fo: Fingerless Mitts for a Friend

Whoops, sorry folks - didn't mean to disappear for so long there.  Between the class I'm teaching kicking it up into overdrive for exam prep, frantically trying to tie up ends at the end of my contract at the 9-5 job, spending time with new friends, multiple house-guests, and a week-long visit from my best friend (!!!) last month, it's been a little frantic around these parts.

I've been doing a lot of knitting though, mostly for stress relief.  There's been days where the only thing that's saved me was taking 20 minutes to just knit and read a book!

One of the things I've made is one of the only knitted gifts I'm doing for December's Christmas (as opposed to April's Christmas when I fly down to celebrate with family); a pair of fingerless mitts for a friend.

This buddy of mine just landed herself a geology job in the far FAR north - so far north that I believe they're under 24 hour darkness right now!  She was my cross-shift at my last mining job, and I remember finding all sorts of warming devices on our shared office when I'd come into camp.

I figured a pair of fingerless mitts might come in handy for office work up there!

Pattern: Edith Mitts and Mittens, by Faye Perriam-Reed
Yarn: Drops Nepal in Deep Ocean colourway
Needles: 3.5 mm and 4 mm
Mods: ALL OF THEM.

I'm not actually a big fan of this pattern.  I got it ages ago, thinking it was charming, but in reality they're really large and long mitts.  I made a size small and they were almost too big for my larger (for a woman) hands.  I mean, I've learned that I have short palms, but the first mitt went to my fingertips when I followed the pattern, and would've covered my entire thumb if I didn't modify it.  Sort of defeats the purpose of fingerless mitts, in my mind.

So I ripped the first mitt back and adjusted the pattern.  Here's my Rav page for a quick summary.  First off, I did an extra round of increases before separating the thumb stitches since the thumb gusset was too short.  Then I cast on 2 less stitches over the gusset to keep the amount of stitches the same.  I still feel like there was too many stitches around the thumb, but my mods made it work.  On the hand, I removed one lace repeat and started the ribbing early and did 5 rows of ribbing before loosely binding off.

For the thumb, I skipped all of the extra rows the pattern has you knit before the ribbing.  I only did the initial row where you pick up stitches, then one more after that to do the decreases before doing 4 rounds of ribbing with the smaller needle size.  This snugged up the thumb nicely.

I don't like giving poor reviews for patterns since there's usually some silver lining, especially when this is probably more of a personal preference thing rather than an issue with the pattern (other than these tending large - which others on Ravelry have noted).  This pattern is well written and the finished mitts are cute.  I think these would work out just fine if you used a thinner weight yarn than the recommended aran weight.

Overall, I do like how they turned out with my modifications.  I think my friend will like them too, I just hope her hands aren't much narrower than mine.

*~~*~~*~~*~~*

How are you folks doing?  Are you already for Christmas (if you celebrate)?  I hope you're finding some relaxing time too in all of this craziness.  I also hope you have a fantastic holiday and that you get to spend it with people that you love!  <3

Knitting WiPs for a Lazy Saturday

I'm not feeling that great, so a quiet night on the couch sounded like a fantastic idea!  I'd originally planned to sew this evening, and I'm sad to have skipped out, but it's also nice to sit and knit for a bit (haha).

Despite having grown my wip pile (again - ye gods, I think I have about 20 projects on the go), I started a new hat on Thursday.  AHA.  But it's for a good cause!  The community knitting group I'm involved with plans to hang up a bunch of warm stuff around downtown this winter, and I plan to knit a few hats for it.  And what better than another one of Kat Riddell's patterns from her Granite collection!  This time I'm knitting Portsmouth in Cascade 220 in a dark heather grey.  I'm loving how it's turning out!  The rippley pattern looks like it'll be really warm too, which is what I'm looking for in these hats.

The other project I'm working on (and that I think I mentioned in erm, my last post) is my Year in Temps scarf.  I'm itching to get caught up on this one, since I really do need a new warm scarf, and it's looking so good.  I changed the colour scheme from the suggestions in the pattern, since I'm not actually a big fan of the colours they used. Darryl won't stop bugging me about how purple this is.  Just reinforces the fact that I'm in love with purple.  :)  I'm up to the end of May.  Yes, I know, I'm way behind, especially since I'd hoped to do this in real time.  Oh well.  Hopefully I'll catch up by the end of the year!

Anywho, that's two of my (way too many) wips.  The ones I'm working on today anyways. 

