briggs street on the beach

Today was a beautiful morning to hit the beach with my knitting.  This is one of my favorite spots in town.  It's so crowded in the summer that I only make it there once or twice all season long.  But now that fall and October are here, I have the place almost all to myself.

I'm working on Briggs Street by Dawn Catanzaro.  What a beautiful, simple pattern.  I'm using some yarns out of my stash that were originally destined for other projects.  But when I saw this project on Ravelry, I abandoned those plans and started right away on my sweater.

I don't hold out much hope for many more beach days this year, although I will be pleasantly surprised and won't complain if there are plenty.  Today is one to hold on to.

Sugar

I'm happy to say that my newest design, Sugar, is included in the latest edition of Petite Purls.

I loved knitting this sweater.  From the open, lacy look, to the yarn, it all came together easily.  

The yoked cardigan features an i-cord cast on and bind off.  I have to admit I was hesitant about including both of these techniques in the design.  I tried an i-cord bind off unsuccessfully two years ago when I was knitting a blanket for my youngest niece.  I gave up after a few tries and just crocheted a neat little edge around the whole thing.

But a more recent try at knitting Paper Dolls by Kate Davies encouraged me to give the i-cord cast on a try.  And it was such a success that I figured it was worth trying the i-cord bind off again.  And this time the technique just made much more sense to me.

Some knitters say that you should let the yarn speak to you and tell you what it wants to be.  As I've followed this advice more recently, I've abandoned more projects than I care to admit because the yarn just isn't the right fit for the pattern I'm working on.  But I think the same thing can be true about techniques.  Sometimes you just have to wait for the right project and what was difficult before is easy now.  It's all about patience I suppose.

I hope you enjoy knitting Sugar as much as I loved designing it!

  

where has the time gone?

Please excuse my months long absence from blogging.  I've missed it!

Last fall I purchased a burnt orange, gorgeous Malabrigo Rios and I didn't know what to do with it.  I tried swatching some patterns and none looked right.   I've been taking to heart the advice that if you let the yarn speak, it will tell you what it wants to be.  So I was very excited to find Malabrigo Book 3 in my local yarn store this winter.  The minute I spotted the Twisted Cowl by Breean Elyse Miller in Book 3, I knew it was the right fit for my Rios.  I have a lot of scarves, so I decided to give this one to a friend.  It just needs a few buttons and then it will be hers.

And I've been carrying this scarf around in my purse for the last month or so.  It's the Jaywalker Scarf pattern by Jody McKinley.  It's for my littlest.  Spring arrived early this year in Maine, so she'll have to wait until next fall to wear it, but she gets excited every time I pull it out of my purse to work on it.  She's my pajama loving, barefoot child, but I hope she'll wear it when it's finally done.

I've also knit two girls' sweater this winter but I've had to keep them hush hush, as they're samples of my newest sweater pattern coming out soon.  I'll post more about it as soon as I can!