SEWmuchKNITting

I had this piece of stretch poplin in my stash, and I thought I should jump on the animal print bandwagon before it left town :-) I have made Simplicity 9825 a couple of times before, so this was a quick project: Since I was in the mood for immediate sewing gratification, I didn't line it. This was an enjoyable afternoon spent at my sewing machine :-)

Although the weather today here in Michigan is a 'balmy' 49 degrees F, that wasn't the case a couple of weeks ago. And I think the entire nation is aware of the nasty weather that Chicago experienced, where my two daughters live. These infinity scarves crocheted out of 2 skeins of Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick and Quick were just the thing for the sub-zero temperatures: These are so quick to make, that I ended up making four total. Two of them found their way to Chicago, I gave one to my son's girlfriend and I even kept one for myself! Free pattern can be found here .

I hate to admit it, but I've been subscribing to the Ottobre Woman pattern magazine for quite some time now, but have never sewn anything up! I think tracing the pattern off was a little daunting, but I had this cute, beefy cotton knit from Fabric.com that was calling out to me to be a comfy knit dress, and the May 2010 issue had the perfect little dress (pattern #10): It fit right out of the box...the extra 1/4" I added at each side seam "just in case" wasn't needed, and I may take a little more in, we'll see. I used fusible stabilizing tape (LOVE that stuff!) around the neckline and at the hem. What you *won't* see close-up is the rather sloppy job I did with the pintucks at the front neckline. I should have place some stabilizer behind where the tucks were sewn, since it was hard to sew them straight with this knit. I made this up as a wearable muslin, so I left them in as is...didn't want to rip out that knit fabric which I think would have ...

The picture below (before blocking) is of my finished 2010 Block-of-the-Month afghan sponsored by my local yarn shop, Sweet Pea's . We did not choose the yarn colors, but did get to choose either pastels or jewel tones. Both were pretty, but I liked the pastels best. We knit 3 panels in blocks of four and then joined the rows together. I used a knit-on edging to finish my afghan, something I had not done before. The yarn used was a heavy wool worsted (#5) from Brown Sheep called Shepherds Shades , and it is very soft and squishy! It was fun to meet once/month to visit with the other ladies in the class, and to see what's new in the yarn shop.  I signed up again for the 2011 BOM, this time knit in one color using a hand-dyed wool and mohair blend yarn from Red Barn Yarns . I chose a lovely light blue called Pacific Rim, as seen here . Included with the patterns for the BOM are directions to make a lovely wrap, since there 'should' be enough yarn left each month. Some ...