there's something about garter stitch

I find myself knitting a lot of garter stitch lately. It's an "in between" activity for me: in between more complicated knitting projects, in between the stuff of daily life when I'm looking to make a transition from one activity to the next. I mean, I love KNITTING (meaning knitting as a hobby), but I also love the knit stitch. It's easy and mindless and I can just go on and on and not have to pay attention to what I'm doing.

So I've undertaken 2 garter stitch projects recently. One simple and quick: the wham bam thank you lamb! neckwarmer designed by insaknitty. I think it took me 3 hours to knit. This neckwarmer will be a gift for my daughter's kindergarten teacher. This would have made a better gift in December but I hope she enjoys it next fall and winter when it gets cold again. Let's not even entertain that idea.





The other project is simple and not so quick: the Moderne Baby Blanket. I'm giving myself 5 months to get this done! I've wanted to knit a log cabin blanket for quite some time now, and our family's newest little niece or nephew is the perfect reason. Just yesterday I got the first 2 blocks done: that's 4,320 knit stitches. Only 8 much bigger blocks to go!



Not only do I love the process of knitting garter stitch, I love the effect: the simple way that the knit stitches and purl bumps combine to make ridges that look like little waves. And these rows of waves create a fabric that is pleasing and calming to the eye, at least to my eye.

Knitting garter stitch is perfect when I want something to do with my hands and not my brain.

some recent customs

I've been busy working on a few customs as well as finalizing the Lucia Sweater pattern.

I crocheted 2 newsboy caps for the children of a customer, who is also a dear friend of mine. While I've used traditional cotton in the past, I experimented with using organic cotton this time. Since the organic cotton I used shrinks vertically, I modified the pattern and then washed the hat to make sure it shrank like I thought it would. I tried it on my daughter and this picture just makes me giggle. She looks like she's thinking, "You want to mess with me?"



My friend requested pink flowers to go with the hats. I crocheted the flowers and sewed them on to a button so that they could button the flower onto the hats or remove them whenever they wanted. The cotton is a naturally occurring camel color and should go with almost anything.



I also just finished knitting a soaker for a customer using ...a time to dye's "Eden" colorway on Blackberry Ridge merino. This is a cheerful and bright colorway that will make a perfect summer soaker.

a big thank you to my test knitters!

I've been working on releasing the pattern for my Lucia sweater and it's finally available today! In this process, I got some help from knitters online who offered their time and resources to test knit the pattern for me. I'm incredibly grateful to these women for offering feedback, suggestions, and most of all their knitting talents to me.

In no particular order, I've got these knitters to thank:

Lisa of Winsome Whatnots. Find her at http://hyenacart.com/WinsomeWhat-nots

Jennifer of Scentsory Creations. Find her at http://hyenacart.com/scentsorycreations

Genevieve who blogs here: http://blueberrywinter.blogspot.com/. She's also working on opening at Etsy shop.

Stacy of Nurturing Threads. Find her at www.nurturingthreads.com

There are also a few more knitters who don't have a website: Liz, Amanda, Sarena and Kari.

Liz is a local knitter friend of mine. We met at the park last summer when I saw her knitting a pair of socks. She's an amazingly talented knitter. Liz let me borrow her sweater so that I could use it to take pictures, and I'm hoping to be able to take some soon.

Amanda gifted her sweater to a girl whose grandmother is named Lucia. She's hoping for a women's sized sweater, so I'll take on that challenge soon.

Thanks again to you all!