Ten days of blog dormancy… I usually set up some blog entries to post before I head out on a trip, but this trip came up so quickly that I didn’t have the chance to do that!

Kris and I are back from our Southern California roadtrip and family visit (newborn niece! sister!), and I can’t wait to tell you more about it … just waiting for the 1300+ photos to download!  (Don’t worry, I won’t show them *all*…)  We had a wonderful time seeing this region of the US – meeting some amazing people, seeing lots of hockey games, and tasting the culinary delights, and finally being with loved ones.

… More on all of that later…

I worked on this cardigan to have it ready for hand delivery to my sister by the time we got to her new home in Monterey, and I finished seaming it in the car just a few hours before we arrived at her house.  Perfect timing!

Ruby Cardigan
Pattern: “Ruby” from the Breeze collection
Designer: Kim Hargreaves
Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold Silky Tweed (#15 colorway)
Needles: Size US 5 and 6

What a joy to knit, and it looks great on my lovely sister!  The cardigan had some great details, like the fold-over collar, the garter hems with picot edging… Mimi said it looked like the pages in an old book, slightly uneven and ruffled.  It really adds character, and was fun to knit too. 

The yarn was perfect.  It blocked so evenly and has such a professional look to it.  Along with Silky Wool, this is quickly becoming my favorite yarn.  I think it will wear well for years.  The tweed has depth and such a lovely range of color flecks.  The overall red – kind of a mix of rust and berry red, don’t you think? – looks great with my sister’s complexion, and should be a nice addition to her wardrobe.  I wanted to give her something comfortable yet flattering – something that a new mommy can feel good in, but still wear with baby.  I hope this cardigan succeeds in that goal!  It sure was a pleasure to knit, and even more of a pleasure to give it to her in person!

Yea for new knits on pretty sisters!  Yea for a new niece!  Yea for vacation! Can’t wait to share my photos with you all   Stay tuned~

So, this one was a biggie - LollyKnitting Around turned FIVE years old a few weeks ago (7/24) – and I didn’t really do anything about it.  I took several computer “fasts” for a few days time to remind myself of the importance of non-attachment (hard!)  and just didn’t get around to posting about the momentous occasion. 

Huh… five years.  Time flies!

I am not sure how many of you have been around since the beginning, but that is no matter…  because I just want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart!  It is truly an honor to walk alongside you (virtually and in real life!)  on this journey.  I have had the wonderful opportunity to meet many of you, and I hope to meet many more of you in the future!  Thanks for reading and for being a part of my life!  *Much love and gratitude!*

As is the custom in this region of “Bloglandia”, I am planning to run a contest for my fifth blogiversary – but I wanted to put a little spin on it

I have been in organization/cleaning mode this past week, and I have come across hundreds of little yarn scraps – too much to throw away, but not enough to really do anything with.  Some are leftover balls from projects, some are yarn samples.  I have used these scraps in the past to make the Rapunzel scarves, but I can’t keep up with the supply…  So, I decided to start making a ball – a scraptacular ball – with plans to start a scraptacular project.  I am planning a big garishly colored blanket with these scraps… like only a blanket a knitter could love and appreciate.  The brilliant Chawne suggested a quilt that radiated out from the center, like Larissa’s Barn Raising quilt squares from her book Knitalong: Celebrating the Tradition of Knitting Together.  I love this idea, as it would be quite easy to add to with new scraps.   I may just have to come up with several ideas, as scraps are never going to be gone from my stash!

 How many yards / meters do you think are in this scraptacular ball??

Care to venture a guess?

Hints:  It is packed tight and has a little weight to it, and it took me about 100 minutes to wind this ball up (aka watching this past week’s amazing episode of True Blood episode twice).  There are at least 75 individual yarn scraps in this ball at this point.

And for the winners – two winners who come closest to the final yardage – a choice between these two prizes:

 Fleece Artist Goldilocks Kit – in rich indigo purple.  540 yards of silk/mohair boucle for the Goldilocks shawl – a triangular garter stitch shawl – pattern on the label.  I bought this in Nova Scotia, the home of Fleece Artist, last year.

Hunt Valley Cashmere -a Maryland supplier of this pale pink 100% cashmere.  1.95 oz skein.   Perfect for a cowl or mitts.

Contest is open till Thursday (8/13) at 5:00pm EST. 

Even if you don’t care to be in the contest, I would still love to hear from you    Once again, thank you, dear friends, for so many happy years!

This is a perfect time in my knitting career to have babies to knit for – there are *so* many great patterns that I just don’t know where to begin.  (As evidenced by my Ravelry queue with the tag: “baby”…) Check it out:

• Just this week, the new Petite Purls site launched – the wonderful efforts of Allegra and Brandy and a great design team.  Adorable free patterns specifically for babies and children!  Congratulations!  I have already queued up several patterns and have to play eeny-meeny-miney-mo to decide which goes on the needles first!
• With the launch of the new and improved Interweave Knitting Daily site, there is a free PDF “e-book” of  seven sweet baby knits from back issues of Interweave Knits magazine.  You have to log-in or join Knitting Daily to download.  The new site looks great and offers some nice resources.

