The Fruits of Summer

Hi, Knitters,

The summer is going a little too quickly around here. But one thing I really look forward to is the ripening of our backyard garden. We have a good-sized garden in a sunny spot that is fenced in to keep out the rabbits. We have two raised beds and I think this year we finally have it down. The plants are spread out and supported nicely and this is paying off. Our trouble has always been overplanting. 

This year we have a couple of kinds of peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, a big variety of tomatoes from cherry to Roma to heirloom, and tons of basil. My favorites are the tomatoes. I love tomatoes and once this season hits I can eat a tomato sliced up with salt and pepper for breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner. It is a highlight of summer. 

The shining stars this summer are the heirloom tomatoes. These are the best we've grown. I love the taste, the look, and the color of these heirlooms. I love the folds and gathers at the top, kind of looks like a knit hat. 

Anyway, I hope you are having success if you garden or maybe if you get to hit a farmers' market or two this summer.

One other fun thing about August is hiking in our neighborhood conservancy. The paths become enveloped in tall grasses, way above my head, and the masses of flowers are beyond belief. No photo can capture what it's really like. The colors and sounds are so beautiful. Hiking in August is something I look forward to every year and with the rainfall this summer, everything is in its prime.

I started a couple of fun projects this past week. One project I am especially excited about is a pattern that's not released yet but it is coming soon. I cast on and started a red cardigan with pockets and a fun textured stitch pattern. I will keep you posted. I think wearing a red cardigan this fall and winter is going to make me really happy. 

Yarn: Home Worsted Weight in the Red Flannel colorway

The other project I started and finished is this gorgeous Erland hat. Tanis Gray is the designer and she wrote the pattern for Barrett Wool Co. I love this kind of hat that is simply casting on and following a chart for the entire hat. Erland is one of my favorite knits ever.

In the photo above, that's Tanis' sample hat and on the right is my version of Erland.

I finished it up in one day and here it is blocking. I modified the original Erland pattern a little bit but not much. I knit the hat on a US size 7 needle at 5 stitches per inch. I added some corrugated ribbing for extra length to cover my ears. And because I was knitting at a bigger gauge I took out one of the repeats, so instead of four repeats I only did three repeats. 

I misjudged the length a tiny bit. After Erland dried I realized that I should have only done one-inch of corrugated ribbing instead of two-inches. So I tucked the cast on edge under and whipstitched it to the inside of the Latvian braid so the brim is doubled, which I love. 

Now the hat is perfect and the fit is fantastic. When you only do three repeats instead of four repeats of the chart the top of the hat becomes slightly pointed. I blocked out the point as much as possible and when the hat is worn there is no visible point. 

Anyway, I love this hat. I feel like it is a tiny piece of art. Thank you to Tanis for such a rewarding design. I haven't had this much fun knitting a hat in awhile. 

Click here for the Erland pattern on Ravelry!

Click here for the Erland Kit on Barrett Wool Co.!

Click here for Home Worsted Weight in the Snowy Pine and Marmalade colors!

I finished writing up all sorts of good tutorials and updates on the Gigi Cardigan. It has been really fun to walk through a typical modification series for a simple top-down cardigan.

Click here if you are interested in seeing tutorials and notes on a Knotted Steek, button placement, sleeve fitting, short rows on necklines and hemlines, adding pockets and more. 

There is a lot of good information for sweater knitters here!

Okay, friends, thank you for the Smooth Operator Socks pattern love. The discount has been extended through the weekend. No code is necessary for the discount on the pattern. 

Click here for the discounted Smooth Operator Socks pattern!

Love to you and yours.

xo ~ susan

Pattern Sale & Winner & March Mayhem!

Hi, Knitters,

I have randomly selected a winner for the Gale's Art 3-month Sock Blank Club. And the winner is.....

gathersnomoss (rav name) or Becky! Becky congratulations. I hope you enjoy knitting your socks. Thanks to everyone for leaving comments and I'll have another giveaway very soon. You can still sign up for Gale's Sock Blank Club! 

If you have sock blanks and you don't want to knit socks, don't forget that I have the perfect little shawl to knit up with one sock blank or one skein of sock yarn. It's called One Love and it is a really fun knit and a great spring/summer shawl. Click here to see the pattern for One Love!

