eat! craft! live!

:: photo friday :: I'm knitting!

the birthday girl's birthday dress

Because I am crazy, I decided to make E a dress for her birthday. Why is that crazy? Because of when I decided to make E a dress for her birthday...exactly one month before her party. Out of hand dyed fingering weight yarn. Yep. That's me.

Well, despite the short (for me) time frame, I did get it finished! I wove in the ends and sewed on the buttons mere hours before her birthday party, all while holding a newly-sick-with-his-first-ear-infection baby. Poor thing.

The dress is perfect. I mean, just perfect. The colors are perfect (since I dyed the yarn myself), the fit is perfect, the buttons are perfect...it is quite possibly the most perfect thing I've ever knit. Just look at the fit on her wee little shoulders!

The pattern is Nova and I was given a head's up that the pattern runs small and thank goodness for that - I knit E the size SIX and it fits her tall, slender 3 year old frame just perfectly.

Also, THREE? How did that happen?

Happy birthday sweet girl!

Dress details on Ravelry.

:: photo friday :: the birthday girl's birthday dress

Henry's sweater

New sweaters are sooo exciting!

I knit this sweater for H before he was born. The yarn I bought at the Yarmouth Clam Festival a couple summers ago - a gorgeous alpaca blend that is so incredibly soft and squishy. But I only had one skein! And no hope of finding more. So I picked a baby sweater pattern that had...no front. It's called Baby Vertebrae and it's perfect for drooly babies. With no front to get all wet and felted and possibly spit up on, H can usually wear this sweater several times before it needs a trip through the washer - a rarity with baby clothes.

It fits him perfectly, which is lucky considering he's much bigger than I'd imagined he would be at this time of year... The colors look lovely on him, if I do say so myself, and I like to think it keeps him nice and warm and cozy in our chilly Maine house.

The actual knitting of the sweater went rather comically bad. I knew I didn't have enough yarn for an entire sweater, which is why I picked this pattern to begin with. But it soon became clear I was not going to have enough yarn even for this pattern. I figured I'd have enough for the main body and could do the trim in another color. I picked a similar weight dark blue to complement the lighter blues and greens. The yarn was left over from knitting a friend some fingerless mitts. Which is to say, I only had a partial skein. Which is to say, I did not have enough... Curses! Upon realizing this, I weighed my options. Buy more yarn, only to use just a tiny amount? Rip the whole thing and knit a smaller size? Pick yet another yarn and hope it didn't look too much like a Frankensweater? Clearly, I chose the last option. The green of the front border is the same yarn as the blue and it does match...somewhat. I'd rather have had the borders all blue, but alas, I still like the way it came out.

Most importantly, it keeps my little guy warm. And that is all I really could ask for!

See mine on Ravelry here.

it's sale time!

It's sale time people!

And what, might you ask, is prompting this particular sale? (There's always a reason, you know...) Well, as you may (or may not) know, H is a very tall baby. I know this but I don't pay attention to it on a daily basis. So a week or two ago when we were all over at a friend's house, getting ready to go home for the night, I was putting H in his carseat. As one does. Friend looked over and said, "Wow, he's going to grow out of that seat soon!" And lo and behold...she was right.

Tall baby is tall!

So in an effort to infuse our bank account with some carseat-buying cash, I'm offering 25% off everything in the shop with coupon code BABYSEAT. Now until...we get a carseat.

I should also add that the yarn in the shop is all there's going to be for a while - due to a number of circumstances (cold weather, two kids, lack of time and space, possible move), I don't plan on dyeing any more until spring. But when I do, I've got loads of superwash sock ready to go!

:: photo friday :: sweaters are sooo exciting!

Sweater to be blogged soon...

:: photo friday :: yarn, yes yarn!

Rhinebeck, Rhinebeck, Rhinebeck!

In theory, this post is about a sheep and wool festival and some sweaters. In reality, it's about those things and toddlers.

Last weekend at this time, I was in Rhinebeck, NY for a sheep and wool festival. Now, if you knit, you might know what a big deal this is. It seems like nearly everyone I know was there. I met so! many! knitters! People I'd known for years online, but had never met in person. It was awesome. And, oh yeah, there were sheep. And tons of wool. I'm not a spinner, though sometimes I pretend to be, so I focused on the already-spun wool and browsed the booths and booths of yarn. (Booths and booths. Holy crap, I don't think I've ever seen so much yarn in one place! And I didn't even get to see it all!) I managed to keep my purchases small(ish) and only came home with two skeins of yarn. I'm going to knit me some socks this winter!

