From Rain to Hope

Not even a week and I’m blogging again.  I did say I’d be finishing up a sweater soon.  I finished it on Sunday and got it all washed up and photographed on Monday and Tuesday.  Without further ado,

I'm, unoriginally, calling it $7.50 in Charleston

Pattern: $5 in Paris by Anna Peck

Yarn: Red Heart Soft

Needles: US 8 and 9

More details… here (ravelry link)

The pattern was easy, quick, and free.  The yarn is cheap and machine washable and dryable.  What more could a person ask for?  I could see myself doing this pattern again, probably in a solid color because I am tired of weaving in ends after all those stripes.  If you can’t tell in the picture, the neck is so wide it will fall off my shoulders easily which is sort of what I was going for.  I wanted to be able to channel Jennifer Beals in Flashdance.  I’ve been going around singing Irene Cara’s What a Feeling a lot since finishing it.  Maybe I’m too old to have a sweater falling off my shoulder.  I don’t know.

So Loopas and Mom, what do you think?  (Anyone else who might read this is free to give opinions as well.)

I may be lazy, but I have another completed knit item.  Therefore I am happy.

The (Not So) Cap-sleeved Eyelet Top

May I present my new, possibly first vest.  Sure it was suppose to be a cap-sleeved sweater, but by the time I got to the sleeves, I was ready to be finished with this.  Not to mention it makes a pretty cute vest.  Instead of adding the sleeves, I just picked up stitches around the armholes and finished them off with a few rows of 1×1 ribbing.

Front view

Pattern: Cap-Sleeved Eyelet Top by Hannah Fettig

Yarn: Plymouth Suri Merino

Needles: US 6 and US 7

More details… here (ravelry link)

Back view

Overall, I’m very happy with the top.  It fits fairly well.  I have a bit of room to grow up top (like that’s gonna happen), but I pretty much knew when I was increasing for the bust area, it might be too big.  It looks fine though and I don’t think it is obviously too big.  What do you think?

And today I will leave you with the latest installment of Kitties Behaving Badly:

But the laundry perfectly matches my eyes!

Basically, I started knitting because I discovered a love for scarves.  I had never had one until my MIL gave me one she had made for me.  It’s gray and simple and long and I LOVE it.  I suppose I’ve never had  much need for scarves because I’ve lived in places that never get cold for very long.  It never occured to me how great scarves could be.  Once it gets warmer and the AC is running constantly I’ll probably be wearing a scarf around the house.  I get too cold with the AC on, but it’s too hot without it.  The scarf around my neck keeps me just warm enough.

I have two scarves going right now.  There is a Lace Ribbon Scarf (the pattern is free from Knitty) and one from Issue 13 of Yarn Forward magazine, Marylin.

The Lace Ribbon Scarf is maybe 15% complete.  I’m using a sock yarn from Pagewood Farms that is a lovely mix of reds and pinks.

Lace Ribbon Scarf: The Beginning

The other, Marylin, is being made out of Malabrigo Worsted in a lovely shade of green.  I’ve barely started it and haven’t taken any pictures of the two inches I’ve done.  I did take a picture of the lovely yarn after spending the evening winding it.

Malabrigo for Marylin

Now on to the tutorial section of this blog.  Sorry, I don’t feel I know enough about knitting to tutor anyone, but there is one thing I know about that I feel I need to share with the world.  It’s come to my attention that a large majority of people do not know the way to properly assemble a peanut butter and banana sandwich.   It seems that many people just spread some peanut butter on the bread and slice some banana on top of it and call it a sandwich.  If you are one of those people, you are truley missing out on how good a simple pb&b can be.

Here’s what you’ll need for one sandwich:

1/2 a ripe banana

1 tablespoon of peanut butter

2 pieces of bread

Nice and simple ingredients

You will need a fork for the next and most important step.  You need to mash the banana and peanut butter all together until it resembles something you might not want to eat.

I know. It looks gross.

It may not look yummy, but you’ll have to trust me.  Just scoop up your mashed pb&b and spread it onto the bread.  Once you’ve got it all on there, place the other piece of bread on top and enjoy.

YUMMY!

I swear it is.  If you haven’t yet visited Etsy.com, you should. I would say it is like eBay for crafty people, except there are no auctions or craziness and the fee structure for selling items is simple and logical.  I could spend all day browsing.  In fact, I may spend a bit too much time on there.  I’ve been purchasing a few too many things lately.  As shown in my last post, I purchased 2 gauge rules and since then I’ve procured three more items from sellers on Etsy.

The first:

Winking Owls Zippy Pouch

An extremely cute Zippy Pouch from Piecesofkandee@Etsy.  The winking owls are great and it is backed with red corduroy.  I am a bit crazy about owls.  My love of owls had faded some over the years, but as soon as I saw Clash of the Titans again a few months ago and watched Bubo, the mechanical owl, my love was fully renewed!

Next on my list of purchases is related to something else near and dear to my heart.

Pokey Little Puppy Magnets

Pokey Little Puppy magnets!!!   I might have to name the Pokey Little Puppy as my favorite book ever.  These magnets were made from actual pages of the book.  They were purchased from LittleMommaErin@Etsy.

Last, but certainly not least is this:

Silver Maple Nostepinde

I know.  It looks a bit… questionable, if you will.  Let me explain what it is for those that might not know.  It’s a nostepinde (also spelled as nostepinne).  What is a nostepinde? It is a tool used to manually wind a center-pull yarn ball.  Why the funny name?  It’s Scandinavian.  I don’t really know much about the history, but I figure these things have been around a good, long while.  If you want to know how it works, feel free to go to the same place I learned about them: Fiber Fool’s Nostipinne Tutorial.  It’s a very good tutorial and has lots of pictures and a video.  Anyway, back to my nostepinde… It’s from Craftiness@Etsy.  It’s made from Silver Maple and is extremely pretty.   I haven’t used it yet, but I know it’ll be great.

As you can see, a great variety of all things crafty can be found at Etsy.   Now I better get away from this computer before I start shopping again!