Okay, now for the pattern sale. Over on Barrett Wool Co. we are celebrating the first day of spring (and it was 60 degrees outside yesterday!) by offering a 25% off coupon code for all of our patterns. 

The coupon code is: SPRING2017 and you enter it at checkout. You can use the code on Ravelry or on Barrettwoolco.com. 

Here are the Ravelry links to the patterns on sale (Code: SPRING2017)

Snowy Pine Shawl

Baa (includes exclusive video tutorials)

Wrap Me Up Toys

Wee Sheep (includes 7 exclusive video tutorials)

Hiking Hat

Skating Hat

Baker's Hat

Owen Hat

Waiting for Winter Bulky Mittens

Barrett Wool Co.wl (fisherman's rib ~ video tutorial included)

And one more quick thing, we have just restocked so much of our Wisconsin Woolen Spun yarns over in the Barrett Wool Mercantile! It is just beautiful yarn and you won't want to miss it.

Click here to check out our Wisconsin Woolen Spun yarns!

Over on the Mason-Dixon Knitting March Mayhem it appears my Sheep! pattern has made it through the first round of voting! Thank you so much if you voted. Round 2 voting ends at the end of the day today, March 21, 2017. So if you are voting, the Sheep! and I would love your vote for Round 2.

This is such a fun thing to get some knitting enthusiasm going. I love Ann and Kay of Mason-Dixon Knitting and if you aren't following their new website and shop, be sure to subscribe. They do a fantastic newsletter called Snippets every Saturday morning and I always look forward to it.

Click here to vote for Round 2 of March Mayhem! And thanks if you click on Sheep!

I just taught the Sheep! Workshop at the Madison Knitters Guild Knit In last weekend and it is such a fun class. It was wonderful teaching right in Madison at such a big event. 

Click here for the Sheep! pattern information or to purchase on Ravelry!

L to R: Mary Jane Mucklestone, me, Laura Nelkin, Lucy Neatby & Kate Atherley

I loved meeting all of the knitters in my classes and getting to hang out for a little bit with Lucy Neatby, Laura Nelkin, Kate Atherley and Mary Jane Mucklestone. My husband and I took the group out for dinner at the El Dorado Grill on Willy Street, and then we took them over to the Willy Street Co-op for a quick grocery shop. They were seeking out some healthy food to keep in their hotel rooms. 

It was a fun weekend. I hope you are all doing well. I have a fun Taproot Magazine giveaway coming up later this week so I'll be back very soon. 

Much love to you all.

xo ~ susan

p.s. I forgot to mention one last thing. Vickie Howell (of Knitty Gritty fame) is trying to start up a new knitting show and she has just started a Kickstarter. Click here to check it her campaign video! It sounds like a lot of fun. This would be a great thing for the knitting community! 

Happy Holidays 2016

Hi, Knitters,

Have a wonderful holiday weekend with your loved ones. I'm so thankful for all of you and for the places where we can share our love of knitting and really, our love and appreciation for each other.

xo ~ susan

Snow Day

Hi, Knitters,

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Ours was filled with family time, fires in the fireplace, and good food. Before I start I want to give a quick reminder that today is the last day for my holiday pattern sale which is a discount of 20% off my entire Susan B. Anderson Ravelry Pattern Store (click here to see the pattern shop).

The discount code is: HOLIDAY2016

The sale includes all of the pattern and ebooks in my shop at the link above.

Now onto the topic of the day.

It finally snowed yesterday. It was exciting and extraordinarily beautiful outside. The snow came down most of the day. I couldn't wait to get out for a long hike with my husband and daughter and then later for a good run by myself. I stopped a lot to take photos during these two ventures out in the winter wonderland and I want to share them with you today. 

It was quiet and so was the color pallet. I soaked it all in.

 

I was struck by the birds flitting about so actively in the dried prairie grasses. I'm sure they were eating the seeds. Rarely do you see birds like this in December but they made the view incredibly pretty. You have to look kind of hard to see the birds but there were probably at least a dozen of them. 

The rest of the photos are from my snowy outings yesterday and I thought you might enjoy them. It was so quiet and gray outside that when you look around it makes you feel like you have a filter on your eyes. 

