Some Saturday Yarn Love

Madelinetosh love

It’s been raining all morning, so I’m spending my Saturday hiding out from my kiddos (daddy is around, so they aren’t being neglected–video game day!) and crocheting. Easter is in two weeks, so I’m working on some eggs. Not quite as big as the lamb I shared earlier this week, but still pretty darn cute.

While I am between eggs, I wanted to share some photos of this yarn I treated myself to, for my birthday. I actually bought it a week before my birthday, but it didn’t arrive until a week after. I had already forgotten about it, so I was SO happy to open it up. It helps that these blues are GORGEOUS.

Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light

Two skeins of Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light in “cousteau” for a project that has yet to be determined. I may even try to design something brand new!

Madelinetosh Prairie

One skein of Madelinetosh Prairie in “baltic,” a shade of blue so bright and lovely. I really want a lace project for the summer and can’t wait to whip something up.

The day before my little package of yarn arrived, my cousin gave me my first Jamberry manicure!

Jamberry: stitched away

I ordered the “Stitched Away” design and REALLY wish I had bought some extras, as this design is now discontinued! It’s so Spring-y and the tiny stitches are incredibly cute. Tell me, have you tried nail wraps? Do you like them?! I’ve had mine for about a week and I’m finally used to them! Granted, I’m very new to this “don’t bite your nails” thing, after habitually doing so pretty much my entire life.

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Crochet: Egg of Lamb

Crochet: Egg of Lamb

Hey there! I got locked out of my own darn dashboard and had to wait til my IT guy (aka husband) got around to resolving some server issues. All is well, so I’m here today to share my favorite (okay, ONLY) amigurumi of 2015.

He’s a variation of the Bunny Egg Amigurumi I shared a few years ago. Those were cute as heck, but I saw MEGA Easter eggs at the store and KNEW I needed to crochet them into adorable little animals. A few days later, I had my first egg of lamb.

crochet lamb egg texture

First off, I used thicker yarn and a larger hook. I suggest something more textured, like Lion Brand’s Homespun Thick & Quick, or what I used: Loops & Threads Country Loom (“warm white” from Michael’s). I used a 6 mm (US 10/J) hook. It’s bigger than we normally use for amigurumi, but smaller than what is called for these yarns. You still want tighter stitches for the amigurumis! Less than one skein of Country Loom made the little lamb.

lamb egg face

crochet lamb egg ear

For the face and ears, I used a 4.5 mm (US 6/G) hook and worsted weight yarn from my scrap bucket, so I’m not sure the brand.

crochet lamb egg size

My egg is 8″ in diameter, so there were some adjustments to the pattern. Below, I have listed my stitch counts per round. My increases were made evenly, without joining, using a stitch marker to keep track. I suggest starting each piece with a magic loop.

EGG BOTTOM
Round 1: 6 SC
R 2: 12
R 3: 18
R 4: 24
R 5: 30
R 6: 30
R 7: 36
R 8: 42
R 9-12: 42
R 13: 48
R 14: 48
R 15: slst 48, fasten off and weave in ends.

EGG TOP
Round 1: 6 SC
R 2: 12
R 3: 18
R 4: 24
R 5: 24
R 6: 30
R 7-8: 30
R 9: 36
R 10: 42
R 11-13: 42
R 14: 48
R 15-16: 48
R 17: slst 48, fasten off and weave in ends.

LAMB EARS (make 2)
Round 1: 5 SC
R 2: 10
R 3: 15
R 4-9: 15, fasten off, leaving at least 18″ of tail. Flatten ear and fold bottom in half when sewing in place.

LAMB FACE
His little face is a simple circle made to 54 stitches. I started with 6 in a magic loop and increased by 6 for 9 rounds. I moved the increases around a bit, so it was more circular instead of a hexagon.

