A Proud Auntie :)

My niece Olivia was born just the other day and I am in love. She is so precious. I can't wait to meet her in person & hold her & sing her lullabies. I'll get to go next month!

My brother in law sent me pictures last night and I was already so proud of Meagan's bravery and serene confidence through her whole pregnancy and delivery, but the pictures just made it so real. She and little Olivia went through a lot just to get her into the world! Mothers amaze me.

Then, if you can make an already proud aunt even prouder, they brought her home in the little yellow dress I knit for her.

It was so fun to see that she had lots of loving arms and smiling faces to see as she made her debut. I'm just overjoyed & simply can't wait to get out to see her :)

a quick shower gift

In the midst of all the craziness of the end of the school year there was a baby shower for two of the girls at my school. I wanted to make something for each of them, but I ended up only having time for one special little piece. I decided I had to make something for Whitney's daughter.(due in July- Her name will be Kinley) Whitney and I went to school together and taught together at Foothills, and now she works with me at Lake Pleasant. I found a pattern on Ravelry called confection, and I had some pink Cotton Tots yarn in my stash, so I knitted this little shrug in a couple of nights. I thought it would be perfect to throw into the diaper bag for those cold air-conditioned restaurants in the summer. It was a really nice pattern. Well written. I will definitely make it again. Especially if I'm ever in a pinch :)

A Mother's Day Gift

As a Mother's Day gift I made a circular needle holder for my mom. This is what a typical stash of circular needles looks like. This is mine, in fact.

I saw a picture in a magazine of a needle holder that hangs on the wall.

I tried my best to whip one up for Mom. She has a newly decorated craft room with a work table & bookcases finished in black and red cotton cloth covered boxes.

Here's the process, from quarter flats to finished piece:

Mom Loved it :)

Malabrigo

My mom asked me to wind some yarn for her this weekend. It was a skein of a really lovely Malabrigo wool/silk blend. As I was winding it, the sunlight was streaming in through the window, and it made the yarn almost glow. I just had to try to capture it on film... er... pixels.

My Creative Chaos

I thought it would be fun to have a record of my creative chaos to look back on in a few years. So, here it goes, My creative process:

I usually get inspired first by the yarn. If I can see the garment in my head, then I start to work out its construction on paper with a sketch.

After sketching I usually knit a swatch. 4 inches by 4 inches is the standard size, but sometimes I go a little bit larger just to get the feel of the fabric. On this one, I actually took the time to make note of what size needle I was using by making the same number of eyelet holes as the US size of the needle. Four holes for size US 4, five holes for size US 5 and so on. Some experts say to take the time to wash the swatch and block it at this point. A nice idea, but... I don't really have the patience. Usually at this point, I can hardly wait to get started. I get really excited and impatient!

Time to cast on. I like to have a sample piece, and then I go from there to figure out the changes for each size. For this piece, I had decided I wanted a little skirt with pockets.

I did all the work, and then tried it on my little model, Capitola. I was pretty much instantly disappointed. The baby is adorable, but the skirt was too long but somehow too tight! I went directly home and ripped the entire thing out. I reclaimed the yarn and wound it back into balls. A few days later I started again. New sketch. Same idea, but a dress instead of a skirt:
And here's the finished product! I am very happy with it.

Now here's hoping I won't end up back at the drawing board again!