Look how beautiful!

What a wonderful pattern! It's not perfect and it's not blocked and learning how to knit lace was not easy! I'm ready for another lace pattern! I've had a pattern for a beautiful shawl forever and have been too scared to attempt it. Now that I've actually this one I feel like the sky is the limit!!

For the love of lifelines and stitch markers!

Good Sunday afternoon! I know I just posted yesterday but I simply had to share my current project!

As a relatively new knitter I have kept to easy projects such as hats, boots and a little baby sweaters. These are things that have simple repeats with mostly worsted weight yarn and size 8 US needles and maybe some yarn overs and increases/decreases. 

This hat however has a beautiful lace overlay that I fell in love with as soon as I saw the picture! The designer posted it on one of the Facebook groups that I am a member of and she emailed me and asked if I wanted to test the pattern for her! In my excitement I agreed and started immediately! I finished the main part of the hat within 3 hrs (cut me some slack I'm a busy mama!)

The yarn is Blue Sky Alpaca Bulky and it's so lovely and soft and my favorite color! So back on topic I picked up my circular needles and lace weight yarn (holy moly never used yarn this tiny before!) And started teaching myself how to pick up stitches...Umm what? How do I do that with knitting needles?! Very very slowly that's how! So after messing up 20 thousand times I resorted to picking them up with a crochet hook! I'm a multi-tool user :D. This method was a lot quicker! 

After picking up the stitches I started knitting the lace pattern and let me tell you...if you're new to lace knitting you must MUST learn how to do lifelines! They have already been my saving grace and I've only been working on the lace for 2 days. Another thing I'd recommend is some form of stitch markers. I have messed up the repeat wayyy too many times to attempt it without until I've had more practice! I am so excited to have this one of a kind hat that I can't give up on it! So that's what I'm working on for the rest of the day! I'll post again when I've gotten a bit further. Until then, have a lovely afternoon!

Good Saturday!

I think this will make posting easier so I've decided to do one post a week to stay interested. This week I have been making items for the Boulder Tulip Festival. My friend Elayna has been dressing up as a fairy for a few years now and I made her some things to add to her outfit and I'm also joining her in faeryland! I chose my faery name last year but we've only seen her once or twice. Tomorrow Kelpie will be making her appearance again with a new look and new wings! I'm so excited :).

For those of you that don't know, the Boulder Tulip Festival is an annual fairy and elf event that children from all over dress up as fairies and elves and join in the festivities!  My son Liam will be coming this year and he's going to be a faun and my daughter Ellie is going to be a faery like mommy!

Anyway, back to knitting! I've made a Victorian hood for Lily in a lovely peacock blue color. The pattern is the Alasse Miriel Hooded Cowl by L. Marie Benjamin http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/alasse-miriel-hooded-cowl I'll post a pic at the bottom. Not only that but a pair of fairy boots as well! As I continue to post, you'll find that I am totally in love with https://tinyowlknits.wordpress.com/ I have made 4 or 5 of her patterns so far! If you're a relatively new knitter I would check her out! She gives the easiest instructions and tells a story in the pattern! I'm making Lily (Elayna) a pair of Moonkoosa Boots in purple to go with her teal and purple color theme. This will be my first time sewing leather onto material so don't laugh when I post pictures!  I'll give you a quick sneak peek and then I'll have to go for the day! Have a bright and beautiful day!

Hello! I would like to take just a moment to do an introduction.
    My name is Abby, I have 2 gorgeous children: Liam who is 9 and little Ellie who is 6 months. I've been married to my wonderful husband for 7 years and he's my high school sweetheart! We've been through many ups and downs and traveled the world. (Well not really, we just lived in England for a time but I considered it traveling ;))
   Anyway the reason for this blog is simply the fact that I'm addicted to knitting. Literally! When I first started I had 2 sizes of needles. I wanted to make a cowl for my first project with this really pretty alpaca yarn. Oh it felt so soft and natural that I couldn't wait to get started! I had no clue how to do any stitches other than the garter stitch having learned that one from my mom when I was 7.
   So there I was. Size 10 straight needles, a $20 skein of Alpaca yarn and no pattern...so I looked on Google for cast on methods and started my first long tail cast on! Long story short, YouTube taught me how to knit and purl and I finished my cowl. It looked awful and I actually gifted it with a matching hat which was my very first hat in the round! Right now I cringe to think of that beautiful alpaca yarn that was wasted on those terrible projects but the learning experience kicked off an amazing journey that I'm still working on, screaming at, crying over and learning new tips and tricks along the way! I hope you'll enjoy looking at my knitty things :).