My First Venture into Fair Isle Knitting

Hello, readers!

Things have settled down in my Etsy shop lately (phew), so I have been taking advantage of the lull to work on some "for fun" knitting projects.  My officemate, Jassia, gave me some lovely dusty blue Debbie Bliss cashmerino yarn for a Christmas present, and I coincidentally had most of a whole skein of gray (also Debbie Bliss cashmerino!) left from  a brain hat, so I decided I would put them together and try my hand at Fair Isle knitting.  It is surprisingly easy!  I am knitting the Fair Isle Hat from Lion Brand Yarn's free pattern database, and it is going quite quickly.  I have finished row 13 of the pattern:

Fair Isle hat - my first attempt at this technique!

I am going to try to have this hat finished by the end of this coming weekend.  I really like it!  The yarn and the pattern are both gorgeous.

I also have quite a few pregnant lady friends (congratulations!), so I have been knitting baby gifts for them.  I would post photos, but then it would spoil the surprise!  I will just tell you that I have so much lavender, pink, and white yarn in my apartment, it looks like the Barbie aisle of a toy store after a bomb hit it.

And, last but not least, a bit of stitching...

I finished my first model sampler for Deb at The Stitching Bear, so as soon as it is published (March 4), I will post a lovely picture of it here!  She is sending me another piece to work on soon - it is from her "God and Chocolate" collection.  I can't wait to get started!  It sounds delightful.

That is it for my quick update - I have a busy day in lab today and have class this afternoon, but I will be in touch!  Thank you for stopping by!

Cheers,
-Erin

Quick V-Day Update from Boston Airport

Hello, readers!  Happy Valentine's Day!

I am posting a quick update from Boston Airport, because I am heading to Houston to spend the weekend with my fiancé.  We have been together for three years, but the first time we have ever gotten to spend Valentine's Day together, so I am pretty excited.  :-)  Tonight, we are going to dinner at a French restaurant in Houston, and then we are going to spend the long weekend relaxing and enjoying each other's company. <3  I am a lucky girl.

Thank you to all of you for your well wishes over the blizzard weekend! :-) We got about 30" of snow, most of which is still piled on the sidewalks.  Unfortunately, I did lose power, so my stitch-a-thon wasn't quite as productive as I would have hoped (stitching by candlelight gives me a wicked headache), but I did manage to almost finish the bottom left quadrant of Celestial Dragon, and I finished my last brain hat and mailed it yesterday.  I will post pics of Celestial Dragon next week after I finish that quadrant! I also finished and framed the owl from my last post; now, I just need to get him photographed properly and listed on Etsy.

I do have some wonderful stitching-related news!  Sunday, I signed a contract to work as a model stitcher for The Stitching Bear, a really awesome cross stitch pattern design company based out of Missouri. Deb, the designer, sent me my first design this week, and it arrived yesterday. I can't post any pictures until the design is published in March, but it is a very cute pattern called "4 All Seasons Sampler Part 1 - Spring." Aside from getting paid to stitch a really pretty design, I also get to keep the beautiful leftover threads from The Gentle Art for my stash!  There are 23 colors in all, so I will be looking for a fun project to use the rest of the floss in.  The colors are all shown in the bright and beautiful photo with this blog entry.  :-)

Well, my plane is boarding soon, so I have to run!  Take care, everyone, and have a great Thursday!

-Erin