Happy Halloween!

Oh boy! Candy!

Breaker, Pattern and yarn by Louisa Harding

Pattern:  Breaker by Louisa Harding from Louisa Harding #111, Ondine
Yarn:  Ondine, 100% cotton, on sale at Webs! A lovely yarn to work with.  I love the subtle marled look in these colors
Needles:  size 3, 5
Modifications:  To avoid the dreaded seaming as much as possible, I knit all the body welts first then joined to knit the fronts and backs together.  I knit the size 4, but the largest size length, but in the end my sister did not want a cropped top so I lengthened it 2 more inches.  She also wanted long sleeves.  To avoid seaming the sleeves, I CO 43 stitches and knit the contrasting cuff on 5 needles.  Every 8th row, I increased two stitches at the under arm side (K1, MI, then knit to last 1 stitch.  End M1K1) until there were 71 stitches.  At the sleeve cap, I switched to knitting back and forth, so there still was a sleeve cap to sew in.   This screwed up the buttonhole space at the top a bit.  I'm not sure why the neck is stretched on so on the back, perhaps I needed to go up a size?  The bottom line is that the recipient is happy with it and being cotton I suspect it will conform as she wears it. 
Comments:  The knitting was nice and mindless, stockinette and seed stitch...a great TV project. 

I'm so tempted to buy more of this yarn.  But, my stash is full...my stash is full...repeat after me.

A couple of sock projects completed. 
Child size Watermelon socks with leftover yarn (see previous post)

And some Koigu socks, Alternating 2x2 rib, from one of my favorite sock knitting books, Sensational Knitted Socks.  I still love me some Koigu!!

I had a glorious trip to Camano Island. D&M's log cabin is making great progress and is a very charming home-y home in a lush woods. M had a fun itinerary for the 5 of us, starting with the Dale Chihuly Glass Museum at the Seattle Science Center, the Harvest Jubilee around Stanward, a ferry ride to Victoria to see the Butchart Garden, a train ride to Fairhaven, as well as lot's of tasty berries and fun places to eat. We even saw the King Tut exhibit!  The weather was fabulous!Some of my pictures are here.

I took a couple hats on the trip and finished two more and gave them all away!  Yay!  One was a basic black simple slouchy hat by cocoknits of Vanna's Choice and the other was a Taiyo Snail Hat.  I tried pleating the top as the yarn is fragile and it was a challenge to gather up the top without leaving a hole.  Taiyo is nice and soft since it has so much cotton in it. 

I'm trying to get inspired to make a Halloween card, but so far no luck producing something I'm happy with.  I knit a Koigu sock, and have cast on for the second.  Really, though, it's tough to get moving on socks when it is so warm.  I did manage a little bag.  It looks big in the picture but is only 7 inches across the bottom.  I used the Friendship Bag Tutorial from ps i quilt with a few mods to fit the fabric I had. I wanted to try one of the faux sashiko machine techniques.  This is stitch 94 on my Janome Horizon 7700, with embroidery thread in the bobbin and invisible thread in the top.  The stitch length was 3.5.  It didn't look so much like sashiko, but was kind of cute.  This bag would be good for a gift bag, a spinning wheel hook bag (except the Majacraft doesn't use a hook) or a little waste bag for those bits of fluff that happen. 

My dad turned 92 on October 4. The sky goddess came down from Denver and helped us celebrate.  He is not too happy about living so long, but he still enjoys a party!