Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Sweater Project

So I am totally behind the eight ball here, but I am really excited to be starting a wool cardigan that I hope to finish before the fall. I am a huge lover of all things from Interweave Press and I found a great cardigan pattern from Ann Budd's upcoming book, Simple Style. The design is by Cecily Glowik MacDonald. She makes the most darling patterns and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next! By the way, the pattern was also published in the Winter 2008 copy of Knitscene, as pictured here.












It has been far too long since I tackled a sweater project! I've been spending my time and yarn dollars on hats, scarves, and gloves lately. I fell in love with this pattern, an adorable round yoke design which lets you knit the body in one piece on a circular needle. I decided to swap out yarns (as I always do) and snapped up five balls of Lambs Pride Super Wash in Japanese Plum, a delicious deep purple color. Though I did knit a swatch in the beginning, I haven't checked my gauge since I started knitting, which is bad, but things seem to be going very well so far! The color is wacky because I took one photo at night with bad lighting. But I just had to show everyone that progress is indeed being made!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Lime Green Hat


















This first winter in New England was pretty darn rough! Lots and lots of snow, temperatures in the teens, my first pair of rubbery winter boots, and finally, a really good reason to knit. Hats became my favorite winter project because they are so fast and satisfying. I found a really cute pattern on Ravelry for hats with button bands. I wanted a brim that folded up so it would look more like a fabulous French cloche and less of a beanie. So of course I felt the need to completely make up my own pattern and modify it and do my own thing!


















I found some awesome colors of Sheep Shop Number 2 on sale at my local yarn shop. I snapped it all up and this newest hat is by far my favorite object of the season. The brim is knit in seed stitch in a flat piece, then you join to knit in the round for the rest of the hat. Once it was all knitted up, I folded the brim up and tacked the extra flap down with a huge wooden button.

While I was doing my self-portrait photo session I realized that my new coffee mug looks adorable with my hat! The mug is from Orla Kiely's new line of home goods from Target. I hear they're selling out fast so I'm glad I snapped one up while I had the chance. It's a huge mug, practically big enough for soup. But I use it to sip coffee and then tea all day long at work. This is how I manage to stay up so late and wake up so early. Yay for caffeine!

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Jellyfish!

Has it really been almost a month since my last post? I really hadn't fully realized how busy I've been! Aside from lots and lots of working and cooking, I have been knitting up quite a storm lately. I finished a couple of hats (no photos yet - maybe next post?) and just purchased yarn for a new sweater featured in the latest KnitScene.

In the world of emmalinedesigns, I posted a few new items since my last post and I updated etsy to let everyone know that I make knitting bags! After trying out lots of different product ideas, like a yoga tote bag and baby blocks and aprons, I decided that I will focus on my number one love - knitting. I hope I can eventually give attention to all my other concepts and designs, but in the meantime I want to play with the graphics for the bags and add some more bells and whistles so that I am offering the coolest knitting totebag you can find! Click to check it out.

I've recently been really obsessed with jellyfish and I went to the New England Aquarium last weekend to do some up close and personal research. These creatures are magical and repellent at the same time! I took photos of the prettiest ones:

These big, blue blobs on the left look amazing in their large group, like glowy, floaty pillows in the dark. And I love the long, wispy tentacles on this pair of sea nettles. They look like they're nearly dancing, and they're definitely having fun (if only they had brains!).












And here is my beginning attempt at actually drawing these awesome creatures!

In a little design brainstorming with my sister she told me a great story about swimming somewhere in Israel and a man told her the jellyfish there are "sweet" He was trying to explain that they were not poisonous and wouldn't sting her. But from now on, we will think of them as "sweet"


Thanks for checking in again. I am committed to posting the crazy design happenings more often, so I'll see you soon!