Patterns

Designer Spotlight

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Hello Friends!

I hope this reaches you well and happy!  I’ve got some fun things to share with you today.IMG_9307.jpeg

This is the Paradigm Tunisian Scarf by Megan Cullison.  She made it in my color-way “We’re Going to Need a Bigger Boat”   This color-way was made to celebrate Discovery Channel’s “Shark Week”.

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I’m also wearing a shawl cuff, it’s the red leather wrap holding it all together.  Teresa, from Two Unravelled Chicks and a Llama has a beautiful assortment of these.  You can purchase them online at her shop.

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image  Megan also made this in a masculine color-way using “Midnight Canyon”

This adorable kitty was shared with me at my Etsy store.  It’s made in our color-way “Gold Rush”. I am just amazed at what cute things people make.  I am actually taking a class starting next week to learn how to do this.   I will be making a Llama.

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I am also so pleased with my Mount Pleasant top.

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Gugga and Luke

Crop tops are all the rage right now to wear with high waisted jeans.  I do not wear the high waisted jeans.  I have a belly.  I like to wear empire waste type tops to cover my belly.  Wearing a flowing type top under the Mount Pleasant looks great.  It allows me  to wear these super cut tops.  I made this with our “Dijon Mustard” color-way.

Happy Sunday everybody!

Enjoy some knitting/crochet/weaving today!

Hugs,

Tammy

 

 

Baby Gramps Cardigan

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Isn’t this the cutest baby cardigan!  The pattern is even cuter.  I was in a hurry and left off the elbow pads and pockets.  Here is the link for the Gramps Cardigan

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Henry turned 8 months old last week.  He doesn’t even know how to crawl yet.  He’s at that stage where babies learn to get up on their knees.  He looks like he should be helping his Dad operate one of the heavy equipment machinery that he operates for his concrete business.  He is such a big baby.   My son, John, was always a big baby, top 95%, but Henry has got to have him beat.

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Funny side note here,  I hope it doesn’t embarrass Bailey, but it was charming and cute.  It was discovered that Bailey thought that Len was coloring his hair grey on the sides by using “A Touch of Grey”.  All these years, she believed that he colored the grey part of his hair grey to look distinguished.  It wasn’t until this visit she learned otherwise.

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This is Len when I met him.  He was trying to hide the grey side walls here.  Isn’t he handsome….  We were crazy about each other from day one.  Henry, his grandson, has his beautiful blue eyes.

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Luke has a Gramps Cardigan too.  This was fresh off the needles and I still need to sew the buttons on to be finished.  I’m going to give him the elbow pads and possibly the pockets.

We sure did miss Luke.  He gave me such affection when we got home.  He leaned his face into mine and gave me one of those wide mouthed, tongue out, wet kisses…allll over my face!  Then hugged me some more (and I was wondering if he would forget me).

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Max doing his usual “Vanna White” imitation showing off my knits.  Gramps Cardigan

Have a great week.

 

Tammy

Designing a Throw

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I did it!  I made something on my own!  I’ve had this little fantasy of designing my own knitting projects for a while, but, I’ve never actually tried.  I wanted a new afghan for my bedroom so I made myself make one of my own design.

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I love it.  It’s made with Plymouth De Aire bulky yarn, but it’s been discontinued.  Any bulky yarn will do.

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I’m working on writing up the pattern if anyone is interested.  Have you ever written a pattern down?  Goodness!  It’s had me off kilter for a week!  I have it written down .

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Now, I have to write it down so other people can read it!  I started to do just that, then I realized, I have to have a little stitch dictionary of my stitches I used, a gauge guide, then what about a chart?  Some people like charts.  Do I have to write down a chart?  Is it required?  I’m sure it would be beneficial to those who like charts.  Crum!  I have to sit down and make up a chart.   So with watching a baby during the day and getting my chores done in-between and redecorating my bedroom, I’ve been stalled to say the least.

I will get the pattern posted asap friends.  I think it’s a really pretty blanket.  I need to get some tassels on the 4 corners.

I had the blanket wrapped around me one day and Lauren noticed how pretty the pattern would be in a cardigan.  I may have to do a pretty cardigan next.

Happy Labor Day!

Tammy

Yellow Coastal Walk

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I finished my road trip project!  It’s the The Coastal Walk by Joji Locatelli

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Max is such a mess!  What a personality!

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and

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I don’t pose him.  All these pics are Max joining in of his own free will.