Have a great Monday and week ahead, friends. I'll be back soon with more. If you live in a snowy area, has it snowed yet? I look forward to this time of year and I hope you do, too.

One more question, how is your holiday knitting going? I am not able to devote a lot of time to gift knitting this year but I keep thinking about it so maybe I'll squeeze in a couple of gifts yet. 

I'd love to hear how you're doing out there. 

Take care and I'll be back soon with more.

xo ~ susan

Snowflakes and Apples

Hi, Knitters,

I hope you are all having a good week. The fall weather has been on the warm side this year and we have been enjoying it as much as possible. We can't take the warmer weather for granted around here as winter is right around the corner.

I want to thank you for the support for the Mitten Knitting Season pattern sale I had over the last week. It was a hit and so I hope to see lots of your Waiting for Winter Mittens all over the place, stacks and stacks of them. My daughter gifted the mittens I knitted for her cross country sister at the last meet. I didn't hear much about it so I hope she likes them. And I have to say that if I don't hear anything about a gift, knitted or not, I never worry about it. It doesn't bother me at all not knowing if the person likes it because the fun for me is making the gift. After that I let it go. Although it is added fun if you do hear that the gift is enjoyed, of course.

Now, you may be wondering why I have the photo of a hat I designed in 2014 as the first photo. Yesterday or the day before that I noticed that my hat pattern, Split Back Snowflake, was getting some attention on Ravelry. It was rising back up in the Hot Right Now Patterns on Ravelry. Sometimes these things happen and I assume it's been mentioned somewhere or someone is knitting it and posting about it but I didn't know what was up this time.

I posted the original photo of my niece wearing the hat on my Instagram and people started letting me know that Staci Perry of Very Pink Knits had been posting about knitting her own Split Back Snowflake Hat. Staci is a prolific knitter, designer and knitting teacher and she has a very popular YouTube Channel called VeryPink Knits, where she does loads of tutorials and tutorial-style projects. You should definitely check her out. Thank you, Staci, for knitting the hat! 

Here is the back of the hat and thus the reason for the pattern title. The cable-rib brim is worked flat and then it is joined to begin working in the round for a short ribbed section and then moves into the colorwork section of the hat. When the hat is worn it should be tipped back a bit which makes the flat section hug the back of the neck (perfect for a low ponytail, too!) and the split creates earflaps to boot. There are so many good things about this hat. It is perfect for a new-to colorwork and new-to cable knitter because the patterns are simple and a hat is small with small sections of each. The hat also provides good variety for interest and moves quickly on the worsted weight yarn.

If the split back detail is not for you there is a more traditional option in the pattern, too.

The photos above show the traditional brim with a simple 1 by 1 rib to turn up or to wear down for a slouchier fit.

With two skeins each of two contrasting colors of Quince & Co. Owl you can get two hats including the pom poms. Three skeins of Owl will get you one hat, either version.

Anyway, it's been fun to revisit the Split Back Snowflake Hat pattern. My niece is the model and she is just so darn cute. 

Click here for more information or to purchase the Split Back Snowflake Hat on Ravelry!

Now for another subject, apples and apple picking. For the last ten years that I've been writing this blog I have talked about my love for apple picking and pumpkin picking in the fall. It has been a longstanding autumn tradition for us to head out and pick those apples. We like trying all sorts of kinds of apples and I am always fascinated by the variety and tastes and textures.

This year we focused on Northern Spy, Jonagold and Cortland for our picking. My son and his wife, and one of my daughters joined us so it was a small group by our standards but we had a blast and the weather was gorgeous.

I love how the rows of apple trees look so unassuming but when you get in there and look the apples are everywhere. We had the best weather. Oh, and I just remembered that as we were walking out of the rows of trees I ran into my buddy Jaala Spiro of Knit Circus with her kids. That was fun.

The apples this year were big, gigantic even. Some of the apples we picked were the largest I've ever seen.

In 2010 I posted about making applesauce in the oven and I shared my No Recipe Baked Applesauce recipe. Click here if you want to read about it!  I use this guide every time I bake applesauce and it never fails. In the old post it was fun to see TC playing her French horn in the background and my then newly remodeled kitchen. Seems like a long time ago. 

