Delicate baby booties and hat

I started the baby booties and hat again using the new yarn. It was a good decision!


The previous colours were nice... they just didn't feel really special. These new yarns however - Wow! First the colours - I feel that they are classic and delicate. Perfect baby colours. The cream yarn is Blue Sky Alpaca Royal, and to use their description: A very rare quality of luxury alpaca fiber. You just want to snuggle with this. (Or as friend of mine would say, you want to have a complete body suit made out of this!) The peach yarn is Louise Harding Orielle in color Blossom. This one is 97% baby alpaca (more snuggly softness) with a silver princess sparkle that runs through it (and the sparkle does not detract from the softness). If there is any downside it would be that the stitch definition is not as crisp in the alpaca yarns compared to the cotton. But you could argue that this just adds to the charm of the alpaca. Always a silver lining :)


The pattern is Knitting Baby Set by Elena Mitchell (Solnishko43 on Etsy). The pattern is extremely detailed with a couple of size options: Excellent written instructions and accompanying photographs for each step. As I was knitting I felt that this must be a very talented knitter that created this design - there are some steps in the design, such as how each row starts and stops that give a very professional finish. If you have some baby knitting in your future I recommend checking out her patterns on Etsy. The finishing touch was to add the pearl beads as a final decorative element. These are fit for a princess!


Now, if only this snow would let up I could go and get them in the mail :) 
I am taking full advantage of the snow day - crafting, blogging and quality family time. It is a good day! How would you/do you spend your snow days?


Stay safe Coloradoans, and wishing everyone a great weekend,
Sam xxx

Kidsilk Cowl

Happy New Year!

Did you do anything fun to bring in the new year? Ours was pretty low key. We celebrated the New Year for the East coast time zone with Naomi, and then the real deal at midnight Colorado time for us big kids. We've had some snow and pretty cold weather over the Christmas and New Year, so it was nice to stay huddled indoors with some of my loved ones.

All this huddling indoors has resulted in crafty goodies to share! I was able to start and finish a lovely cowl in Rowan kidsilk haze. This is extremely light and airy, and  super soft to the touch.



It was my Mum who had spotted something similar in a local yarn store, when she was visiting with us over the holidays. I was trying to complete while she was here, but was just a bit too slow, so it will be going out in the mail to her this weekend.



I have kidsilk haze in my stash, and Mum selected the solid purple. I'd also recently picked up some seed beads that were a perfect complement to the yarn and decided it might add a nice touch to randomly knit those into the cowl - a touch of sparkle.  The result is subtle, but I think it was worth the effort. (Man, those beads are teeny tiny... it took me a couple of evenings to get them all threaded before knitting could commence).






Here's my little knitwear model, modeling the end result for me. Do you love the forced grin she is also modeling :)))


The knit is really straightforward, only takes one ball of kidsilk haze and works up relatively quickly.  Here are the details:

• Pattern:  Welted Cowl by Jane Richmond (a free Ravelry download)
• Yarn:  Rowan kidsilk haze, 1 skein/229 yards
• Needle:  US size 6 circular needle (cowl is knit in the round)
• Mods:  Added the seed beads

***Edited to add details of the seed beads***

I used sized 15 seed beads for the cowl.  I don't have the number of the seed beads used, but to gauge quantity, this is a 2-inch-tall pot of the beads and you can see that there are still some left.  To start, I threaded all the beads onto the yarn  using a wire loop made out of very fine wire (see this site for a picture of how to do this).  I'd move the beads down the yarn as I was knitting and randomly add them in:  Knitting somewhere between 5" to 10" of the yarn and then adding in a bead.***


Wishing you good health and much happiness for the year ahead,
Sam xxx

Wedding Whirligig

Later this summer we'll be going to the UK to enjoy my brother's wedding. It will be the first time the majority of my family will be meeting little miss Naomi in person. I can't wait!

I found a gorgeous little dress for the day of the wedding and wanted to make a knitted something-something to go with it. You were so very kind with your suggestions from an earlier blog post, and in the end I decided to make the Whirligig shrug.



I couldn't be happier with the end result! The details in this pattern are adorable and the decadent hand painted silk yarn with the little glass seed beads strewn through it is fit for nothing less than a princess ;o))


Pattern: Whirligig Shrug by Stephanie Japel (from Interweave Knits 'Weekend 2009')
Yarn: Tilli Tomas Hand Paints (Beaded Lace, Stony Mist) - just over 1 skein... I had to break into the 2nd skein for the cast off edge. Boo!
Needle: US 4 (instead of the 6 called for in the pattern - I prefer the tighter fabric that was made with the smaler needle size), I went up a size to compensate - 12-18mths
Modifications: Other than the needle size, I chose to add a seed stitch border around the neckline (to match the hem and cuffs) instead of the edging in the original pattern.

Here and there cables update

What a great pattern -- I'm loving the 'here and there cables' on this scarf. The pattern is very simple to memorize, and the cables appear on both sides of the scarf (I find it a little odd when scarves have a distinct 'wrong side'). The instructions recommend lightly blocking the cables and I can see why -- they really open up and look stunning!


I don't know if I'll be able to get this done before Friday. I should have realized that this is quite the ambitious goal! Of course it won't be the end of the world if I don't complete it by the end of this coming week... but it would be nice to gift to my friend when I see her in person next weekend.


As for the 'bowl', I'd tried my hand at throwing pottery a year or two ago. It was a great class, but it seems I have limited talent for this craft -- with some very bizarre looking pots to prove it! This one comes in handy because it prevents the yarn ball rolling all over the place.

Ooh and since I'm enjoying project spectrum's green theme, I wanted to share some of my recent swag here. I swung by Colorful Yarn today to hang out with some of the girls, and to check out Mary-Kay's trunk show. I came away with some of her wonderful Red Rocks yarn - the Aspen sock in colourway Granny Smith! I'm thinking about making a striped cardigan out of this yummy stuff.


And last, but not least, it was a work friend's birthday this last week and so I made her a pair of turquoise and coral earrings. When I'm in need of instant gratification, and a quick gift, I'll dive into my tin of beads and see what I can create. These are pretty simple, but I do love the 2 different colors of turquoise and the coral together.


Ok back to the scarf... If nothing else, I'm determined!
Sam