Celebrate Color With Candy Corn!

I am so excited about these little guys, and I think they're totally adorable. Plus it's really easy to make a bunch of them and put them all over your house.

I'm also officially submitting them for the Celebrate Color contest over at Stitched in Color. If you don't know about this contest yet, you must check it out. The prizes are drool-worthy, and there are some talented people showing off their handwork.

Fall was definitely the inspiration for these guys when I was trying to come up with an easy pattern to submit for my certification. It just made sense to me to make something holiday themed and what better than candy corn?

It's an iconic fall candy, plus I've used them to decorate around the house before, filling jars and vases with the colorful candy and putting them around the house.

So cute! I love them, and I'll share the pattern soon!

Update: pattern shared here.

Wonderful Weekend

This weekend was filled with so many of my favorite things I felt compelled to share.

Friday we kicked off the weekend by having dinner at my parent's house with the whole family for the first time since Megan got married. We watched the wedding video Tyler's uncle had put together, and got to see the amazing photos Julie Linz took. You can see a preview video of them on her blog, (but if you do watch, ask me for an explanation why the last picture of Megan and me is so awkward looking, it's a funny story and doesn't involve drinking, I swear!).

If I don't move on, I'll start rambling and repeating the words 'amazing' and 'gorgeous' and I'm sure you can see for yourself. 

It was great seeing Lilly as well since she changes and grows so much between visits. I think she enjoys family gatherings too because she doesn't get put down once, she just gets passed from lap to lap. We are all completely smitten with the first Bartlett grandbaby/niece. My Mom watches her three days a week so I imagine we'll be getting a photo 'goodie bag' most of the days that we come by for family dinners.

These are just a couple that we came home with this weekend. 

Saturday, for me, began with meeting up with former small-group ladies for breakfast and we shared a wonderful time of catching up. Whenever we see each other I am both sad that our weekly meetings had to come to an end, and grateful that they were such an important part of my life for so many years. 

From breakfast Chris and I headed to the soccer field for our game. We play in a coed church league and thankfully we enjoy playing because this weekend we got steamrolled. I do not enjoy losing, but I love playing soccer and if you had told me 10 years ago that in my 30's I'd still be scrubbing mud out of my knees after slide-tackling some guy on the soccer field I'd be inclined not to believe you. Yet here I am, still unable to come home from a game not covered in mud and blood from the waist down.

This is me after one of our games last year.

Moral of this part of the weekend is soccer makes me happy even if we lose, and I'm thankful to still be playing the sport I love. The horrific lost also inspired a couple of us to hit the bar on the way home for a much needed beer, allowing us to sooth our weary bodies with a pint.

Finally Saturday night brought us to Sharon and Nate's house where we joined their annual Fall Harvest Party, bearing gifts of chips, guacamole, and of course knitted beer koozies. They had a fire blazing in the backyard, homebrew on ice, and tasty food filling every inch of the kitchen. What could be better? I must say, it was a perfect night for the koozies since there was a chill in the air and the koozies kept our hands from being cold while holding onto our frosty beers.

Sharon also used them to keep her fingers warm in between beers

Sunday was church at Crossbridge and a great message from Mark about teaching your kids to trust God and make wise decisions. I know someday we'll need all the help we can get. For now I'm headed to the basement to watch some football and get more knitting done. I've got a project I'm really excited to share with you that's almost ready for a photo shoot, so stay tuned!

I hope all my readers had as fabulous a weekend as I have had!

For My Next Trick... Pineapples??

Two things have inspired me to write this blog post. The first is just the fact that I came across this knitting project on a random Ravelry search (yes, this is what I do when I'm bored), and the second being that when I saw it I just couldn't help of thinking of my new favorite TV show, Psych. When my friend Elin came to visit in August, she mentioned that she enjoyed Psych, so we watched a couple of episodes on Netflix, and I couldn't stop till the 4th season was over! Unfortunately there were only a few season 5 episodes available online so I'm not 100% caught up, but season 6 starts this week so I'll have to see the rest some other time.

So, for those of you familiar with the show, you'll know that this would be the ultimate Psych-o accessory. And those of you who don't know, what the heck are you waiting for? Go watch Psych!

If I thought they were the type, I'd knit Shawn and Gus one each, but for now, I have no plans to add a pineapple bag to my growing list of projects. But you never know, the day may come when the only thing that will complete my outfit is a beaded pineapple bag... and maybe a scrunchie.

Things I'd like to Knit

The past couple of days I've been a bit overwhelmed by the amount of knitting on my plate. On the plus side, I've finally found a good use for the chalkboard Chris and I registered for when we got married over seven years ago, and have never really done more then doodle on.

As you can see, it is going to keep track of the knitting I have to get done and how far along I am. This may only last till I'm done with the certification requirements which should hopefully be the end of November, but with my Ravelry list getting longer rather then shorter, it could take a while before the chalkboard is not needed.

So in the mean time, to keep me from starting projects I don't have the time or the attention span to finish right now, I'll just dream about the projects I'd love to be working on...

I'm loving this bag. I could see this being a great weekend bag, or just for keeping my in-progress projects in one place that's not a shopping bag. I really like how the color pattern gives it a little interest without totally intimidating me with a complicated fair isle pattern.

