Julia Lynne is up!

My latest pattern is up on Knit Picks!

This cardigan is sized for girls: 2 to 10.  The one Kitty is wearing in the above picture is size 4.  The pattern can be found here: http://www.knitpicks.com/patterns/Julia_Lynne_Girls_Cardigan___D10967220.html  The price is $1.99, and I highly recommend the Comfy cotton blend yarn; it's perfect for this project!

Julia Lynne is done!

I finished my Julia Lynne cardigan last night!  I blocked it overnight.  And this morning, we had a very successful photo shoot.  I took the girls to the park, and told Angel and Princess to go play while I took pics of Kitty.  Poor Kitty, she just wanted to play too, but she had to wait until I had enough pictures.  Here are a few of them...

It's a gorgeous day, so it was perfect for photos and playing at the park.  Some of the pictures came out a little shady, so I brightened them up, except for the one on the monkey bars.  That one was bright enough, and it would have been my favorite if not for the shadow across the sweater.  I like the bike one also, but the grass in the background turned out so bright it almost hurts my eyes!

After polling my friends, I decided to use the one on the swing as the main pattern pic, and include the one in the tree as well.  I'll send all of the pictures along with the pattern to Knit Picks, and they can use all of them on the website. I really hope they like my photos, because I'm partial to having my own girls model for my patterns.

And now I'm back to planning for my next pattern!  I'm trying to decide between my Frost Cowl and my Crown Jewels Shawl.  I'm leaning toward the shawl, since winter is practically over.  I'll probably hold onto Frost until fall.

Speaking of socks...

I finished the test-knit sock!

Isn't this a great design?  Sieglinde did a great job.  I can't wait to see her pattern up on a prominent knitting site!  I used Berocco Ultra Alpaca in a light heathered bluish-green.  I've already done the cuff ribbing for the second sock, but I'm not going to knit it in two days like I did the first.  I need to work on my other projects.

So right now I'm working on Julia Lynne.  She needs sleeves.  I was going to Magic Loop them, but instead I'm using a very short circular.  It's working, but not well.  I wish it were about two inches shorter; the stitches are a bit stretched out on this needle.  I'm thinking of switching back to the longer one, or dpns.  My longer needle doesn't have a nice flexible cable, which is why I switched to the short one in the first place.  But it might still be quicker than dpns.  Aw, heck, I'm wasting time thinking about it; I'm going to just go back to my original plan and get this done.

Goal accomplished!

I've finished the body of my cardi!  I got the crochet edging done last night at Knit Night, and this morning I bought buttons.

 I got all the ends woven in(there were a lot of them) and the buttons sewn on.

Now it's time to start the sleeves!  I think I'm going to Magic Loop them, so they go more quickly.  I was going to do them both at the same time, but I don't have a long enough needle for that.

I went to the gym this morning and worked my back and legs, and did 20 minutes on the elliptical.  That 20 minutes burned 180 calories!  So I probably burned about 200 with my whole workout.  Not bad!

Back to knitting!

Another step closer!

Today I rented a tiller from Home Depot, and tilled up the ground where I'm going to build my garden.  Wow, that was a lot of work.  My back and arms are really sore.  But the ground is broken up and ready for the garden boxes and good soil. ☺ I'm exhausted, but hopefully I'll be able to find the energy for knit night.☺

I've almost finished the body of my cardi!  I still need to finish up the garter stitch border and bind off, then do the crochet edging.  I think I'll bring along another project to knit night, so I can work on something else after I finish that.

I lost a friend yesterday.  Her name was Amy.  She had been in the hospital for the past week and a half, due to complications from influenza A and B.  Her heart, lungs and kidneys stopped functioning.  She was hooked up to several machines that were doing the work for those organs, so her body could fight off the infection.  And she was improving.  But yesterday she had a massive stroke, and died.  She left behind a loving husband and four young children.  Please be praying for her family as they deal with this great loss.

Knitting and exercise and gardening, oh my!

