FO: Grellow Echino

Between being Maid of Honor for Jenny and craziness at work, I haven't had much crafting time lately. The bachelorette party was this weekend, and the wedding is this Saturday, so the craziness will subside soon.

In the meantime, I did manage to make a pillow for Jill's new house. She moved in to her first house a few weeks ago. We went fabric shopping last weekend, and I have orders for several sets of curtains, as well as a full- and half- apron. Long before she moved in, I purchased half yards of the awesome Echino camera fabric.

Jill is an awesome photgrapher, and has recently started working towards professional status. She's had a few paying gigs, and is trying to branch out with her most beloved hobby. I knew she would dig the camera fabric, so I made her a pillow using the gold version, along with Kona scraps from my quilt.

I think this is a great way to use the camera fabric, and it leaves me with a ton of fabric for another project. I used the same layout for the back of the pillow, a gold zipper, and used bamboo fiberfil for the stuffing (it needs more, though; I ran out).

I hope Jill enjoys her new pillow, and her new house!

Upcoming projects

I know I'm not alone in this, but planning for projects is just as fun, if not more fun, than the actual crafting process. I love browsing through patterns (sewing and knitting), finding inspiration through blogs and crafty sites, and selecting the ideal materials to make my project.

Knitting

-Audrey In Unst, in either Silky Wool

or Shine Sport

-Tempest, from Knitty
For this light cardigan, I'm thinking of using my gray Palette

with stripes in either pink Yarntini sock

, the Brooklyn Handspun I won from Girlwhoknits

or Wasabi Shibui Sock

Sewing

-I cut the pieces for Amy Butler's Barcelona skirt (the A-line version) in this Heather Ross fabic from the stash (man, I love her Underwater Sister's line):

-I also promised my sister some curtains and a couple of aprons (she just bought her first house!)

With these new projects in mind, I'd also really like to finish the following before the end of the year:

-finish Lila (I'm nearing the halfway point on this one!)

-finish my CPH (on the needles since July 25, 2008-that date is engrained on my brain until I can finish!)

-finish my quilt

Yeah, I think that will keep me busy until the end of the year. Damn, I had some Christmas presents planned, so I may have to re-prioritize. I guess having too much to craft is a good problem to have.

FO: Pebble Forecast

My plan was to have this finished in time for Oliver's Texas visit last month. As I was nearing the end of the knitting, I started thinking it might not be big enough for him. While he was here, I put it around him to check. Although it won't fit him for very long, I hope it will be a good transition piece for the cool fall in D.C.

If you remember, the yarn was some handspun I purchased from whimsyknits on Etsy. I found the perfect little blue buttons (I still need to sew on the top buttons). The pattern, Pebble, is so easy to follow, and I've already cast on for a second in Malabrigo Worsted, also for Oliver.

The only modification I made was to add twelve extra rows before binding off the buttonhole and edging rows. It's no wonder this is such a popular pattern on ravelry. It's darling!

I love knitting with handspun. It makes me want to get a wheel, which I've been trying to avoid (only because I already have to split my crafting time between sewing and knitting!). I have less than half an ounce of the handspun left, so this is a good one-skein project.

In other handspun news, I was able to snag a skein of Sam's (aquaknits) handspun from her etsy shop, GLBLF. I just love her style. I truly feel my stash always needs at least one skein of handspun!

Raveled