FO – Manu

Posted on Monday, 28 November 2011 by LittleWit

Welcome to LittleWit's crafty adventures!

For my birthday this year I treated myself to some lovely Shilasdair yarn from Wisp one of my LYSes. Then my friend Martha gifted me with the lovely Manu pattern. I cast on for the sweater while driving (ok riding) to Massachusetts to introduce the boy to my extended family he hadn’t yet met and to visit some he had met.

On our way to see my family we made a stop at Bully Hill in the finger lakes to pick up sown wine for ourselves and our parents – due to Ohio laws we can’t get this wine at home unless a distributor carries it. So funny story due to the natural dyes in the yarn it would turn my hands purple whenever I knit with it. When we went in to do the wine tasting the guy asked me of I had been playing in the grapes already that morning.

One of the great fortunes of having wonderful family in western Massachusetts is that they live about 15 minutes from Webs. My Aunt Millie always assumes that will be one of the stops during my visits and this trip.was no different. When I was a little stuck on the length for my sweater we went to Webs and Erin ever so kindly helped me decide how much longer to make it.

I knit on it for the majority of our travel time and while watching the Royal Wedding. When we got back my work travel began ramping up for a summer of travel. (Little did I know my fall would be even busier!) I knit the sleeves, attached them and took a great deal of time to knit the yoke. The yoke has a lot of stitches per row AND has extra fabric since the neck is pleated. I also would only knit on it when it wasn’t weird for my hands to be purple. Then came the fun of doing the pleats. I really like how the pleats turned out and I copied a few people on Ravelry to make my pleats facing in the back.

There was a bit of a lag on production while I waited for some great buttons to arrive from Orit in Israel.

Manu bound off

The last piece was an i-cord bind off which I sadly finished at the boy’s great aunt’s funeral. Well the family gathering afterward not the service. This sweater will be special up me since I also knit on it while we were attending his grandmother’s funeral in May. Both ladies were very special to the boy and to me and both were Knitters.

I am really pleased with how this sweater turned out. I elected to not knit pockets since I was almost out of yarn! :-O

It’s taken awhile to get FO shots but we finally got them done.

Biltmore Flowers

Posted on Friday, 28 October 2011 by LittleWit

As promised, yet slightly delayed, are some pictures of the beautiful flowers we found in the Biltmore gardens on our vacation. I would love to see some of these varieties blooming in our yard next summer or maybe two summers from now. This winter we need to have 5-7 of our trees cut down due to the emerald ash borer infesting our neighborhood. I am sad to see these trees go but I am excited for the gardening potential since more sunshine will have access to our yard.

Ferns and Foliage – possibly for the yard?

These would definitely add color and texture to our yard. I am hopeful some of these species may be friendly to shade? Since our yard is pretty high on shade and low on sun.

These three seem to be three varieties of the same plant. A plant which I think I used to have but may have finally killed after three years. I have faith that if I had this plant again I could help it survive.

Flowers – inside or outside? Sun or Shade?

Everyone is aware of how much I love this shade of orange, right?

I kind of love everything about this flower. The round petals and the color.

A sweet looking flower that may choose to grow wild in my yard?

I love how this guy looks like he could be right out of a Dr Seuss book!

For the unidentified flowers and ferns (which is basically all of these) does anyone know the variety?

Anniversary Vacation

Posted on Tuesday, 20 September 2011 by LittleWit

The boy and I took a lovely vacation to celebrate our first anniversary. We drove down to North Carolina to visit my brother for a couple of days. Then we drove to Asheville to check out the Biltmore Estate. The first day we were there it was rainy and overcast so we didn’t take any pictures outside of the estate. We did manage some pictures inside the greenhouse though. I highly recommend taking the audio tour, as there are so many rooms to see one could easily get overwhelmed without at least some guidance as to what is cool to check out in each room.

We had a great time hanging out at the winery in the village after touring the house. We toured the production area which was very interesting. Then we headed over to talk to the Smithy. On the way we may have taken a short detour to check out some of the mohair fleece they have for processing demonstrations. We spent a good while talking to the apprentice blacksmith who actually happened to be from Ohio. So many cool tools to check out that have barely changed since they were invented. You know what they say, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

The next morning there was a break in the weather so we headed back to the Biltmore to get some pictures outside of the house and a few more in the gardens in the daylight.

