BAM!!!!!  Oh yeah, it's with another woman.  =) 

I couldn't stop myself!  

Resistance was futile!  

The colors and designs completely seduced me!  

yarnroundhook on Flickr

Julie knitpix on Flickr

Pink Fluffy Warrior on Flickr

I discovered a whole list of new blogs to read each day ...

Attic 24 

Lucy's sense of color (or should I say colour :) ) is AMAZING!  Get this ... she's self-taught.  Love the go-get-um spirit.  

Do you Mind if I Knit

Vanessa crochets AND knits beautiful things.  Check out her fair isle dress!

Sarah London

Color on steroids ... I could stare at my computer screen all day.  =)

The Royal Sisters

Vintage style ... lovely FREE crochet tutorials ... what more could I want?  

I'll be back next week to show the crochet projects I've started and completed plus the ones that I'm dreaming of making!

Love,

Erin 

Thirty-two

It's my birthday today! 

Being in my 30's is not as scary as I thought ... I'm actually enjoying it.  =)

Thank you to all my friends and family who called or emailed me with Birthday Greetings.

Tonight Mr. Birthday Clown will come out for the Happy Birthday serenade and Official Candle Blowing ceremony.  =)  

Abigail got me a darling teddy bear puzzle and we will work on that together after she gets home from school.  Speaking of which, that's in one hours time so the Birthday Girl needs to get a bit of laundry folded and put away before then.  

Happy Monday and see you later this week!

Bye-Bye Facebook

Just moments ago I deactivated my Facebook account.  

The people I really want to keep in touch with can be reached by phone or email, 
through this blog, or in person.

It was becoming just another website to check and I was feeling a bit snoopy.

So, there you have it ... bye-bye Facebook!

Wednesday is Knit Night!

My friend Sue introduced me to this lovely yarn shop 3 years ago.  It was a short drive from our old house, so I would hang out there a couple afternoons a week.

Vulcan's Rest Fibers

Knitting and conversation with other adults is good for SAHMs.  =)  An added bonus is the location!  Chesapeake City, MD is one of the most charming towns I've ever seen.  Wouldn't you agree?

Then we moved and my visits to Vulcan's Rest Fibers shrank dramatically.  It's a 45 minute drive each way ... oh pooh!  This summer Abigail and I started a weekly ritual of spending all Wednesday afternoon and evening at "The Yarn Shop."  Reconnecting with all my VR gal pals was one of the highlights of my summer!

I'm continuing the tradition now that school has started but Miss Autumn is babysitting so that I can go solo. =)  There is no way I'm missing out on quality knitting time with Britta, Margaret, Bethany, Wendy, Tanya, Joanne, Nicki, Janet, and all the rest of you wonderful women!

Off to School, Jiggidy-Jig!

Yesterday Abigail started first grade.  =)  Wow.  When I picked her up at 11:45 (only half day), I asked her how was the first day.  Her reply:

"It was AWESOME!"

"We got to play on the BIG playground!"  

"The monkey bars are HUGE and I slid down the fire pole ALL BY MYSELF!"    

The house is very quiet, but the silence is nice.  

Coffee Break starts in a couple weeks and I have some planning to do for the Get Acquainted Brunch.  Did I mention that I'm the new Director???  Yes.I.Am.  I'm excited about it as I've felt God nudging me in this direction for a couple years.  But I'm also nervous that the women who attend might put me on a "spiritual" pedestal.

I need to get back to the YMCA.  Too many ice cream cones this Summer has added a little padding to the tum-tum.  =)  The Monday, Tuesday, Thursday schedule I had last Spring worked great so I'll return to that next week.  

Blog posts should become more regular.  I've made all sorts of artsy-fibery creations this Summer that I can't wait to show-off and LOTS more in the making.  

Happy Wednesday!