Since I left the nursing business, I’ve been working on my wardrobe.  I’ve lost half of everything I wear by removing my scrubs out of my closet.    I don’t watch the Kardashian’s very much, but occasionally, I will land on their show and watch for old times sake.   (I liked them in the beginning before they were famous and more normal) I noticed the Kardashian girls often hang out in their closets.  They organize their clothes by color.  Lauren told me she does the same with her clothes. ( I organized by style, camisoles, tank tops, short sleeves, long sleeves, etc)    I reorganized my closet by color.  Interesting.  By doing this, I learned that I had nothing yellow at all!

I have a ton of navy blue!  My scrubs were navy blue!  My jeans are all various shades of blue!   I also reorganized my yarn and I don’t have any yellow yarn.

What?!  How did this happen?  I look good in yellow.  Actually, I had one yellow lace cardigan and whenever I wear it, I get tons of compliments.  So, I’ve been on a yellow binge lately.  I’ve even been trying to add more yellow to my flower gardens.

One of the trends now-a-days, is florals.  I’m a teenager of the 80’s.  Florals were huge in the 80’s.  They’re back!  Much to my pleasure.  I’ve been adding several floral dresses to my wardrobe.  They are sundresses.   Now I need some light cardigans and shawls.

 

Here are two recent purchases.  Both florals. Won’t my new Yellow Coastal look cute with that blue dress!

And…..I finished my Om Shawl by Andra Mowry.  That’s for the next blog post!

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LOVE the little wooden buttons I found!  I bought a box of wooden buttons from Amazon.

Happy Knitting!

 

Tammy

The Arrow Sweater

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I finished the Felicitas Sweater by Lisa Hannes .  It’s too big!  I was running out of blue yarn so I had to “wing it”, hence the  bottom rotation of blue and gold stripes.  That’s not how the pattern is written.  I really like this sweater, it’s just too big.

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My daughter, Lindy, and I laughed so hard at this picture.  First of all, you can see how large this top turned out on me.  Secondly, I was making a turn, so my feet look weird.  Lindy said, “Mom,  that’s the most innocent awkwardness I’ve ever seen”.   That is a very good description of me.  I am awkward.   I am a huge dork!  It’s all good.  I’m happy with who I am.  It creates a lot of laughter.   One thing I love about my family is that we can laugh at ourselves.

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Notice the long sleeves.   The sleeves go well beyond my hands.  It’s meant to be a boxy, loose-fitting sweater.   If I had gone down about 2 sizes, I would have had enough blue yarn and it would have fit well.

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If I pull up the sleeves I think I can get by wearing this.  I’m going to try to shrink this a little bit.  I’m going to block it again, but in warmer water, and hope it shrinks some.  The only experience I have with shrinking clothes is from the washer/dryer by accident.  It usually shrinks from the length, not the width.  I tend to buy tops a bit on the large size, so after going thru the wash, it tends to fit better.   Otherwise, my tops have short sleeves and short hems.  I’m tall and lanky under some necessary extra fluff for snuggles with grandkids.

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This is my step-dad, Jerry, my step-sister Jeree, and me.  I think I was  12 here.  See what I mean.  Check out those long arms and legs.  That’s why I buy larger size tops, so that the sleeves will be long enough and fit my long arms.  “Awkward”.  Definitely a good description of me.  I think I had my full 5’8″ height when I was 11 years old.

Anyone else have experience with a too big top and how to fix it?

One last pic to post for today.

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This is my oldest son, John ,and his wife, Lauren, with Luke, Bootsy, and Daisy hanging out on our back porch.  Bootsy has a litter of Aussiedoodles that are ready to go home.  Okay, one more picture.

Have a blessed day!   I’m working on potting plants for the patio this weekend.  I’m excited to finish my next project – Briochealicious by Andrea Mowry.  It’s almost done!

Please let me know if you know of any hacks or tips on shrinking sweaters on purpose!

Tammy

Hooded Cardigan for Baby.

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Lauren and I were yarn hoarding at our LYS that was closing and she found this adorable cardigan pattern.  It’s the Jump for Joy Hoodie from Universal Yarns.  It uses Cotton Supreme Batik cotton yarn by Universal Yarn. There are a ton of color combinations available.   I used the color “Navy Salute”. The yarn is so soft and cozy!  Love it!

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Lauren knows crochet and some knitting.   She started this cute cardigan and when she got to shaping the sleeve portion, kinda got hung up there.    I finished it for her.  It was an easy and quick project.  (Did anyone notice I did a button band?). As long as instructions are included, I can do almost anything.  When they just tell me to add a button band however I like, then I get caught up.

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I had just finished watching Knit Stars 2.0 from Loops, particularly the class from Steven Be.  He was talking about mistakes in knitting.  He was talking about how mistakes are okay, and it adds to the ambience of knitting.  Not his exact words, I’m paraphrasing.  So, I was finishing this cardigan for Lauren and got to the hoodie.  I made a mistake on the top of the hoodie.  Where the  dark blue starts on the hoodie, there is a garter ridge row and it should be stockinette throughout.    I thought, “Well, it will add character.  I will try and change my perfectionism and just “go with it”.”

