WIP's that are almost FO's!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! Our weekend was lovely, low key and just the way I like it. We didn't do anything monumental, but we were able to scratch a few more Christmas gifts off of our shopping/crafting list, make a tiny bit of progress on a few small projects going on around the house and I managed to get lots of knitting done. Perfect. No special FO posts yet, but I've got 3 projects that are so close to the finish line I can taste it!

These mitts are a second run at the new mitten pattern I'm working on (sneak peeked here). The pattern has been sent to the test knitter and I'm hoping to have it ready for you all very early in the new year. The bright Jewel cashmere lining on this pair is to die for! Cannot get enough of it. I should be finishing up the lining/blocking/pattern editing later on this week. 

Which brings me to my next almost FO... I lined 99% of these mitts with some leftover Purple Label in Gold that I had after completing this small project. I had to crack into a new skein for just a few yards at the tip of my mitt. I love knitting with Purple Label, and I love the Gold colourway, so I decided to let the happy Gold knitting continue and I cast on for an adorable little baby sweater. This bad boy has been blocked and is just missing the perfect buttons. The pattern is the Little Oak cardigan by Alana Dakos.

After finishing one little knit I immediately cast on for a second. This fella still needs to be blocked, buttoned and oh yeah, there are a few ends to weave in too! Full details to come. 

Accessories and Holiday Knitting: The November KAL Round Up

November was a busy month! The Tanis Fiber Arts Ravelry Forum was buzzing with activity as we had two simultaneous knitalongs, for those wanting a little extra push to get a jump on their holiday knitting, or to tackle a perfect little accessory for the chilly months ahead. The Holiday Knitting KAL was for those making something with TFA yarn that they intended to give as a gift, and 40 knitters participated. Check out the amazing gifts that some lucky people are going to receive this month:

(From left to right) Row 1: smallfanfan's Shift of Focus ,  danimily's Stockholm Scarf , knitstashley's November TFA Knit Along ,  GreenBeanString's Winter Bloom, somesylvie's Mitts for Jen and Marie .  Row 2: JamieLynn16's Joyce's Fiddlehead Mittens , hazelbranch's Peregrine's Solstice Oak , PamDKnits' LT's Hugging Monster , KillerBunny's Secret Christmas Mittens,  knerdy's Newborn Vertebrae , Row 3:  lambdamuepsilon's Wear the Flag, binthereknitthat's Sweet Lilac, tanisfiberarts' Abby's Heart Hat , MaryKnits7's Arching Leaves Socks , rdtebby's Windward . Row 4:  tanisfiberart's Elliot's Crazy Hat , CarlaBeeCreations' Christmas Dinner,  tanisfiberarts' End Of November mitts , pfong001's Rainbow Fish Hat Toddler/Preschooler size,  Quellefille's Wool Leaves. Row 5: binthereknitthat's Alpha Storm ,  CecileinIndiana's Four Season's Hat , RoseHiver's Angela's Mittens , hotcheese's Cabled Canuck,  debbieknits5000's winter hat.

The Accessories KAL featured TFA patterns only (did you know there are currently eighteen TFA patterns for accessories?! Plus all the 2012 club patterns!) and 38 knitters took part. Naturally there was some crossover between the KALs, as accessories are often the perfect knitted gift.

(From left to right) Row 1: knerdy's Arching Leaves Socks , AmyMercer's Cabled Canuck, Janalukas' Guernsey Triangle,  Dheuff's Christmas Socks, knittedblissJC's Strada ,  Row 2: YarnAndYarn's KAL Guernsey Triangle ,  Janalukas' Winter Fairview ,  GreenBeanString's Sleep Tech Dressy , KillerBunny's Cabled Canuck hat, TTeresa's /infinitude Scarves (3). Row 3: twinsknit's KAL Socks, tankinisurf's Fiddleheads , debbieknits5000's buttonless buttons cowl ,  Janalukas' Deep Sea Solaria , Dheuff's Hockey Hat . Row 4:  Prairie-Knitter's The Four Seasons Winter Hat TFA KAL , knitininto's Stormcrest , yarnslayer's Cabled Canuck, Tarazed's Martini Olives, GreenBeanString's Moonset, Row 5:  Quellefille's Cabled Canuck , frazzled01's Gin and Tonc , knittedblissJC's Nashira XL , Dheuff's Holiday Hat, suzieville's Stormy Winds .

