Simple Things, Simple LuLu

Yarn, Araucania Ranco Multy. It was part of my Summertime swap package from our lovely moderator Wendy. The colorway is beautiful!

The pattern is Simple Things by Mary-Heather Cogar and available through Ravelry.

Hmmm....my pictures are not the great.

It seems to be a tradition to take a picture of your pet wearing your finished Simple Thing. Therefore, LuLu is modeling it. I woke her up to do this, I don't think she looks pleased.

The pattern was easy and the perfect purse/car project. It went many places with me during the month it took to make it. I would knit a few rows whenever I had a chance.

The pattern called for 360 yards. I had more yardage than that and I wish I had added a few more rows.

Knitted Gifts

The daughter of a friend of mine celebrated her second birthday in June. Unfortunately, on the day of the party I was in the emergency room with Henry. We gave Zoe her gift later that week and she was immediately in love with it.
The pattern is Penelope by Rebecca Danger. Rebecca Danger is a Monster designer and has a book out. She has some great patterns and you can check out her blog with links to her book and patterns here. This Penelope is made out of Bernat yarn and leftover cotton-ease. I did knit the body with two strands held together. This made it very tough to work with and my hands hurt horribly.
My friend posted a picture of her daughter and Penelope on Facebook and there were many sweet comments about it and a couple of people asked if I sold them.

My younger brother is going to be having his 27th birthday in early August. I knitted him a hat out of Stonehedge Fiber Mill's Shepherd's Wool. This is one of my favorite yarns to work with. I may even have a stash of it to be knitted into items for me. It is available in stores through out the US and online.
The pattern is Boyfriend Hat (I think that's what it is called) and can be found on Ravelry by typing "boyfriend hat" into the search or by following this link here.

Henry is modeling the hat for me. I will be sending it out soon along with some "Michigan" flavored coffee, Michigan Cherry, Michigan Black Raspberry, Michigan Maple and Mackinaw Island Fudge.

Hey, Did You Knit That?

So, I totally admit to being a lazy blogger. It's been hot, there was a holiday, and we had an illness with two trips to the emergency room. Cut me some slack! Okay, okay....during that time there was some knitting being done. Check it out! Irene had her 4th birthday in June. We had the family together at the Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek. We got to feed giraffes. It was amazingly cool. Irene wore Eden's Adam which is the vest version of Eden's Eve. I managed to finish it in the wee hours of the morning before the zoo trip.

I also made another Storm Cloud. Unfortunately, I didn't notice the hole in it until after I was done.

On Ravelry I participated in a bookmark with postcard swap in my favorite group, A Swap in Time. Below is the bookmark I sent.

I received this cool flower bookmark and postcard of Chatsworth from our group Moderator. Love England, love the bookmark, love Chatsworth :-)I also received my Summertime Swap package from my secret partner. Imagine my happiness and surprise to find out that once again it was our group moderator that had me in the swap. She sent the best package ever. Three packs of stickers, of which only one is shown, and three packs of Haribo for the kids. The shawlette is in such a pretty shade of sage and so beautiful too. That fantastic skein of yarn? It is Araucania Ranco Multy. I am currently knitting with it and the colorway is gorgeous. You're welcome to drool over the picture and be jealous of all my goodies! I was very spoiled :-)

I did send out my Summertime Swap package to my partner in Australia. It took less then a week to get there which surprised me. I only have a picture of the shawlette that I made. My partner was a special woman that I found to be not only bright and fun but very courageous. She has actually helped me, but for personal reasons to both of us I will leave out the details.

The pattern is Chastain from Ravely. I wasn't completely pleased with it but I had such a difficult time with getting yarn that I finally decided I could no longer fuss with it or I would not make the deadline. My partner's favorite color is charcoal. I found one skein of Stonehedge Fiber Mills Shepherd's Wool in granite. I decided to knit Little Colonnade (also on Ravelry) but I did not have enough yarn. I thought I could safely switch dye lots between the stockinette stitch section and the openwork/lace section. Unfortunately, no area stores had the color. I had a store order in more. Two weeks later it finally showed up...with a slightly blue-ish tint. No way could I use it. So I scrambled to find a project that only used one skein of the Shepherd's Wool. The rest of the goodies sent were two skeins of Malabrigo, strawberry stitch markers, a project bag made with daisy fabric, coffee (Michigan Cherry and Michigan Black Raspberry), a book, postcards, bookmark and magnet of my town.

Shepherd's Wool is my new favorite yarn. It is Michigan made and so soft. It is made by Stonehedge Fiber Mills and is available in stores throughout the US and it is also available at some stores online. One skein is 250 yards. I am also knitting Multnomah (yes, ravelry pattern) using this yarn in the beautiful colorway of Lakeshore.

I apologize for the lack of links and more in depth info on the patterns, yarn and projects. I am overtired and lazy today. I highly recommend the yarn!