Sadly, not my jacket wip, but oh well.

How's your wip pile doing?  Are you guys more disciplined than I am?  I seem to be seduced by every single pattern out there.

Hot Tub + Friends + a lot of Ciders =

a really hapy Heather!

HI GUYS.  I love you all, I have the best readers. :D  Also I love living in a place with a cold winter, especially when you get to star gaze from a hot tub, ESPECIALLY when friends come over and bring you lovely bevvies.

Haha I'm probbaly not going to be pleased about this post tomorrow but WHATEVER I don't tell you that I love you all so much enough.  :)  You guys are the bestest.

Also, this is apparently my 100th post on this blog so YAY!  I trhought about doig something special but I'm just happy to have som free time so YAY look I'm blogging!

Okay, gonna go dry off some more and work on my scarf.  I'M CATCHING UP!  it loosk asesome.  can I link to it?  MAYBE.  We'll see. 

Everyone os sit=ll in the hottub, so I'm gonnan relax a bit.  I think I spelled 'gonna' wrong.  wait, gona go fix it.

Hope you guys are doing aas awesome as I am right now. :)  <3

fo: Haines Hampton Hat

I LIIIIIIVE!  Aha it's been a crazy few weeks, but the final exams for the course I'm teaching has been submitted and I'm finally having a relaxing night off!  This post is going to be short because as soon as it's done, I'm putting on a girly movie and grabbing some knitting for a chill me-night!

So this toque has been done for a while, but I put off blocking it for ages.  Then winter arrived last Saturday and I needed a hat, so huzzah warm head!

Here's my Ravelry project page, if you want to take a peak.

Pattern: Hampton, from Granite: Four Hats for Any Adventure by Kat Riddell.  I actually won a copy of the ebook from her website.
Yarn: Cascade Yarns Alpaca Lana D'Ore, bought at the Dalton City Yarn Emporium in Haines, AK
Mods: NONE.  Although I did use the chart instead of the written instructions for the lace because of a mistake in the instructions.  I think they've been corrected though, so woo!

I have a habit of buying yarn and making myself a souvenir when I go places, and I had this planned out for my trip to Haines, Alaska last month...or uh actually, in September.  Oops, where did October go?!  Anyways, I love the little yarn shop in Haines, so of course I went down for a visit, and did approximately 1200 laps around the store and stared at the worsted weight yarn until I decided on this lovely grey.

Which is ridiculous because I knew going in that I wanted a light grey for this hat.  On top of the rock theme of the patterns, Haines has a bunch of pretty sculptures all over town carved out of local granite.  I knew they'd be my inspiration behind this project.  Never mind the foggy weather along the coast, which pushed me more toward a light grey over a medium or dark shade.

And then there were these beautiful old graves in a hidden little early 1900s graveyard I stumbled across on a walk along the shore.  There was less than 20 of them, but it was such a lovely, peaceful area, and I had a nice chat with them as I wandered through.  I love graveyards, especially old ones.  It was a lovely place, and I'm glad I came across it.

Anyways, the pattern was a fun knit.  The lace was enough of a challenge to keep my attention, but not too challenging that I was antisocial while hanging hanging out with friends.

I really liked how Kat designed the decreases at the top.  I wasn't sure about it at first, but the finished result looks awesome.  And I like how the top isn't smoothly rounded but a bit...gathered?  Not sure of the word, but I like it. 

Like the background here?  We stopped somewhere between Haines, Alaska and Haines Junction, Yukon, in the Haines range above the treeline.  I didn't even see the rainbow, but Darryl did and arranged me here for the photo.  There are times when I think he's completely oblivious, and then there are times like this when he proves me wrong.  :) 

It was really windy up there.  And probably a lot snowier now since Whitehorse is buried in a few inches already.


I'll definitely be knitting up more of Kat's hats (haha that rhymes!) in her ebook.  While I don't need more hats, our community knitting group is collecting hats, scarves, mitts, etc for a big donation thing next month, so it's a good opportunity.

Oh and the dreaded C word too.  ACK!

Are you guys all geared up and ready for winter?  Or uh, summer for those of you in the southern hemisphere?  Also, any idea where October went?  I think I misplaced it.

can't blog...exam-making omg someone bring me coffee

I promised we'd be back to our regular crafty programming today, but OMG NO TIIIIME I MISS SEWING AND KNITTING.

Same pattern as these and these. Because I'm adventurous yo.