I finished the waist cables on my BBSweKniMo project!  Hooray!  I decided to only do 7 repeats, instead of 8, because I have a short waist(along with the rest of me).  So now I'm doing stockinette, except for the rope cables at the front edges. ☺ I've come to the conclusion that I won't get this project done by the end of the month, so my goal is to get the body done.  I have to do a few inches in stockinette, and an inch or so of garter stitch, and then add a crochet border and buttons and buttonholes.  I'll do the sleeves next month, I guess.  I'll be glad to get this sweater done, even though I won't be able to wear it until fall.  I started designing it so long ago that I'm just ready to have it done.

I've been thinking about socks.  Socks are nice, quick projects.  And I have a gazillion sock patterns printed, and lots of sock yarn to go with them.  So I think I'm going to set another goal, of knitting one pair of socks per month.  That way, I'll have plenty of them when cold weather comes back.  I loved wearing my handknit socks this past winter, but I only have three pairs, and none of them are superwash wool, so I have to wash them by hand.  I think I'll start a KAL with my friends in the Bunker, if any of them are interested.  I love our KALs!  I'll bring up the idea tonight, when we meet in the chat room for our virtual Knit Night. ☺

Oh, my goodness, I totally forgot to post this yesterday!  I got an email from Stacey at Knit Picks: they like my Julia Lynne cardigan!  So I'll be knitting another one of those as soon as the yarn support arrives.  I can't wait!  I'm still waiting to see the pics from their photo shoot of my Evellyn Anne blanket; I'm not sure whether they'll want me to replace my pics in the pattern with theirs, or just use them for the "additional pictures" on the site.  If it's the latter, that pattern might be up on the site tomorrow; if it's the former, it'll probably be another week.

I went to the gym this morning.  I didn't want to.  When I got there, I didn't want to exercise.  While I was exercising I wanted to stop and go home...until I reached the 15-minute mark on the bike.  When I was done, I was glad I was done.  I have yardwork and knitting and laundry and cleaning to do.  Haha.

Speaking of gardening...we were speaking of gardening, weren't we?  I peeked at my sprouts again, and saw that I have cantaloupe and pumpkins and cucumbers sprouting too!  Nothing yet with the lavender, but that usually takes longer.  I started my tomatoes yesterday: Big Boy and Red Cherry and some seeds I saved from really yummy yellow tomatoes.  And I started my Texas Bluebonnets too.  I love Bluebonnets, but since it's the State Flower, it's illegal to pick them where they grow wild.  This way, I'll be able to pick them and bring them inside.  I haven't started digging yet; I'm waiting on the utility people to come mark the underground cables and such, to make sure that I don't cut anything. 

Movin' right along...

I've finally gotten a new pic of my cardi!

This is the first half of the waist section.  I'm going to do four more repeats of the cables, then switch back to stockinette for the hip section.  After that....a border of garter stitch, and a crochet edging...and the sleeves!  I'm planning on magic-looping the sleeves, maybe doing both at the same time, in order to get this done by the end of February.  I love how this sweater is looking so far!  It has a little more negative ease than I had planned on, but it should be perfect when I lose a few more pounds.

Speaking of losing pounds...I haven't lost any more yet, but I'm workin' on it.  I went to the gym, worked my legs and did 20 minutes on the stair-stepper. 

And now, back to knitting!

Knittin' knittin' knittin'

I've finished the stockinette portion of my sweater!  After trying it on yesterday, I discovered that the three sets of short-rows I had done were enough, and all I needed was a few more rows of stockinette.  So on I go!  I've started the cable section, which will probably take a while. 

I've just sent off another design proposal.  This one is for my Julia Lynne cardigan that I designed in '09.  (Can you believe this pic was taken just a year and a half ago?  Kitty looks so much older now!)

After it was rejected by Knitty, I didn't have the courage to submit it anywhere else until now.  So I spent this afternoon reworking it and writing up a design proposal for it.  I've had pretty good luck with Knit Picks so far, so I'm optimistic.

I went to the gym today, and worked my chest, shoulders and back.  Then I did 25 minutes at level 4 on the bike.  I'm really feelin' it now...  Hopefully I won't hurt too much tomorrow.

Introducing: my rejected pattern.

Well, I got the email today that the pattern I submitted to Knitty was not accepted. So I can finally post pictures here. I will, however, be reserving the pattern for my book. Anyway, this is "Julia Lynne". It's a top-down, seamless raglan cardigan with lace and ruffles.

And here are some pictures of my girls, in their cardigans.
Dolly

Princess

And Angel