When it comes to wool-free alternatives for sweaters I'm constantly drawn back to Elspeth Lavold's Hempathy. I've favored her dark blue yarn, but when I saw Snowy Hempathy by Ravelry member gardengate, well, I fell in love with Hempathy all over again.
The pattern is Gathered Pullover by Hana Jason and I think gardengate did a fabulous job taking this sweater pattern to a whole other level with her wool free yarn choice.
A truly great example of a Wool Free and Wonderful knit and thanks so much to gardengate for letting me share it! She has several other wool free knits that are just as lovely on her project page so be sure to click over there and check them out.
I finally finished Alan Dart's "Hanukkah Hiram" but I left off all the Hanukkah related items so he's "Just Hiram". I used Berroco Suede for the body which looks/feels great now that it's done, but I wouldn't recommend it. There's a lot of fine seaming in this pattern and the suede yarn made that a bit of a nightmare. Of course the Lion Brand Fun Fur I used for mane and tail was pretty funky to knit with too.
There's no doubt that knitting is my primary creative outlet these days but come the summer months I indulge in another favorite hobby of mine: container gardening!
This year, in addition to selecting flowers for the 13 planters around the perimeter of my roofdeck, I decided to try my hand at creating a miniature garden in a pot (you can view my tutorial here).
I might knit a little pillow or throw for the bench. What do you think?
This one is for "Charlie", a new arrival for a colleague of my husband's. We thought it would be a great gift since his colleague plays in a Jazz band. This is the 6-12 month size because it will be at least fall/winter (we hope) before he'll need it.
I'm using Rown All Season's Cotton , "Dusk" which seems aptly named since the color shifts from a blue-grey to a blue-purple depending on the light.
This Aran Weight yarn is a 60% cotton/40% acrylic blend. It's very lightweight and shows the stitches well.
I've been greatly aided in this endeavor by the copious notes left behind on Ravelry by others who have knit Silverbelle before me. I'm especially appreciative of the excel spreadsheets so generously offered up by Kathy L . Now if I could just get my hands on a written version of Chart B.
Duke showed up for this morning's photo shoot putting proprietary paws on the sleeve -- not sure if he thinks he should get credit for helping me knit (he does provide tremendous moral support) or if he just wants you to know that the arm that goes in this sleeve belongs to him!
A friend gave me Sensual Knits: Luxurious Yarns, Alluring Designs for Christmas last year and while I was quite taken with it at the time, it got put away on the bookshelf in the post-Christmas clean up and I sort of forgot about it.
Fast Forward to earlier this week when I was looking for another book in my collection and I happened upon it again. I poured myself a glass of Iced Tea and spent some time reading through it and there are some REALLY lovely patterns in this book.
The book is divided into 5 Chapters :
Barely there: Camisoles, tanks, a vest and a twin set
Sensual Chic: Modern Sweaters with hip details
Wrapped in Luxury: Cardigans and jackets to keep you warm
Feminine Mystique: Dresses to capture their attention (it may sound like bitter grapes, but unless you have a perfect figure, I suggest passing on these)
Magic is in the Details: Accessories (gloves, a shawl,a wrap, stockings) to complete the look.
I'm impressed with the way the schematics, charts and photos are interspersed with the written pattern material. It's really well organized and (although I've yet to knit one) the patterns seem very easy to follow. There's a wide variety of contributing designers with info. on where to find more designs by them. It's a beautiful book just to look at even if you don't knit a thing.
The sweater that caught my eye is the Samuri Sweater. The suggested yarn is a Silk & Wool blend but I've been dreaming about how I might knit this up in a combination of the Habu Stainless steel silk and Elspbeth Lavold Hempathy with a bright teal cami underneath. What do you think?
Anyway, I'm delighted my friend gave me this book and suspect I shall knit more from it as the years go along. Definitely one to consider adding to your own collection!
Maybe it was the turning of the calendar to June (yikes, just a little more than six months until Christmas) or the brief return of cool weather, or seeing Kim's impressive box of Christmas stockings, but whatever the reason, I suddenly felt an urgency to get started on my Christmas Stocking Assignment.
A few weeks before LAST Christmas, my SIL asked if I would make my nephew a Christmas Stocking. I was knee-deep in afghan knitting at the time so I said I would be delighted to make him one for NEXT Christmas (proof that I do have occasional moments of knitting sanity).
I had several wonderful stocking patterns I could choose from but it dawned on me to ask if she had a particular style in mind. Turns out, she wants it to match (in size, shape and general style) the two existing stockings that someone else knit for them many years ago. The two stockings look like this:
From doing a little research, I discovered these stockings were knit from an out-of-print pattern published in Canadian Living in 1990 but that they strongly resemble a pattern published by Mary Maxim as well and that was not out of print. A trip to Mary Maxim's in April also yielded some Paton's Canadiana yarn in what I hope is a similar shade of red and blue.
I went with the snowflake pattern and tried to mix the red and blue in one stocking. Here's how it turned out.
I'm worried it's a bit long in the leg but it may be just an optical illusion so I guess I'll see what my SIL thinks before I do up his name in duplicate stitch on the cuff.
I found these adorable starfish-shaped pewter flower buttons at Elissa's Creative Warehouse in Needham and I think they are the perfect finishing touch to the Augusta Shrug. See how nicely they go with the shell-stitch border? The i-cord trim substitution around the front and neck turned out even better than expected.
One of these days I shall get someone to take a picture of me wearing it in some exotic locale so you can see how perfectly it fits. I need to get me some more Lanaknits hemp -- love this stuff!
for Christmas last year and while I was quite taken with it at the time, it got put away on the bookshelf in the post-Christmas clean up and I sort of forgot about it. 
