Pistachio braids

A few weeks ago I bought a very pretty cotton yarn for my spring and summer creations. It is a Knit Picks Shine Sport (60/40 cotton and wood fiber). Amazingly soft yarn with a very slight silky touch. Usually I'm not a huge fan of cotton yarns because they are dry and even though it's soft - I don't like to hold it in my hands for a long time (I mean while knitting). But this blend was very comfortable for me and from now on it is in my favorite yarns list :)

So I bought a few balls of Pistachio colorway and a few of Serrano.

I decided to use a Pistachio first and I really want to make something with braids, not lacy. Probably I just got tired from all the lace projects lately.

So here is what I've got:

Mom's laced pullover

A few months ago my mom asked me to make her a laced pullover for spring and early summer. She already found some pattern in Russian knitting magazine and I just have to choose suitable yarn for this project.
I was hoping to find some blend with 1) cotton or 2) vicose (rayon) or 3) bamboo as these fibers are perfect for summer knitting.
I made three swatches and somehow the winner was Viscose/acrylic 60/40 blend - Mallorca from Ice Yarns. I have to say that I was pretty sure that Acrylic will make this yarn awful. But.... The yarn is really good and soft, nice to skin and pretty cold because of rayon (perfect for hot days). I like it so much that I also making myself a jacket with it :)

RCL #2 :)

And here is another one variant of Reversible Circles of Lace.
It is made with Wolle's Color Changing cotton as well in a lovely New Light colorway.
So good for summer :) Love it!

Reversible Circles of Lace

Hi!
I just want to show here a stole I finished few days ago.
This design is a Reversible Circles of Lace by Christina Consiglio
The pattern is great - very easy to follow and remember. It's a perfect knit project when you just need to keep your hands busy.

Granite scarf (or Spring is here!)

Hi guys!

It is a real spring out here in California already. Trees are blossom, birds sings! And it's even smell like a spring :)
The scarf I want to show you today was made a few days ago. It is actually a "marble" or "granite" scarf but as I look at it I clearly see light magnolia blossoms in this colorway :)

The yarn is Bluemoon Fiber Arts lightweight in Pink Granite colorway. I've found this one in one lady's stash on Ravelry and she kindly sell it to me as I fell in love with it with a first sight :) So amazingly soft and tender colors... I don't know when the guys from BFA was selling that one but at this moment (unfortunately) they don't have it in their shop :(

Forestry cardi

Hi!

Gosh... I haven't been writing here for so long.. I guess it's time to wake up and post here more often :)
So I decided to show you my new cabled cardi.
It is a Forestry (or Old Penny Cardigan) by Veronik Avery.

The pattern is very clear and easy. It is actually took me 4 days to knit this cardigan :) I didn't expect that I'll knit it that fast... That's why I was waiting for other supplies to finish it. It isn't a good story as it took a month for buttons to come.. But now it's all great: buttons are where they should be and I'm pretty happy with my new cardigan.

Scarf-mania

Hi there!

Hope you all have a great holiday time :) It was a great weekends for me and now I have a lot of ideas in my head. But first of all I want to show you a few new scarves. They're made with yarn I show you before - Socks That Rock from Blue Moon Fiber Arts.
First one was finished a weeks ago but I decided to wait till I'll have more than one to show you. And here they are.

Some color beauty..

It is pretty dark outside last few days but I really want to show you these beautiful colors :) The photos aren't great... But this is the best I can do.

I bought these a few weeks ago and here they are - lovely juicy hanks of my favourite yarn (though on these photo they are already in cakes).

From left to right: Xmas Rock, Deer Woman and Crabby McHappypants. All of them are Socks That Rock from Blue Moon Fiber Arts.

Dreaming of cold days..

It is still pretty warm in California... I really miss autumn from my childhood - with cold wind and bright orange and red leaves. I also miss winter, of course. And though it's not that cold here in winter I really want to knit something cozy, that would remind me cold snowy days.
And what can be more winter-style than sweaters with Norwegian pattern? I always wanted one since I was about 8 years old. And a few weeks ago suddenly I decided to knit one for myself. Well, I thought it was suddenly. But then I remembered that a few days ago from that day I saw a picture of mine in a lovely sweater with such pattern. I'm a little 6-yr old shy girl on it and I  remembered that I loved that sweater sooo much. I was wearing it all the time! So probably when I saw that picture something is clicked in me, even though I didn't realised it at first.

So I picked a pretty easy variant: a jacket with short sleeves and norwegian pattern designed by Drops. Easy because I also used the original yarn they suggest - Drops Baby Alpaca Silk (btw, I really like it :)). I chose a Brown as the main color and Blue Gray, White and Black as a contrast colors.

I must say that this sweater was actually the first one serious project. I mean with real sleeves, with jacquard pattern, with buttons :) As I usually knit something that doesn't really need any measures (like shawls, for example) this project was very interesting for me. I was excited about every part of the work...
And here is what I have now :)

 

Spearmint Tea shawl - free pattern!

And another one shawl. Absolutely improvised - Spearmint Tea.

I used for it a lovely Wolle's Yarn Creations Color Changing Cotton in Spearmint II colorway and US 4 needles.