I found several flowers that I would love to see if I can grow somewhere in my house or yard. I do however need to get some better gardening skills before I can invest in a ton of flowers. Heh.

After we left the Biltmore we drove over to Tennessee to take a drive on the infamous Tail of the Dragon. It’s an 11-mile stretch of highway with 318 curves in the road. It’s quite popular with the motorcycle crowd and the touring crowd. The locals aren’t always too thrilled to have to drive up and down the road though when they’re in a hurry.

We had a good time and did three passes before heading up to Maryville, where we stayed on a mountaintop. Driving up and down the mountain was an adventure in itself and the boy definitely got his fill of driving super windy roads. It was a bit nice to finally get onto straight roads when we drove back to Ohio the next day. This place is a new bed & breakfast and the owners are wonderful hosts. We had a great time relaxing up there and are hoping to get back again some time.

One of the best parts about finally getting home after a long and very rainy drive was a phone call telling us to go out and get the big stick off our shed. After some prompting the boy went to check it out and we found that his parents had left us a super comfortable swing for our lanai. (I had to wait until the next day to get pictures.)

All in all it was a great anniversary trip. I think we’ll try to do something each year for our anniversary from here on out.

Love Bird Bag

Posted on Tuesday, 13 September 2011 by LittleWit

We recently went on vacation to celebrate our first anniversary. Two nights before we left on vacation I got the notion that I absolutely needed a new bag to transport my delicates in. I found some adorable bird fabric that I picked up at Quilt Trends and then was stuck trying to find a fabric to coordinate with it. Thankfully I signed up for the Pink Chalk Fabrics Monthly Solids Club. I grabbed all the greens, found one that matched the green in the birds fabric closely and then got the fabric washed up before going to bed. The next morning I was able to cut the fabric and sew most of the bag together before work.

After work I put the finishing touches on it and found a ribbon to use in place of the ones I’d made that morning. I couldn’t quite figure out how to turn them right side out and didn’t have time to have anyone show me how to do it before I left. I ended up using some leftover ribbon from my wedding dress which worked out really well!

I basically cobbled together these two patterns: Easy Drawstring Bag and Lined Drawstring Bag making them the size I wanted. Then I decided to add coordinating pockets on the insides. I really, really like how the seams look from the lined tutorial, it also made it a lot easier for me to add in the pockets.

Once I got home and went to knit night they showed me how to turn the ribbons right side out and I was able to take FO shots. I am still toying with whether or not I want to square off the bottom like she does in the Purl Bee tutorial. Maybe on the next one.

Elephant Dress

Posted on Tuesday, 23 August 2011 by LittleWit

My niece turned three on Monday and on Saturday we had a party for her. I decided I wanted to make a pillow case dress for her out of some awesome orange elephant print the boy noticed when we were at Sew to Speak earlier this summer. I have a little thing going where I give her some kind of elephant for the holidays, so this print definitely played off that theme.

I made the ballet neck dress pattern from one yard wonders. The pattern uses an entire yard of fabric to start with and then utilizes elastic to gather the fabric to give it shape. While cutting it I sometimes wondered if I would just be making a tunic for myself. Since it seemed so large and because I wasn’t sure at what length to hem it I had my sister bring my niece over for a little try-on. Once we got over her confusion of thinking it was a nightgown and that she had to go to bed; she decided she wanted to help me pin the dress with the “sharps”.

Helping me pin her dress

Since that wasn’t overly helpful I took a measurement and hemmed up the fabric later. I hemmed it without cutting the length off so the dress can be let out in the future. I also sewed the waist band a little lower so it would be more of a drop waist for now (can you even really have a drop waist on a toddler?) and then will be in a better spot for her next summer and the following. I also used the bias tape I made for the waist and put it on the sleeve caps to clean up my poor hand sewing. Shhh!

Modeling her new dress

At the party she tried the dress on for me and I think it turned out pretty cute. I also think it will fit much better next summer, but that’s ok, this summer – I am sad to say – is almost over. If I were to make it again, I would probably consider cutting the fabric down to the dimensions of a standard or queen pillowcase and then work from that rectangle. A yard of fabric turns out to be as big as or possibly bigger than a King pillowcase. Who knew?

Playing with her new helicopters

LittleWit's Crafty Adventures

Oh the crafting we will do.

FO – Manu

Biltmore Flowers

Anniversary Vacation

Love Bird Bag

Elephant Dress