Across the Pond, Across the River, Tomato, Tomahto

Whoah.  Y'all, this shawl is PRETTY, but.....

A.  I had no classy backdrops against which to photograph it

B.  It's not for ME  :(

Sucks, right???  I love it and had wanted the Across the Pond Shawl by Mina Philipp (her website, Ravelry group and Knitting Expat podcast) for MYSELF, when the pattern first came out.  After my mother-in-law saw my Windswept shawl last year, though, she wanted one for HERSELF.  That presents two problems:  I don't want to repeat a shawl when I have a million other shawl patterns I want to knit AND my hands hurt so much when I was working on it, though it IS my favorite shawl thus far, aha!  After further questioning, it turns out my mother-in-law liked the whole two-colors situation and overall simplicity, I think, so, I told her I had it covered, LOL.

You'd think I did NOT check for loose ends...

The pattern was crazy easy, which was helpful, as I wanted to whip through it quickly, as I have SO MUCH TO DO.  In the lace section, per my normal state of LIFE, I tried to make things difficult by getting off-count a few times, but I survived to write about it.  It was my first Mina pattern, and she wrote it up nicely - AND concisely.  I way recommend it!  I want a crescent shawl for myself one of these days!  I'm blanking on whether or not I have one, but that matters not ;)

I used lovely yarn, naturally - purchased by Matt's mom, though recommended by yours truly.  The Hazel Knits Entice was purchased at Twisted in Portland.  I used the Vamp and Nekkid colorways, and there is enough left for me to make socks for Tiberius - yay!

I PROMISE i checked for loose ends...but there it is again

I will wrap it up for her and drop it off this weekend, along with some artwork from Tiberius and Camden!

And....life recently....

Reading their Usborne books!

Still trying to squeeze in Aspen Hall days

Awesome scone recipe!!!

All Spice from Paisley Roots - Traveling With the Blog Tour!!!

So!  About this All Spice Blog Tour for Paisley Roots....What a fun dress!  

But what a hot mess I am about being a destination on this blog tour, aha!  I have NO action shots this blog post....because I made a dress in a size or so too small for Camden :O  And I find this incredibly devastating - in a first-world problems kind of way.  I made the size 4, as I thought that would work for Camden's chest size, as the finished measurement is 24 inches, and HER chest is 22 inches....or so I thought, LOL.

Camden's sad face at not getting to keep this dress!

I love how the dress turned out - and I completely ADORE the fabric....which is why I'm bummed it doesn't fit - but whatevs.  it's all my fault.  Camden's chest is 22.5 inches.  The next one I make - because YES, there WILL be a next one! - will hopefully use the same fabric (please, Joann Fabrics, do NOT run out during this holiday weekend!  I beseech you!  And if you are a close reader, you are noting that I did, indeed, buy fabric at Joann's!)  I do not have quite enough of the shot cotton I used to line the bodice, so, I will need more of that.

The dress, running AWAY to it's new owner!  (that....and the crazy wind!)

And speaking of wind....this is Camden's "it's windy!" face

The directions seemed super easy to follow, though I did change some things up.  I didn't extend the buttons into the skirt, and I ironed interfacing on the wrong side of the pintucks - to stabilize the fabric for the buttonholes themselves, but also to hold the pintucks still so there'd be no pulling when I added buttonholes.  Lastly, I never like exposed seems at the end of a sleeve, if I can help it, so, I sewed my sleeve side seams before I hemmed the cuffs.

This dress will be sent off across the country as a fun gift for somebody else's little girl, so, I can't wait to see action shots!  For now, please just enjoy the fun buttons and pretty fabric - and sad face of a girl who cannot wear this dress, aha!

Look at those pintucks!!!

There is a giveaway and a link-up, so, make sure to check out the links below!!!

But WAIT!  There is MORE!  Karly is doing a Black Friday sale - 25% off with the code "blackfriday2014" - remember that, y'all!  That's tomorrow!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

An InLinkz Link-up