spring greens

after all my talk about browns, pinks, oranges, etc. being my version of 'earth,' i've turned around and made a bunch of green things for this month's installment of project spectrum. oh well. they can all be 'earth,' right?



anyway, a friend had a birthday coming up, and i thought that would be a good opportunity to make one of the string bags that were collecting in my ravelry queue. for this one, i chose the elisa's nest tote, from the purl bee. i knit this in the round, instead of dealing with a purl side and what looked to be pretty awful seaming. i'm glad i did that, but i wish i had split the front and back a few inches from the top - as it is, the opening of the bag is a little small, and i think this would have helped. something to remember next time! i also probably would make this a little wider and shorter - this bag stretches a LOT, and when there's stuff in the bag, it's really long and skinny. so a little width might improve it's in-use shape. but these are pretty small issues. overall, i think this bag turned out really well, and i would make it again. this was my first time using applied i-cord, and i'm happy with how professional it makes the bag look.

pattern: elisa's nest tote, purl bee
yarn: rowan 4-ply cotton, in fennel, almost exactly one ball
needles: size 9 for the bag itself, and size 3 for the i-cord handle

i've also been doing a little bit of sewing! a couple of weeks ago, carrie held a contest on her blog, with some vintage fabric and patterns as the prizes, and i won one of the prizes! this was all the inspiration i needed to break out my sewing machine, which had been collecting dust since christmas. look at all the pretties she sent me (plus some awesome vintage patterns):


i decided to use a couple of the fabrics to make another soft clutch from bend-the-rules sewing. i made a bunch of these as christmas gifts this year, but had yet to make myself one. time to remedy that!

front:


back:


and the cute umbrella fabric that i used as the lining:


thanks again carrie!

i'll be back soon with another green project that i'm really enjoying right now.

volunteer park cowl

i'm still working away on my sock, my endpaper mitt (well, not really, but i often think of it!) and my friend's b-day gift that i need to finish, but this week, i got a little bee in my bonnet and decided i HAD to make another cowl. like, right now.

cowl mania has set in in blog land, and i couldn't be happier about that. i made one last january, and i love it. i call it my handknit hug, because really, that's what it feels like when you wear it. who wouldn't love that? but i wanted a bigger, slouchier cowl. enter the dolores park cowl, which i've seen popping up all over blogs and ravelry. i was intrigued, but figured i'd make it some other time. i didn't really have the right yarn for it, and plus, well, i had lots of other things going, and it's spring....these excuses worked for about two days, but finally i decided to check out a yarn store that i hadn't been to before in seattle, and they had some malabrigo chunky in stock. i took this as a sign, and promptly bought a pretty, springy green skein. once i had the yarn, i quickly cast on while playing scrabble that evening, and about two and a half hours later, i had my cute new spring accessory. and the cowls win again! it's cute and warm, and i haven't taken it off since i finished.

a word about the yarn. i was a little dubious about trying the malabrigo chunky. i know everyone adores malabrigo, but i'm just not that into the worsted version. pilling is a big deal-breaker for me, and if there's one thing malabrigo worsted is good at, it's pilling. i'm not going to say this chunky version won't pill, but i have hopes (possibly misguided ones) that it won't pill quite as bad, since it is a 3-ply instead of a single. we'll see. it is wonderfully soft though, and for now, that's all that matters to me.


i took a little stroll yesterday to volunteer park, wearing my new cowl, so i'm dubbing this my volunteer park cowl. the details:

pattern: dolores park cowl, by six one seven
yarn: malabrigo chunky, in verde adriana, one skein
needles: denise size 13s. i used 15s to bind off.
mods: none, other than omitting one row, because i was afraid i would run out of yarn.

fire on earth

hello blog friends! it's been a while since i last posted, but i've been diligently working away on things. what things? well, as i mentioned in my last post, i started a project that, to me, fits in so perfectly with this new-ish round of project spectrum, earth. for most people, 'earth' probably suggests greens and browns, but to this arizona-raised girl, earth means yes, brown, but also gold, terra cotta, pink, red...basically, the colors of fire, the last round of ps, which i conveniently forgot to knit anything for. so i'm kind of combining the two rounds in one project, the embossed leaves socks (ravelry link).

i'm knitting these up with some str lightweight in oregon red clover honey. i can't say enough how lovely this yarn is. it's so rich and deep, and....accurate! it really looks like honey!

socks are a slow project for me, but i quickly knit up the first sock in a week, which for me, is a record.

see:


and here are a few more accurate shots of the color. i did my first eye of partridge heel for these, and i love it.



so my goal for this round of ps is to finish the pair (the second sock is already underway, though at a slightly slower pace as i struggle to get a birthday present done at the same time), and to also finish my second endpaper mitt, another good earthy project. i'm excited to get these beautiful projects done!

a gift for you

earlier this week, i signed up for jodi's pay it forward exchange. the idea is that she sends me, and two others, something in the next year, and in return, i pay it forward by doing the same. so here's the game:

“The idea of the exchange is I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on this blog post requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet, and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.”

so...anyone up for it? due to recent stress on my pocketbook, i'm going to limit this to u.s. people only. first three who speak up will get something fun from me!