Weasley Sweater Done!

DONE!

This has been on the needles for a while. I just had no motivation to finish it. 

And I've been plenty busy with a couple of parties that took a LOT of work. 😋

So I missed my June deadline.

Then my Christmas deadline.

BUT, at least I met my Universal Studios visit deadline! 

Now Little Tomato has a nice warm sweater to wear on any chilly nights at the Wizarding World. 😊 

Knitting Tip of the Day: Sachet

I've been knitting a 'Weasley Sweater' for Little Tomato for the better part of 2017. This is my first sweater, and I have decided that I am NOT a fan of knitting sweaters. It is counter to my attention span. I like smaller knitting projects: hats, scarves, cowls, knit toys... A full size adult sweater is just 'too much of the same' kind of project for me. But I'm powering through my lack of motivation as I want it to be finished.

Weasley Sweater - I know it isn't the plain stockinette of the movies,
but I had always imagined that Mrs. Weasley would have added some girly details
onto her only daughter's sweater anyway...
* I'll be duplicate stitching the letter onto the sweater when finished.
**I'm using the 'Caora Sweater Pattern' available on Ravelry: HERE.

For this project, I have my knitting in a small mobile bag that I will throw in the car when I think I may find an opportunity to knit. 

I received a lovely lavender sachet from my aunt this past Christmas. Since I already have sachets in my dresser drawers, and this was such a pretty heart sachet, I decided to put it into my knitting bag. Now every time I pull out my knitting, it has the lovely fragrance of lavender. And when you are tediously stitching the umpteenth knit of the umpteenth row of a stockinette sweater... lavender is a calming aroma. 😋

I'm definitely keeping a sachet in my knitting bag from now on.

And I may just add one or two to my yarn stash while I'm at it... 

Bunny Parade

I started knitting a few weeks ago. I have a tendency to really jump all-in with things. And I am apparently itching for Spring weather, because I have bunnies on the mind!

The first bunny pattern I used was for the bunny on the right, the one in the yellow dress. The (free) pattern can be found HERE on Ravelry, and the dress pattern can be found HERE.  I loved the dress, but was not satisfied with the bunny.

So I moved onto a quick little project, the small striped bunny. The (free) pattern, "Anything Animals" can be found HERE. This was a really fun pattern which also has pattern details for bear ears or pigtails for the knitted critter to become a plethora of little knit friends.

When that project was complete, I thought I would try my hand at making a pattern for a bunny, which is the big striped bunny in the middle.

Finally, I knitted the Belles and Beaus Knitted Hare pattern for the bunny on the left (pattern HERE). So far, she is my favorite. Not only is she super cute, but the pattern was awesome. The ears, head, body and legs are all knitted together, I didn't need to knit separate parts to sew together at the end. (Even though I sew, I detest hand sewing. I will go out of my way to machine-sew a project to avoid the hand sewing.) The Knitted Hare pattern includes a knitting pattern for the sweater, a sewing pattern for the dress, and a knitting pattern for some miniature carrots for her to carry along. My only criticism of the pattern is that the dress is WAY too big on my bunny. I will need to alter the pattern or make my own in the future.

Now that we are entering Spring, I am getting anxious to start seeds and gardening. Hopefully bunnies of the knitted kind will be the only ones I will contend with this season!