 Married life agrees with them!

I've made apple crisp and applesauce and I've eaten a lot of apples for snacks over the last week or two. I love it all. I've also blended a generous amount of cinnamon into plain cream cheese and added raisins for dipping with sliced apples. It's all so good and delicious.

I can't think of a better way to celebrate autumn each year. 

The colors are finally changing around here and it never gets old. The photo above was taken with my phone and I can't believe how good it turned out. My husband was with me on a hike and I told him how the landscape looked just like a painting. Then later when I looked at the photo I had taken it really looked like a painting in the photo. Sometimes it is hard to capture what you see in a photo. This time it worked.

The photo above was taken on my run in the late afternoon yesterday.  It was a pretty good view.

Right before I ended my run and headed home I stopped to take one last photo. You know, having a phone with a camera is one of the best things ever. I really enjoy being able to capture moments in time so randomly. (This makes me sound old but when you don't have a cell phone until you are in your mid-forties you can understand that it seems pretty wonderful.)

Have a great rest of your week, dear Knitters. I'll be back soon with more.
xo ~ susan

New York, New York

 

(In Central Park)

Hi, Knitters,

First things first, I randomly selected a winner for the Gale's Art Sock Blank Club 3-month subscription! The winner is......

knitgineering on Ravelry! I've already contacted Jessica and Gale to let them know. Thank you to everyone else for entering. Gale told me that there are still some openings in the club so hurry on over. She is closing subscription orders tomorrow I believe, Wednesday, January 20th, 2016. Please be sure to contact Gale if you have any questions. Thank you, Gale, for the opportunity.

I'll have another giveaway very soon. Thanks for all of your participation in the blog. I really appreciate all of you for sticking with me here!

Now for today's topic. I'm back from Vogue Knitting Live NYC 2016. It was a whirlwind of knitting, teaching, the market, book signings, students, techniques, dinners, seeing old friends, colleagues, and meeting new friends. I loved every last minute of it. My classes were full and the students were enthusiastic, happy and talented. What a complete treat. Thank you to Vogue Knitting for everything.

This year my lovely husband came along with me and we had so much fun together. He made the trip easier for me in every way whether it was lugging around heavy suitcases to bringing me lunch in between classes to arranging dinners and going on late night walks in the city, but mainly just by being there. It was truly wonderful to have him along, he is the best guy around. I don't talk about my husband too much on the blog but he is the reason I get to pursue my teaching and travels and all of my work through the years. I am thankful to have him by my side for the past 34 years (we are high school sweethearts!). 

We thought the photo above was so funny because he is as big as the gigantic Welcome sign in the lobby of the hotel. He is super tall if you didn't know. 

Our room was on the 36th floor with a spectacular view of Times Square and the always interesting skyline. The first night we were thrilled to have the chance to meet up with my former editor and publicist from my publisher, Artisan Books. We have been friends for about 10 years now and we still keep in touch and really enjoy and take care of each other. We are like family and when we see each other it's like we've never been apart. The food at the Marseilles restaurant was fantastic and we lingered for a long time just catching up, laughing and simply being together. I was sad when we had to leave.

After my workshops on Friday I zipped down to Steven Be's booth on the Market floor for a book signing for my new book, Kids' Knitting Workshop. I was super excited to get to meet my new publicist from Artisan Books for the first time in person. Breanne is doing a great job with the new book. It's funny because we meet in New York but Breanne is from Milwaukee, Wisconsin and graduated from the UW-Madison the same year as my oldest son. Breanne moved to New York City after graduation and started working at Artisan soon after that. Breanne also knits which makes it even better to have the opportunity to work with her. We have a lot in common. She is a complete pleasure to work with and a real go-getter. People were mistaking us for a mother/daughter pair which is cute. It's that Wisconsin water I think (or the brown hair, glasses and similar stature). Thanks, Breanne, for making the effort to come to the signing.

It was a complete zoo in Steven's booth in a good way! It was so jam-packed with knitters I could not believe the frenzy. I had a great time, signed some books and the booth ended up selling a lot of copies of Kids' Knitting Workshop throughout the weekend. There is something so sincere and good-hearted about Steven if you haven't met him. He gets that by supporting the community around him in a positive way that all of his goodness and generosity multiplies a million times more. That is why he is incredibly successful and so loved. And he is fun!