So here's a photo of the ugliest sock in creation that I'm knitting as a Christmas gift.  Because I'm a good sister who loves her brother and likes to give him deliberately ugly versions of the things he asks for.  And it's on my textbook because NO TIME TO KNIT OR MOVE FROM MY WORK STATION.

Oh holy mother of diamonds, wish me luck because I have to finish TWO versions of my final exam, with 100 multiple questions from each, submitted by FRIDAY.  ::weeps into her coffee and notebook::

Holy Crap Canada!

We're going to take a short break from all things crafty, because something important happened in Canada yesterday!  For those not interested, click away and I promise to return to crafty endeavours tomorrow. 

Figure grabbed on 2015-10-20 at 11:05 am.

So for those who don't know, we had our Federal election here in Canada, and I think it's safe to say that most people were pretty surprised by the results!  The Liberal Party, which had almost been wiped out in the 2011 election (and kept only 34 seats), managed to not only become the ruling party but did it with a majority!  The Harper Government has been in power for the last 10 years, and you can see by the figures above how the majority of Canadians felt about that.

It was amazing to witness, no matter whether your heart was singing or crying.  I could barely knit as I watched, since I'd glance down for a second and suddenly there were 3 more Liberal-leading ridings!

The figure above may seem odd to other countries - I'm not that well-versed in politics and how it all works, but we vote in our local representative, and the party with the most MPs wins power.  There's other aspects to that, and we have a first-past-the-post election method which is not that popular (the Liberals have promised election reform - we'll see what happens), but that's the basics.

Voter turnout was up this year, at about 68.5% of Canadians voting.  Still not fantastic, but the highest since 1993, so that's something to be glad of.  The Yukon had the second highest turnout at 76%; only Prince Edward Island had a higher turnout at 77%!  I'm not exaggerating when I say that I started to cry when I found out - it's so empowering how engaged most Canadians were this year.

I'm pretty stoked to see that 10 Indigenous and 88 women MPs were elected.  The gender diversity is still low, with female representatives in the House at 26% (the UN recommend at least 30%), but we're getting there.  There's a nice range of First Nation communities represented, including 3 Metis (2 in Winnipeg!), 2 Inuit, 3 Cree, 1 Anishinaabe, 1 Kwakwaka'wakw, and 1 Dene, which is good to see.  They only make up 3% of the House, but again, representation is getting better!

I have so many emotions about this election, but I can't express them well here.  But lets just say that I'm so happy with how passionate Canadians got this year, and that we powered through Canada's longest federal election campaign (78 days! I know I know, that's nothing to you Americans, but our normal campaign is 35 days) and didn't let the length or poor behaviour of politicians lead to (too much) apathy and frustration.

Or maybe those are the reasons so many turned out this year?  Who knows - I'm just glad to see so many people get out and used their voice - no matter who they voted for.  :)


Oh, and apparently the Blue Jays are doing well?  I don't know, I don't follow baseball, but everywhere I look there's frantic Canadian baseball fans, so I guess there's a lot of really happy Canadians, and a lot of 'at least the Blue Jays are winning' Canadians. 

And then there's Canadians like me, who are going: "::shrug:: That's cool, good for you Sports Team!"  :D


ALRIGHT, BACK TO YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED CRAFTINESS.  Carry on, nothing more to see (of politics, anyways).

Cascade Jacket Progress - Hampered by Responsibilities (ick)

Whew, sorry about the silence around here, folks.  I'm getting my butt handed to me with this course I'm teaching, and now that my textbook has arrived (finally), I get to power through it while I try to write two final exams...in less than a week.  AHA yeah that's going to go well, I can tell.

Anywho, I'm plugging away at my jacket.  I finally found the brown leather and wood toggles I wanted, only to realize that brown leather was going to look awful next to the trim I'm using.  I cut up some of my leftover leather from my hitchhikker's jacket, and I like the look.  Even if I did cut the leather loops a little bit too long.  Oops.  I'm attaching the sleeves now, but the sleeves are a little tight across the upper arm, so I have to let them out a bit. 

Using McCall's 6286 as a guide, although I shortened and narrowed them up.

I've also added a bit of shaping to the back through a couple of darts.  I won't do this in the winter coat version though.

Speaking of the winter coat, my fabric arrived!!  I like it, despite how plain and boring it is.  I wanted an easy-to-wear background piece that I could add lots of fun accessories to, like bright knitted hats and cowls and mitts.

