Flock Together Mitts - new pattern

So, I've gotten the designing bug. Here is my latest pattern, Flock Together Mitts, for sale on Ravelry and Etsy. They are super quick to make and would be a great gift :) Feathery goodness for your fall season...


http://www.etsy.com/listing/82679705/flock-together-fingerless-mitts-pattern

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/flock-together-mitts

Tea Latte Cowl pattern!

Well it's about time I had a new pattern. Here is the Tea Latte Cowl...a cozy, chunky cowl knit in a herringbone stitch on large needles. This is lovely and warm in a wool roving yarn by Patons, but it could work with a variety of chunky yarns. I've always admired the herringbone stitch. The stitch has such a classic look, but the chunky yarn adds a modern feel. I hope you'll try it out! Available for sale on Ravelry.

inspired

My last post inspired me to get started. Here is what I came up with today:

to do

I've been in the mood to do more painting lately. I want to start painting more patterns and small simple drawings, etc. I have been doing a tiny bit of it, for some of my wedding invitation designs:

aqua diamonds invite

hand-painted flowers invite

chevron stripes invite

I'd love to do more though. For some reason I have always been drawn (no pun intended!) to illustrations of food and recipes.  Here is some inspiration I've gathered on Pinterest lately, mostly found in Etsy and Pinterest.

Asian recipe poster

Claudia Pearson

And some fashion from Samantha Hahn - adore it

What inspires you right now? Do you have anything you're dying to get into this fall? A new hobby or something you've not done for a long time? It seems I have a need to learn a lot of new things right now. I'm taking a dyeing workshop next Sunday at the Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival. I'm starting a 10 week metal-smithing class at Multnomah Arts Center in October and I'm taking a Tunisian Crochet class this Wednesday at Twisted yarn shop. Whew! Now that I've listed it all out I can really tell my need to learn! I guess that comes with this season :) Happy Weekend! I'm off to do some creating...

another photoshop tutorial

I just tried this and it is super fun. I also learned a few new things about Photoshop in general, which is always handy. Here is my original photo:

Here is one I created using a block of text, following the tutorial:

And here is one using painted text. This was fun! It takes a little practice for sure, to get it exactly like you want it. Also, next time I will use a larger image with more detail, but what a fun idea to do for someone's birthday card or as a gift or something. Love it!

Here is the link to the tutorial. I hope you'll try it out and share your creations!!

http://layersmagazine.com/photoshop-cs4-a-picture-worth-a-thousand-words.html

weekly update

Hello! Today I am busy cooking in the kitchen, so I thought I'd share what I'm making because it smells amazing, I have to say. First of all, in order to eat more veggies, I think I need to just keep some dishes prepared in the fridge, cooked or chopped up or however. So today I roasted some root vegetables, as pictured here: carrots, parsnips, and yellow beets.

Just chop them into chunks that are all roughly the same size, toss in olive oil, salt, and pepper, and cook them for about 35 min. on 425 degrees. Check them to make sure they're not dried out, but that the veggies are tender and easy to cut. Mmm. They reheat well or you can just add them to a salad, with goat cheese. YUM! Dang, I forgot goat cheese at the store...

Also today, since I have knitting group kinda early (6pm) and I'm always starving by the time I get home around 8:30 or 9, I decided to make dinner early and eat before I go. I found this on Pinterest and thought I'd try it out. It smells amazing. I believe the only difference in my ingredients is that I didn't have chipotle chili powder, so I used regular chili powder, but I DID have smoked paprika, so I used that instead of regular paprika. We'll see!  BBQ Pulled Pork Recipe

Lastly, no photos, but thanks to my friend Shayla I made some Pumpkin Spice Creamer today. Mmmm! It's only a slight pumpkiny flavor, but definitely adds some fall flair to your coffee. You could experiment with the amount of pumpkin and spice. I might add a bit more cinnamon or something. I'm not sure where the recipe came from, so if you know, feel free to post a link.