I am so disturbed by my mistake!!!   I can’t believe I left it there!  Lauren was knitting her first baby outfit for her little boy, and I left a mistake in it.   I was so aggravated at myself.  What was I thinking?   Why on earth, would I leave a big mistake like that where everyone can see it.   It wasn’t even my project, it was Lauren’s.  Ugh!  No more “just go with it” for me.

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You can see my mistake well  here.  That garter ridge is not supposed to be there.

Other than my mistake of my own doing, I absolutely LOVE this cardigan.  I think I will make a couple more for fall.    Actually, I’d like to make one for myself.    I love all things hooded.  I have no idea why.  I just do.   Maybe it’s the casual nature of a hooded garment.

 

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Here are just a few color combinations of the Cotton Supreme Batik yarn from Universal Yarns.  I couldn’t fit all of them in the picture.  There are even more colors available.

Happy Knitting

 

Tammy

 

 

Purls, Puppies, and a Cat

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Max doing a Vanna White imitation showing off my new project.

What a great day of knitting and puppies.  My latest project is the Chevron Fringe Shawl by SOSU – Susanne Sommer.  I love it! I’m enjoying playing with the different yarn combinations and textures.  There is absolutely no ‘purling” involved.  You knit two right side rows then two wrong side rows.  The only thing that I don’t like is the fact that you’re starting a new row every 4th row.  That’s a lot of starting and stopping.   You don’t get into the rhythm of the flow of knitting with the frequent stops and starts.  So it’s taking forever.   I’m a little over half way through, and I’m already wanting to start something else.    I did interrupt this project already with the Joji Mystery knit-a-long.   The end of this month a new knit-a-long starts called “What the Fade?!” by Andrea Mowry, and I’m really tempted to put this aside and jump in this KAL.

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I used a skein of Polaris by Rozetti that has some sequins in it.  I love it!   I like a little glitz but not too much.  Speaking of glitz….I was at our LYS, David’s Yarn, checking out with some clearance yarn that I purchased.  Three of the skeins had some silver tinsel in the yarn.  The checkout girls and I were oohhhhing and ahhhhing over the pretty yarn, and a lady next to me waiting to check out solemnly said, “I would PAY you to keep the glitz out of the yarn.”  Well there, little Eeyore, you just totally dumped on my yarn!  Interesting people we knitters!

Here is the glitzy yarn I purchased: Any one of my young 20 something daughters would love to wear a cowl made out of this.  It’s a real rich and lush reddish brown.

On to the puppies.  Our neighbors came over today to play with the pups.  Our house is always full of dogs, puppies, a cat or two, babies, grandchildren, grown children; it’s really pretty fantastic.

Check out Max, the cat in the middle of everything.  He’s in with the puppies because HE wants to be in with the pups.  He is literally “part of the pack”.  He is always in the middle of anything that’s going on.  He’s such a great cat.  I’m really in love with the little guy.

You’ve got to be leaving my page today with a happy heart!  Sometimes it’s just the small things that make life great.  Check out those smiles, even the dogs are smiling.

Joji Mystery Knit-a-Long

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Lauren, my daughter-in-law

This is my latest accomplishment.  It’s a wrap/shawl.  It is designed by Joji Locatelli and her pattern is available on Ravelry.  What is a mystery knit-a-long you ask?  It’s a pattern that is released in stages and you don’t know the design.  It’s a mystery.  I think about 4,000 people signed up to knit this pretty shawl.  A clue (part of the pattern) is released about once a week until the full pattern is done.

She is pregnant with Jack, our grandson, and is married to my oldest son, John.  I had her pose with Poppy to demonstrate what a lovely shawl this is for a breastfeeding mother.

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She is so beautiful!

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Thank you Rodan & Fields Lash Boost for pretty long lashes.

 

Check out the pattern on Ravelry.  Like I said, about 4,000+ people joined this knit-a-long from all over the globe.  There are many different color combinations.  You pick 5 colors you like, and you have your shawl.

This wrap is made from Madeline Tosh Merino Light, which is $20 something per skein of yarn.  That’s about a $100 investment in a wrap.  I was not ready to invest $100 in a wrap I had no idea what it looked like.  I waited until the first 2 weeks were accomplished before I committed.  Joji is a beloved designer with lots of well loved designs.  Many people committed because it was a Joji design and knew it would be beautiful.

I’m getting ready to do another Knit-a-long by Andrea Mowry called “What the Fade”.   Find her on Ravelry.