The newest addition to the baby knits category on my side bar:

Victorian Baby Bonnet

Pattern: Knitalong: Celebrating the Tradition of Knitting Together, by Larissa Brown
Yarn: Tahki Cotton Classic – / .5 skein ~60 yards
Needles: Size US 6 circulars

Such a sweet pattern – and the lace repeat is actually one that I can handle without the need to rip!  This little golden yellow skein has been in my stash for ages so it was nice to produce something from it.  I still have some leftover since it only used about half of a skein.  I see more of these in my future… relatively quick to make, sweet, and a lovely gift.  Perhaps my new little niece can have a little rainbow of bonnets… but if I know anything my sister, baby girl will be  fully outfitted in purple!

This project was a stashbuster, my last one for the Stanley Cup Stashbusting knitalong, as well as a knit project for this round of Project Spectrum.  The EAST direction is coming to a close before too long, and the direction will shift to SOUTH – reds, oranges, fire, and summer!  Looking forward to it…

For a little more Project Spectrum yellow inspiration, I stepped out into the garden this morning for a quick look around and saw all the lovely blossoms – marigolds and  squash flowers!

Good news on the family front:  I am going to be an auntie (again!)  However, this time, it is my own sister, Mimi, who is pregnant.  She is due in early October and just found out last week that it is a girl!   Mimi and Daniel have lots of life changes happening right now:  they are moving to central California next month and then baby comes in the fall.   Kris and I are quite excited to get another west coast trip in this year to go meet baby (and to explore more of the central coast!) 

…as you can imagine, any time a knitter hears about a baby – and in my case, many babies, as several friends are also “with child” – the mind wanders to all the possibilities for little knits.  I have not ventured deeply into baby knit territory yet.  My knitting resumé includes two baby blankets, a bib, and a pair of booties. 

…I can add one more baby blanket to the list now…

Cotton Ball Baby Blanket – cuddly and snuggly in every way.  I got some cones of undyed unmercerized cotton at WEBS awhile back.  Initially, I intended to do some weaving with them, but instead, I decided to make a nice gender-neutral baby blanket with two strands knit together.  Simplest of the simple – stockinette with garter ridge edging.  Luckily, I have some more of this yarn for another one – it was such a simple and enjoyable knit that I already want to make another one!

Baby knits seem like the ideal way for me to do some major stashbusting.  This blanket was a great stashbuster (perfect for the Ravelry Stanley Cup Stashbusting KAL) and I have several skeins of yarn that fit well in the category of baby knits:

Do you have a “go to” baby knit?  Any ideas for the yarns I show here?  I have a lot of baby knits queued up over on Ravelry (and I received some emails and private messages asking me if *I* was going to be making a big announcement… nope… other than the fact that I will be an auntie!) but I would love to hear from you if you have a favorite – specifically little and quick things for small amounts of yarn – booties, hats, or toys!

There is a very nice sense of accomplishment that comes when you can reach into the yarn stash, find a skein that has taken up residence for sometime, and a few days later, you have a fun finished knit…

The Ravelry Stanley Cup Stashbusting knitalong is just the right excuse for me to do this and to make some quick little knits that can be used right away.

A springy pastel headband that is just perfect for yoga asana practice – I am calling it my Baddha Band.  Baddha is Sanskrit for “bound”, so it seemed like an appropriate name for something to hold my hair back when I am doing  inverted yoga poses!   I used the Calorimetry pattern and a yarn that has been in the stash so long that it is now discontinued:  Noro Sakura.  It is a nylon blend with little thread/ribbon pieces at various spots.  If I remember properly, I picked this yarn up at a swap, but it may have been a clearance bin find too… I have another skein in a deep orange with some purple highlights… maybe for a different Project Spectrum month!  The yarn itself looks very much like the friendship bracelets that I used to make in elementary school to trade with my friends and sisters.  I added the pink synthetic flower for fun and in celebration of the beautiful spring weather.  Someone noted that the yarn colors reminded them of a blooming cherry blossom tree – and the good folks at Noro must have thought the same thing because “Sakura”, the name of the yarn, means cherry blossom in Japanese!

It’s quite girly with the bright colors, but I think it will be a nice little headband to make me smile during yoga practice!

When Larissa made this little shawl back in January (Rav link), it caught my eye.  I do not knit a lot of lace, and this was just my speed – yos and dropped stitches – and I could barely believe it when I saw the low yardage needed to make it…perfect for a lone skein of cashmere/silk blend that has lived in the stash for a few years waiting for a special project:

It is the Storm Cloud Shawlette pattern from Hanna at ever green knits.  Such a beautifully simple and meditative pattern to knit.  Especially with a special yarn.  I used a hank of Alchemy Monarch in “Teal Tide” colorway, it was a gift from Cathi awhile back… just one of those lovely skeins that sits and waits for a special project.  Only 156 yards and now I have this great little neck piece!  I used size 11 needles for it, but I could have gone even bigger for more drape and size.  I do lovely looking at the project pages on Ravelry and seeing how people have made this pattern in different yarns and gauges.  Love the creativity.

Both projects fit into the theme for the NORTH direction of Project Spectrum, specifically with the green focus.  With only a few days remaining in this phase (before we focus on the EAST direction!) my mind is already thinking about new projects, but I could easily have green all year… it is such an amazing color!