Summer Tank

So sorry for another long absence. A week away wasn’t what I had planned. But alas I’ve been cameraless for a week.

But I have gotten a lot done. One of the most important things I accomplished was finishing up the details of Summer Tank (formerly known as Linen Isle Tank).  It is now for sale on Ravlery…. thank you for your patience. And… this time there are more sizes! Hooray!

If you are signed up for the CCKnits newsletter you will be getting a 50% off coupon in your inbox Wednesday morning.

This is a fun summer knit – and lovely to wear. Yes, I have made quite a few for myself, five in fact….

happy knitting!

It’s a rather rainy day here… perfect for a bit of knitting. I have forgotten to share with you some lovely bunting I made for Easter… well, spring in general.

Inspired by Lori’s lovely bunting I decided it was about time I made some for myself.

I found that this was a simple and easy project to carry around with me while John played outside. It tucked easily into my purse and well, was generally addictive so I think I’m going to have to knit another.

Pattern:
1 skein Plymouth Kudo (worsted weight yarn, approx.  198 yds)
US #7 needles (I used 2 dpns since they were short and easy to carry around)
Size H crochet hook

Cast on 20 stitches using the long-tail cast on method.
Rows 1 – 6: K
Row 7: K2, ssk, k to last 4 sts, k2tog, k2
Row 8 – 10: K
Repeat rows 7 – 10, seven times
Row 11: k2, k2tog, k2
Row 12: K
Row 13: k1, slip 1 st k2tog pass slip st over, k1
Row 14: k
Row 15: slip 1 st k2tog pass slip st over
cut the yarn and bring it through the last loop to bind off.
Weave in ends

To create the cord, using the US Size H crochet hook, chain 14, *chain across the top of a pendant, chain 6*, repeat from * until you have desired length, chain 16, turn and single crochet into each of the chains to the end. Pull yarn through last loop and weave in ends.

I didn’t block  my bunting, but I suppose you could.

For my fireplace bunting which measures 70 inches I made 8 pendants.

Currently I’m reading “Below Stairs”. I love “Upstairs Downstairs” and Gosford Park - this is right in the same genre.

Joining with Ginny - Happy Knitting!

One of the things that I remember about my childhood Easters are new dresses. My dad didn’t allow us to participate in Easter egg hunts or have  Easter baskets but my mom, for whom Easter egg hunts and baskets were a part of her childhood,  would always try to make us new dresses and a hat for Easter Sunday.

My favorite was a pink calico dress with little lace trim and a straw hat with a matching ribbon.

When was out on my own I would buy myself a new hat for Easter. (Yes, I adore hats.)

Now that I have my own little guy not only do I plan an Easter egg hunt for him and the cousins and an Easter basket but a new little something to wear is a must.

This year I made a little cotton vest and matching bow tie. The bow tie was sooooo much fun to make and hardly took anytime at all I plan on making a few more for Sundays. ( Lil J wore my outfit for Palm Sunday and an outfit his grandma purchased for him for Easter Sunday. But I did go ahead and make another tie for his Easter outfit. They are too much fun to make. )

I thought you all would have fun making them for your little ones so here is the pattern:

Bow Tie
Berroco Weekend i.e. cotton worsted weight yarn
US #7 needles
Tapetry needle
safety pin to secure neckband at back of collar

Co 10 sts.
Row 1: K
Row 2: K
Row 3: K
Row 4: K2, p6, k2
Repeat rows 3 &4 until piece measure 4″ from co edge to needles.
Row 5: K
Row 6: K
Row 7: K
Row 8: Bo in purl

Bow Tie Center
Co 3 sts and work 6 rows of garter stitch, bo 3 sts.

Neckband
co 3 sts and work in garter stitch for 11 – 12″ (depending on the collar size of your little one)

Using the tapestry needle and a piece of cotton, sew a running stitch up the center of the bow tie to gather it. Wrap the Bow tie center around the gathered section and sew the bow tie center together at the back. Find the mid point of the neck band and sew it onto the bow tie in the back. Steam lightly with a steam iron.

Note: the vest is my own pattern. If you are looking for a good substitute try Summer Vest by Tot Toppers

JK is reading me The Girl with a Pearl Earring while I knit at night. I’ve enjoyed it so far. I can relate to the descriptions of washing and ironing and scrubbing. Why do I find it so comforting to know that those menial tasks are so normal and have been part of life for centuries? We’ll see though… I am getting the feeling that the book is going to take a turn and I’m not going to like what is around the next corner.