I stitched the face onto the circle, then sewed the circle and his ears onto the top piece before hot gluing it onto my egg. I lined up the top of my crochet piece with the top of the egg and glued it first. I then slowly added bits of glue down to the edge and firmly attached the crochet. Keep the egg pieces separate while gluing, so you don’t accidentally glue them together! You wanna fill it with goodies, right?

crochet lamb egg filled

You can fill your egg with yarn! Give it to a fellow yarny friend. You can also fit WHOLE candy bars into it, if that’s your style. What would you put in yours??

P.S. The MEGA eggs come in three sizes, 8″, 12″, and 16″. I was curious to see what the 16″ looked like, so I made a mama:

crochet lamb egg family

It’s cute, but it’s difficult to open and close, so…pretty much useless. It works as a wonderful decoration, though! You could fit a lot of yarn in there, hmm?

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Knitting with Cleckheaton’s Australian Superfine Merino

Australian Superfine Merino by Cleckheaton

Last month, the fine folks at Cleckheaton sent over one of their beanie kits for review. After reading their story, I was pretty curious just how soft the yarn would be. It comes from specially selected sheep and is milled right there in Victoria. Australia’s finest is right here in south Texas! I wondered if THIS would finally be the wool my kids would not complain about.

Cleckheaton Superfine Merino Beanie Kit

This photo is straight from my Instagram. I got so excited after it came that I took the photo and cast on immediately, without taking out my camera for a proper photo. The kit has two balls of Australian Superfine Merino and a two-colour beanie pattern, which you can find for free here, along with a good assortment of other patterns. Those baby sweaters are making me swoon! My cousins and sisters are refusing to procreate for me! I just want a baby to knit for, take photos of, cuddle, and send back. Is that too much to ask?*

Anyway…the colors are gorgeous! This gray is called “iceberg” and it is the perfect name. Icy cold with subtle hints of blue when you look at it a certain way. The orange is simply called “burnt orange” and it the warmest compliment to the gray. It’s a deep, rich pumpkin color and makes me miss fall.

Australian Superfine Merino by Cleckheaton pompom!

Australian Superfine Merino by Cleckheaton stst

Australian Superfine Merino by Cleckheaton rib

Two-colour beanie

So, what was the verdict? VERRRRY SOFT! We like. I don’t think he even knows it’s wool. I generally shove beanies on my kids’ heads and if they complain, I tell them to just deal with it until we get inside or get to the car. My youngest is the loudest complainer, but this guy tends to be more prone to allergy-like reactions. He’s mildly allergic to cats (proven with an allergy test), so most animal fibers are just meh to him. He doesn’t break out or have trouble breathing, thank God, but wool sweaters and hats aren’t his favorites. He liked this one, though! It’s got a good slouch and the pom pom is awesome.

The yarn definitely feels more silky smooth than other wools. It hasn’t shed or pilled at all in the past week or so that we’ve had it in rotation. The pattern was great, though I adjusted it to work in the round. I could not see myself working that much stockinette stitch flat! Luckily, it was easy to adapt the crown decreases and whatnot. I had a good time mindless knitting that stockinette in the round. The kit comes in an itty bitty project bag that was great to tote the beanie-in-progress around. I knit in a taqueria!

I can really see myself using this yarn for other projects. There are so many colors to choose from! I want to get my hands on some of that mustard ASAP. Yellow is the color of my Spring and my heart is begging for a yellow lacey cardigan.

Two-colour beanie

Nathan: two colour beanie edition

the almost tween

*My oldest turns TEN (10!) in exactly 3 months. I think he looks so grown up in that last photo! This has turned on something in my brain that makes me absolutely gooey over babies. Yes, I have the fever. The baby fever! If you have a baby and you see me, just let me carry them, ok? I’ll smooch their wittle face and hand them right back. Or I’ll put them in my knitting bag and take them home. I’m not 100% certain which flavor of baby-crazy I am, this week.

Click here if you want to try one of their Knit-it-Yourself beanie kits!

