Knitting all summer...

I said I would post more often, and I suppose I lied. It turns out I hate blogging when I'd rather be outside enjoying the summer. Since today is freezing and cold and a true taste of Winter, I thought I'd update with some pictures of what I've been up to!

I am especially proud of my Ishbel scarf that I knit up while on holidays in Nova Scotia. I went out there for a wedding but we made a vacation out of it by renting a car and driving all over the island. We put on 3500km on our rental car (Yay for unlimited mileage contracts!) over 9 days. My boyfriend did 95% of the driving, which gave me time to work on this beauty:

Ishbel by Ysolda Teague

Diamond Yarn Foot Loose Superwash
Made for Me!

I'd never been that far east (within Canada) before and it was fun to do all the touristy things like Peggy's Cove and eating fresh seafood everywhere we went. I also had a chance to visit Gaspereau Valley Fibres, where I picked up some Fleece Artist yarns and a beautiful woolen blanket. I haven't made anything with the yarn yet, but I will very soon for Christmas gifts.

As I mentioned in my previous post, baby knitted goods are so much fun to knit. The patterns are generally easy-t0-follow, and it only takes a couple of hours (or couple of days) to finish a project. Here are two cute sweaters that I made earlier in the year:

Maile Sweater by Nikki Van De Car
Araucania Ranco Multy
Made for a friend's baby

This pattern is free and very rewarding, although the sleeves were a bit of a pain. I absolutely love this sweater, and the only thing that I would do differently would be to use a slightly thicker yarn in a superwash (this particular yarn needs to be handwashed!). I made the next sweater out of cotton, which turned out to be a great idea because my niece wore it all summer long:

Autumn Leaves by Nikki Van De Car
Debbie Bliss Pure Cotton
Made for my niece Talia

Again, this was a great pattern, and since it was top-down, the sleeves were very easy. I enjoyed knitting with Debbie Bliss cotton, it felt soft and buttery, but I'm not sure how it's holding up to baby wear. The last time I saw this sweater on my niece it was looking a little malformed and stretching in some areas. Since this only took me a couple of days to make, I could easily whip up another one using a more baby-friendly cotton (maybe Lion Brand!). Also, I have a huge bin of mismatched buttons and I think mixing them up on the sweater was a cute, playful idea. And what baby would refuse such a cute sweater!?

I'm in the process of making Christmas gifts, stay tuned for how they turn out!

Babies are the sweetest...

My Sister-in-law and my brother just had their first baby, and I am a new proud auntie... But honestly, when people told me that they were an aunt/uncle and had nephews and nieces, I was always happy for them, but not *excited*. I am sorry for not showing the proper emotions! Two days in and I'm already jumping out of my shoes, showing coworkers and friends pictures of my adorable niece, and I'm overwhelmed with a sense of pride for having such a beautiful baby in the family!

I didn't know it was going to be a girl, but my gut told me it would be. I started making a unisex baby blanket before she was born; I thought I was being proactive in knitting it early, but she thought she would come out a week early! I was frantically knitting this up in the 24 hours following her birth. I love the unisex colours that I chose, but ultimately I'm excited that they had a girl, and I'm excited for all the girly things I will knit her.

Hoodie Baby Blanket by Nikol Lohr

Lion Brand Cotton-Ease (50% cotton, 50% acrylic, the best baby cotton to knit with!!)

Made for my beautiful niece Talia

Ravelry Link

Surprisingly, I've never tried the 'broken garter stitch' before (which I used on the outside of the blanket, in Grey). This is one of my new favorite stitches, and I'm going to try it on some dishcloths. I love the simplicity of it, and the stitches look like little cobblestone roads. And I'd also like to mention thatI'm so proud of my sister-in-law because she was calm and collected when she went into labour, and incredibly strong throughout the entire childbirth; she didn't need any drugs at all. Truly inspiring.

Ravelympics was a failure... sort of.

So, I participated in Ravelympics this year. Part of me wanted an insane knitting challenge, and part of me obviously didn't know what I was getting myself into. If you've never heard of it, it's a challenge to knit a project (or two, three, four...) over the course of the Olympics. If you've heard of it (and participated), you probably felt the same way I did. I'm not quite sure why I chose so many events to participate in, and I didn't complete half of them. My crowning achievement was completing a sweater within the 17 days.

I had hopes to:
-knit a sweater (pictures below!)... PASS
-knit a hat (Which I did, but it was an impromptu hat and now I'm not sure what to do with it, probably not a hat I should have made)... PASS
-write up two patterns (cowl, mentioned in an earlier post, and an apple cozie), FAIL
-finish some mittens I promised I would make for my BF over a year ago...FAIL
-create a small rug from a previous sweater that I knit and now hate... FAIL

I love this sweater, although my gauge was off by a lot on the neck part. I ended up placing buttons on a diagonal to try and take care of the loose garter-stitch neck... and it seems to have worked!

Garter Stitch Cardigan by Melissa LaBarre

Berroco Alpaca and Noro Silk Garden
Made for me
Ravelry Link

My life is a little less hectic, now that the winter holidays are out of the way. I'm hoping to get into some sewing in the next couple of weeks and make a baby blanket (or two) because I'm going to be an aunt!