Joining with Ginny…

The family Easter dinner will be celebrated at my house this year. It’s always something fun to plan. Really it’s the first dinner party of the summer season.

This year I decided to have some “crafty” decorations. Well, to be honest, I am still finding inspiration from the original flower I made for the Mom’s Beads pattern. 

This time I decided to use the basic flower to decorate napkin rings. They are so easy to make. I’ve been making them while I watch Lil John play outside. 

Here’s the pattern:

You will need
US #7 needles – you can use straight, 2 dpns, circ – whatever you desire
US #1 needles – again you can use whatever you deisre, straight, circ, dpns
Worsted weight green cotton or wool 
Sock yarn in bright colors – pink, blue, white, yellow
Assorted small buttons
tapestry needle

 For the ring:
With the US #7 needle and the worsted weight green, co 6 stitches, knit 34 rows, bo leaving a long tail.

Sew the piece together using a tapestry needle, (end to end) to form a ring.

Next make a flower:

Small Flower:
Using a US #1 (2.25mm) , leaving a 4″ tail, cast on 3 sts.
Row 1, 3, 5, 7: P
Row 2: K1, yo, k1, yo, k1. (5 sts)
Row 4: K2, yo, k1, yo, k2. (7 sts)
Row 6: K3, yo, k1, yo, k3. (9 sts)
Row 8: K
Row 9: K
Row 10: BO in p.
Make 4 petals. Sew petals together, one over lapping the next, using the yarn tails and a tapestry needle. Wet block and pin into shape. Sew button into the center of the 4 petals.
Make the following number of small flowers: 3 white, 2 pink & 3 yellow.
Using a tapestry needle, weave in ends.

Now all you need to do is sew the flower to the ring. I made sure to sew my flowers to the ring where I had sewed the ring together so the seam did not show.

It get’s rather addicting to make the flowers  - I need to make 17!

happy knitting!

]]> http://classiccableknits.com/blog/2012/03/spring-napkin-rings/feed/ 3 http://classiccableknits.com/blog/2012/03/small-things-giveaway/ http://classiccableknits.com/blog/2012/03/small-things-giveaway/#comments Sat, 24 Mar 2012 13:56:50 +0000 Christina http://classiccableknits.com/blog/?p=2625

Rain was trickling through the branches of our beautiful pear tree this morning as I made the family’s morning pot of oatmeal.

It is breathtaking in it’s garments of simple white flowers.

Last night we ate dinner out on the deck. Little white petals showered down upon us, sometimes sprinkling our food, other times falling at our feet.
“Is it snowing?” Lil John asked. How sweet! Yes, it was “snowing” spring snow – petals and the heavy scent of blooms.

I love the simplicity of childhood – it’s full of discovery and imagination.

I hope you all have a very relaxing weekend. Lil John has a terrible cough and runny nose so we plan to stay put and read lots of books.

If you are looking for some “free” patterns hop on over to Small Things. There’s a giveaway. And… if you don’t want to wait to find out if you won the giveaway there is a 25% off coupon for any CCKnits pattern purchase (only through the weekend)

happy knitting!

PS: for those of you who read the Small Things interview with me and are wondering about my mom and sister’s talent you can find them here and here. We’ve finally banded together to start a new project which you can see here!

hello friends!

I hope you are all doing well in your various corners of the world.

We have been enjoying amazing weather this week. Absolutely fantastic weather for March. It’s nearly 80 F here today. The windows are open, the birds are singing and the leaves are popping!

It is the perfect time to show you what I have been knitting.

For the March newsletter pattern I designed a very whimsical lace wrap that is embellished with appliqued knitted flowers. For my shawl I went with bright colors – persimmon, lemon, kiwi, rose and white – but for a more subdued version you could do cream on white or white on green.

I used Anzula Cloud which had been gifted to me by my sister after a trip she took to NYC. Isn’t it fun when the yarn itself has a bit of a story to it? It is a lovely cashmere/merino blend with just a touch of nylon to add durability and strength. The cashmere makes the shawl soft and whisper like to the touch. But don’t worry, the shawl is knit using a #4 needle – you don’t have to dig out the teeny-tiny needles.

The appliqued flowers are so much fun to knit. I just grabbed a bunch of my stash yarn and went to town. In fact, I made a few extra flowers – wonder what I shawl do with them.

For those of you who receive my newsletter you have a 50% coupon to apply to this pattern making it just $2.00.
For those of you who haven’t yet subscribed – you should!

You can buy the pattern here

tomorrow I have a new online shop to introduce to you!

Hello, Knitters.

