Knitting Inspiration - Sweater Weather

I don't think that many people who go for a four mile run in 90 degree heat and 88% humidity dream about wooly yarn and cozy sweaters the whole way.

But I did.

I love myself some yarn and sometimes while running I distract myself from the physical exertion of it all and just think of squishy yarn, pretty patterns and sweaters.

I have actually never knit a sweater before. I have made baby sweaters, knit a shirt for myself and some shrugs...but no sweater for me.

I have a sweater actually waiting to be finished but it's been sitting in a bag for over a year but I couldn't tell heads or tails of it now and the idea of figuring it out just doesn't seem as fun as starting fresh with new yarn and a new pattern.

My sad Liesl by Ysolda Teague just begging to be finished.

I signed up for LuvInTheMommyhood's summer sweater knit-a-long where you have from July 24th to September 19th to knit a sweater, post photos, share your experience and win yarny prizes.

I have yet to cast on for this yet though because the thought of winding up my three hanks of Malabrigo Lace yarn by hand is ever so daunting.

 The pattern I plan on doing - Featherweight Cardigan by Knitbot

Cardigans count as a sweater!

 

My perfectly minty yarn which will become that sweater. 

Even though I haven't even begun the above sweater I already have future sweater plans. 

Big sweater plans. 

It's totally reasonable and realistic to plan on knitting ten sweaters this cold weather season. Right fellow knitters?

Hear that husband??? Totally reasonable and I might even knit you a thing or two. 

Maybe...I've got a lot for me to do first ;)

Left to Right, Top to Bottom: Cobblestone / Owls / Oh My Bear / Blackberry Cabled Cardigan / Emmanuelle Sweater / Plowman Cardigan / Metamorphosis / Watermelon / Smokin' / Happy Days

See?!?! Totally doable. These are my first round draft picks for sweaters I want to knit up RIGHT now.

Back to reality, I have actually finished knitting a few things lately.

First, I finished my Molly hat!

 

oh howdy neighbor...I'm just hanging out in my curtains doing selfies. Don't mind me staring into your windows making weird faces.

I also had a couple little boy birthdays this past week, so I knitted up a few footballs to send them.

 In case you are wondering...I doubled the size of the pattern for the football to get something size appropriate for a 2-3 year old.

Last thing about knitting tonight (pinkie promise).... if I can figure out how to crochet an ear this evening, I will have a new pattern available tomorrow.

Now if that didn't pique your interest about the pattern, I don't know what will!

What are you working on right now? 

~ With Love, Ashlee ~

 

Hesitation...and destiny.

A few weeks ago I got some new yarn. 

Some yarn that I had seen online, had been coveting and when I saw it in person, bought it much to the delight of the kind, yarn store salesperson.

The yarn (Manos Maxima in Highlighter) and I then sat on a bench and hung out in Savannah while I ate ice cream.

This yarn and I have a destiny together, but I haven't quite figured out what it is yet. 

It has sat on my desk, taunting me, calling my name for the last three weeks. 

After much deliberation and searching, I found a good yarn to pair with it. A nice neutral Malabrigo wool yarn in polar morn. 

I think they might be yarn soulmates. 

But what to make, what to make?

I want to make my own pattern up... a cowl I think. 

I am envisioning stripes, zig zags, maybe chevron? 

Or perhaps some cables and bobbles to spice it up?

I scoured pinterest today for some inspiration and I was loving what I was finding.

1/2\3/4\5/6\7/8\9

After looking around the interwebs, I now know that i want something mostly gray with the neon yellow as a highlight (pun intended) along with another neutral. 

Maybe cream or a dark gray accent.

Now to convince my husband that I need to actually buy more yarn. 

Honey, it's destiny. Just let it happen. 

~ With Love, Ashlee ~

PS!!! - HEY YOU! Follow me on bloglovin' (click on the button below) or sign up for my blog via email (sign up on the right). Google reader is saying buh bye in two weeks and I don't want you to forget about me. 

High Five For Friday!

I have to say...this was a little bit of a hard post to do today. Yesterday I knew all five things that I was super excited about and going to mention in this post, but when I woke up this morning to a migraine, nausea and stomach cramps, I wasn't too excited about anything.

But my husband put me back to bed with a cold, wet washcloth and a fuzzy heating pad and I slept until most of the pain went away. Nothing like being able to sleep until 1:00pm on a Friday just because I don't feel good. 

(Sidenote: days like today I know are going to be missed once we have kids. I can't even imagine how much it must suck to be sick and still be a mom).

Since my illness cancelled out a few of my plans for today, here is my slightly updated list of five things that I am excited about today.

one. 

