Monday Miscellany

Awesome or just odd?

If you are intrigued you can find the recipe for dill macarons with chocolate hazelnut buttercream via the modcloth blog.  If you try them let me know!

In the meantime I'm sticking with the basics

Homemade apple pie.  Yum.

Heirloom

I come from a long line of crafty women and these beautiful garments were knitted by my grandmother.  Sadly, she passed away when I was only three so I don't have a lot of memories of her but I have learned that knitting was a passion of hers.  My aunt had been holding on to these baby clothes but I convinced her let me have them to frame.

This is not the best photo but if you look closely you can see how delicate the stitches are.  I particularly love that she used a feather and fan pattern on the sweater, a favorite of mine (Check out the feather and fan scarf I made for June here).  I'm sorry I never had the chance to learn from her but I'm glad that I have a few pieces of her work to inspire me. 

Knitting in Progress

 

I'm having a lot of fun knitting up this sweater for a movie lover.  If you are a Big Lebowski fan it might look familiar. 

 

The pattern is fittingly called "The Dude" and is available for free on Ravelry.  It's a challenging knit with lots of colorwork but I'm so happy with how it looks so far.  It's such an iconic sweater that I've even had a couple of folks recognize it even though I'm only halfway finished with the back. 

Matinee Idol

In case you can't tell right away, it's an homage to one of my favorite actors.  I was looking for a quick project to use up some stash yarn and I came across this great chart based on this photo of Heath Ledger.

It knit up quickly and I added a few rows of garter stitch around the edge and knit a simple stockinette back for the pillow. I sewed a muslin pillow form for the inside to avoid any stuffing leaks.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to watch “10 Things I Hate About You.”

Good News, Bad News

The good news is it was easy to sew and it has pockets.  The bad news is that it looks like grandma's housedress.  I think the problem might be the fabric.  I made this muslin for Simplicity 2004 in more of that thrift store cotton I got on the cheap.  It went together easily but all I can see is grandma's housedress.

The pattern envelope shows the dress with a belt and that does help a bit.

I'm thinking it might look sharp in a navy/white striped seersucker (see swatch pinned to the yoke) but I'm still on the fence.  Do I go ahead and cut in to the good fabric or hold off for a better pattern?  Comments are welcomed.

Monday Miscellany

These beautiful sun print projects caught my eye recently.

Sun prints on fabric via the garden design blog

And on yarn via the craft blog

I picked up a sun print kit at a yard sale this summer.  I might have to give it a try before the summer is over.

Happy Monday!

Loving lace

I'm a bit late in posting this but I wanted to share this shawl I made. It was a gift for my husband's grandmother on the occaison of her 90th birthday.  I used a lovely sock weight hand dyed Malabrigo yarn I picked up on a road trip to Vermont.  The yarn is beautiful and soft and  this project used less than one skein.  I am very happy to report that my local yarn shop has recently begun stocking this yarn so I look forward to using it in future projects.

The pattern is called In the Land of Oz and is available for purchase from Bellybuttonknits Designs. The pattern really shows off the colors in the yarn and it’s a relatively quick knit.  I would definitely make it again.

Project notes can be found on my Ravelry page.