An Abate! Gotta Stay Warm!

Brrrr!!!  Days are getting chilly here.  Camden needed a warm sweater to fight the cold, as her Paint Me a Sweater is short-sleeved, and her Penny Lane IS warm, but a girl doesn't always want a turtle-neck, right???

In comes the Abate sweater, designed by Alicia Plummer (FB page HERE and blog HERE) of the Plum Dandi Ravelry group.  (There does happen to be two adult versions, called Ease...and Bulky Ease.  As for the yarn....oh, the YARN!!!  A big thanks goes to Jenny Porter, the dyer behind MarigoldJen yarns (FB page HERE, ravelry group HERE and shop HERE).  She dyed this yarn at my request, and it's just so lovely.  She called it Up North because I had told her I wanted it in grays, blues and greens to signify that Camden was born on the West side of the Cascade Mountains.  It's the second time I've worked with her yarn, and I have several skeins in my stash because it's all SO GORGEOUS.  Also, duh - she is awesomely sweet and helpful - and quick to respond to Etsy messages!

I've knit one or two of her patterns before, and this one was well-written.  It's clearly mostly stockinette, and you can see on the pattern page that it's meant to have a bit more ease, but I did make it slimmer-fitting; I just can't remember now if that was with intention or not.  I DO know I did make the forearm/wrist area slimmer-fitting, and I think I'd not do that next time.  I love the fit, but I think it'd be nicer for Camden if I hadn't decreased another few stitches.  Also, I will admit to pure laziness:  I should have done a sewn bind-off on the hem and sleeves, and I did NOT :O  And....I should have.  Ugh, but oh well.  I tried to bind off loosely, but that sewn bind-off would have reall helped out for cuff turn-ups and such.  Not a huge biggie, but I should have followed the directions, LOL.

It's a lovely, soft merino sweater, and Camden does find it cozy!  I was a bit silly and made the drawstring too short (btw, THIRD attempt making it...even THEN still too short).  Next time, I'll make sure to do another four inches in length.

I'm super excited about this sweater, too, because I planned for it in a colorway that would work for Tiberius.  I know there'll come a day when I'm moving even slower with knitting than I already do, and I'll be glad I planned ahead.  I do hope, though, that this sweater fits Camden through Fall of 2016 ;)  I did make it longer for that reason.

And of course, some fun shots from recently!

All the knits!  And remember this Bryce Canyon shawl??

Awww, drawing practice

LOL, a Santa!

Art smocks for Jeanine over at Stitch Art

Just another day of Community School

Skillzzzz with Lego

Not Just a Song: Penny Lane, the Sweater

Oh, holy cow.  Has it been four score and eighteen decades since I last blogged???

Feels like it.  I actually swear I have a pair of socks and something else I need to blog about, but the dog days of summer blew past AND dragged on, if that's possible, and I have done NO sewing.  So, in all actuality, DARK days.  Camden has no clothing for the fall, other than a few dresses.  Thankfully, she just wears swimsuits and leotards all summer, so, we've been golden so far ;)

But check out, peeps!!!  What a fun sweater (project page here)!!!  This is one of those great yarn, easy pattern, lovely outcome sort of posts.  The sweater is obviously meant for the coming months (not sure why I chose to do a short-sleeved sweater AFTER this one, LOL), but I'm glad we're ready.

Getting that dance on!

The pattern is Penny Lane, by Julia Stanfield (Facebook page here).  I'm belatedly noticing that she has a sale in her Ravelry store with code "k2tog kal" - if I publish this today, August 13, go check it out!!  It's a pretty simple pattern with cable work down the front, only.  I did find the needle requirements written sort of loosely, so, I wasn't sure which needles to use where, only because I'm weird, I think.  I originally tried the neck on a smaller needle but went up to a size 5 and did the main sweater on size 3 needles.  My only issue with the pattern is that the sleeve count at the split is too high - in my opinion.  I think it's too much positive ease, and I wish I'd thought about that/realized that before I was as far in. In the end, I went with laziness, but I super decreased those sleeves.  In project pictures on Ravelry, you'll probably notice other people knit looser sleeves, but I don't like them baggy on the forearms.  The sweater is definitely meant to be knit as a tunic, when it's knit for girls, but I knit it a bit shorter - in essence of time and hand-pain.

My yarn is Colour Adventures, base Dia Twist DK in colorway Raspberry Chocolate (I also just checked out her store, and she has a lovely green gradient worsted set in stock!), and it was super lovely to knit up.  It's definitely tricky to get the colorway across correctly in the pictures.  I always recommend Elena's yarn, and she does co-ops a couple times a year, where you can pay less for her yarn, which is awesome.

This photography stuff is EASY ;)

Nothing much else to say - other than crazy photos, due to light and a kid who doesn't care to pose these days ;)

And....how summer has been going....

Awww, little guy can only party so long

Friends in town!!!

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit!

LOL at the only slide camden was able to use....

Of course....