Hello!  I feel like I haven't been here in so long, but I just looked at my last post and it was written only 10 days ago, so not so long after all!  But it does show how much I love this little space and love that you pop over to give me a read.  Thank you so much.  Today I have the Barn Sweater by Carrie Bostick Hoge from her Madder Simple Pleasures 2 book. 

Here are the details:  The model: As busy as she is with school and crew and a dozen other activities, my lovely model and neighbor, Jessica, never hesitates to come over and play dress up with me!  Thank you dear girl.  She looks so darn gorgeous in everything.  I was waiting to post this until I could get a photo of me wearing it too, but that hasn't happened, so you'll just have to trust me, we look the same in it!  Hee hee.  (Don't ask me how my tall, thin, teen-aged neighbor wears the same size I do, but she does.  There's some kind of magic in knitted fabric.) The book--LOVE this book and think I will end up making every project. It's a great book to have in the "classic knitting patterns" section of your knitting library.  :)  The pattern--well-written instructions, simple to knit and easy to wear and just a great all-around jacket to have in the wardrobe.  The yarn--sigh, what can I say about a fantastic vintage Rowan tweed?  Rowan has always been tops with tweeds. This beautiful watery blue-green has been in my stash for at least a decade waiting for the most perfect project. For me, Rowan Yorkshire Tweed DK knits up as a worsted weight, not a DK, with a very soft but hearty hand with fabric that has the mellow, textured tweediness that we love in a tweed.  Also, it's next to the skin soft.  Now for the sad part, it was discontinued ages ago!  You can still find a wee bit; there's a small selection in the sell section on Rav.  If you want to make this jacket in a yarn that is easier to find, the recommend yarns are Terra from The Fibre Company or Owl from Quince & Co.   I haven't tried either but have another suggestion with a yarn I have used and loved:  Pioneer from A Verb for Keeping Warm.  It's fantastic yarn that I'm using for Liv, another pattern from the book.  See you soon and have a good week!

PS:  For those who have requested Gingersnap in toddler sizes--hold tight, it's in the works!  

My Ravelry project page for Barn

 To make a comment, please click here.

I'm happy to report that my Gingersnap baby sweater pattern has been really popular! I'm just thrilled that so many cute little Gingersnap sweaters have appeared on Ravelry!  I'm also thrilled that my local yarn store, Uncommon Threads, in my pretty little hometown of Los Altos, California, asked me to choose colors for their new Gingersnap kits they were putting together.  I chose to anchor all the kits with Granite and Soft Cream, then had fun choosing four modern and sophisticated colors for baby.  Any of the color choices would make a gorgeous sweater--and all, except for perhaps the Raspberry, would work for either a boy or girl.  The kits include three skeins of machine washable Rowan Pure Wool Superwash Worsted in your color choice plus the pattern, all nicely kitted up in a Rowan organza project bag.  All you'll need to supply is the buttons and the baby!

Click HERE to shop for the kits.

Gingersnap, get the free pattern here.

Pick your own colors of Rowan Pure Wool Superwash Worsted.
I like the look of mustard and toffee too!

Rowan Yarns showcased Gingersnap in their newsletter.

Knitionary

Want to keep a child busy for an hour?  How about giving her a pomegranate?  My past experience with pomegranates is this: as a child my mom would hand us each a pom and send us far outside to sit on the grass to first open, then eat.  The former is an almost impossible task for a child; it must have taken an hour for little hands to pry one open, and the latter, the actual eating part, also takes forever and could be the most messy of all messy endeavors ever.  But I do remember loving them so much.  The little seeds looked like my ruby birthstone and I loved the way they popped in my mouth with a crunch and a tiny squirt of juice.  I also remember we'd have to hose ourselves off before we could enter the house again.  Did I say these are messy?

So, what does one do when given a windfall of pomegranates?  As in a whole trash bag full?  I had no idea so sent out a plea to my lovely and helpful friends on Facebook and got some great ideas!  I narrowed it down to freezing the individual seeds for later use in salads and desserts, juicing (jeeze, what a mess) and finally, simmering the juice down with a bit of sugar and lemon for a divine grenadine.  I kept some of the grenadine in the refrigerator, but with most I made some pomegranate vodka, two bottles.  Heaven.  

OK, so the kitchen was a mess, but the red freckles all over the kitchen, me and my clothes cleaned up easily with soap and water.  If you want to do something else messy, make borscht.  I harvested a basket of beets last week and made some quarts of borscht for the freezer--and just like poms, they're beautiful, red, messy, healthy and yummy.   

At the end of the post I have my current knitting projects.

I have some gorgeous yarns on the needles right now.  I have projects in Rowan Felted Tweed, Ysolda's Blend 1, Purl Soho's Linen Quill, Rowan's Brushed Fleece and as always, Rowan Kidsilk Haze.  All these yarns are heavenly; all are equally easy to knit and make a beautifully soft and even fabric.  I'm in knitting heaven this fall, no kidding.  These projects are getting the most attention at the moment:

Knitionary

You might think that because of this post and my last post, all I've been knitting is baby clothes.  But not true, it's just that I've only been finishing and photographing  baby clothes.  I'm planning a post that shows all my half-done grown-up knitting I'm feverishly working on--maybe that will be next week--and I've got some mighty gorgeous yarns on the needles.

Above is the Ava Tunic by Linda Whaley from Little Rowan Cherish, a book that I am infatuated with and a book that I'll probably end up making at least half the designs; I've already made three.  The pattern recommended Summerlite DK which I love, but I had some Rowan Wool/Cotton in my stash.  If you love this stuff, buy it and stash it as it's been discontinued.  It's so soft and cuddly to knit and wear.  It is practical too as it goes in the washing machine in cool water on a gentle cycle.  Even though the ball band does not recommend it be tumble dried, I have had luck putting WC in the dryer for a short time, maybe 10 minutes or so, then lay flat to finish the drying. 

As for the design, gah, it's absolutely adorable!  It just grabbed my heart when I saw it.  This is the 18 mos. size and I can just see a tiny girl toddling around in this wearing capris and bare feet perhaps?  Or leggings and baby-sized Uggs?  I changed the neckline a wee bit (3 rows of garter then cast off) and instead of the embroidered flowers I made these flowers.  Also, I used the "top-down set-in sleeves" technique which I use WHENEVER possible.  It's such an easy technique and it always turns out perfectly.

Ava Tunic, my Ravelry project page

All the Cherish patterns on Ravelry

Little Rowan Cherish, the book at Jimmy Beans

Rowan Wool Cotton at Jimmy Beans

The wooden hangers are from the Container Store and

there are two sets, an animal set and a zoo set.