A Market Bag Swap

Once again I've participated in another swap on Ravelry. Again, it was in the A Swap In Time group. I managed to be the first person to send out their swap package. That was because we were in the middle of moving to our new town and I wanted to get the package out before we moved. In return the first week we were in our new place I received my package from a sweet woman in Australia. Funny enough, I had her as my Summertime Swap partner. Is all this swap talk confusing? Yeah? These next few pictures are of the wonderful package I received. Sock yarn and a wool/soybean yarn that I've already started knitting with.

Tea, books, a magnet, lotion and much more just for me :-)

Australian play money for Henry, a Kangaroo for my Roo, a Koala for Gavin and a Koala puppet.

A handmade bag for me! It is huge and reversible. Perfect for knitting projects.

Below is the market bag I made for my partner. As usual, I forgot to take a picture so my partner, Sue, let me use one of her pictures. This is Tofu and he is so kindly modeling the bag. The pattern is the Ilene bag and can be found on Ravelry. Yes, I'm too tired and lazy to put in links to things today. I did include some goodies in Sue's package. Coffee, yarn (that I sooo wanted to keep!) a music CD, stitch markers...and stuff I can't recall now. I need to start taking pictures of these things!

I'm still working on the baby afghan that I was asked to make. It is taking forever and all I want to do is knit other things. I've got to finish it this week though. Wish me luck!!

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!

Victorian Lace

I participated in another swap on Ravelry. This one was the Victorian Lace Scarf Swap. In this swap we were partnered up. My partner was sending to me and I to her. This was fine but I admit to being a slacker until my partner said she was making my scarf over Memorial weekend. Then I finally started the scarf for her even though I had the yarn for quite some time. My partner made my scarf out of Cotton Fleece which is 80% cotton and 20% Merino wool. The color is Oriental Jade which is a kind of blue/green color. In the picture it looks more blue. The yarn is very soft and either it blocks beautifully or my partner has great skill in blocking pieces. It looks perfect. She also included a candle that smells fantastically of Hydrangea. Love it!

The scarf I made is out Blue Sky Alpacas Skinny Dyed, 100% organically grown cotton. The color is coral. I must say that my skills in blocking are seriously lacking. The yarn was nice to work with and did well with this pattern. My partner is a big Tweety Bird fan so I included a Tweety Bird hot pad and towel.

In this pattern the stitch count changes every other row. I found that counting the stitches after every lace row was a great way to keep on track. Plus, when the directions are in chart form only, don't go by the directions that someone else has written out from that chart. There were several mistakes and after several false starts I finally went through the chart and wrote that pattern out for myself. That was all it took!

Swap wise, this swap was very quiet. No one chatted on the forums and the partners didn't communicate much. I'm used the the A Swap in Time group which requires check-ins halfway through. Plus, there are several forums in the group to chat about upcoming swaps or what we'd like to see in the next swap. That group is extremely well run. I highly recommend it!

Samantha's Eden

My friend's daughter recently celebrated her first birthday. I wanted to make her a gift that she could use this summer and hopefully this fall and winter. I searched Ravelry for a dress pattern that I liked and that I thought I could make with minimal complications. I also wanted it to be knit in the round because I don't like the way my seams look. I finally found the pattern, Eden's Eve by Georgie Hallam. She has a few patterns on Ravelry that are perfect for kids and come in many sizes. Eden's Eve is a longer version of Eden's Adam and you get the pattern for both when you purchase one.

I love how this little dress starts at the top and then you cast off to make the armholes and then work a little bit on each side before connecting it all again. The bottom edge can be knit with an inch of garter stitch, which is what I did, or you can do a picot edge. There are so many ways to individualize your piece. I totally recommend checking out the project pics on Ravelry. It was a great piece to knit. I am going to be making one for my daughter soon!

Eden's Adam is started the same way but is ended sooner with a ribbed edge. I want to make one for each of my kids.

I apologize for the lousy pictures. I finished the dress at 1:30am and I wanted to take pictures right away. As for the dress, it is in size 24 month and knit using two skeins of Berroco Comfort DK. I purchased the yarn online at WEBS. I was rather surprised when the yarn arrived because I thought it was a cotton or cotton blend. It is actually an acrylic and nylon yarn. It is very soft and can be washed in the washing machine.

Check out Georgie Hallam's Blog to see what she is currently working on and her other patterns and projects. There is a skirt pattern she is finishing up that I'd love to make for my daughter!

A Bag of Thanks

We've finished another year of preschool. This time Irene and Henry were the students. Again we had the fantastic Mrs. Wagner for a teacher. Over the past two years she has become such a blessing and friend. I wanted to give her an end of the year gift that was handmade. I used the pattern Little Black Clutch by Janelle Wood from Ravelry and two balls of Patons Classic Wool in aran. I cast on 80 stitches but instead of making the clutch version I continued until I was almost out of yarn then made the pocket.

I felted the bag and after it dried I added the sparkle apple button. Overall, I think it is a cute knit. Of course, I see problems will the construction of the bag...the pocket is not straight. It was made with love and I am hoping it is taken that way.

I also decided to be an "Angel" for another swap on Ravelry. This swap took place long before I had joined the group but when I read that the woman had been waiting over six months for her packaged I knew I had to help. I didn't really follow the rules for that swap. I decided that since she had waited so long she could have what she wanted. She lives in the UK and likes Caron Simply Soft yarn which is not as easy to get as it is here. I bought six skeins of it in two colors that she wanted. I also included a Hello Kitty coin purse since she collects Hello Kitty stuff. Then I added in a bar of handmade soap that was made in my town and postcards showing my town. I also put in two packets of coffee. One was Mackinac Island Fudge flavored and the other was an "up north" flavor but I can't remember what it was. Of course, I keep forgetting to take pictures of the swap packages. I need to do that with the next one!

I did include a knitted item. This is the Rollercoaster Triangle pattern from Ravelry. The pictures are not very good but it is knit in six rows of stockinette stitch and six rows of reverse stockinette stitch. There are some increases and decreases in there as well. I did not block this when I finished. I decided it was pretty cool looking as it was. The yarn used was Zitron Trekking (XXL) which is 75% wool and 25% nylon. It was a little rough and I'm sure it would have softened up after a bath.

I am currently working on an adorable sundress for my friend's daughter's first birthday. I need to finish it up quick because the summer swap has started in the A Swap in Time group. Plus I have a lace scarf to make for another swap. I need to get knitting!