crafting at the speed of light

I really love knitting, but sometimes I also love having something quick to accomplish that's started and finished in one day.

Fabric and pattern from Purlsoho.com. Pattern includes top, long top, tunic and dresses sizes for girls and women. I made the girl's top size 8 for my 7 year old. They don't seem to have the same fabric I used anymore, but look at this awesome print. En-biggen the swatch to see the 3 knitting aunties.

Anyway, it should be a good summer top for the girl in this super hot weather. Now we're off to the beach.

Pods

Pattern: Pods (mine)

Yarn: Dale of Norway Heilo in #5042 Orchid, #5062 Plum Smoke and #9145 Asparagus

"Let's make [mittens] in May...large projects may lie heavy and warm on the lap, but small things like mittens and socks are easy to carry about outdoors, and can be made surprisingly fast. Stash them away as they are finished, and when the time comes, next winter, you can deal them out with a liberal hand"~ Elizabeth Zimmermann

About 16 months ago I made the Seeds hat. Soon after that I decided I like to have the option of matching hats and mitts sometimes and I should really design some mitts, too. I finally got around to that.

It's been so exhaustingly hot and humid lately, even thinking about wool has caused me to perspire. But if I go too long without knitting I start to get twitchy, so I dug out all the small projects I've been meaning to get done; hence the mitts. Besides, EZ said the warm weather months are perfect for knitting them.

For both the hat and mitts some basic colourwork skills are helpful to have. Both hat and mitts have turned hems for extra warmth and have similar charts. The needle sizes are slightly bigger on the mitts than on the hat, only because I have a bit tighter gauge on dpns than on circulars. Your own gauge may vary.

Hope you're having a great summer. :D

leonie

Pattern: Leonie - Adult Sizes by Dani Sunshine

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino dk in #162B

I seem to have a thing for test-knitting cardigan patterns in the stifling heat of July....it's over 30 degrees C here right now, so I threw on the lightest tank top I could find and got this photo taken fast. This was a quick and enjoyable knit. A well-written pattern that I would completely recommend to anyone. There's also a wonderful child's version here.

The yarn caused it to grow during blocking, so it's roomier than I intended, but right now I'm not really minding that. I didn't enjoy the yarn in general as much as I first thought. It had several annoying knots and the plies had loosened in several places, causing them to fuzz. I may make this again in a different yarn at some point.

Dani herself has a fabulous wee yarn shop here. I just adore her colours.

I thought I'd also give a plug for a great readalong / knitalong group on Ravelry for those of you who enjoy Edith Wharton. I can't resist Misa and her great ideas! I'm actually listening to Brenda Dayne (from Cast On!) read 'The Age of Innocence' from LibriVox so I can knit these fabulous socks at the same time.

While I sit close to the air conditioner. And the panting dog.

Stay cool, cool peeps.

the dog hair won't show on this one...

It hasn't been all carding and spinning around here. I've also been testing another knit. I don't know what it is about "looking for test knitters" that I find so hard to resist, but I had to do this great cardigan. I may also need to make the adorable child's version. I enjoy the whole deadline thing, as it helps to counteract my natural urge to hop between a kazillion projects at once.

I'm using Debbie Bliss cashmerino dk, which of course is fabulous. It's been in my stash and been allocated and re-allocated too many times for too long and it just had to be used. This is the perfect fun but fairly simple knit to let my brain chill after a June which was way too crazy busy.

Hope you're keeping cool.