Starting is the Easy Part
We have a birthday party to go to in the middle of the month. I had considered making something for the birthday girl (she's turning 1) but decided it was just too close to get something done in time.
Then, yesterday, I found myself going through pattern books and stash yarn. I was inspired!
I couldn't have come up with a more suitable project for my first of the year. It covers several of my 2008 goals:
- Stash yarn (the pink Patons Grace). I had to buy the single ball of lavender and white, although I did use store credit which somehow seems less stash-y.
- Using a book I already own. I bought this book -- Bouton D'or #13 -- almost 2 years ago. The children and baby patterns in this book are fantastic! Full of little details -- colorwork, lacy edgings, intarsia duckies and pink witches. What's not to love?
- Mixed media project -- those little embroidered flowers.
I didn't want to give the parents a hard to care for garment, so I washed and dried a swatch to see how it behaved. It shrunk quite a bit in width but not at all in length (which surprised me).
I can't wait to get to all the little details. Ruffles! Garter stitch edges! Embroidered flowers! This is exactly what I had in mind when I wrote up my goals list.
What a sweet little gift! That should be fun to knit and I know you'll be able to whip it out in no time.
Happy New Year!
Dear Savannachik,
Oh, how I love that pattern and bless the day I stumbled upon them! They are brilliant, quick and fun and just the thing on most winter days.
I have a pair that I've been wearing for 3+ years now, both in the winter when I go outside and in my office when they crank up the AC. I used the pattern twice this year alone for friends. Once for a pair of wristers for a teenage boy in a band (i left the cables off for that pair) and again for a friends girlfriend, only for hers I converted them into gloves. Both wearers love them endlessly and think that I'm some sort of knitting genius. And for this, I say "THANK YOU" for the free pattern that gets so much attention everywhere I go.
ps- i would love to email you the finished photos.
Oh, that is going to be so cute. You should be able to finish it in time (I mean you did knit St. Brigid in less time than it would have taken me to read the pattern...). It's going to be a sweet gift, and yay for stashbusting!
Ooh, I've been wanting to do something with Patons Grace for a while and still haven't. I hope yours goes well.
PS - Love the new blog redesign, and I think your 2007 FO list is spectacular considering one of those items is St. Brigid! :D
That pattern book looks adorable!! Is it in English or French? Your dress is going to be cute!
I L O V E the Bouton d'Or patterns! I've knit a few things from their children's patterns, but every one has had some sort of errors.
Some are HUGE errors, like if you knit to the stated gauge in the pattern you won't get the finished measurements shown. (This is easy enough to check with some math, but really you shouldn't have to! That's what testers and editors are for!).
Others were mis-labeling of charts or missing charts. Sometimes the pattern parts were just out of order, shoulder instructions before neck. I'm sure there were other problems, but they aren't coming to mind right now.
I love their patterns so much that I continue to go back to them, but I always super duper double triple check the patterns before and as I knit them.
Just wanted to give you a heads up... especially with your short time frame!