Year of Projects 3: Stopping and Starting

Dark and Stormy     Perfect Sweater II     Color Affection     Husband Sweater                          Creedence           Striped Sweater         Boneyard Shawl

This week I finished the ribbing on my Dark and Stormy sweater:

Since I don't feel up to the miles of 2x2 ribbing needed for the shawl collar just yet, I cast on for the back of my Perfect Sweater II:

The front came out a tad too big (21.5" wide instead of 20") so I decided to make the back one size smaller so it should come out 19.5" but it's knitting so one never knows. . .  When I do the decreases for the arm hole, I'll bind off 1 less stitch on a few of the rows such that I'll end up with the same number of stitches left for the shoulder seam as the front. At least that's the plan. . .

Year of Projects 3: Clear and Calm

Dark and Stormy     Perfect Sweater II     Color Affection     Husband Sweater                          Creedence           Striped Sweater         Boneyard Shawl

My Dark and Stormy sweater has been stuck in the post-sleeve divide for almost  a year!

so I thought I'd better get it out and work on it again. Why I chose the hottest week of the year to do so I have no idea, although we finally had some dry weather instead of storms and flooding. 

I initially decided I'd just work on it each weekend because it takes more concentration than some of my other projects, but once I got it out and re-familiarized myself with the pattern I picked up speed, so decided to just push on and get the body done.  I'm not quite there yet, but I just have the ribbing left to do.

Hopefully by next week I'll have bound off!

Year of Projects 3: Going Green

Dark and Stormy     Perfect Sweater II     Color Affection     Husband Sweater                          Creedence           Striped Sweater         Boneyard Shawl

Thanks so much to everyone who commented on my Year 2 Summary and Year 3 Project List posts! One person said they missed me when I stopped blogging which blew me away! I will try and post more often this year :)

A couple of you asked about the Bali bag - here is a link to purchase the pattern: http://www.auntiestwo.com/pattern.html

It's the 2nd one from the bottom. I bought it a quilt show a few years ago. 

I spent the July 4th holiday weekend in Asheville, NC  which meant  car knitting so I got quite a bit done on my green sweater. 

Before I left I had this much done:

And now I have the front done! 

It was a cloudy day so I had to use the flash. 

The color in the top photo is more accurate. 

Hooray for car knitting! I bought the yarn at Purls Yarn Emporium in Asheville, NC when we were there last July so thought I'd better get going on it so I could buy more yarn while I was there this year which I did :)

For those interested: blog post about the trip/yarn purchases is here.

Weekend in Asheville II

A year ago my husband and I spent a weekend in Asheville, NC and we had such a great time that we decided to go again this year. On our way to Asheville we stopped in the town of Black Mountain so I could visit the Black Mountain Yarn Shop:

and buy yarn for a future striped sweater project:

We stayed at the same B&B as last year (Carolina Bed an Breakfast) which was once again fabulous!

But unlike last year when the temps were near 100, the temps were in the mid-80s so we were able to open the windows in our room and get a nice cross-breeze.

They also have the most amazing food: a delicious 2 course breakfast, hors d'oeuvres in the evening and a dessert left in our room while we were out at dinner:

Downtown was only a ~15 min walk away and with all of the rain we've had, the 

yards we walked by were green and lush.

Saturday morning we walked into downtown so like last year, I could check out 

Purl's Yarn Emporium:

Some of the yarn is arranged by color:

I bought some yarn for a future shawl project - it's 100% baby alpaca and is SO soft!

The next morning we set out for a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway and 

went through some interesting tunnels:

 

We had planned to take a short hike on a trail just off the parkway but turned 

around when we ran into dense fog:

So we headed back into downtown and spent the afternoon drinking coffee and reading in this amazing bookstore:

Since the weather was so nice, we had dinner outside at this restaurant (Carmels) and watched interesting people go by:

It was a great weekend of relaxing, reading and knitting!

A 3rd Year of Projects: The Project List

I had so much fun participating in the 2nd Year of Projects (and I got a lot done!) that I decided to take part in Year 3. Year of Projects is organized through the Ravelry Group "Come Blog-a-long" and it runs from July1st 2013 through June 30th 2014. We make a list of projects we'd like to complete and post about our progress on Sundays.

Here is my list - it includes 2 leftover UFO from last year, 3 new sweaters, 2 shawls and use of stash yarn: 

Knitting:

1. Dark and Stormy: a carry over from last year

2. Perfect Sweater II

3. Color Affection

4. Husband Sweater: using stash yarn for this project

5. Creedence: using stash yarn for this project

6. Striped Sweater: yarn tbd

Quilting:

1. Bali bag (carry over from last year):

2. Tulip Quilt:

(with a white background)