So. Many. Beautiful. Knits. It was so much fun checking the thread every day, sometimes several times, to follow everyone's progress through WIP photos, comments, setbacks, and triumphs. November was an amazing month, all thanks to these amazing knitters. One KAL participant from each thread was chosen at random to win a special skein of yarn. The winner of the Holiday Knitting KAL is knerdy, and the winner of the Accessories KAL is Janalukas. Congratulations, knerdy and Janalukas!

Club - November 2012

The final installment of the 2012 Year In Colour Club was sent out last month and the featured colourway was this gorgeous, vibrant turquoise shade that I've called Tropics. Dyed in one of my favourite bases (Purple Label Cashmere Sock yarn) this yarn could not by any more "me". I love it. I'm already planning baby knits in this colourway. 

The November pattern was contributed by Kirsten Kapur of Through the Loops. Her beautiful, textured Collister cowl really makes the most of this super soft yarn by allowing for lots of close-to-the-face snuggling with the cowl. 

As we wrap up another Year In Colour I'm once again amazed at how great all 6 colourways look together in this yarn bouquet. I tend to develop each colourway individually. I'm always cautious to make sure that I don't send out two similar colourways, but other than that, we don't plan for the 6 annual colourways to read as a collection. Despite the lack of intention, the groupings we end up with always look fantastic! Check out last year's collection here. 

2013 Club memberships are already available. Next year is sure to be lots of fun! 

Some of the 2012 Club colourways are being considered as permanent collection fixtures, what was your favourite this year?

Etsy Update today at noon!

Just popping in with a quick reminder that there will be an Etsy Update today at 12pm EST (noon!) featuring a whole bunch of Thrummed Mitten Kits. This will be the last update before Christmas so get them while you can!

Knitted Ornaments

Every year I get swept up in the excitement of Christmas crafting. I make gifts, I bake, I do a little bit of decorating around the house and I usually get inspired to make some sort of ornament for our Christmas tree (my last big ornament kick was these sparkly stars from 2 years ago, which I still stand by as being one of the best things about our tree!). I'm a very big fan of trees that are decorated with personal touches. Our tree is decorated with a combination of purchased ornaments, hand made ornaments and ornaments that were handed down from our parents. They come together to make one very special Christmas moment. 

We're having people over for an early Christmas dinner party tomorrow night so it seemed like the perfect excuse to put the tree up and get things feeling a little more festive around here! I spent the majority of last night with the tv off, the fireplace on and my sights set on trimming the tree. 

This year I made a few knitted ornaments that I totally love. I used the Balls Up! pattern, an 8cm styrofoam ball and leftover sock yarn. They are perfectly round, crisp and clean, they make my day. I think that they are the only bit of wool or knitting on my tree at the moment, clearly I needed them. 

Another new ornament to the tree this year is this little photo ball I picked up for a few bucks at the grocery store. I put a picture of Chris and I from our first Christmas together in our first apartment with our first tiny little charlie brown Christmas tree back in 2006. It doesn't seem like that long ago, but man has a lot changed since then. It's so fun to have these little mementos to be reminded of special times from the past. 

Lining Mittens

There will be an Etsy Update on Monday, Dec. 3 at 12pm (noon) EST featuring exclusively Thrummed Mitten Kits! If you missed the last update this is your chance to nab one! All orders placed on Monday will ship on Tuesday and will arrive in time for Christmas.

I've been on a real mitten kick lately! Seriously, I've knit 4 pairs of mittens in the past 2 weeks or so, add to that the crazy Thrummed Mitten Kit excitement and my life is basically all mitts, all the time... and frankly, I'm completely ok with that. Mitts are the best. You can never have too many. 

