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About this time last year, a friend of mine contacted me about making a sweater for her. She had seen my very old Princess De sweater hanging in my studio, and asked if I could recreate it for her to match her measurements. She said she wasn’t in a rush and wouldn’t need it until the fall (which I later found out was because they were welcoming a family member, which is still possibly the best news I recevied in 2011!). So in late September when I was home visiting my family, I brought her sweater to her. She had a chance over the weekend to take some pictures and send them along for me to share.

For my LOOOONG time readers you will recognize that it is the same colour that I did my Princess De in. This one is done in Cascade 220, still one of my favourite yarns. Thankfully this time when I knit it I was much more experienced, and I fixed the design issues that the first one had.

The body has intertwining cables that run down the front of the sweater, through an empire waist ribbing section, and onto the bodice. The sleeves have the same style of winding cable as well. A short row style shoulder ends in more ribbing.

I think Moni looks fabulous in it (this does not look like the body of a woman who had a baby a few short months ago). I hope that it keeps her warm and cozy for years to come!

Thank you Jay and Moni for sending along the pictures, much appreciated!

(A few people have in the past asked if this is a pattern that I am going to write up – what I realized when knitting it for what was actually the third time, is that it just doesn’t lend itself to a well written, easy to follow pattern. And I do not have the writing skill needed to make it workable. So for now, it will just stay as photos! Thank you all for your interest though, it makes a girl feel good).

Grey is one of my favourite colours, despite the fact that I grew up in the Toronto area, where grey is a permanent fixture in the outside world from Nov 1st-April. The right kind of grey can be warm, inviting, and cozy. It can be soft and rich, heathered and earthy.

TJ’s Mom asked me to make some twin quilts for the two beds in her guest room, the one often used by my parents when we all get together. (Yes, my inlaws and my parents get along and we all hang out on holidays. Yes it’s unusual. Yes I love them for all being so awesome. Yes I am the luckiest woman alive). She had seen the quilt I had made for my friend Amanda, and she loved the Aviary 2 line of fabrics that I used. She wanted to design her whole room around the mustard and grey colours in these fabrics.

A wee bit grainy, but here are some before shots of the room.

It was a pretty, soft green, quite feminine.

Lovely leaf prints on the wall, some satin-y spreads on the bed, a very well put together room. But she was tired of it, and wanted something more modern and masculine.

With the room emptied out, a coat of Benjamin Moore Pewter went up (in their Aura paint. That stuff is the bomb. One coat baby! I am seriously in love with this paint. Worth every penny of the cost. A tip though, check the BM website before you buy; they often have a $5 off coupon).

Once the painting was done in the room, I worked on painting a small side table that we had found in a great second hand store. Then I made a set of tab back curtains from some great Ikea fabric. One the room was loaded with the new bedding, it looked like this!

(Don’t forget that you can click to get a larger photo). What do you think? Here is a close up of the quilts:

One side of the room has yellow sheets,

and the other side grey. Sort of a “his and hers” theme. You can see on the quilts that I used the Aviary 2 fabrics, but also some other fabrics as accents.

The back is Anna Maria Horner’s voile, in pastry line. I missed snapping a picture of the actual backing, but this is what it looks like.

I’ll tell you one thing, I will certainly be using voile for the backing on my next quilt. This stuff is amazing! It is soooooo soft. It’s almost like a satin. I am not sure that I could imagine making a whole pieced quilt top out of it, as it is quite slide-y, but as a backing it just makes you want to bury yourself under it and never come out.

T’s Mom also painted out this great vintage dresser in Benjamin Moore Stuart Gold. The key to painting out furniture like this is to put a coat of water-based polyurethane on any surfaces that will have things sitting on them. This keeps them from sticking to the paint and leaving marks.

This little chair was in another room in the house, but it fit perfectly into this spot AND already had the right colours (both in paint and fabric).

There are a few things that need to be done still in the room, like some more decorative items, but I think it turned out really well. I think I need to make a quilt like this for my living room!

What favourite colours have you been working with a lot lately?

One thing that I had not been expecting with opening KSC Designs, is the amount of custom work that I would be doing. I have done everything from crib skirts and bumper pads to quilts and tote bags. I realized that I didn’t have a place on my blog that gathered all these things up, so I added a new tab at the top of my site. You can now check out “Custom” to see examples of the different items that I have made for my awesome customers.

Speaking of which, I know this is insane given that it is the last day of September, but my custom orders for Christmas are filling up VERY quickly. Do you have something in mind that you would like made for a Christmas gift? Or maybe a gift for yourself? Please contact me as soon as you can at info@kscdesigns.com so that we can work something out. I would feel really badly if I had turn anyone down because of timelines, but there are only so many hours in a day (it’s only 76 days until Christmas, and despite my best efforts I have not managed to warp the space-time continuum. Darn it.).

Thank you all for the support of both me personally and KSC Designs over the last 7 months. It is overwhelming to have people really want to see you succeed. The holiday season is going to be a fun one!


Or more formally: jewelry rolls! A good friend contacted me to ask about making a custom jewelry holder for her. She has some store bought examples with her that each has some features that she liked, along with some problems. I can tell you, I haven’t pondered over a design this hard in a while. I kept waking up in the middle of the night with a new idea or solution to an issue. But after much deliberation, this is what I came up with! (as always, click to see a larger version of the photos)

The outside is about the size of a paperback book, with a button and elastic closure (similar to my knitting needle rolls). A couple of unfolds leads to this:

Zippered pockets on the left hand side in various sizes. These are perfect for your earrings and bracelets. The right side has a flap that is held down with velcro, and when you open it…

…there is all kinds of storage for your rings and necklaces! Each of those little dark pink strips is held down on the left end with a piece of velcro, so you can string your necklaces (both long and short) as well as your rings onto them. And when the flap is folded back over and the roll closed, there is no way for anything to fall out.

I was secretly hoping my friend wouldn’t like it so that I could keep this one, but not that much because I was very happy with her reaction. She was thrilled! In fact, ee met in our local coffee shop and a few of her friends were there. One of them loved it so much that she commissioned me on the spot to make her one!

This one features one of my favourite Amy Butler fabrics.

The inside is the same, except that this client asked me to divide up the top pocket into smaller divisions for her earrings.

Here is a closer look at how the hold down straps work:

And then, once missbedora saw some pictures, she wanted one too!

This one has an additional custom feature – an area made out of loosely woven linen that she can pin her earrings through.

So, it didn’t take me long to realize that this is something that I should list in my shop. Keep your eyes peeled for the release of these bling holders coming up in early November! Can’t wait that long? Contact me at info@kscdesigns.com for a custom order.

My friend Becky approached me about making some drawstring bags for her, with a special twist.

She wanted to use them for her lace knitting, and she didn’t like that her needles were getting caught up in her projects when they were all in a bag. Her suggestion? Grommets! Each bag has two grommets at the top that you can stick your needle through, so they are on the outside of the bag! (For circulars, of course). Then the needles won’t get all caught up in your lace! (Or any project for that matter)


I made two different bags:

Light and…

dark!

These sweet little bags are going to be available in my shop in about a month or so. I have some crazy craft show prep coming up over the next few weeks, and as soon as that is over with I am going to be listing all kinds of new things. I hope you like them!