I’m have a new whimsical little pattern for you to enjoy. It’s a bit silly and fun… but I hope you enjoy it. I certainly enjoyed knitting my own.

Mom’s Beads is a knitted necklace. Yes! Imagine that. It’s simple and fun.

The pattern is written for two different weights of yarn, DK and worsted. I wanted to make it easy for you all to use something you had on hand or affordable if you wanted to splurge on some really fine yarn.

You knit the necklace end to end making little pockets into which you insert glass beads. I love how the glass beads add weight and drape to the necklace so that the piece acts like real jewelry.

Then you make a quick and easy little flower to pin on the side.

Oooo and don’t forget the cute little iCord bow you make for the back.

I used glass beads that are readily available for everyone – and extremely cheap. All you need to do is head to your nearest craft supply shop –  or (gasp) dare I mention it, Walmart – and get decorative glass “stones” for floral arranging.

You can read all the details here

Remember, if you are a newsletter subscriber you have received a coupon for 50% this new pattern making it only $1.50! What fun! The newsletter and coupon code go live today (15th February).

Video tutorials for this pattern can be found here

A big thank you to Heather who tested knitted the pattern for me and to Gina who tech edited the pattern. You guys are the best!

Enjoy!

PS: If you are wondering where in the world I came up with this crazy idea…well, you’ll just have to read about it in the pattern. =)

PPS: stop by Ginny’s blog for more lovely knitting inspiration

Hello Friends!

I wanted to get this posted yesterday… but Lil John was under the weather again with a runny nose. Ugh.. being two is hard. Not only are you learning a million things a minute but your immune system is getting conditioned and knocked about. Poor little guy.

We had a lot of “car road” time and “pooh-bear” time yesterday. All the cars drive to “Gimmie’s House” where they eat apples and play with Gimmie and Papa. And Pooh-bear is a “silly-bear” who sometimes plays cars too.  Oh, my – it’s fun to see John’s imagination.

The Rag Bag Cardi is almost finished! I can’t believe it. It has been so fast to knit – I think that is because it is so much fun to knit stripes.

I added some lace panels to the bottom. I think it adds a bit of contrast and interest to the piece.

I can’t wait to get the front band on and to give it a good bath and blocking session. Hopefully early next week we’ll have a ta-dah post!

Also, I do think bright stripes are a must for January knitting from now on out. It was so happy and fun to knit during the rather quiet month. It added such brightness and happiness to knit with happy colors…

]]> http://classiccableknits.com/blog/2012/02/stripey-stripey-i-love-stripes/feed/ 10 http://classiccableknits.com/blog/2012/01/mama-ruffles-baby-ruffles/ http://classiccableknits.com/blog/2012/01/mama-ruffles-baby-ruffles/#comments Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:45:48 +0000 Christina http://classiccableknits.com/blog/?p=2289  

One of the things I love about my family is how inspiring they are to me. My mom and sisters are wonderfully creative – amazingly creative. Each sister has a special talent. And my mom, well… she taught us all we know and then inspired us to go beyond her knowledge.

It was my older sister (I’m right in the middle, so I hope you can forgive me for referring to my sisters as older and younger) who inspired me to create the Mama & Baby Ruffles shawls.

She mentioned that we needed a cute “Baby” shawl for little Laura (her youngest) and of course I agreed. When it was finished she said, “Well, I want one too.” So Mama Ruffles was born. But then we all liked Mama Ruffles better than the first Baby Ruffles (now renamed Shoulder Ruffles) and another shawl was made (now the current Baby Ruffles).

Ah, you see how delightfully complicated inspiration is! =)

If I could dedicate patterns I think I would dedicate this pattern first to my Mom – who inspired me to be creative and then to my sis, Heather, who is a fabulous mother to 5 very creative children… and of course… to little Laura who has made it through so much. Love you little girl!

Here are the links for the patterns.

Mama Ruffles

Baby Ruffles

The new CCKnits Knitting News just went out and it contains a coupon for them. If you are not a subscriber – subscribe. You’ve missed out on this month’s patterns… but you are still in time for the rest of the year!

happy knitting!

C

I realized we haven’t had too many “current” knitting projects… so here’s a peek at something I’m presently working on. I’ll have to tell you more about it when it’s finished….

But today…. the last day of the Christmas Pattern Sale… the two patterns that are 50% off are: Pearl Street Scarf and Summer Lace

I hope you enjoy them and I hope you had fun with the pattern sale!

]]> http://classiccableknits.com/blog/2011/12/christmas-pattern-sale-day-9-10/feed/ 0