A co-worker of TJ’s is expecting a little one any time soon. And of course, what better to knit then my favourite hat?

Pattern: Umbilical Cord Hat
Yarn: Berroco Comfort

I just love these little hats. They are so easy to make, but they really look cute on wee one’s.

I made a card to go with this one too:

Ah, sheep. I hope she likes it!

A while back I was gifted a skein of Natasha’s wonderful sport weight merino, in my favourite colourway she has ever produced: Robin’s Egg. I needed a one skein project, and decided to make a pretty little cowl for this fall.

Pattern: Burnished Leaves Cowl
Yarn: Unplanned Peacock Sport, about 0.7 balls.

This yarn is soft but durable, and feels wonderful around my neck.

I think it has just the right texture for showing off the lacey leaf pattern.

I have some fingering weight in the stash as well, and I am thinking of making some gloves to match. I think they will go well with my white winter coat.

As usual, when the photo shoot involves my sweetie behind the camera, laughter ensues. I am looking forward to cooler temps so I can try it out without sweating.

I seem to be into the fall colours at the moment. Maybe I am just trying to match my completely dried out front lawn. Maybe I am dreaming of cooler weather. Really though, when it comes to this sweater, I was trying to branch out of my normal comfort zone of purple, pinks, greys.

Pattern: Ariosa Wrap Cardi (Rav Link)
Yarn: Cascade Eco Wool
Needles: US 9

This is a great little pattern that works up so quickly in the bulky yarn. While I have a bunch of Eco Wool in my stash, I had never used it before. Definitely loving on the Eco. It is soft without being too soft, and not fluffy or splitty at all. I can see why it is the most popular yarn at the shop.

I generally do not knit a lot of large gauge projects, because I think sometimes they can make my feel a little “teddy bear-esque”. But the difference with this pattern is the lace repeats. It makes it look pretty and feminine, and keeps it cooler. I love the little teeny cap sleeves too.

The bow is just a fun accent, but it could be easily worn with a shawl pin too. I think I will get lots of use out of this in the early fall. Right now it is displayed at the shop if anyone would like to have a look.

Thank you all so much for the wonderful comments on my studio. I am really enjoying the space and know that I will for a long time to come.

While my house was in the shaken sno-globe that is a renovation, I was working on a ‘soothing’ sweater.

Pattern: White Russian by Thea Colman
Yarn: Berroco Blackstone Tweed

I had first seen this sweater through Caro’s blog Splityarn (my favourite blog for photos – she is super talented) and immediately went and queued it on Ravelry. When I did, I thought I would check out what other designs Thea had. Turns out, I already had two of her other designs queued (Nantucket Red and Short Lucky). Guess I like her designs, huh?

The yarn is Blackstone Tweed, which is the most luscious, soft, fluffy, tweedy heaven. Seriously, everyone who felt this stuff while I was knitting this was amazed.

The lace texture mixed with the tweed is one of the things I really like about this sweater. Oh, and the buttons.

I LOVE these buttons. A few weeks ago I was at an estate sale and snagged a couple of jars of old buttons for $5 a piece. I love vintage buttons (doesn’t everyone?) and I was thrilled when I got home and found that the jars were filled with wood, shell, leather and even some bone buttons. These are two of the shell ones that I found while rummaging. I really like the leaf detail.

This was a well written pattern that allows you to alter things as needed to fit your style. I know that I am going to get a lot of use out of this one – it feels like I am wearing my pajamas!

How could it possibly be May 5th? Did I enter some kind of time warp? I can’t believe it has been almost a month since I last posted – I’m sorry!

It’s not that I have been tied up with terrible stresses or buried under a mountain of problems, it has been quite the opposite. My sweetie husband was awarded a “Values Award” with his company, and we got to take a week long trip to St. Marteen. We had a wonderful time and I will definitely be posting some pictures of that soon. This past week my inlaws were here and construction began on my studio. That’s right, I am going to have walls and a floor down there! I am so excited! I will be more excited when we are done the mudding and sanding on the drywall, but it is going to look great. Progress pictures of that are coming soon too.

But today I wanted to show you my latest finished object. Natasha at Unplanned Peacock had 4 balls of her DK superwash that were a one off colour. And it just happened to be the most gorgeous group of purples. So I decided to make the Endless Cardi Shawl from Stitch Diva.

This is a really ingenious piece that has simple knitting but an awesome way of binding off to create the shape. And there are so many different ways to wear it.

This is the back of the two styles above:

I had a look at the 4 balls of yarn and knit them such that the centre of the sweater was going to be the lightest. I really like the y-shape that it created.

You can flip the entire thing over to create a whole different look.

Which also creates a whole different look on the back, more like a shrug.

I love how the yarn worked up – not a single pill, split or weirdness, and it drapes wonderfully now that it has been blocked. I can see that I am going to get a lot of use out of this cardi.