The pants material looks pretty much how it showed online.  I'm pretty excited to try sewing these up, but I need to finish this jacket first.  I'm enjoying the slow sewing, which is good because the toggles definitely demanded that!

Ooo question!  I'm trying to find a source for thinsulate interlining material that won't include ordering it from the States of a cost of $25 for the fabric, $35 for shipping, and an additional $20 when you convert that to Canadian.  I suspect I can do better than $80 for 3 m of interlining fabric if I source it in Canada.  Does anyone know if anywhere down south carries thinsulate?

Anywho, I'd better get back to it.  No, not the jacket - I need to come up with 10 exam questions tonight.  :P  Although those sleeves are calling my name...NO HEATHER, BAD.  Back to work, missy!

Not..Quite There Yet

Okay, so I didn't get the jacket finished today.  I didn't even get it half way, but I'm okay with that.  Would've been nice to have my jacket for the trip to Haines this weekend, but I hear the ocean's going to be dumping down on us anyways, and it's probably better to bring my rain jacket instead.

In case you missed it, I thought I'd try to finish this jacket in 2 days.  I might've been able to do it if I'd been able to spend any time on it yesterday, but there was no way I was missing Knit Night!


As you can see, I got the main body put together.  The only changes I did was take in the side seams below the waist, since it was very loose there.

I changed the pocket openings to the side instead of the top because I basically live with my hands in my pockets, and the original pocket wouldn't work.  It's pretty comfortable this way. 

 

 

I might add a couple of darts up the back of this version to take in some of that bulk.  But overall, I'm pretty pleased with the fit so far.  A bit of shaping around the bust probably would've been a good thing, but it's not something I'll be doing for the winter version of this coat.

This is going to be a warm jacket.  It's cozy even without sleeves and the flannel lining!  I'm pretty excited about having this jacket, and definitely for the final winter version.  I can't wait to get back to this project, because I really want the finished jacket.  Heck, I need this jacket, my current fall jacket doesn't compare at all!

Okay, gotta go pack for our trip.  Happy Thanksgiving, Canadians!  Happy Canadian Thanksgiving to everyone else, too, for that matter.  :)

Ow my hands...

This took FOREVER, but my Cascade Duffle jacket pattern is prepped and cut out!  And my fingers are raw from doing it.  :(  I know I mentioned that I was making a winter coat in my last post, but I wanted to test out the pattern first and I've been needing a spring/fall jacket for longer than I've needed a winter coat.

Sorry for the crummy photo, but the khaki colour is the outer fabric, and the plaid flannel is the lining.  I've only done some minor modifications, including narrowing the shoulders by 1/2 inch and cutting one size for the shoulders and another at and below the bust.  Oh, plus adding some waist shaping and shortened the arms by 2 inches.  I'll probably detail this out more later, but I needed to write this down somewhere so I don't forget.

I'll be using this reclaimed zipper I stole got from my Grandma, and possibly this trim material.  I'm not sure how yet, maybe around the hem and across the yoke seam?  Not sure yet.  I'll also be trying to track down some leather the same shade as the zipper for the toggles.  I'm also going to see if I can find some caribou antler for the toggles, but we'll see how successful I am at that.

Oh, and I'm putting a ridiculous deadline of Friday on myself, because we're going to Haines this weekend and I'd love to have a new jacket for it!

Okay, bedtime.  Wish me luck!

Sewing Project Planning!

Uh, so I just placed my very first online order for fabric.  I'm sort of terrified, someone please hold my hand!  Although I'm not really sure if I'm more afraid that the fabric won't be what I expect, or that I've just opened up a very expensive can of worms....


I'm buying with a purpose though.  I know I haven't done much sewing of late, but there's two specific types of things missing from my wardrobe that I can't seem to find in town: 1) a coat that's not overly expensive (I'm looking at you, Canada Goose) and/or ill-fitted, and 2) pants.  PANTS omg.  I have one pair of jeans that I sort of like, and another pair that are okay so long as I'm wearing a long top, and that's not doing it!  I have other things I want to make, but I think I need to focus on those two. 

Let's start off with number 1: Winter Coat

I'm planning on making Grainline Studios Cascade Duffle Coat, the cropped version, probably with a hood.  I plan to do some mods to it, probably an FBA (maybe?  I'll have to double-check to see what Suzy did with her version, because it's fantastic) and I want to change up the pockets.  Patch pockets look fun, but they're useless for me since I always keep my hands in them and patches that high won't work.  Unless I do a side opening on them.  Hmmm.

