Many Pictures, Few Words

My Blackberry Snuggle.  This Too Shawl Pass in Cascade Eco+ 3121 Blackberry Cordial.

An overexposed shot to show the lace design.

Long sleeved, long pant Christmas pajamas.  Ladies Tranquil Nightwear by Love Notions.

Short sleeved, shorts Christmas pajamas.  Modified Lou Box Top, self drafted shorts from a pair of ready to wear.

Second bobbin of my Easter Egg spinning project.  

Have a great Thanksgiving if you're celebrating this week!  I'll be back next week!

Sewing

I've been doing some sewing this fall, but I don't think I've shown any of it here.  The first thing I made is a Remy Raglan with the short sleeves and split front option.  I've gotten a lot of wear out of it since I made it in linen which is perfect for the Texas climate.  This is the fabric I used.  This pattern is written for French seams so you don't need a serger to have a beautifully finished garment.  I do have a serger, but I love French seams so I did them anyway (also, while both methods finish the seam edges just fine, the French seams are prettier).

Then I decided to make another Remy Raglan for Thanksgiving.  This time I used the solid front (I thought it would work better with a necklace) and the new sleeve update for the puffy sleeve.  (The pattern also includes a 3/4 length sleeve with the same shape as the short sleeve.)  This is sewn in the same fabric as above in the Wild Cherry color.  Also, I forgot to give it a final pressing before I took this picture so it's hanging a little wonky.  It will be pressed by next week!

I can tell you that I will definitely be making more Remy Raglans.  It's a great shape and with two front options and three sleeve options, it's a versatile design.

Right now though, I'm working on pajamas.  I decided to make a pair of Christmas pajamas and as soon as the Thanksgiving frivolities are over and the house is put back together, I plan to wear them.  This means I better get sewing on them!  

I decided to make the Tranquil Nightwear pajamas from Love Notions, using the long pants and the long sleeves on the top.  I ordered some fabric (I had it printed on Robert Kaufman Laguna Knit) and since this is the first time I'm making this pattern and I usually have to add length, I ordered some extra.  When I was cutting out the pattern, I realized that I would have enough left over to make a pair of short sleeved/shorts pajamas (I used the pattern I traced from some ready to wear shorts and my Lou Box Top variation, which is my tried and true summer pj's pattern) as well, which is actually useful in Texas because we're just as likely to need short sleeves in December as we are long sleeves.  So now I know that four yards of knit will give me summer and winter pajamas! 

Lace and Glorious Color

At some point in October I started knitting the Recoleta cardigan.  This is one of my projects for the Fourth Quarter KAL for ESK (the theme is lace in Aran weight yarn or heavier).  I'm knitting it in Queensland Collection Kathmandu Aran in Smoky Gray.  When I looked at this design, I loved the lace pattern and the overall feel of the cardigan, but I felt like it should be longer.  So once I had the upper body done, I put it on hold to knit the sleeves.  Then I'll come back to the body and I can just knit until I run out of yarn.  I'm not entirely sure how long mine will be, but we'll see!

I've also finished my first bobbin of the superwash merino.  I've started the second bobbin, but unfortunately, that's about all I've done with it.  I'd like to finish this yarn by the end of the year, and there's no reason I shouldn't except I've got to sit down and spin.  Funny how that works.

Lately, I've been doing some sewing but I haven't gotten pictures.  I'll get some pictures over the weekend and show you what's going on next week!

We're Still Here

And I'm still knitting.  I finished my Mermaid Avenue socks.  These were knit in Dream in Color Smooshy in Milky Spite.  

You can see how the overall tone of the yarn changed from warm to cool as I knit through the skein.  This was a fun pattern, but it seriously ate a lot of yarn.  

I also started and finished a pair of Christmas socks.  These are based on Rose City Rollers, or How I Roll, or Jelly Roll's. (All three of those patterns are by the same designer and they're all pretty similar, but have some differences as well.  I own all three.)  They are knit in Blue Moon Fiber Arts Super Sparkle in Holidazzle.

You can see the sparkles in the close up.  These used exactly 61 grams of yarn and when I weighed the leftover ball I had 61 grams of yarn.  I'm not going to tempt fate and assume I can get a second pair of these from the ball, but I have added an accent yarn to the second pair, to make sure it all works out. 

It's been a rough few weeks, but we're still here.  As hard as the loss has hit us humans, Mr. Noodle has really had a rough time of it.  He spent a few days looking for Logan and screaming for him.  When he'd looked in all the usual places, he started looking in unusual ones - no, Logan is not on the fireplace mantle.  Then he got really clingy.  We've been trying to comfort him and help him, and we got our household back on the regular schedule as quickly as we could.  He seems to be back to his normal self now and the shenanigans have returned.