Don't forget that Steven Be's shop has online shopping available for complete kits for Kids' Knitting Workshop. Included in the kit is yarn and a faux-furry pom-pom in the best and brightest colors to make one of the hats in the book, the needles to knit the hat, and a cute zebra print bag to keep it all in, and a copy of the book, of course!

Click here for the Kids' Knitting Workshop Kits!

Thanks to Steven Be's for hosting me.

Breanne and I hung out with Jen Geigley who was also having a book signing in the booth for Weekend (click here!). 

Remember the Gaptastic Cowl? That's Jen! She is wonderful and I really enjoyed her.

Click here to see Jen and to find out more about her new book, Weekend! She's definitely my new BFF. 

Click here to see her new book with big chunky fashionable knits, Weekend!

 Missy and me!

Above is my girl Missy Ridley who is one of the masterminds at Steven Be's. She's the reason behind me getting to come and teach at the shop several times and my book signings and custom kits at the shop in Minneapolis. She is my friend to the end and I appreciate Missy's support so much. I wish we lived closer because we would be best buds and hanging out no doubt (if we both stopped working so hard for a minute). Our kids are around the same age and going through the same things so we have a lot in common. Thank you for everything, Missy!

On Saturday night after my last class I dashed off to the Knitty City booth where the lovely Pearl hosted me once again. I have been going to Knitty City in NYC for book signing events since Itty-Bitty Hats was released in 2006! Pearl is a constant supporter of the knitting community. Honestly, I have never seen a busier more bustling knit shop anywhere. It is a true neighborhood hang out for knitters. I love how Knitty City supports authors and knitting books. If you have been to the shop you will remember the HUGE wall of knitting books at the entrance of the shop. A lot of shops don't sell many knitting books any longer.

I had so much fun at the signing that I just hung out for awhile even after it had officially ended.  I love the people who work at Knitty City. They are fun, engaging and interesting. Pearl's daughter and son were there. One of the staff members is a touring opera singer and she is performing in Madison with the symphony orchestra in 2017. I'll have to try to go when she comes to town.

Also, we made plans for the coming spring to coordinate a huge window display with my designs and projects at Knitty City! I am super excited about this because they have the best front window ever. I'll let you know when the window display is up. It's going to be like a big trunk show at the shop.

Thank you, Knitty City and Pearl for hosting me. I signed a lot of my different books, some signed books are at the shop now if you want to pick one up. 

The view from the hotel window was very exciting for this Wisconsin native.

I loved meeting Sharon from the tvknittingpodcast on YouTube in my class on Friday.  I have been a subscriber and listener and now watcher of her podcast for a few years. Sharon is an excellent knitter and teacher. You should check out her podcast on YouTube if you get a chance. 

Click here for the TV Knitting Podcast on YouTube! Click here for the website with links! 

I came home on Sunday to my cozy house and my cozy kids (they're all adults now except TC!) who held down the fort with style and ease while we were gone. They waited up for us to get home late on Sunday night. It was so good to be together again. 

On Monday it was about all I could do to knit a sweet red wool mitten (pattern here), bake some cookies and read my new review copy of Clara Parkes' Knitlandia. 

Why are simple red wool mittens the best? 

It was a good, good weekend.

I'll be back soon with more.

xo ~ susan 

p.s. I'll try to film a new video podcast in the next week or two! I'm way overdue. 

Full of Good Moments

Hi, Knitters,

Happy New Year to all of you! 

When I was young, maybe a teenager, I remember that I would often figure out how old I would be in the year 2000. I could never remember what my age would be, so every time I would have to figure it out again which is kind of funny but not surprising. The number would never stick in my head. It seemed so far away and thinking about myself in my mid-thirties was hard to imagine way back when. I would try to dream about what my life would be like at that point and really I couldn't possibly have imagined it. Honestly, I don't know what got me thinking about the year 2000 today.

Now that it's another new year I am taking a moment to remember that sort of momentous year in history, the year I used to think about so often, the year when those numbers flipped over. This morning for some reason I am taking stock of what had happened in my adult-life at that point. Some of these things you may not know about me.