The fabric on the left is for the body, a heavyweight steel grey melton fabric that's 80% wool and 20% nylon.  The lining is on the left, and is a 100% nylon "charcoal grey" bemberg.  I'll probably find some sort of thermal layer for in between, because these two won't cut it alone up here.

I know it's a boring colour palette, but that just means I get to play more with colourful knitted accessories!


And then there's the dreaded 2) PANTS.

This is entirely Gillian and her polka dot pants fault.  I love the pair she made, and since I like narrow legged pants (but NOT skinny pants), I think it'll be pattern to try.  It's Style Arc's Elle pants, and even though I've never tried this company before, they look pretty simple to put together and Gillian recommended them.  If I'm going to be playing with fit, I might as well try an easy pattern!

The recommended fabric is sort of annoying though - they want at least 30% stretch, which is not easy to find.  Hence the fabric.com order!  I found two pieces that I'll try, including an indigo super stretch denim that's 96% cotton, 4% spandex, and 25% stretch on the left.  I hope it'll be enough!  The fabric on the right is called Chicago Jacquard Stretch Denim Pindot Midnight Blue/Black, and is made up of 65% rayon, 32% polyester, and 3% spandex.  I'm less certain about that one, but who could resist the look of it, and it has 40% stretch.  They're both medium/heavy weight, so I'm hoping they'll be alright for this.

I'm really good at planning, and not so good at actually sewing things, so we'll see.  But I've already ordered the fabric so maybe! 

I mentioned above that I'm afraid of ordering fabric online.  I'm more afraid of sewing pants.  SOMEONE HOLD MY HAND PLEASE. 

Stupid Distracting Hobbies and Missed Eclipses

So I got distracted and I managed to miss the eclipse yesterday.  I'm so pissed at myself about it too, because it was a beautifully clear night here in Whitehorse and the moon was perfectly framed in my large front windows.  AND I have a camera that hates the colour green but takes wonderful pictures of the moon.  It was too light here still to see all of it, but we would've been able to see the last half at least.

I did manage to catch the very very tail end of it.  You can sort of see the Earth's shadow on the upper right side.  If you squint.  It was more evident with the bare eye, but my camera sort of caught it.  It's not as good of a picture as I can get, but I figured I'd lose my chance if I took the time to grab and set up my stand...thingy.  Thing that you put the camera on for steady pictures I'VE LOST THE WORD OMG HELP ME SOMEONE.

What was I distracted by, you ask?  A rerun of my (very unwise) favourite show, Mayday (it really don't help my flying anxiety at all) and knitting up this pretty dishcloth:

It's the Lizard Ridge Dishcloth by Laura Aylor (although I've dubbed it 'Waves of Colour'), knit out of some leftover bits of Bernat Handicrafter cotton I've had accumulating for a while.  It was a fantastic exercise in short rows, let me tell you, although I did substitute the Purlbee's short row technique for the one in the pattern, since it produced a much cleaner stitch.

I love the cloth and the show, but I don't think either was worth missing the eclipse.  :(  Did you get out to see it?  Was it as amazing as all of the pictures show?

If you don't say "No Heather, wasn't worth it at all, your dishcloth was a much better use of your time", I might cry.

fo: Amethyst(!!) Henri, at last!

Snotty expression is deserved, I think.

Dearest Henri, you're done at last!  And I couldn't be more pleased with you!  You're gorgeous, your so cuddly, and I want to just snuggled up with you forever!

And you're the perfect shade of purply tweed and texture.  SO MUCH TEXTURE.

ETA: People are being clever in the comments, and holy cow I didn't even see it Henri totally looks like an amethyst geode YOU PEOPLE ARE SMART.  Now I can't unsee it so this sweater is now dubbed the Amethyst Henri!  I DIDN'T EVEN GO THERE MENTALLY I HAVE THE BEST READERS.  :)

NOOO YOU CAN'T HAVE IT IT'S MINE!!

Guys, this is seriously the best thing I've ever knit/made/sewn, and I don't ever want to take it off!  I finished this sucker off on the 22nd, and have worn it nearly every day since (I gave it a break on Friday, but promptly put it back on yesterday during my recovery from Beerfest Friday night *ahem*.

