Happiness Is....

...buying beautiful yarn with your birthday money!

I turned 30 (eeeek!) on April 18. I have to say I was not really thrilled with the idea of turning 30. But it really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I think that the fact that my in-laws giving me birthday money helped out. :o) Usually I don't do anything special with it. I just put it in my wallet and end up spending it on groceries or whatever. But this year I decided to do something just for me, something I don't normally do. I decided to spend it on yarn and make a nice sweater for myself. I did a ton of research and decided to make the February Lady Sweater by Pamela Wynne. I am using dream in color classy yarn (which is bad news because now I have a FAVORITE brand of yarn...look out, wallet. You're gonna be gettin' a workout at the yarn store!) in the happy forest colorway...very pretty.

I ordered the yarn from my local yarn store, The Knitting Den. They told me that it usually takes a while to get yarn from dream in color because they hand-dye everything themselves. I was okay with that because, come on, I have tons of projects going on ALL THE TIME. After a few weeks I called to check on it. The lady said she had just talked to the dream in color lady and it was still going to be a few weeks. Two days later, the Knitting Den called and said my order was in!!! Woo hoo! Of course, I rushed right over and picked it up. I swatched and got gauge right away and then cast on. Here is my progress so far:

I have fallen in love with this pattern and yarn. It's such a cute sweater. If you haven't made it yet, you should. I'm just sayin'.

Felted Bag Swap

A while ago I joined in a felted bag swap on Ravelry. I had just figured out how to felt in my front loading washer and I became obsessed with felting. I thought this swap would be a ton of fun and it has! My partner had a list of felted bag patterns she liked and this was one of them. It is a really pretty bag, plus it's even a free pattern, which makes it even better. It knit up pretty quickly and I like how it turned out. Here's a picture of the finished bag:

I added a lining with a pocket since you can never have too many pockets! My partner really likes the bag. That makes me happy! :o) I'm still waiting to get the bag made for me. It should come within the next week or so. I'm so excited to see what it looks like, especially since I have no idea what pattern or yarn was used. Yay!

Test Knitting

I found two fun groups on Ravelry called "the testing pool" and "free pattern testers". Basically, a designer can find people willing to test their patterns to see if there are any issues with them. I've done a few test knits, but one of my favorite ones was for Abstract Fiber. They sent me a skein of yarn and I could knit whatever I wanted to with it. I then send the item back to them to display in their store. How cool is this? And that's not even the best part...once they receive my item, I can pick out any skein of yarn for FREE!!! Yay! I love free yarn!

Since I love to make hats, I decided to make one for this project. The only problem was that I had to find a pattern that used sockweight yarn. Hmm. I eventually decided on this pattern from the Spring 2009 issue of Knitty, a pattern called Reverie. It was a lot of fun to make, especially using the awesome yarn I had. :o) I have never used handpainted yarn before and now I know what the fuss is all about. It is absolutely beautiful! I can hardly wait to get my hands on more of this stuff! Luckily I'll be getting more soon, with getting the free skein and all. ;o)

Here's what the hat looks like:

Isn't this yarn beautiful??

a few firsts...

.....not only for me, but for Madelyn as well! This is her first Easter and I was excited to make her something special. I decided a while ago to make her a bunny blanket, similar to this one I found on the Oh, Fransson! blog. I guess I got a little too excited when I bought the fabric to make it because I had a lot left over, enough to make her a dress. I have to say that I'm not very good at sewing clothes, mainly because I don't like to follow instructions. But the pattern I chose was very straightforward. I didn't even need to call my seamstress sister once to help decipher the sewing jargon! :o) Here's what the dress ended up looking like:

I added the ribbon trim along with a piece of fabric that I cut out from a coordinating fabric. I also made the ribbon rose with some leftover trim I used on the bunny's skirt. By the way, here's the finished bunny blanket...

...complete with a signed back...

...and one happy little girl! :o)

Happy First Easter, Madelyn! :o)

Little Tote Bag

My 7 year old niece Peyton asked me if I could teach her how to knit. Well, of course I can! But a girl can't knit without her own knitting bag, am I right? :o) I found this tutorial from The Longest Year (which, by the way, is an excellent blog) earlier this morning and I whipped one up in under 2 hours. I used my stash, which makes it even better. But, of course, I couldn't leave it plain. I added some applique designs to the front. I just printed off a "P" from Microsoft Word in a fun font and used that to trace onto some fusible web. I found the flower applique pattern here. Can you tell what her favorite color is? :o) I'm going over to her house this Sunday to start teaching her. Wish me luck!

I even put a pocket on the inside. I love pockets!

Secret Pal 13 Finale

I got my final package from my secret pal, Jane Schumacher. Here is what she sent me:

I got 5 skeins of yarn, some crochet pattern books, and a fabric covered journal. Thank you!

I had a lot of fun doing this exchange. I can't wait to sign up again. :o)

felting in a front loading washer

It works! It really works! I have always liked felted bags but I never thought I could do them since I have a front loading washing machine. But something got into me a few days ago. While I was on ravelry, I found this really cute pattern for a little purse with beads and I just had to make it. I made it for someone, but I can't say who yet because it's not time to give it to them yet! :o) I used some cascade 220 and my 10 1/2 dpns. It knit up really fast. I have never knit or crocheted with beads before. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Here's how it turned out:

Pretty cute, huh? Now I wanna find a pattern for a bag for myself, maybe to use for my knitting. Do you know of a good pattern? If you do, lemme know!