Pumpkin Pie Coffee Creamer

1/2 - 3/4 cup canned pumpkin

1 3/4 cup half and half

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Blend this all in the blender and store in the fridge in an air tight container. It's yummy! 

You probably want to add some sugar to your coffee to bring out the flavor. I usually just have coffee with cream, but this was better a little sweet. You could probably add it to your creamer if you wanted.

Enjoy these yummy fall-ish dishes. It's getting gloomier here and cooler now, but this time of year I kind of welcome that type of weather. Lots of knitting to be done!!!

xoxo

today's goodwill finds

So, after seeing this cute idea on Design*Sponge this morning, I was inspired to stop by the closest Goodwill on my way home earlier today. Look at all of the great things I found! All for $20 :) Gotta love it.

Vintage pillowcases for my cocktail napkin project (see above)

A cool wall hanging handmade in Peru!

Awesome green glass dishes... set of 4 for $12 :)

A lovely painting of a giraffe. He is so handsome!

A great Ball mason jar with a glass lid

Thank goodness for thrifting. It's so inspiring. I didn't find what I was looking for, an enamel pot for my yarn dyeing, but I sure found really cool stuff for 20 bucks. Amazing. Now I need to go search out the other places. I think there are some good ones down the street...and one really interesting place that's only open on Saturdays. I need to be sure to TAKE some loads to the thrift stores, too :) I found this great coat and this awesome skirt a couple of years ago at a thrift store in Nashville.  What are your favorite thrifting finds?

on the needles and off of the needles

Happy Labor Day! I hope everyone has had a fun weekend with friends and family. We just returned from a 3 day camping trip/family reunion with my husband's mother's family. This Labor Day tradition has been going on for 58 years! What a great thing to have in your family. We had a great time doing a little fishing, a little pot-lucking and a lot of hanging out. I LOVE camping in the Pac. NW. Hot during the day, but still in the 50's at night :)

So, I realized I hadn't posted about knitting in a while. I wanted to share some photos of finished projects as well as what is now (or about to be) on my needles. Here goes:

Westknits Earth & Sky Mystery Shawl: This was my first mystery project and it was fun! I am happy with how my colors worked together. It was fun to work on a small project that you didn't know what the finished piece would look like. I used Malabrigo Sock (gold), Koigu KPM (pale pink), and Shibui Sock (gray).

Stripe Study Shawl from Veera Välimäki. This was a GREAT knitting group project. I used 2 colors of Sanguine Gryphon Sock on this project. 

Bias Wrap Scarf. This was a pattern I picked up free with purchase at my new LYS, Close Knit. It is called the Firefly Scarf on their pattern, using Classic Elite's Firefly yarn. I used Baby Llama Glow from Plymouth Yarn Co. I modified the end of the scarf to have 3 button holes and a garter ridge so I could button it instead of just ending it in a point like the other end. I LOVE this yarn. It has a tiny bit of sparkle and is SO soft.

Chili Bean's Dress. The final finished project of late is a little crocheted dress I made for my sister-in-law and her baby girl that is due anytime now. It's the Mina Dress from Alicia Paulson and what an adorable pattern it is. It took me only part of a day to make and I can't wait to see it on our new niece. My sister-in-law has 3 boys already, so having a little girl will be so fun!

I'm working on these 3 projects right now:

Berrocco Ristretto. This one in a soft grey green color of the same yarn the pattern calls for.

Berroco Farrah. I'm doing this in the mustard yellow color of the yarn, Glint.

From Norway with Love. I LOVE this hat. I'm doing it out of a pale gray with the hearts in the Baby Llama Glow of my previously mentioned scarf. It's turning out fun so far!

Whew. So glad I posted some knitting stuff on my knitting blog ;) I've been back in the swing of things lately in the knitting world, so I had a fair amount to catch up on with you all! Fall is slowly approaching here in Portland. It's still nice in the evenings, but we finally have a summer during the day now. I'm still excited about these fall evenings that are inevitable soon. Preparing the closet with freshly knitted jumpers is always a knitter's favorite thing about fall! xoxo