Pattern: Henri, by Ann Leachman for Holla Knits
Yarn: Knit Picks City Tweed in Brouche
Needles: 3.75 mm for main body and 3.5 mm for hems
Mods: a bunch

I'm not going to go into all my of tech and modification details here (although I babble about some of it below).  I just rewrote it all up on my Ravelry project page, so if you're interested in things like that, please go check out that link.  In fact, I'm going to keep this post pretty light on words because I've been trying to write it for a few days now, and nothing seems good enough for this sweater.

I have babbled about this before, both at the halfway point and when the body pieces were finished.  That'll have to do.  And the pile of pictures below, of course.  ;)

I reduced the back width a bit, and I think it was a good decision.

The sleeves sound up HUGE.  I'm okay with them though.

Less okay with my sleeve hems.  I might reknit those later.

Despite my mods, the neckline still wound up wide.  Not surprising considering I made a 48" wide sweater for a high bust of only 38" - that's 10" of ease on the upper chest and shoulders!  That's why I did all those mods - if I hadn't, this thing would probably be fall off of my shoulders right now.  I did add a line of crocheted slip stitches (for non-yarny people, that creates a firm, non-stretchy edge) around the inside of the back neckline, which has helped stabilize it a bit.  I might yet add one to the front, depending on how it behaves.

One of my mods included adding width on the shoulder and reduce width at the centre front.  It's one I've done before in sewing.

I was terrified of sewing up the side seams, but it went surprisingly well.  Michelle's tech knitting post helped a lot!

Look at all of that texture!

Don't get the comments above wrong, I adore how this sweater turned out!  But we're all our worst critics, and I like to see what I would've done differently to learn how to handle things going forward.  :)  Live(knit) and Learn!

Oh, and this is what we woke up to yesterday morning.  Finished my cozy sweater just in time, I think!

Alright now, bring it!  I've got my skis and a cozy warm sweater.  I'M READY FOR YA!!

fo: Gender Neutral Baby Sweater

I finished this wee little baby sweater during our fishing trip to Haines, Alaska.  You might remember it from this post.  I've been putting off blogging about it because I'd hoped to do a joint post with a baby vest I knit, but I can't seem to get the buttons attached and it's currently sitting in timeout.

It's called the Baby Boy 5-Hour Sweater, and was designed to be less lacy than then classic 5-hour baby sweater.  I liked it because it could easily be gender neutral, and I started it for Darryl's sister when she was pregnant and didn't know the baby's gender.  I made the newborn size (0-3 months), planning to mail it to them before the baby was born.  Uh..that didn't quite work out.

They claim 5 hours to knit it, but I think they meant 5 months since that's how long it took me to finish it.

Though to be fair to the pattern, I spent about 6 hours on the sweater up to the hem, then put it down for 5 months until I shamed myself into finishing it.

It has a neat construction.   You knit top-down to the sleeve divide, then knit across the front to the first sleeve and knit it completely, seam up the arm, then continue around to the second sleeve, finish it (plus seaming), then finish the row.  There's your sleeves, done, and you just finish knitting the body.  I hate knitting sleeves, so this way forces you to get them done right away.

I knit it out of some leftover Knit Picks Comfy Worsted from my Grey Amber sweater.  I think it took about 2 skeins to knit?  My Ravelry project page says 1, but I remember having to join on another skein not long after finishing the sleeves, so whether I started with a partial ball or used 2, I can't really say.

I got hung up on was the buttons.  By the time I got around to finishing it, I at least knew that the baby was a girl (since she'd been born 2 months earlier), but I still couldn't find what I wanted.  Granted, Whitehorse doesn't have the best selection - even if our awesome Local Yarn Shop has brought in a ton of beautiful buttons.

But then Haines happened, and their LYS had THE PERFECT BUTTONS.  I adored the filigree-look to them, and they were the perfect shade of silver for the grey fabric.  You don't realize how many shades there are of silver until you're trying to pair it to another grey.

Anywho, there is this simple sweater, finished at last.  It's actually an easy pattern to knit, and I love the construction of it.  The recipient, Baby L, has already worn it to a wedding with a pretty little plaid skirt.  Her parents are so knit worthy - every time I knit for their kids, facebook winds up full pictures of the cute little sprogs wearing the knits. 

That reminds me, I need to get started on their Christmas gift.  I have a great idea planned for Baby L and her big brother.  More on that later.

Do you have any truly knit- or sew-worthy people in your life?  And have you ever managed to make things for kids in time for them to actually fit the item?  I think Baby L has outgrown her sweater already...