FO: Gramps Cardigan

When I found out one of our friends was having a little boy, I had a little dig through the baby patterns I tagged on Ravelry before I found out Baby Knitsnips was a girl (I didn’t let a little thing like that stop me – I tagged ALL the baby patterns! :-)). And the project that really stood out at me was the Gramps Cardigan. I loved everything about it. I loved all the cables, I loved the shawl collar, and I loved the old man sweater buttons. Perfection.

So I purchased some HiKoo Simplicity at my LYS, because I like the way it felt, it was washable, and I liked it was both wool and acrylic. Plus, the light grey color I chose was lush.

I started the sweater before heading off to England on our family trip. I worked on the sleeves throughout our time in England, and was able to put it all together once we got home. Working on it in both countries was really important to me, because I was giving it to another British/American couple, and I wanted it to have a connection to both countries for them.

I think it turned out really beautifully. There’s really nothing I would change about it.

The back has a nice wide ribbing to it, so I think it will fit him for a while, since it’ll have plenty of stretch. I made a 12 month size, even though he was born at the beginning of August, because I think it’s always better to err on the bigger side! He may even get two years of use out of it depending on how quickly he grows.

I didn’t really make any adjustments to the pattern – just knit it as instructed. I found the old man buttons at Hobby Lobby, and they were exactly what I was looking for.

I met the sweet little recipient about a week and a half ago, when he was only one week old. He is so sweet, tiny, and in that very newborn stage where he mostly sleeps and lets anyone hold him. And I think the sweater will suit him well.

Now, to wait for cooler weather so he can rock his cardigan. 🙂

Monday Musing: Opportunities and Change

While I was down with a cold a couple of weeks ago, I was pretty much glued to one particular spot on my couch and feeling pretty sorry for myself. To perk myself up, I decided to swatch for the Heliopath Vest. You may remember that I picked up some ace yarn for it during the recent yarn crawl.

And I have gauge! On the suggested needles! On the first try! We will see if this luck continues when I decide to cast on the real garment.

Swatches hold such possibility, don’t you think? A whisper of something new and exciting – something just starting, but not quite realized. Something you work on to see how the yarn and pattern are working together, how you feel about the pattern in practice, how the final item will fit you. It’s the exciting start to something bigger.

I am also at an exciting start of something bigger personally. Today, I am starting work full-time for the first time since Baby Knitsnips was born. I have been lucky enough to be a stay-at-home mom since she was born, and I have had an amazing time with my little one. But it seemed all the stars aligned to bring a wonderful job opportunity my way, and it seems like the perfect fit and the right timing for me and my little family. It will be a huge adjustment, but I think we are up for it. So here I am, off on my new adventure, excited and a little nervous and ready to jump in –  like I am when I am at the outset of a big knitting project.

I hope you will all be patient with me and the blog as I make this transition. I expect there will still be plenty of knitting going on around here, but things will certainly be in flux while I try to strike a new life balance.

FO: Cabled Canuck

A couple of weeks ago, I cast off my Cabled Canuck, which I’m actually calling my Vineyard Cables Hat (because it was worked on mostly during our trip to wine country). I love it!

I used Three Irish Girls Springvale Worsted in the colorway Here’s Looking at You, Kid. It was a yarn club color from a couple of years ago.  I think it will be a really versatile color. And I won’t lie, I wanted mine to be as close as possible to the beautiful one that Tanis made in the pattern photos, and this was the best match I had in the stash!

I also enjoyed the pattern. It was fun and interesting to knit. And as always, I love cables for their look of complexity, even though they’re really not that hard. The cables on this hat really add texture and interest and it’s so beautiful that it turns into a flower at the top (I didn’t get pictures of that on mine, but I promise it does! Check out the project page to see). I didn’t make any mods at all – I was strictly a rule follower. 🙂

I have mixed feelings about the timing of finishing this hat. On one hand, I’m a little sad it’s getting too warm to wear it right now, and on the other hand I am so desperate for spring I do not care. Roll on warm weather and walks and outdoor time!

Of hats and socks and pancakes

Before I moved to England, I did not know that there was such a thing as Pancake Day. And I certainly did not know it meant crepes and not the lovely fluffy pancakes my mom had made for me my entire life. So my first Mardi Gras (I know what that is, even though I’m not Catholic!) in England, my friend Sarah invited me over for a Pancake Day celebration and I was hooked. Any excuse for crepes, Nutella, strawberries and bananas works for me!

Since we’ve moved to America, I’ve seen IHOP getting in on the action, but it’s just not the right kind of pancake for me. Instead, Mr Snips whips us up something yummy at home. Every year, I Google a recipe, but this year, we hit on the best one yet – from All Recipes. I’m not sure what’s different about this particular recipe from what we’ve done before, but they were incredible! Below is a picture of one of mine. I favor doing half strawberries, half bananas, and a liberal slathering of Nutella. Yuuuuuuum! It was super delicious. 

In knitting news, the things I thought I would do last week, I actually ended up doing this Monday. I finished my Cabled Canuck in the evening. After it gets a bath and a blocking, I’ll be sharing the FO with you. I am so in love with it! Then, I immediately brought out the swift and winder to prep my Cherry Tree Hill Superwash Merino in the Life’s A Beach colorway to start the basic socks I mentioned. It’s a hard colorway to capture on camera, but I got the best of the worst pictures of it sitting on my laptop. There is a bit more green to it than you can see here. 