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Crochet: Christening blanket

Crochet: Christening blanket

I get extremely flattered when someone asks me to make them something specific. My mom’s friend recently commissioned a Christening blanket for her new granddaughter. It’s such an important piece of a family’s history! I felt a little intimidated by the significance this might have, but she calmed me down and set me down a simple path: white and square-ish. That’s IT.

Naturally, I scoured the web for Christening blanket patterns and inspiration, but I ended up just using my favorite stitch pattern. The offset shell stitch has been made into many blankets for babies in my family (check out those posts here), so it felt like a good choice.

Crochet: Christening blanket offset shell

I used Bernat’s Softee Baby and a 5mm (US 8/H) hook. My beginning chain was 148 and I worked until it was just about a square. I’m not sure how many rows exactly. I made a single crochet border around the whole thing, then searched for a lacy border to add. I found about a bajillion charts of lace edges on Pinterest and ended up here where I found the lovely border I ended up choosing.

Christening blanket lace corner

After figuring out the number of stitches in the pattern, I made another round of single crochet to adjust my stitch count. Luckily I wasn’t off by too much!

Crochet: Christening blanket

I think it came out lovely. It’s big and squishy and machine washable. It should last a really long time. Who knows, maybe this grandbaby will still have the blanket when she has grandbabies of her own.

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Knitting for my love with Wool and the Gang

watgbag

Happy Saturday, folks! For the first time in several weeks–probably since before Christmas–I have NO commitments, today. It’s so exciting to be doing nothing, so I’m here blogging. I really wanted to tell you guys about this sweet sweet kit Wool and the Gang sent me to review.

watgkit

They contacted me to knit something for my Valentine. I checked out their selection of Men’s Accessories and chose the Mr. Tosh beanie and the “Shacklewell Grey” colorway. I knew the gray would be what my husband preferred. Tip: know your love’s accessory preference!

The kit came with all the amazing things you see above: yarn, pattern booklet (it contains tips for things like casting on and seaming!), knitting AND finishing needles, and a nice #shareyourknits sticker.

watgsheepaca
watgip2

The Sheepaca yarn is 50% alpaca and 50% merino wool, so it is crazy soft! I kind of wished I were knitting a cowl, but my husband doesn’t wear cowls. I’ll probably offer to cuddle carry his hat when we go out. You can snag some Sheepaca alone, too. Check out the colors available here.

The pattern calls for straight knitting. I was a little hesitant to cast on the straight needles, but I really wanted to try out the rosewood needles. I am SO glad I did! These are so unlike the aluminum or bamboo needles I learned to knit on (and had such a hard time with!). They’re hefty, but not too heavy. The wood is smooth and my stitches glided effortlessly. It was a treat to knit with them. I didn’t once wish I had cast on a circular needle. Seaming at the end wasn’t bad, either! It’s always nice to freshen up a skill you hardly use and I was actually quite proud of my seam (see below)!

mrtosh1

The pattern itself was very easy to follow. The booklet was helpful and I think new knitters would really like it. There are instructions for casting on (they suggest longtail, my favorite!), beginning, the stitch pattern, finishing, seaming, etc. It’s detailed, but not overwhelming.

j1
j3
j2
mrtosh4

My seam is directly to the right of the heart in the last photo. You can hardly see it! I was so proud. Tip: try out your old skills on something new, every once in a while!

The hat fit great. It matches my husband’s black jacket well and he got to wear it when the temps dropped (again), last week. Yes, I gave it to him early for the sake of the blog. Plus, he’s leaving to Vegas on the 15th, so I wanted to SEE him wear it a bit.

I’m pretty much in love with Wool and the Gang, now. The sweaters, the cowl, the purses…ah! Why don’t you knit something for your sweetie, this Valentine’s Day?

mrtosh3




Disclaimer: Wool and the Gang sent me the knitting kit to review. No other compensation was provided. All opinions are my own.

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