By the time the year 2000 had finally arrived... 

I had been happily married for 11 years, 

I had already moved five times in my married life, 

My beloved mother had battled acute leukemia twice and had miraculously survived, 

My father had passed away four years earlier,

I had stopped teaching in the public schools where I had been commuting to work about an hour each way for several years with kids in tow, 

I had had four kids and a miscarriage in seven years, our youngest was only 6-months old,

And of course, through it all I had been knitting non-stop for the last 16 years. 

The year 2000 came and went in a blur that was barely noticed. The year that I had dreamed about as a youngster? It turns out I didn't have much of a moment to think about it, literally. I didn't even have a moment to take a shower most days or if I did someone was probably yelling for me and pounding on the door (remember those days?). It was a wild time in life, sleepless and full of everything, full of laughter and joy and some sadness and little kids and babies and family and love. All of it. There were ups-and-downs and everything in between. I remember those days with fondness and amazement. I loved it.

So it seems that 16 years later life would have slowed down a bit and in certain ways it has and in other ways it is still just as busy or maybe even busier at times, but it's a different kind of busy now. Life has moved on and progressed as it should. Things become more meaningful in some ways. It's a good time in life, happy and interesting and full, not without bumps here and there. I am thankful for all of it. 

I always feel like I should be reflective somehow when a new year begins but it doesn't always happen. I'm not really one for resolutions. I just always strive to try harder to do a better job with everything all of the time. That's a blanket resolution that covers it all. I'm not always successful but I try.

I had a couple of people comment (in a nice way) in regards to a photo I posted online last week that my life always looks so perfect. That made me pause. I replied, "No, it isn't but there are good moments." Mine certainly is not a perfect life, not by long shot, but there are many good moments from the past and hopefully many yet to come. I like to share the good moments.

Anyway, back to this new year, 2016. I woke up this morning and thought I should acknowledge this new and fresh year somehow and be somewhat thoughtful about it. I was looking for a good way to welcome the new year in writing so I started looking up some quotes or inspirational messages to see if anything would catch my eye. Here is a quote that I came across that struck a note with me. 

“And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been.” 

— Rainer Maria Rilke, poet 

2016 will be full of things that have never been. I like this way of looking at the new year. The year ahead will be full of new things, fresh things, changing things, growing things, and things I could never imagine! And that's exciting to think about.

Together I hope we can discover things that have never been in 2016. I hope your 2016 is very full with good things that have never been, both new and old. I am always hopeful that the new year ahead will be the best year yet. 

With that and no matter what events happen in our collective lives, let's knit the heck out of 2016 and make and create things that have never been! We can do it.

Now let's chat about the sock knitting. 

JoAnna from Knit Spin Farm sent me some of her lovely handspun for socks as a gift. I was blown away by the kind gesture and the yarn. Thank you! It's fabulous. Knitting with JoAnna's handspun makes me realize that I need to work harder on my own handspun because hers is pretty near perfect. Maybe this should this be my resolution this year. Anyway, the yarn is glorious. You can see that I am having a great time knitting with it.

Yarn: 102 grams of fingering weight yarn. It appears that JoAnna spun half of the fiber as a traditional marled 3-ply and the other half of the fiber is Navajo-plied to keep the colors in check to create a self-striping yarn. Genius! JoAnna suggested striping the 2 skeins and that is exactly what I am doing to a wonderful effect. I am switching colors every 4 rounds for the leg and foot of the sock. The cuff, heel and toe is knit in the striping yarn only. The second sock will be completed the same. 

I sincerely think this is the best sock I have ever knitted. That's how strongly I feel about it.

Fiber: 100% Cheviot from Quillin Fiber Arts in the Owls colorway (LOVE the name).

Needles: US size 1/2.25mm dpns from Knitter's Pride Karbonz, 6-inch length.

Sock pattern: My free pattern: How I Make My Socks

Project bag: From Hue Loco on Etsy.

Sock blocker: From The Loopy Ewe.

Click here for the Knit Spin Farm Instagram ~ the farm animals are enchanting.

Click here for the Knit Spin Farm video podcast (one of my faves!).

Click here for the Knit Spin Farm Etsy Shop! JoAnna is such a talent, I can heartily endorse all of her products as I have used and purchased everything she offers in her shop and have loved it all. She cares and she is thoughtful about her shop and it shines through.