I was on a roll until I realized all of my long size 1 circulars are on other projects. Which means either putting a project on stitch holders or buying another set. There is no way I will wait till a project is done to start these – I am too impatient!

So until I decide how to get some size 1s free, I am furiously working away on my Bigger on the Inside shawl. I have done one repeat of the decreases, and am feeling ridiculously proud of myself! It may yet be done before the end of 2014!

Wishing you a good second half of the week! I am feeling time slip by way too quickly here, so I will be focusing on trying to slow down and enjoy the moment.

Holiday in review: Sonoma Valley

This past week, Mr Snips and I have been on an amazing trip to Sonoma Valley. And when I say amazing, I mean AMAZING. This trip was especially planned to mark a milestone birthday for me, and it was truly everything I hoped it would be.

We stayed at a sweet B&B (though it seems a disservice to call it that – it was spectacular) in a private cottage. It had a fireplace in front of our bed, and I found myself cuddled up in fronts of it several times a day, often with knitting in hand. It also served incredible three-course breakfasts which made to a great start every day.

Monday: We arrived in the early afternoon. After checking in, we headed to Sonoma Square to walk around and see what was there. After having a gander in the shops, we headed back and rested a bit before dinner. The hotel had free coffee and wine all day (you read correctly – FREE WINE) so I poured a glass and settled down on the terrace with my newest project, the Cabled Canuck (from my Monday Musing). It was glorious to be in the sunshine with wine and knitting. Glorious! We finished off the day with dinner at a local Indian restaurant.

Tuesday: We hired a wine tour guide who could drive our rental car. This is a great idea, because you get a knowledgeable DD and you are paying less than if you rented a limo or town car. And since we were already paying for a rental car, it seemed very silly to double pay for a car. We spent all day going from winery to winery and doing tastings. We met so many lovely people. I expected a bit of snobbery since Mr Snips and are NOT knowledgeable wine conneisuers, but everyone was perfectly lovely and willing to help us find a wine we liked. The most notable purchase of the day was a pair of sweet little arrow studs I purchased from a winery. They are made by a local artist and I love them! They are simple and small. Which is perfect since BK has discovered how fun my dangly earrings are! No knitting happened after the wine tour, because there was no way to trust myself with either cables or lace, which were the only two projects I had with me.

Wednesday: We started off the day with a massage. If I hit the lottery, I would probably do that every day. We then got ready for the day and headed to two wineries. One we visited turned out to be my favorite, because of location, they had wines I liked, we had a lovely server and the place had a great ambiance. We also went back by Sonoma Plaza and did some more shopping. I spent a couple of hours tucked up in bed, watching some TV, enjoying the fireplace and working on my hat. We rounded off the day with a spectacular dinner at another local restaurant.

Thursday: We drove over the hill/mountain to Napa Valley. We visited Yountsville, which was lovely, but lacked the fabulous ambiance of the area where we were staying. We then went over to Napa’s town center, where I visited Yarns on First. It was a great shop. They carried things I liked (like Malabrigo!) and had the store organized by color, which I thought was a nice touch. I bravely resisted adding to my stash, and instead purchased the deluxe edition of Annie and the Swiss Cheese Scarf for BK. It will be a few years before she’s ready to read it and learn to knit, but I’ve wanted her to have it since before she was born. Napa was a strange place; parts were lovely and parts were so under construction or vacant they looked like a scary ghost town. We had a nice lunch in the pretty part, and headed back. More knitting on the terrace ensued. We then had yet another fantastic dinner. Really, I was just overwhelmed by the variety and fantasticness of the food we ate there.

Friday: We left Sonoma Valley after the last lovely hotel breakfast and headed to San Francisco. The plan was to visit a few places there before taking an overnight flight home. We started in Union Square and hit a few shops there. We then decided to walk to the Painted Ladies which was a *horrible* mistake. We ended up in a very shady part of town – and I mean the shadiest I’ve been anywhere – and I was very scared. We turned back to Union Square and took refuge in a fabulous mall for a couple of hours. We headed back to the airport much earlier than planned and ended up with several hours to kill. After dinner and a look through every shop, we sat down. I took the opportunity to finally make it to my center panel of my Bigger on the Inside shawl and to work on this blog entry. So thankful I knit, or I would have been out of my mind at the long airport wait!

Overall, the week was amazing. I tried lots of food I normally wouldn’t have and loved them all. The relaxed atmosphere and the very nice people made the whole thing a wonderful experience.

Monday Musing: Cabled Canuck

Monday Musing is a new semi-regular feature where I will outline the week’s plans for knitting. 

This week, all I can think about is casting on for the Cabled Canuck. I have had it saved to my favorites in Ravelry since March 2012, so I’m really overdue on getting started!

It finally dawned on me that I have the perfect yarn in my stash to make it – Three Irish Girls “Here’s Looking at You, Kid” – a color from the 2012 (I think?) yarn club. It’s the Springvale Super Merino base. Why it took me so long to put the pattern and yarn together in my mind, I have no idea.

This yarn is a really interesting color. Most of the time, I think it’s grey. But when I showed it to Mr Snips the other night in only artificial light, it looked kind of army green. Regardless, I think it’ll be a nice neutral that will probably take on a little bit of whatever color I’m wearing elsewhere. I’m a bit of a coat fiend, so I have a few winter coat options, and I think we all know that since I’m a knitter, there are a multitude of winter accessories that I could put with it.

Now if I could just find the time to wind the yarn…

What are you working on this week?