designer interview for Holla Knits

I'm doing a little interview today over at the Holla Knits blog! 

here & there

It's been awhile since I've done a photo post, so I wanted to share!

 Chris and I went to The Edison on St. Patrick's day, and it was super fun. 

I took a break from the mittens to knit a pair of baby booties for a friend. 

The bunny snuck into my mitten photo shoot. 

So he got his portrait taken. 

And how's about this awesome industrial cart I picked up for $10? Thank you, Craigslist! 

Mini Mittens, Week 3

Here's the mittens from this week. Stripes, gone crazy! 

Cowboys & Horses Cloth Napkins

You can blame my friend Katy for this one. We were over at her house a few weeks ago, making delicious beet burgers and curry fries, and I asked her for a paper towel to blot the potatoes. She said "Oh, we're paper-free, can you just use a cloth napkin?"

And bam! I wanted my own cloth napkins. And you know what's perfect for making cloth napkins? Novelty fabric. 

When I dug through my fabric stash, these two prints were obviously the winners. My kitchen loves cowboys, so I knew they would fit in just fine. 

On the reverse side, I pieced together a plain blue and ditzy floral, and my napkins were done! 

mini mittens, everywhere!

Knit All the Yarn is going pretty well, if I do say so myself. I now have enough mittens for a full Smitten Mitten Garland, but I still have tons of yarn left, so I knit onward. 

I predict there will be more striped mini mittens in my future.

Fun Time with my Parents

My bloggy silence last week was due to a visit from my parents. We had so much fun exploring LA and driving down to San Diego. I wanted to share some pictures - most of them are of food. I hope that's not a problem for anyone - if it is, we'll just have to agree to disagree...

We started the week with a drive down to San Diego in a convertible, after which I looked like this:

  

 

We hopped over to Coronado Island, where my mom painted, my dad took pictures, and I stuck my feet into the freezing ocean. 

Saw the sea lions in La Jolla



And my dad grew a glowing white beard!

We drove up and down Mulholland Drive during sunset.

That's the Hollywood sign!

And visited the beach in Santa Monica, where I knit all the yarn, and my mom painted again.

But the food! Oh the food - we seriously lucked out on this trip and had some of the most amazing meals we've ever tasted. 

The best kobe burger of my life at Public House in Temecula

Three HUGE chicken dinners and delicious blue margaritas at Hash House in San Diego

A tiny glass of portable wine at the Getty Center in LA

And a delicious irish coffee on Coronado Island, a great way to end the day.

Sister Sweater Complete.

I've finished Meghan's Sweater, and I love it. I don't want to part with it... But I will! I mean, it's too tight for me anyway....

It's an extreme modification of this pattern, knit with Knit Pick's Andes Del Campo yarn in Vineyard Heather. I'm telling you - this yarn is awesome. The color is lovely, the texture is lovely; it's soft while knitting, and even softer after blocking. This may be my new favorite Aran yarn! 

I took the basic shape of the pattern, and threw out the rest. In the body section, I added chunky 5x5 cables with a gorgeous braided cable up the center back. I pulled inspiration from Aidez for the sleeves, and knit one 5x5 cable down the center, with the rest in stockinette. The sleeves were picked up around the drop-shoulders and knit down with decreases on the inside of the arm, and finished with matching 4x4 rib at the cuff. 

It's so cozy and slouchy, I hope Meghan gets to wear it every day for what little winter is left! 

Knit All the Yarn

There's nothing like moving across the country to bring your giant yarn addiction to your attention. It's not even that I have that much (I'd guess most knitters have more), it's that I live in a tiny apartment and don't have room for it all!

Therefore, I'm embarking on a new project I'm calling Knit All the Yarn (In my head. No one here cares about the yarn but me). I'm trying to knit through all the single-skeins, half balls, and leftovers, and wanted to share some of the best (free!) patterns.

Since most of my balls of yarn are the size of this tiny pink ball, I looked for a lot of patterns that use half a ball or less. The big winner was Smitten (A Holiday Garland) by Emily Ivey, available at Knit Picks. I was hoping to start this before Christmas, but you know how that goes. 

I'm gonna keep knitting tiny mittens until I have Knit All the (worsted) Yarn, and then assemble them into pleasing garlands. After knitting the 12 above, I've pretty much memorized the pattern. 

These Daisy Stitch Handwarmers from the Purl Bee were also a great way to use up leftovers. I knit these back in September. I would guess I used less than 50 yards of each color, and they're adorable.

If you've got babies to knit for, little accessories are perfect for using up extras. I've knit Saartje's Booties three times, most recently for my niece, Emlyn. 

Another thrice-knit, Allyson Dykhuizen's WORK + SHELTER Cabled Headband is a great last-minute gift. I knit it so last minute (three times), that I don't have any pictures of my finished headbands (that's Allyson up there). This is the only pattern that is not free, but it's only $2, and the money goes toward an awesome cause. 

Anyone want to Knit All the Yarn with me!? We can call it a KAY KAL, eh? Catchy, right?