Friday, June 21, 2013

Two Vests for Me

I'm working my way through the Montague Vest by Melissa LaBarre and it's knitting up beautifully.  I'm on the right front panel, but here is a picture before I got that far:

                                                                   


For stress free,  quick knitting projects, I've decided vests are the way to go.  Many are knit in the round with no sleeves to deal with,  and add a project using chunky or bulky weight yarn and you have instant (almost)  gratification!  I added this Freeport Vest by Elizabeth Smith to my favorites a few months ago and I have decided to to make this one of my next projects. It's knit in one piece with bulky yarn and it has extra large sizing and a beautifully written pattern.

                                                                        




It's made with Lambs Pride Bulky and this happens to be one of Craftsy sale yarns today so I ordered it in a heather grey and blue.  By the way, have you all checked out this Craftsy flash sale?  It's only today and they have some really great discounts - like 40 - 50% off almost all their yarns. Go check it out!

Have a great weekend and Happy Fiber Arts Friday!  Go see what others are up to at Andrea's blog

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Wednesday, June 19, 2013

My Work in Progress

I'm making great progress on my Montague Vest, but first a picture of these Hydrangeas  growing near my patio:

   
                                                                           


So pretty and these will be in bloom all summer at which point I hope to cut and dry them to use in my home.

Here's my progress on my vest.  This yarn is a super bulky and knits up so quickly!


                                                                                    


Planning to make another Sanibel cowl and thought this Dream in Color Classy might be interesting:


                                                                                      



Enjoying this warm Summer weather and I hope the weather is improving for all those back East who have been dealing with the constant rain.  Check out what others are working on at Tami's blog.                                                                                                
                                                                                      




Friday, June 14, 2013

A Few New Projects

This past week I have started two new projects and I'm so pleased with my progress; one is already finished!  It's the Sanibel Cowl that I have been working on for a KAL with the group East Coast Knitters and I have to say this is my type of KAL - I'm actually finished before the June 30th deadline!
In fact, this was so easy, I may make another one.


                                                                           



I made this with yarn from my stash, which is always a good thing.  It's  Bamboo Ewe from Stitch Nation and is 55% bamboo and 45% merino wool.  I'm not one who does alot of knitting with cotton or linen, but I wish I had some right now to start a second one that would work well for summer nights.  Will head off to my LYS to see what they might have.

I'm also working on the Montague Vest by Melissa LaBarre using more yarn from my stash and this time without a label, although I'm thinking this is vintage Tess' Yarns from way back:


                                                                          


This is a bulky yarn and it didn't take long to knit up this little bit.  This should work up pretty quickly and I have been listening to Colin Firth narrate The End of the Affair on Audible.com so it's been a most pleasant experience.

Here's a picture of the vest from the Ravelry project page:

             
                                                                           


That's about it for now.  Hope you all have a great sunny, warm weekend and check out Tami's blog to see what others are working on.


Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Oh, I Like These Socks!

Almost finished with my socks and I really like the way they are turning out:


                                                                                 


                                                                             

       
 I also like these project bags that I got as a present.  They are so light and easy to carry along  and I like the fact that they are sheer so that you can quickly check to see if you have everything you need with you.

Just took part in an Interweave webinar called Photography Skills for Knitters with Gale Zucker, who is a professional photographer, a passionate knitter and has a great knitting blog as well.  It was a very informative hour and I learned a lot, like setting your camera to underexpose your pictures for more detailed photos of your knitting  ( not like the picture above, which was taken before the class), buying fabric in fat quarters so that you can have interesting and inexpensive backgrounds for your knitting photos and, avoid taking photos of yourself with your phone or self timing camera so that you don't end up with something like this:


                                                                                     


                                                                               
Oh well, you get to see me wearing my Irish Coffee sweater!  To see what others are working on, check out tami's blog and have a great day!