Throwback Thursday: Daughter's Dress

As I was doing laundry yesterday I got to talking with my oldest boy about his sister's dress.  He was trying to remember if it is supposed to be hung up or not.

I saw this dress in a shop (now closed) and I fell in love with it.  I wanted to make one for my one-year-old daughter.

They only had one hank of the bubblegum pink in Cascade Pima Cotton that I wanted to use, so I was forced to play with color combinations (poor me!)  So my friend and I played around with color and picked out two bright green and a hot pink. 

They also had the magazine the pattern came from: Debbie Bliss Knitting Magazine, Spring/Summer 2010 so I picked that up, too.

At the time, I had Cast on Bind off checked out from the library.  I was inspired by the picot cast on and wanted to use it on the dress.  As I red the pattern, I was frustrated with the fact that I was going to have to sew the pieces together.  I'd just knitted a raglan shirt and that made much more sense to just knit in the round, so I frogged the cast on and rewrote the pattern in my own notes so that it cold be worked in the round.  Then I really got going on it!

While the above picture isn't how it sits on her finished, it was where it would stay as she wiggled and I snapped a picture with my other hand.

Eventually everything was the length and size it needed to be.  I cast off in the appropriate places.  Here I'm about to start working on the straps.  That was done in the matter of about an hour!  I couldn't stop!  Of course I had to try it on her right away.  Since it wasn't blocked yet, the bottom edge was flipping up and the pocket wasn't on but I didn't care.  I loved it and so did my daughter!

So I got to the finishing.  I still felt like it was missing something.  The dress was adorable but it needed to be accessorized!

So, I knit up the sock yarn I had bought that same day, which I realized matched the dress!  I hadn't thought of it at the time.

I clipped a bow I found in her hair and with the socks it was SO cute!  I still quite a bit of yarn left over, however.  Was there something else I could add?

A shrug!  I took the pattern from the raglan shirt I had just done an altered it so that it didn't close.  And finally it was complete!

Shortly after, my friends were talking about entering their knitted things into the county fair.  I remembered my mom telling me about how fun it was to enter something into the fair and if I had an opportunity to just do it.  So off I went.  I filled out the form and took my daughter's dress and a shawl to the fair.

On the first day of the fair I got a call from my friend.  She asked if I'd been there yet, to which I replied no, I was going the next day.  She told me that I won a blue ribbon!  I was shocked and started crying.  I'm so glad that she called and told me that at home because I would have been so embarrassed to do that in public.  lol

Here we are now, two years later.  She still can wear this dress as I sized it loose on her.  It's a summer shirt now, but it still looks great!  I just had her model it for me so here is a picture from today!

The return of peace

Things have indeed been chaotic at my home this summer.  My kids were on top of each other and fighting.  Meanwhile I was trying to push my fiber business off to a start.  I had spinning orders to fulfill, a pattern I wrote, tested, remade, and tested by others, and finally released.  My fiber graphics have become fairly popular and I've sold several orders. Oh, and I've been photo journaling my art projects before bed every night.
 

Today school started again.  I have one kiddo in public school in a special needs class and that is working *wonderfully* for him.  My oldest kiddo I homeschool, and now I'm working on paperwork to get my youngest into preschool.  I hope I can get her in so my oldest and I can get some work done in peace for a few hours.

Recently I've joined in a craft swap hosted by my favorite podcast Knit 1 Geek 2.  I was inspired by my spoilee (the secret person I am spoiling that I will not reveal online) to create yet another knitting pattern.  I am *so* excited about this one but I can't reveal my concept yet.  I can get it done before the deadline if I'm quick, but I would really like it to go through test knitting first if I can.  So, I've pulled in a friend to help me with part of this project and she is just excited as I am!

I can show you a little bit; below are a few swatches I've knit, and above is my stack of research books. :)

Oh, and yesterday, I stuck my toes and spent a little money to promote my latest pattern on Facebook this week.  I'm curious to see how that goes!

Luck Sack is finally released!

It's finally ready! I was going to post the pattern public on Monday but I got impatient.

 

 

This dice bag will influence your dice to land you some very lucky rolls! Well, not really, but your fellow gamers will be jealous that you pulled out your Luck Sack and want one of their very own!

The bag comes in two versions, knit or felted. I’ll walk you through two cord-pull styles and how to dye your own shades of green and felting your bag.

If you an advanced beginner learning new techniques, I’ve included helpful instructional links.

The Luck Sack pattern in now released for sale on Ravelry and Etsy for just $1.50!
Along with patterns, I also have box bags, knitted goods, handspun yarns, and printable graphic designs for sale in my etsy shop.

The brown bag on the left and the green bag in the rear are both knit with handspun yarn!  All of the green pictured is dyed with Wilton's icing coloring.

_________________

The test knitters had some good input!  I added a second, smaller size for those that want a smaller bag. Reclaimed sweater yarn is an excellent source of yarn.   Most of all, they confirmed that my directions are easy to follow, so you can produce a nice bag, too!  If you want to see their takes on my design, you can find them here.