30 Day Sweater Challenge, Day 4

Oh my. What is this craziness? It took a little bit of planning but it's a color-blocked baseball-style raglan sweater that I'm knitting for the 30 Day Sweater Challenge. Read more about it on my guest post today on the Ewe Ewe knitting blog.

If you want to get in on the action and knit your own sweater, visit 30daysweater.com to download your free sweater planning guide. And visit NobleKnits.com during the the month of October to get 15% off of Ewe Ewe Wooly Worsted yarn! Use the code: 30DAYSWEATER at checkout. Let's get knitting.

30 Day Sweater Challenge, Day 2: the lazy knitter

I know I'm doing it wrong, but I don't always knit gauge swatches. Even when I'm knitting sweaters. (Gasp.) Unless I'm designing something and even then, I usually just make a teeny-tiny swatch, which probably doesn't even count. But for the 30 Day Sweater Challenge, you get to design your own sweater using your own measurements so you really, really have to knit a swatch. Mine is still kind of wrong because I didn't make the garter stitch border but I did soak it and block it and then measured/counted my stitches with a ruler. The whole process didn't take long at all. It wasn't a huge pain. I'm glad I had a really good excuse to swatch because now I've reminded myself that it's not a big deal and I know swatching will absolutely save me a lot of time in the future if I become a 'good' swatcher and do this each time I knit. I know it's hard to resist diving right into a new project but I can definitely see the value of a swatch. Now that I know my gauge, I can plug those numbers into a formula that will become my own personal sweater pattern. And that is pretty cool.

We are on Day 2 of the 30 Day Sweater Challenge, which means we've all made our sweater-making plans and swatches and I'm almost ready to cast on. I'm going to be knitting Bowie's sweater in Ewe Ewe Wooly Worsted in three colors – Brushed Silver, Sapphire and Orange Peel. (I know ... even the color names are cool.) Wooly Worsted is incredibly soft 100% merino and it's washable, so I know it will be the perfect yarn for a child's sweater.

If you want to get in on the action and knit your own sweater, visit 30daysweater.com to download your free sweater planning guide. And visit NobleKnits.com during the month of October to get 15% off Ewe Ewe Wooly Worsted yarn! Use the code: 30DAYSWEATER at checkout.

30 Day Sweater Challenge

Join thousands of knitters world-wide this October in The 30 Day Sweater Challenge! Today is the first day of this awesome world-wide knit-along and if you were hoping to knit a sweater just in time for fall, I invite you to take this 30-day challenge with me.

To sign up, visit 30 Day Sweater Challenge and download your free sweater planning guide. It's definitely not too late to jump in. You can knit a sweater for yourself or a loved one – adult, child or baby. If you want to go a step further, there is an online course available which is incredibly comprehensive and will teach you everything about sweater construction that you could possibly imagine. Plus it has printable worksheets, gauge/swatch calculators and a sweater planning calendar to keep you on track.

The 30 Day Sweater is the easiest way to design a top-down, seamless raglan sweater that fits in 30 days or less. This flexible framework puts you in control, allowing you to make decisions along the way to design a sweater that's your size in the yarn of your choosing with lots of room for customizations. The 30 Day Sweater online course includes step-by-step, day-by-day instructions, downloadable worksheets, video tutorials, and an interactive forum where you can ask questions from experienced knitters or share your progress. With The 30 Day Sweater you can make an unlimited number of sweaters for any size person, in almost any yarn. 

This month, I will be taking the 30 day challenge and will knit a raglan sweater for Bowie using my new favorite worsted weight 100% merino superwash yarn, Ewe Ewe Wooly Worsted. I'll be using three awesome colors and I can't wait to get started. I'll post my progress here and on the Ewe Ewe knitting blog, so check back to see how everything's going.

But in the meantime, visit 30 Day Sweater Challenge and download your free sweater planning guide. The guide will help you choose your yarn and then making a swatch. Knit along with me! This is going to be fun.

hello, Stitch.

Have you stopped by Stitch yet, Des Moines friends? It's a brand new fabric, yarns, and needlecrafts shop in the East Village. You need to go because it's amazing. Last week, a couple of friends and I stopped by to check everything out and we were pretty excited about every single thing we saw. Take a little tour with me.

 

Tonight at 6 p.m. is Stitch's official grand opening party, which makes it the perfect time to go and see everything for yourself. The shop owners are so incredibly nice, so be sure to say hello. And go ahead and check out their website, Facebook page and Instagram feed while you're at it, because you'll want to see what they're up to in the months ahead. Brand new fun and exciting crafty things in our city – thanks ladies! I know a lot of people are pretty excited about this.

a new sweater for Lo

Over the weekend, I finally finished knitting this sweet fuchsia owl sweater for Lo. She picked out this awesome pink Malabrigo a few months ago (and pink buttons for the owl eyes) and I'm loving the way it turned out. The pattern is Owlet by Kate Davies and you can read all of the other knitterly details here. (What's on your needles these days?)

music monday

Tomorrow marks the release of Nine Inch Nails' new album 'Hesitation Marks' and I am absolutely obsessed with this song. Can't get enough. Check out their entire live set from Lolla this summer right here, too. So incredibly good, so worth your time. (Happy Labor Day - hope you're enjoying yourself!)

nine

Nine years ago today, this was us. Who were we? A couple of kids, it seems. We had just bought a house. We didn't have children. We were fun; so happy and carefree. Little did we know that we were putting down roots in good old Des Moines, right then and there. We probably guessed where we'd be living and what we'd be doing in ten years, but we didn't have a clue. We didn't know how good it would be. We're still here. Us. Plus two children. In the same house, in the same city. And life is a new kind of fun. Happy and carefree. Happy nine years of marriage, my friend.

an apple for the teacher

I've been doing a lot of knitting lately ('tis the season, despite the heat wave.) But I had to share this quick and adorable back-to-school-related project. I made two of these knitted apple cozies for Lo to take to her teachers on the first day of school, and they were super fun to make.

 

In case you haven't heard of an apple cozy, it's basically a cover for your apple so it doesn't get bruised in your lunch box. I have seen a lot of crochet apple cozies, but I really like how it looks knitted in stockinette stitch. I followed this free pattern by Linda Dawkins of Natural Suburbia and knitted with cotton yarn so the cozies will be washable. My only modifications were adding crocheted leaves and crocheting a chain for the button loop instead of making an i-cord. (What's on your needles these days?)

back to school

Last week, Lo became a first grader. Things are going swimmingly, as you can see.

Last year, she begged me to walk with her into the building and all the way to her classroom every morning for the first couple of months. Now she begs me not to. She's got this!

Her teachers are wonderful and she sits next to her best friend in class. She's excited to do homework and she's stoked about her new backpack. I'm stoked for a little bit more freedom/time with Bowie during the day and getting everyone back on a normal schedule. Summer is fun but back to school time is fun, too. (There she goes.)

weekend visitors

My dear friend Kristi, her boyfriend Ahn-Tuan and their little American hairless terrier Chloe stopped in Des Moines for an overnight visit in the middle of their cross-country drive from NYC to LA. (That's quite the roadtrip.) Their stay with us went all too fast but it made my heart burst at the seams with love and happiness to see my friend.

 

It was the very best way to spend part of our weekend and I only wish it could have lasted longer. We gave our friends a quick and dirty tour of Des Moines and stayed up super late talking and catching up. It was wonderful and looking back at these pics make me smile. Safe travels, my friends! Thanks for stopping by to see us.