Dolly Valentine's Dresses

I feel like I have a million projects going at once right now, but I put everything on hold to whip up some Valentine's dresses for my Etsy shop.

 

I always love the thought of conversation hearts at Valentine's, but I think they taste super gross! I'm much happier to see them in fabric! 

Are you getting ready for Valentine's yet? I think I might try a few more crafty projects for the holiday :)

FO: The Seven Year Sweater

Now that Christmas has come and gone, it's safe to reveal my super secret holiday project. Sadly the title isn't an exaggeration - this sweater really has been seven years in the making! Shortly after getting married, I decided a man sweater was in order since the dreaded boyfriend sweater curse was lifted. I initially planned to take things slow with this sweater (although not quite seven years slow!) and I kept letting myself get distracted with other projects. The sweater sat forever with the body finished and the sleeves 80% done. I finally decided this was the year and got myself in gear to get it completely done.

The pattern is Retrofit by Jesse Loesburg. The pattern was well written and the sweater is a nice, classic style that is (thankfully!) still perfect for the mister even seven years later! I knit the size Large using Patons Classic Wool in grey mix and dark grey mix. Part of what derailed my progress for so long was running out of the lighter colored yarn (yet I somehow have four extra skeins of the dark grey - how does that even happen?). By the time I picked the sweater back up, Patons had pretty significantly changed the color. I was finally able to find a match from an Etsy seller with an older dye lot.

I love the hemmed bottom edge - even if it did take a billion hours to sew!

I did learn several new techniques with this sweater, including a tubular cast on and sewn bind off. I can't get over how smooth and professional that tubular cast on looks - so fancy! After watching about a dozen incredibly confusing YouTube videos for tubular bind offs, I ended up following this tutorial. The neck bind off came out looking great with plenty of stretch, and no PhD was required to follow the directions! I also learned how to sew in a zipper using this tutorial - something I'd like to avoid for the rest of my life! Hand stitching this puppy in took me much longer than expected and had me working well into the night trying to finish up in time to get it under the tree.

Mr. Plum was really excited to finally get his sweater, and I'm thankful to cross that project off the list once and for all! I'll admit to a crazy victory dance once that last end was woven in ;) I do have more sweater plans for 2015, but my plan is to keep them in 2015 - start AND finish!

FO: 5th Avenue Infinity Scarf

Finally a finished knitting project to share with you! I am terribly bad to get sidetracked with a cute doll design for my shop and let human sized knitting projects drag on for months (or sometimes years...). This particular scarf might have been hanging around the craft room an embarrassingly long time!

The pattern is the 5th Avenue infinity scarf from Tentenknits. The pattern was straightforward, with just enough variety to be interesting while still falling into the mindless-TV-knitting category. 

I had two fairly major hiccups during this project, one I recovered from and one I just lived with. The first was starting without a stitch marker. What was I thinking?? After setting the project aside for a while I had no idea where I was when I picked it back up. Lesson learned - don't be lazy and go get a dang stitch marker!

The second hiccup I only discovered several inches in, when I realized I'd gotten things twisted when I joined in the round. Oops. By that point I'd already started and stopped enough times that I just couldn't bear to rip it all out and start over. When it's all looped around my neck I don't think it's hugely noticeable.

The yarn I used was Moda Dea washable wool. I have tons of this stuff that I scooped up at a local craft store's closing sale several years ago. I find it nice and soft to wear against skin, and it has a fun squishy quality to it. The edges of the scarf are super curly, even after blocking. I'm not sure if it's the yarn or the pattern, but it kind of works in my favor with the whole mobius-mistake that I'm rocking. I knit it on my Knit Picks interchangeable needles in size 8, which felt like tree trunks after knitting so many doll projects on teeny tiny needles.

I think it turned out pretty cute, even with my mistake, and I'm sure I'll get lots of use out of it this winter. I should knit for full sized humans more often!