Anyways, I've recently completed my latest mitt design (blurry, secretive photo's above!) and I'm very pleased with it. These mitts are beautiful, wintery and warm, what more could you ask for? I knew when I set out to design these mitts that I wanted to knit them in DK weight yarn and line them in Cashmere sock yarn. I love the look and feel of lined mitts, but up until now I thought that I hated lining mitts! I've knit 3 pairs of Fiddlehead Mitten's and only one pair managed to get a lining. Stranded mitts are doubly warm already, so you could argue that the lining is overkill (I wear my non-lined FMK's all winter long with no problem). But to me, the beauty of the lining comes from the fact that it hides all the floats, so there is no concern about snagging fingers or jewelry. Also, a lining that is really neatly picked up from the inside edge of a mitt is really a thing of beauty. There is essentially no wrong side to these mitts, it's all hidden between two beautiful layers of stitches. 

So, yeah, I've hopped on the mitt lining train in a big way. Cashmere lined mitts are pretty much the best. 

This pattern will be available soon!

mittens!

Thrummed Mitten Kit update! Last Friday's Etsy update, which included what I considered to be a whole lot of thrummed mitten kits, was a hit. Thanks to everyone who swooped in and picked up some special one of a kind yarn! And sorry to everyone who didn't get a mitten kit because they sold out so fast! I am already working towards another thrummed mitten kit only Etsy update that I plan to have ready by Monday at the latest. I'll keep you posted about that. 

In other mitten news: remember this hat? I loved the yarn, but the hat just wasn't working for me, so I ripped and re-knit the lovely mcn worsted weight yarn in Stormy into a pair of mittens! The pattern is my own and is super simple, yet effective. I wore them all weekend and can attest to their warmth and cozy fit. 

To test my pattern I cast on for a second pair, this time in Green Label Aran Weight yarn in Poppy (an impossible colour to photograph!) I should have the pattern available soon.

Etsy Update tonight!

After way too long a dry spell the TFA One Of A Kind Etsy shop is officially re-opening for business tonight at 8pm EST with a beautiful selection of yarns and Thrummed Mitten Kits! 

Featured in tonight's update is: Green Label, Orange Label, Blue Label, Purple Label, Red Label and a few other special skeins all waiting to find their forever homes! There are several colourways in tonight's update that I would rather not part with... it's one of the toughest parts of my job.

Free Pattern - Thrummed Mitts!

Big news today, there will be an Etsy update very soon!!! I haven't had a break from life to spend some fun time experimenting in months (the last update was July, ouch!) so this update is well overdue. Details about the exact time the update will go live will be announced tomorrow. For today, I have a sneak peek at one of the new things that I'll have available... Thrummed Mitten Kits! Yes!

Way back in the day I made a bunch of Thrummed Mitten kits and loved them. Thrummed mitts are just about the best. They are the warmest mitts ever and I think that everyone should have a pair. The kits will include 1 skein of Green Label Aran Weight yarn and approximately 50g of a complementary colour of BFL roving. 

I've uploaded a simple, free Thrummed Mittens pattern for your thrumming pleasure.

download now

And if you've never thrummed before, there are lots of great tutorials out there, this is one of my faves.  

See you tomorrow with details on the Etsy update!

TFA Tuesday - Jettshin's Painter's Palette

The super talented Jettshin test knit my Coolbreeze Cardigan pattern for me. One scroll through her Ravelry project page and you can see why I was thrilled that she was keen to work with me. Her project page is like an art gallery of perfectly tailored knits. She can take just about any pattern and make it look like it was made just for her! 

I opted to have the test knit done in a the Rusty Palette with Sand as the main colour. I thought that it would be neat to see how the pattern/colour worked out with a warm palette on a light background (as opposed to the cool palette on the dark background of my blue version). I found this photo of her sweater in progress in my inbox one day and my jaw hit the floor. I love this warm version just as much as my original! 