We had a great time. Though I wouldn't recommend traveling 6 hours in a car with two toddlers on a regular basis. All in all, they were fairly well-behaved, but between trying to get them to sleep in the car, nap in the stroller, or to sleep in a room with other toddlers, it was...a challenge...to put it politely. Good times were had, but not relaxing times, if you know what I mean! Travel with the little ones can be fun, certainly, but stressful too.

We had some truly wonderful moments though. I took E on the merry-go-round for the very first time. And oh, how I wish I had photos of it! Alas, I was holding on to both her and the neighboring horse to keep us all from falling off. If you had been watching, you would have seen my little girl literally shaking with a combination of glee and terror. I've never seen her so excited! We did, however, confirm her fear of sheep. *sigh* Apparently alpacas are pretty terrifying too.

I knit both of us Rhinebeck sweaters, which sounds a bit more impressive than it really is. Mine I started nearly a year ago and E's began life in March of this year. But I did finish them both! Although I fully admit to sewing the buttons on in the car and finishing the last buttonhole mere minutes before arrival at the Rhinebeck house.

E's sweater was the Eyelet Yoke Baby Cardigan which I modified somehow to make toddler-sized but I can't remember for the life of me now what I did. (Whatever it was, I did it in the springtime. And forgot to write it down. Silly me!) I used Knit Picks Swish Worsted in cornmeal, which was left over from part of a baby blanket. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough to knit a whole sweater, so I had to order more! And now I have extra. Again. The pattern is super simple, even with fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants toddler mods. As you can see, it's a bit long on her - I was worried about it being too short, with her being such a tall kiddo and all, so I erred on the side of long. This way, she can wear it for a long time!

I love the eyelet details at the yoke and hems. They add just a touch of loveliness to an otherwise not-very-girly sweater.

My own sweater was the very popular Coraline. I knit it using my own hand dyed DK weight yarn in a 70% merino/30% silk blend. The only major modification was to make 3/4 length sleeves, for a couple of reasons. One, I was very afraid (needlessly, it turned out) that I was going to run out of yarn. And if I had, there was no just hopping to the store to buy more - I only had a certain number of skeins, and I didn't trust my ability to recreate the colors exactly! And the second reason was that I just generally prefer shorter sleeves. If my sweaters and tops are long-sleeved, you will almost always see me push them up. These sleeves hit just below my elbow, which is pretty much perfect for me.

The pattern has you knitting the bottom of the sweater then turning it over on itself and knitting it together before continuing up the length of the body. It makes for a wonderful turned hem, though I cursed at the time because all of sudden, you're knitting along and it's like you've only done half of what you've actually done! Not very satisfying. But it looks wonderful.

So now I'm missing my Rhinebeck friends but thoroughly enjoying some quiet time at home. And E and I both have gorgeous sweaters to wear! I admit - I've been wearing mine nearly every day since our return. And it's been glorious.

no spam here

I'm starting up a new mailing list for Ye Olde Yarn Shoppe. If my attention to blogging at the yarn blog is any indication, there won't be a lot of activity. Which is nice for those of you who may like to get notice of sales and coupons and other goings-on, but don't want to be inundated with email. I can assure you that won't happen!

Click on over here to join up - the inaugural issue will be going out later today or tomorrow and I can promise you there will be a coupon code! *wink, wink*

save the date!

What are you doing Saturday, August 27 from 11-6? Will you be in Lincoln Park in Portland, ME? I think you will.

You know why?

Because that way you'll get to join me and tons of other crafty vendors for the 4th annual Picnic Music+Arts Festival!

Picnic sez:

The Picnic Music+Arts Festival will feature clothing, jewelry, prints, accessories, bags, plush, stationery, photography, housewares, fine art, vintage goods and more. There will be live music and tasty food to enjoy all day.

I guess I fall into the "and more" category... Anyway, it'll be an excellent chance to check out my new yarn colors and squish it with your very own hands! Last year I attended (not as a vendor) with my teeny baby and it was loads of fun. Save the date and we'll look forward to seeing you!