This. Beautiful. Hat. 

 I love this hat. So stinking much. It is made out of Malabrigo. It has a pom-pom. It was made following my very own pattern. 

It is absolute perfection and I have worn it for two days straight and plan on adding a third tomorrow.

Except...

The yarn colors are too light to photograph well. In person, the mint green and the gray are so lovely, but it is very hard to capture the color changes, so I can't use this hat for the photos that I want to use on my pattern. 

This problem brings me to my next item....

two. 

This. Beautiful. Yarn. 

 I needed something brighter and bolder to go up against the light gray, so I went out and bought fushsia Malabrigo yarn to knit the hat with. 

 

 I think this color combo is going to look great. Light silver gray and neon hot pink. 

Any excuse to knit another hat!

three. 

I am waking up in six hours so I can go watch my husband participate in a half marathon. I am looking forward to it because...

a) It is a trail run on single track, so he is going to have a blast running through the Georgia mountains. 

b) It has been raining yesterday, today, and won't stop until after the race is done. 

a + b = muddiest run ever and a happy husband

four. 

For the past two weeks, my house became a part of the Bermuda Triangle. 

I lost over six packages all filled with work supplies. 

And it wasn't just one carrier. I lost them via USPS, UPS & FedEx. Everyone possible lost a package of mine. 

As of today though, five of the six have been delivered. I've given up hope for the last lost one. The tracking information says it was delivered last week to a city over an hour away. 

I had one package come from California, get to Atlanta, head back out to Kentucky and Ohio, then make its way back to Atlanta.

With the deliveries of packages yesterday and today, my backed up jewelry orders finally got made and shipped out today. 

Thankfully all my customers were really cool about it, but gosh, I hate asking people to wait so long for orders to ship.

five. 

My new business cards came. 

They have my new logo on them. 

I made them. They are beautiful. 

You aren't going to see them yet though. 

I am still waiting on two more things that were shipped separately (please oh please don't get lost) and then I will unveil my new packaging to you. 

I hope you all are having a wonderful Friday! I only have 19 more minutes of it here.

Another crazy night in the ATL!

~With Love, Ashlee~

Nomsa Knits: Pattern Making!

I have a passion for all things knitting, that is at times, a bit unhealthy.

Over dinner tonight, my husband asked me how my new hat was coming along. I then proceeded to go into a five minute monologue at how fantastic the yarn that I am using is. I described how the wool is perfectly soft, the subtle color changes of the hand-dyed yarn is blending so well together, and that the yarn glides along my bamboo needles effortlessly. 

I am in some serious yarn love with Malabrigo. 

I have used it once before on a hat and loved it, but I could never find it in any local yarn stores where most of my yarn buying occurs. I prefer buying yarn in person because I get to justify standing in a yarn store for 30 minutes rubbing things on my face and being able to touch EVERYTHING. 

I become 'that' misbehaving kid we all see in the stores whose mom says thirty times during their five minute trip, 'Don't touch! Touch with your eyes, not with your hands!' I squeeze, grab and manhandle every ball of yarn I come in contact with, feeling a little bit wrong but also exhilarated. 

I discovered a new yarn store here in Atlanta about a month ago and have been there twice now for some Malabrigo. I am pretty sure it is going to become a weekly habit and I can claim that it is all for 'business' so my husband is alright with it.

Over the past few months, I have had a hat pattern bouncing around in my head that I have been trying to create into fruition. 

 

  I haven't really ever written a real knitting pattern before and there has been a lot of trial and error. I busted out some graph paper and sketched out the design, but actually figuring out the math of it all has proved to be a challenge. 

I have knit the same hat about seven different times now. Each time I try to adjust the size of it, height of it, the shape of the crown and alter the design so it fits perfectly. 

 

 I hope to be done with the hat completely by Friday with all my silly math kinks worked out. If I knew that I would be using this much math in real life after high school, I would have asked my algebra teacher about knitting gauges and how much needle size affects your knitting.  

The photos of the red and white hat are my prototype that I knit/tore apart/knit/tore apart/knit/tore apart/knit/tore apart/knit successfully. 

I used a Plymouth Select Merino Superwash for it, and am currently using the Malabrigo to reknit the hat again, to make sure the pattern is correct.

With that being said, I am really in love with this pattern. I think that it is going to be fantastic once it is written up, and I can't wait to share my first official knitting pattern with the knitting world. 

Hopefully Saturday or Sunday, I be able to show you finished product photos of the Malabrigo yarn hat being modeled, along with the pattern. Until then, does anyone have any advice on how to conquer the math used in knitting? 

~With Love, Ashlee~