I'm convinced that any of my Palettes would be beautiful in the yoke of this sweater. I have plans to knit myself another, maybe in this colour combo? Or maybe using the Jewel Palette! Choosing a colourway is always one of the hardest parts, which is why I've made it easy for you by making up the Coolbreeze Sweater kits! 

What Palette would you chose for your Coolbreeze Cardigan? 

November KAL - Elliot's Crazy Hat

Holiday Knitting KAL project #2 - check! This hat was inspired by these hats, an image of which I pinned on Pinterest long ago. Elliot is turning 4 on December 9 (his sister Abby is turning 7 on December 7th and his mom's birthday is December 11th... busy month!) Anyways, this hat is for Elliot. Elliot is an active, crazy little boy so I wanted a crazy little hat for him. I think this one totally fits the bill. When I first cast off I looked at it for a while and debated wether it was the coolest thing I'd ever knit or the ugliest thing I'd ever knit... I'm still undecided, but am leaning towards it being pretty darn cool. I love the blue and green chevron pattern, but the black and yellow bumblebee stripes on top might be a bit much.  

The pattern is completely improvised. Knit in TFA Yellow Label DK weight yarn I just picked a bunch of leftovers skeins that sort of coordinated and started knitting. The brim in extra long so it can be folded over for double the warmth around the ears. Due to the fair isle in the body the rest hat is double thick and super warm as well.

Hopefully Elliot will love it! At least he'll be easy to spot on the playground with this bright hat!

Pom-pom love shot!

Ravelry project page here. 

Coolbreeze Pattern Collection!

Introducing the Coolbreeze Collection! This collection started as a simple idea, and quickly took on a life of it's own! I wanted to knit myself a cardigan using one of my Palettes to do some fancy colourwork in the yoke... but I knew that using 8 colourways in the same yoke could get pretty complicated fast, so in order to keep it simple I opted to use a slipped stitch chevron pattern to achieve the look I wanted without all the fuss. No more than one colour is ever being used at a time. I became so enamored by the look of this awesome blue gradient rainbow that I just couldn't stop thinking of uses for it! The final collection includes 4 pieces, an adult cardigan and hat and a baby cardigan and hat. 

The adult cardigan and hat patterns were the first designs I worked on. The Coolbreeze Hat was born out of the idea of wanting to knit a functional swatch. Why not cast on a few more stitches and have a beautiful, wearable swatch in the end! The slouchy fit and bright colours make for an awesome accessory. 

The Coolbreeze Cardigan has a relaxed feel. No waist shaping and a generous amount of ribbing at the hems make this sweater easy to throw on and wear with just about anything. 

As I was working on the adult patterns, Chris and I got the wonderful news that we are expecting! So of course, I was dying to cast on for a little baby project. Since I wasn't quite over my chevron love affair just yet I decided that my baby's first special knit would be the Coolbreeze Baby Cardigan that coordinates with mommy's sweater. (I know, now I need to make one for Chris... I might just let him borrow my hat when he feels left out.)

Thanks a million to the adorable Lila for modeling this sweater for me!

And of course, what baby doesn't need an awesome hat? So of course, the baby cardigan comes with a matching hat pattern too. 

These four patterns are available for sale in two different options:

1) as the full Collection featuring all four patterns for $9.

2) as separate patterns, ladies sweater and hat for $6 or baby sweater and hat for $6.

And there is one more exciting detail about this collection... I've made sweater kits! Yes! 

The Sweater Kits are available in two colourways, my original Coolbreeze colourway, and a beautiful Warmbreeze colourway featuring my Rusty Palette with Sand as the main colour. Kits are available in 4 different sizing options and contain enough yarn to knit at least 1 adult sweater and hat. Pattern sold separately.

I was able to knit all 4 patterns in the collection using only 1 Palette, but the larger sizes that will require more of the contrasting colourways will have less leftover yarn for extra projects.

COOLBREEZE COLLECTION

$9.00

View ravelry pattern page here. 

More details on my website here.