I think that's enough for today. Have a relaxing holiday weekend ahead, Knitters.

In a few days I am posting a gigantic giveaway that will include 10 winners. Each winner will receive a signed copy of my new book, Kids' Knitting Workshop, that was just released a couple of weeks ago, and each winner will receive 3 skeins of yarn for projects in the book. I can't wait!
xo ~ susan

Good Tidings

Hi Knitters,

I hope you are doing well this holiday week. I love this season and all of the home-y activities with which we devote our time. I've been planning gifts and sewing and knitting up a storm and baking and cooking, etc. All of my kids are home and on break from school. It is bustling and busy. You, too?

Well, I have randomly selected a winner for the Kermis Kit giveaway from Infinite Twist! And the winner is...... matildachelsey on Ravelry or Josette! Congratulations, Josette. I have sent an email to Cate Carter of Infinite Twist with your contact information and she will be in touch with you directly to plan out your kit specifics. Click here for the Kermis pattern on Ravelry.

Thank you for the fantastic Kermis Kit giveaway response. Cate is just thrilled and has sold a lot of kits this past week. She is so thankful and excited to give good homes to her beautiful yarns and kits.

Here is some information and links for the photos in the collage:

Rainbow Socks: Quaere Fibres 10-Stripe Rainbow colorway, sport weight; US size 2 needles; toe-up with an extended afterthought heel. 56 sts for the leg and foot count.

Knit Collage Mittens: Yarn is Knit Collage Castaway in the Prism colorway, 2 skeins. I made up the pattern but there is a similar pattern on the Knit Collage website. I knit the mittens with the knit side facing me and then turned them inside out so the purl side is the right-side. I used US size 10.5 dpns to make the mittens. I gave the finished pair to my niece as an early Christmas gift. She LOVES them and now my other niece wants a pair, too. I see more of these fun mittens in my future.

Socks for my son: Regia Cotton Summer Smile Color (purchased right here) with Opal heels and toes in gray. My son wants lighter weight handknit socks and so I am trying out this cotton/wool/nylon blend from Regia to see if he likes it better. He is so knitworthy! He wears the two pairs of socks I knit him constantly, they are always in the wash. I didn't enjoy knitting with this cotton blend yarn as much but it is doable. It feels a bit like string in my opinion. But I love the end results. He picked out the colorway (I love that he likes colorful pink stripey socks!). I used US size 1 dpns and my free pattern How I Make My Socks for men (here is the men's sock information).

Rag Quilt Placemats: I made a quick set of 6 placemats for my sister-in-law. I made the same rag quilt placemats last year and wrote a blog post (click right here) with all of the details and the YouTube video tutorial I used. I made a few more for another gift for this year, too, nine in total. They are really fast!

And lastly, my son has been baking and baking and baking! I try to sneak in and bake and cook when he's not in the kitchen which is not often. He has gifted most of his cookies, muffins and breads to others but leaves plenty for us to enjoy as well. He is currently working as a baker in a popular Madison bakery and loving it.

Yesterday as I was working on the rainbow socks I sat across from TC at our kitchen table. She is working on her beaded ornaments which she has been making for the last several years. I love her focus and concentration while she is working. It is so much fun to have her on break from school and sports and whatnot. I enjoy her company so much.

And I want to mention the Santa project bag that I've been using for the holiday season this year. It is from ShopLouleigh on Etsy and it is just the cutest bag ever, honestly. I'm so in love with Leigh's work and fabric choices. She is spot on.

Click here to visit ShopLouleigh!

Here are the ornaments TC has finished so far! She'll wrap them up in little sets to give as gifts. It's so sweet. Each of these designs come in kits that we purchased at the Wisconsin Craft Market this year and last year. Some of the kits only cost a couple of dollars and include the materials for several ornaments per kit as you can see. 

Merry, Merry and Happy Holidays, dear Knitters. Thank you for the support and for the fun here on the blog and everywhere else. I appreciate you all so much. This is the tenth Christmas I have celebrated on this blog, it's hard to believe that it has been that long.

I'm wishing you all good tidings of great joy! 

xo ~ susan