One of the biggest strains on my wrists was finishing up a pair of socks for my mom in time for Mother’s Day.  I don’t have any detailed pictures because I’m considering publishing the pattern at a later date…

I dyed the 95% merino / 5% cashmere yarn a little while back…

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I love Grover. He was my favorite Sesame Street character when I was a kid and I loved my Grover stuffed animal. This promted me to want to knit a Grover stuffed animal for my friend who was having a baby at the end of May. I ended up crocheting Grover on the Bobaknit retreat because at that point I knew knitting was causing me pain, but I thought I could crochet. I actually didn’t know how to crochet, but I brought the Stitch n’ Bitch Happy Hooker book with me and learned so I would have something crafty to do on the retreat. I managed to crochet the body and head, and Grover’s legs before the pain got to me. Kristi crocheted his arms and Anabel crocheted his nose and sewed his features on his face. Thanks Kristi & Anabel!  I made his eyes out of felt to match my Grover’s eyes.  I crocheted him free-form, based on my Grover, but a bit smaller because I was afraid of running out of the eyelash yarn.

P.S.  The CA Wool & Fiber Festival went well — I’ll post photos when I download them!

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I’m off this weekend to Boonville for the CA Wool & Fiber Festival!  If you’re in the area and have some free time, it should be great fun!  There’s a wool show different and spinning competitions. 

It’s in conjunction with the Mendocino County Fair and Apple Show.

If you buy something from me at the festival, you’ll even get your very own Fiber Fiend shopping bag!

Hee hee!

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Here’s an update on what some customers have been spinning!

Sarah spun up her Superwash Merino in the Reeds colorway. She blogged about it here.

And she knit a baby sock! She blogged about it here.

Maria knit up some socks wih her handspun Superwash Merino in the Ocean colorway. She blogged about it here.

She also spun up her Superwash Merino in the Reeds colorway. She blogged about it here.

Anyone else have pics to share?

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I love lizards.  I had wanted to design a fair-isle sweater pattern for a while, but I didn’t want to do anything too complicated because I’ve only knit simple fair-isle projects myself.  I chose to design a baby sweater, because many of my friends are having babies these days, and a sweater is a great gift that can work up quickly in worsted weight yarn.  I incorporated buttons into the design to accommodate babies’ growing heads.  This is why the sweater is knit in the round until the armpits and worked back-and-forth afterward.  I chose a yoke construction, which is traditional among Scandinavian colorwork sweaters.

This project is great for knitters who want to give fair-isle a try, because it’s small, it only involves two colors, it’s worked up in worsted weight yarn, and fair-isle is only used on the yoke.  It’s a great fall sweater with short sleeves knit from a machine-washable cotton/acrylic blend.

I have to give big thanks to my wonderful transcribing husband and test-knitting friend Pauline, without whom I would never have been able to create this pattern this summer.   I also want to thank Kandice for the use of her son Justin as a great baby model!  The sweater shown is the 6-month size.

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This summer shell with optional shaping and optional rear hook & eye closure knits up beautifully in bamboo yarn.

The optional leaf and diamond lace shoulder bands attach with buttons and hooks & eyes, and add style and warmth in the same or a contrasting color.

I was almost done knitting and writing up this pattern when my tendonitis kicked in. The pattern was a commission from Bella Knitting. They will be selling knitting projects with everything you need from the yarn to the buttons and hooks & eyes, along with the pattern. Or you can just buy the pattern here on my store website.

You may remember when I swatched for this project, and when I had some difficulty not once, but twice, and when I finally started getting somewhere with it.

Now for tons more pictures… [WARNING: PICTURE HEAVY POST]

First, the shell itself.

A detail of the optional hook & eye rear closure.

A detail of the stitch pattern.

The optional Leaf Shoulder Band.

A detail of the button attachment.

A detail of the stitch pattern.

The optional Diamond Lace Shoulder Band.

I may only be 3/4 of the way done with this shoulder band… but would you know if I hadn’t have told you? It’s first on my list of things to finish up when I can start knitting again…

A detail of the button attachment.

A detail of the stitch pattern.

You can check out the pattern on Ravelry here.

The Flickr gallery is here.

P.S.  Like my new haircut?

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