How cute is this coat?? I have a weird obsession with outerwear. Even though I hate the cold weather, I do enjoy getting to wear my snazzy winter coats and rotate through my collection of scarves. So of course I had to save this pattern in Ravelry for a time when I had someone small enough to fit into it. (Or enough ambition to make a large one for myself!)

Lastly, this cardigan is beautiful and looks like the perfect sweater to snuggle up in as the weather gets chilly. It's the kind of cardigan I would carry around everywhere with me, just in case I get cold. The collar has a great design and I think it'd be a lot of fun to knit.

Someday I'll have time, and a clear chalkboard, so I can knit these projects, but for now, I'll just dream about them.

Is there anything on your crafty wishlist?

Again With The Beer Koozies!

When I first started posting pics of the beer koozies I had designed, a friend of mine immediately requested Pitt inspired koozies for herself. Not being from Pittsburgh myself I am not really familiar with the colleges in the Pittsburgh area, plus with the start of football season around the corner thrown in for extra confusion, my brain went straight to the Steelers. Fortunately, my friend is also a Steelers fan, so she was more then happy to accept my misinterpretation.

The process for knitting the multicolored koozies was something like this.

Getting started without getting tangled was a process in itself.

Bella was jealous of all the yarn because it prevented her from sitting in my lap.

I knit them on straight needles till the bottom piece when I joined it in the round. 

You can imagine how tired I got of weaving in ends after I finished each koozy.

A view from the right side.

Volia! The finished product! They look just as cool as they do in single colors!

Annis Complete

About a month ago, in celebration of being mostly done with my part 1 certification requirements, I cast on the Annis shawl for fun. I was on the cusp of mailing out a dozen 5" x 5" swatches for review and was so tired of knitting them that I needed a break.

I had a moment of panic after casting on the initial 363 stitches, and really thought Annis was going to take forever with so many stitches and a moderately complicated pattern to follow. I was pleasantly surprised at how fast it went, and once I got to the short rows, I had trouble putting my needles down.

Now I get to show it off!

I love the contrast of the off-white yarn with a dark colored t-shirt underneath and I think I'll be keeping this one for myself. My Christmas gift trial run was a success, so now I get to shop for yummy gift-worthy yarn!

Another Yarn Shop

Grown-up yarn shops are still sort of an elusive thing to me. I know where every chain craft shop is within a 30+ mile radius from my house, but little yarn shops are often off the beaten track, in a town I don't frequent, and in a GPS black hole; for me at least, my GSP hasn't been updated since 2005 when my car was born. So knowing last Friday that I had a lunch meeting in Vineland I searched on Google Maps for yarn shops in the vicinity.

This brought me to Fiber Arts Cafe in Bridgeton, about 20 minutes from Vineland, and I went on a little adventure after my meeting. Winding through small towns on a Jersey-country road in various states of neglect I wondered where exactly I was headed. However, turning onto the correct street alleviated my fears. It was a cute little downtown area with lovely brick laid sidewalks and well kept Victorian-esque storefronts.

I entered the store and was greeted with... emptiness. There was no one in sight, so I snapped another quick picture, since I never know how that will be received, and started to look around. I noticed a noise that almost sounded like snoring, so as I made my way to the back of the store I figured I'd startle someone who was taking a nap. There wasn't a huge selection of yarn so it didn't take me long to get to the back of the store and I found, not someone sleeping, but a very noisy osculating fan working hard between the yarn store and the used bookstore that was towards the back of the store.

That's right, two of my favorite things, books and yarn, under one roof! Wait, there's coffee too, that's three! Three of my favorite things in one place. I was getting a little giddy, yet I was still left totally alone.

Finally the owner of the yarn shop came in from the back room and she kept me there for over an hour, talking about knitting, crochet, getting certified, the anniversary of 9/11, another shop keeper came to visit and get a cup of coffee, and eventually the book store owner joined us too.

Basically, Fiber Arts Cafe had everything you could want from a small town yarn shop, good people, friendly conversation, yarn, and as a bonus, books, coffee, and chocolate chip cookies. What they lacked in inventory they made up in personality and I'm looking forward to returning to visit my new friends.

Knitting For Beer, Literally!

I feel like this is a big reveal, even though most of you have already seen these on Facebook, but the project I chose to work on while at the beach were beer koozies! Staying true to my name, even if not in the way it initially implies, I knitted for my beer. Now that bottle can be stylish and your hand can stay warm while you enjoy your frosty beverage.

I started with a beer in hand, for inspirational purposes of course.

Knitted on the beach, enjoying the perfect weather, and the koozies are small so I didn't have trouble keeping anything out of the sand.

Megan was the first one to enjoy a knitted koozie on her beer, but I promised all the ladies I would make them a set. I'm working hard on everyone's koozies, the first one finished was a set of purple.

I love projects that go quick and are fun to give to people. Plus the Stitch Nation yarn has the most eye-catching colors that are perfect for dressing up your beer. I designed four different cable patterns so everyone can tell their beers apart. I will post the patterns soon so you can make your own set!