Knitted Sweater · Knitting · Storage · yarn

Crafting the Days Away


Happy May Day my blogging friends! Wow! 2 months have come and gone without a post from me. I don’t even know how that happened. I even missed my 12-year Bloggaversary! I have been crafting, organizing, purging, donating and watching lots of flosstube. I have stitched quite a bit the last couple of months too, and I am not even sure where to begin. So, let’s start with what I stitched on today. I knitted on my Lace & Fade Boxy Pullover by Joji Locatelli. This was a project I planned over a year ago. Remember this?

Well, I had made some changes in the yarns. Added some, took away some. Changed my mind several times. I finally landed on my colors and started this in February.

I just love all of these colors and think they play well together.

I was so excited to get this started. I had a bit of a setback in the beginning. This is my first top-down sweater, so it was different. But once I figured it out, it was easy going. The lace is easy but does need my undivided attention.

Oh so pretty! My first lace stripe is finished!

I had so many cables hanging that were holding stitches. I was so happy to get them all put onto one needle and start knitting in the round. You can see a sweater taking shape! And here is where I ended this morning.

I just added my 6th color. The pattern says to add the ribbing partway through the last color stripe that I added, but it is way too short for me. So, I added another lace stripe and the last color shown above. I will probably add another lace stripe after this and then add another stripe of this same color and then go into the ribbing. I will have to put the stitches on some stitch vines and try it on at some point. But I am really loving how this is looking. The colors are just beautiful. You can’t tell in the photo, but the shoulders and the lace mohair are a very light pink. So lovely. I am working on 420 stitches around, so not so quick. But I am enjoying it. My word for 2024 is Enjoy, and I have been enjoying all of the projects I have been working on.

I mentioned that I have been watching a lot of flosstube. Recently I have been watching just one channel. I stumbled upon a video mixed in with my flosstubes and have just been drawn to watching all of her older videos. The channel is Stitched By Mrs. D and her name is Paula. She is from the UK and I can just listen to her all day. She makes me laugh and her knitting and crocheting are beautiful. She sews adorable little bears and knits sweaters for them and sews their skirts. she also makes lovely project bags. I hope to purchase one of her bags someday. A lot of the knitting patterns she does, I have done, or I have them in my ravelry. Anyway, if you are into watching those kinds of videos on Youtube, give her a look. I love that she says everything is “Lovely”. On one of her videos, she showed a beautiful shawl called Dust of Snow by Helen Stewart. Ooooh so beautiful! I looked it up on Ravelry and it was already in my library. So, I decided I should start gathering some mini skeins to start that one in the near future.

This past Saturday was Local Yarn Store Day, and I visited a shop that is about 35 minutes from me, and this is what I brought home.

The skein at top left is just beautiful and I had to have it. It has sparkle in it, too and it will become a lovely shawl or cowl someday. It is a fingering yarn from Just Bee Fibers. The next 3 skeins are La Jolla from Baah yarns and they are the called for colors for the Local Yarn Store shawl pattern called Garter Me This. I love La Jolla yarn. So soft and squishy. And while at the store, they had minis! So, I picked up 12 of them for the Dust of Snow shawl. They are also from Just Bee Fibers. I will need 12 more for my shawl and can’t wait to go back and pick some more beauties. I will have to save up for that. The pattern calls for a mohair to be carried along with the fingering minis, but I don’t think I will be adding the mohair. I would need 4 full skeins of the mohair and that will be another chunk of change. I think the shawl will be lovely without the mohair. In fact, Paula, from Stitched by Mrs. D didn’t add the mohair to her shawl, and it is beautiful. Lastly, the 4 little balls of Happy yarn I picked up to add to my jar.

I always pick up a couple when I see them because they are just too cute! And I just love looking at them all together in my jar. Someday I will make something with them.

So, I think that is where I will leave it today. I have so much to share, so be sure to come back. What have you been stitching up over the last couple of months?

Happy Stitching,

cross stitch · Fabric · Knitted Shawl · Knitting · patterns

Shawlette Finish and a New Start


Hello my blogging friends! There is a lot of different weather going on outside of my craft room window today. Everything except the sun. It’s cold, very windy, raining, sleeting, snowing. The perfect day to be inside and hanging out with you 🙂 Since the calendar says it’s Spring, I am still hoping that it arrives soon.

So, earlier in the month I started the 22 Little Clouds shawlette using the February Wonderland Ocean series yarn. This is where I left off when I first posted about it.

The yarn was so nice to knit with, and the pattern was one of those that you really only needed to glance out every now and then. So I watched a lot of tv while knitting on this one.

I was so happy to see the subtle fade emerging. It is so beautiful and I couldn’t wait to see more. So I kept knitting.

Wow! I really love how this yarn gently fades into the next color.

I loved it so much I finished it about 2 weeks ago. It still needs blocking, but it is finished and it turned out so cute! It was a great, quick one skein project. I don’t have a new project on my needles, but I did start a new project last night.

After all of the Flosstubes I have been watching, I decided I needed some small projects in my life. Things I can finish rather quickly, and into something other than a framing to hang on the wall. Especially since I am really out of wall space. So I ordered this one and it arrived a few days later. I dug into my stash for a piece of fabric and found a piece of 16ct Aida. I believe that the color is Dirty Aida.

And in a hoop! Wow! I can’t tell you the last time I used a hoop. I am a 2 handed stitcher, so using a hoop or Qsnap makes me feel like I am stitching very slowly. But it is relaxing and I am enjoying the stitching while watching more flosstubes, LOL

This is where I am at with this one. I just love all of the colors in this one. I really would have loved to stitch this on a white or light fabric, but since the birds and bunnies are white, I needed to go darker. I think I will be making this into a little pillow, but I may try my hand at framing it myself. The design area is about 5.5″ x 5.5″ so a small table top frame would be perfect. I am hoping I can get it finished by Easter.

So that is a little bit of what I have been up to since yesterday. And that brings me to my Giveaway #2 for my 11 year Blogaversary.

Since I also like to Crochet, I have hung onto this yarn for a special giveaway. This one I will have to limit to the US as I don’t know how the International shipping will be. When I special ordered yarn for my Nature’s Walk blanket, I way over bought and had all of this yarn left over. All full skeins except for the light pink at the top, but I don’t have a use for it so I threw it in.It is Comfort DK from Berroc and is so soft and squishy. Use code word YARN in your comment if you are in the US and would like the chance to win this. Tune in tomorrow for another giveaway. Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Stitching,

Ginny