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!!!

No Longer Just a Lete's Knits Lurker! or, Stop! Evaporate and Listen

Note how Matt doesn't get photos of the bottom point of the shawl....ever

That title makes NO sense, but I couldn't help ma'self.  I finished (and I'm SURE my hands are thanking me!) my third shawl - Evaporate by Justyna Lorkowska.  I have belonged to her Lete's Knits group on Ravelry for a year and a half and finally completed my first pattern.  I have favorited, by the way, several of her patterns - and own almost as many of them (and even have yarn for one or two!).... But as most of my favorites are sweater patterns, I wasn't going to get around to knitting any of them until well after Tiberius was born.  Here we are, almost 6 months into his out-of-womb existence on Planet Earth, and it'll still be quite a while before I dare knit myself a sweater, as my body isn't quite ready yet, LOL.

I used - get ready!!! - STASH yarn!  Not JUST stash yarn, but yarn I bought at the first-ever Sock Summit in Portland, OR, several years ago.  It is Crazy Monkey Creations Panda Toes in the colorway Purple Rain, and it's a merino/bamboo blend, which meant I didn't really want to use it for socks.  I figured it was just the right amount of variegation for this shawl, and I was right, thankfully.  (In searching for a good link, I'm thinking they are no longer dyeing yarn, FYI.)

Anywho, I decided to join the shawl KAL for this month, and I will have just barely made the cut-off....Well, by the time I hopefully have pictures tomorrow, I will have made it by 5 days.  I whipped through this KAL right after finishing the Owlet sweaters for both Tiberius and Camden (those will be featured later, hopefully next month, as they are part of a KAL, also, with a friend).  Ten days for this shawl - holla!  (Of course, my hand is broken as I write this, so, there is THAT.)

Don't judge these photos, LOL

As always, a classy outlet to gaze upon

The pattern is just as lovely as I'd expected it to be - written super well and in the right amount of detail.  Justyna adds helpful tips at the end, so, it's smart to read through the whole pattern - for good planning and all.  I can tell, as it's blocking, that it's larger than my last shawl, and the gauge was definitely looser.  I DO wish I'd been able to knit this one on Karbonz needles, as Addis are so slippery for shawl work with merino/bamboo blend yarn.  It all worked out well, though, and I didn't drop a stitch but once or twice - and I caught the issue and fixed it.

Camden LOVES shawls!

I'm definitely happy overall, and I can't wait to knit more of Justyna's patterns - she is SUCH a nice lady, and so are the moderators in her ravelry group!!

Good times???

In OTHER NEWS....hear ye, hear ye, I haven't sewn in two months!  :O  I will be laying off knitting for at least a week in order to give my hands a break and work on some projects for Camden.  Poor girl is up to 41.25 inches and will have NOTHING to wear this fall/winter if I don't get cracking!  So, expect the next blog post to have NO knitting ;)

My take on that fancy shawl pose....I TOTALLY pulled it off, no?

Oliver and S time! After School Pants and Top.

In a non-normal world, I would get a chance to sew most days of the week, but it seems that lately, I get the chance to have a spurt of sewing and finish a sewing project once every week and a half or so.  I HAVE discovered that Camden is able to entertain herself for an hour or two these days while I get the chance to sew during daytime hours, which is what we call AWESOME.  Sewing always used to be a nighttime thing, but with el bebe coming, I find I better be one of those responsible folk and make sure to get enough sleep, so, I stick with knitting at night.  Sewing is one of those tricky hobbies that will keep me up until 2 in the morning...no bueno.

Happily, I was able to finish my second-ever Oliver and S After School pants and top, this time in a size 4.  I'm not sure what my reasons were for skipping from a size 2 to a size 4, but my child surely could have used size 3 pants.  She has a round little belly (which, according to her, is carrying a baby girl) that demands I size up or lengthen shirts, but her leg inseam is just over 13 inches, so, lengthening pants is just NOT necessary, for the most part.  Camden is, I think, slowly moving from average-sized to small, as she gets older.  She would just call herself a big girl and have done with it, naturally.  Anyway, my bad in choosing to do a size 4, but hey - they'll last a LONG time, aha!

I have worked with Oliver and S patterns many times, and for the most part, I find the directions great, though I like to throw myself off here and there.  There is definitely errata one would want to check out on their site, for each pattern, before beginning - or if you are way stuck and pretty sure something isn't right. I have found some of the patterns needed more careful editing, but that's my critical editing eye coming out in me.  Also, one thing I find myself doing with Oliver and S pattern sheets:  Chippity-chopping them UP, son!  I know that may be pure blasphemy to some, but those suckers are sooooo big that I can't stand wielding them while trying to trace, so, I rotary cut them down to size to make tracing easier, and hey - they still fold up all nice and pretty.

Speaking, too, of paper patterns, I am crazy and prefer to use a pencil when tracing, though some are definitely more comfortable with a pen.  I find I would just have to fix too many things to WANT to use a pen, so, that doesn't work for me.  But check out which SUPER COOL pencils I DO use:  stacking point pencils (and WHO knew that was the proper name?! I will never call them that, neva'.  I will stick with my fancy "changeable lead pencil.")  And I know they're a waste.  Don't hate.  It's a childhood memory or some such.

Lastly, I have to give a shout-out to the tracing paper I love to use, as it's so great and sturdy and see-through (duh) and iron-able.  I don't know what I pay for it locally (I buy it at Modern Domestic - best place ever - great ladies, classes and sewing machines!!), but this Swedish tracing paper is available on Amazon, too.  You can sew with it and even make a quick muslin, if you need to.

As for the After School pattern, I loved it the first time I did it - it's pretty stinkin' easy.  Just keep track of those front and back yokes, as there are four separate pieces.  As I said above, because of my little girl's belly, I usually like to lengthen shirts, especially with Oliver and S.  I don't know if that means the shirts run shorter, or if it's really just her belly.  I forgot this time, so, I'm glad I did the size 4, as it fits nicely right now.  If I'd done the size 3, which would have fit her a bit better, I definitely would have needed to lengthen it.  When I first came across this issue with the patten, I just added a band to the bottom, no biggie.

Gosh, that was so long ago!!!

As for her the size 4 pants I just made, I hemmed them on the longer side, but then I blind hemmed them up another 2.5 inches, as they were so long.  They are at the perfect length.  As you can see below, I used the same fabric, but in a different colorway.  Hey - keeps my life easy, and I planned it that way, LOL!  I got fancy and top-stitched in a contrast to match the reddish-orange leaves, but I didn't get any crazier than that.  With the ruffles it already has, I didn't want to go overboard.

Let me know if you have any questions on construction.  The size 4 pants would easily fit your child in length if she has a 15-15.5 inch inseam.  Sometimes, you have to play with hemming things shorter or longer, so, always remember that.  With my blind hem, I can take that out later, easy cheese cream pie!