Haloween Pictures and a Knitting Update

Halloween was a really fun night.  We met up at my Mom’s house so we could get a photo of all of the kids together.  Carter is the fox down in the lower right corner.  This year he didn’t cry through the pictures like he did last year.  He was so afraid of everyone in a mask or costume last year, that I have picture after picture of him crying.

This year he did fine with that – He even smiled for a picture with Willie (his cousin Bella).  He didn’t even cry taking candy from some of the homeowners dressed as scary characters.  He just ran from house to house with a big smile on his face.   As a parent, it was fun to watch.

Max got dressed up too.  He was a penguin – which happened to be the only thing Target had in his size.

Carter is still talking about it – though mostly he is asking to “hold” his Halloween pail – also known as picking out a treat.  I wish I had gotten more pictures, but it got dark before I got any more.  I will still a fun night and I hope I can remember all the things I didn’t capture with the camera.

 

Now the knitting update –

I really don’t feel like I get much knitting done anymore, but I actually have a few projects to share – a couple today and a couple for another day.  Before Max arrived, I probably got to knit a couple of hours every evening after Carter went to bed.  I liked to stay up late and knit – and knitting is a great way to relax after a long day.  Now I am tired by 10 or 11 and evening is usually Max’s fussy time, so I am lucky to sneak in 30 minutes a day now.  It makes for slow going when knitting is such time-consuming hobby, but I still love it.  Many of you are so kind to comment on how much I get done – even if I don’t feel like I do.  I appreciate the encouragement!

Let’s start with a little hat I made for Max.  I have always loved the aviator style hats, so when I saw this one with the cables, I knew I had to make it.

The pattern is called Dayton by Julie Taylor.  You can find the pattern by clicking here.  The yarn is Berroco Comfort, which is what I usually use for kids hats.  It’s soft, comfortable, holds up pretty well and comes in lots of colors.

You will have to excuse my iPhone photos.  It isn’t practical to have my Nikon sitting around all the time now – not with a 2-year-old in the house.

You can find my Ravelry link here.

Would you like to know how Max feels about the hat?

He’s not really a big fan of hats.  Can you tell?

 

I also finished a project for myself.  The pattern is called Vitamin D by Heidi Kirrmaier.

I have been wanting to make some summer/fall sweaters in linen, so I wouldn’t be so hot (my favorite fiber is wool, so that is what I usually use).  The yarn is Sparrow by Quince and Co.  I had read it was the softest linen around.  It is the softest linen that I have knit with – though I have only knit with a few kinds.

The pattern cleverly uses increases to create flow and an interesting design element.  I would have had the project done much sooner, but half way through I realized that I had 4 increases (the holes you see in the photo below) on the right side of the front, and 6 on the other.  The pattern calls for 6, but I didn’t want it quite as full as the original pattern.  I think that is why I screwed up the first time – as I intended to do 4 on both sides.  You can view the original pattern here.

The pattern also uses short rows – as you can see on the side view below.  This makes the cardigan longer in the back and also adds a little more design detail.  Honestly, I don’t think my short rows look very good.  I think if I had used wool yarn, this would have looked better.  Linen is thinner and isn’t as forgiving as a thicker yarn, when doing short rows.  I would like to make this pattern again using wool and see if it looks better.  My personal opinion is that linen works much better in lace work, which I will show in my next knitting post.

 

The back has the yarn-over details as well.

All in all, it was a fun project.  You can find more details on my project here.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

 

 

Enjoying Fall

We stayed home from quilt market this past weekend.  I was not ready to leave Max for that many days.  Instead, we are enjoying fall and lots of family activities.  The boys and I have been out walking and enjoying the nice weather.  The fall colors were amazing, but were gone way too fast.  The sunsets have also been amazing.  Joel got a weekend away hunting with the guys and I had a night away with the Peterson girls.  We ate out, painted pottery and went shopping.  Max was the only boy allowed and he did pretty well on his first trip out of town (despite the look on his face in one of the pictures below).  While we were gone Carter and Joel went fishing with Grandpa John several times.  I don’t know how Joel did it, but Carter lasted up to 4 hours in the boat without going overboard, finding any hooks or throwing any fits.   If you ask him about it he will talk about playing in the minnow bucket and catching “cwapies” and walleyes.  Max is smiling and cooing for us.  We are living life to the fullest, enjoying the precious moments, and trying to ignore the piles of laundry and toys everywhere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have I mentioned that Max is quite expressive?  I love that picture.  Is that wrong of me?  We got his lip put back into place in short order, so no worries.

All for now.  Thanks for stopping by.

New Fabrics

Today is a fun day for me – I get to introduce my next fabric line!  It’s called Home for Harvest.  I have wanted to do a fall fabric line for a long time.  I love fall quilts, as you may have already seen on my blog in the past (click here).  Many of my fall quilts look too dark for my house now, so I really need to make a whole new batch of fall quilts.  The problem was, I could never find any fall fabric lines in the brighter colors.  I ended up just pulling things from my stash when I made this quilt last year:

 

These colors became the inspiration for that fall fabric line I had been wanting to do.  I also wanted the line to work for both traditional and modern quilters, just like this quilt does.

 

I worked on the line early this summer and my design director Karen got it into production right away so we could show it at Fall Quilt Market.  With market this weekend, I now have permission to share a sneak peek at the prints from the line.  This is what the cover of the sales card looks like

 

Inside that cover are the images of the CAD drawings of all the prints

There is also a panel print with the line.  This is something that Henry Glass has encouraged me to add to my lines.  Honestly, my first thought was, I don’t usually use panels.   My design director took the artwork from my Here Fishy line and made a panel for me, just to show me how it would work.  It ended up being my favorite part of the line!   (you can see that panel here).  Since then I have been trying to work one in.  It helps them sell the line and shows how all the prints can be used together.

The free project shows how I envision using the panel.  (The free project is on the cover of the sales card, which is a few images above)

I received the first set of strike-offs, which gives me a little glimpse of what it will look like on fabric.  At this stage, there are still a lot of changes to be made and the colors all have to be tweaked, but I thought I would share a peek at them anyways.

 

The line is previewing at Quilt Market this weekend.  If you are a shop owner, please stop by the Henry Glass booth to preview the line!  Click here to view the images on Henry Glass’s website or to download the free project.  The line will be available in shops next May.

Thanks for stopping by!