My Autumn Rose colors

Since so many people have asked I took the time to make a little chart of the colors I'm using for my Autumn Rose. I use a mixture of Knit Picks Palette and Digit Yarn. They are marked on the picture below. Sorry to say that it's not all cheap KP yarn but it is almost half and the main color (which you need the most of) is KP yarn. I tried a few swatches with just KP yarn but none of them were exactly what I was looking for. Hope this helps someone!

This is how I replaced the colors:

Shetland black = KP Black
Old Gold = KP Bark
Sunrise = Digit Lapis
Madder = Digit Bayberry
Pine Forest = KP Navy
Bracken = Digit Walnut
Admiral Navy = KP Marine Heather
Pistachio = Digit Brindle
Peat = Digit Indigo
Yellow Ochre = Digit Hickory
Scotch Broom = Digit Sagebrush

Making progress...

So far I'm loving it, I can't even believe I'm the one making this! For my first color work I think I'm doing pretty good. I made some major mistakes in the beginning but they are on the back and I'm too lazy to start over. I'm pretty sure no one else will notice anyway. I also mixed up my colors this time round. I ended up putting each combo in it's own bag a al chappysmom. I haven't decided if I'll continue in the incorrect colors or consider all of this the border and change back to the order from my swatch on the next repeat. I'll have to see how it looks after it's been topped by the blue checked stripe.

I've also broken out another tool that I haven't played with in a long while. I'm going to Florida next week and I'm trying to finish up my project before then so I can take it with me. Here's the tool.

And here's the project.

It's the Amy Butler Weekender bag. I have both fronts and inside panels done. I need to put in the zipper and put the rest of it together. So far it's been clear sailing. I left off the piping because I have never done a project like this and after seeing all the trouble others were having with it I figured I better start slow. I haven't broken any needles so far and I've only had to rip back once. Hopefully I can finish it this weekend so I can take it as my carry on to Florida. Wish me luck!

Why you shouldn't use your seven year old as an alarm clock...

So, we're on our way to my mothers today to go swimming but I am sooooo tired I decided to take a small nap. I didn't want to change my alarm for a nap so I ask my seven year old if she could please wake up mommy at 2:00, that's two, zero, zero. "OK, Mommy!" Famous last words. This was at 1:07, here's what happened.

1:36pm - "Hi, Mommy. I just wanted to come give you a hug and kiss."

Ok, so I'm pissed. I barely just went to sleep. I ask if it's two, zero, zero. Nope, she says, I just wanted to give you a kiss. So I tell her she has a 30 min penalty. Now she has to come back at 2:30, two, three, zero. If you come back before two, three, zero for any reason at all the deal is off and we stay home. "OK, Mommy!"

2:03pm - "Wake up Mommy, it's two, zero, three!"

Ok, am I allowed to be mad? Isn't it my fault, as her mother, that she can't tell time. Ugh! "Ok, Tina, I told you to come back at two, three, zero, not two, zero, three." Tears start, face crumples, shoulders slump; "Does this mean the deal is off?" Man oh man, so I have to tell her no, the deal is not off. Just don't come back again until two, three, zero, OK? "Ok, Mommy!"

2:36pm - I wake up on my own. Get in the shower, brush my hair and get dressed. When I step out into the living room to the blaring tunes of Hannah Montana I hear, "Mommy? Is it past zero, three, zero?" Yea, it's past zero, three, zero. "Yay! can we go to Grammy's now?"

Yeah, so I'm on my way to Grammy's now with a valuable lesson learned. DON'T USE YOUR SEVEN YEAR OLD AS AN ALARM CLOCK. Unless you don't really want to get up.

It has begun...

I have officially begun my Autumn Rose pullover but I guess mine is more of a summer tide than and Autumn Rose, LOL! It took me two days to do the 15 rows of corrugated ribbing. I sure am glad that's over. I've started working on the pattern using two hands with one color to either side of myself. Seems to be going a lot faster. I think it was the purl stitch in the ribbing that was really slowing me down.

So far the tension on the ribbing is looking pretty good. I'm hoping to keep that up as I move on to the body. Wish me luck!

Other knitting

You know I thought I had posted on my "Not Sesame" sweater already but I guess with everything that's been going on I just forgot. You might remember from a few posts back that I was sad because all that yarn I spun up to knit sesame turned out to be too heavy in gauge for the pattern. Well, I decided to create my own sweater instead. I have this gap sweater that I love, so I thought I would try my hand at recreating it. Here is a shot of the inspiration sweater.

She may not be the prettiest thing but she is oh so comfy. So far I've knit the back, both fronts and am almost done with one sleeve of her replacement.

The pic of the pocket is truest to the color.

I plan to give it a big collar a la sesame and add some k1p1 ribbing to the edges of the pockets. I LOVE it and think I will get a lot of wear out of it this winter. Since the yarn is so heavy it's more like a coat than a sweater, but hey, it gets down to about 60 degrees in my office so I should be fine *smile*

Somebody stop me...

I think I have finally found the colors I like. I'm going to post all the swatch pics here again so sorry if I slow down anyone's computer. I'm just entirely too anal and I need someone else to look at these and tell me if the one I've picked is crazy. Ok, so the winner (right now *smile*) is the swatch on top. Let me know what you think. I've knit so many swatches I'm worried that I might not have enough yarn for the actual sweater now! I'm also a few stitches off on gauge (too big), don't really know what I'm going to do about that yet, I'm already using size 1 addi's. Sigh...

Cross posted to Autumn Rose KAL

Miss Rose

I've decided to knit Autumn Rose from Simply Shetland 4 (my first fair isle) and I've been swatching like a crazy woman for the past few days trying to decide on colors. I wasn't too happy with all the red in the original so I'm trying to make a mostly blue and brown color scheme. I'm not really liking any of them yet though.

Here are the swatches

I knit only half of each chart cuz I'm lazy and knew I would be doing quite a few of these. I've photoshop'd them to get an idea of what the entire motif would look like.

But I still don't know that I'm in love with any of these and since I know this is going to be a long project for me (my first fair isle) I want to make sure I'm happy before I get started. I'm thinking of ordering some other colors to try out (I'm using Knit Picks palette and Digit yarn). Pretty much all the yarn I'm using was already in the stash so this will be an almost guilt free sweater, YAY! LOL.

Make sure you hug someone you love today...

Shannon Prud'homme
December 24, 1974 - July 13, 2007

I love you Shanny-poo

ETA - I grew up with 14 cousins. I have way more cousins than that, but 14 of them were in my age group. We spend every summer together, we got chicken pox together, we went to school together, we did basically everything together. I didn't have friends growing up, I had cousins. Shannon was the oldest of the bunch and she was the Queen B, the boss of us all. She made all final decisions for the group and she was the first one to tell you what she thought of you or what she thought of something you had done. But even when she was mad at you should would always say "But I still love you and when you're not mad at me anymore you can call me".

When I was in the 6th grade someone stole my bus pass. Shannon found me after school crying and when I told her what happened she said don't worry about it, she would make it all right. I don't know how, but she found out who did it, beat them up (and it turned out to be a boy) and brought me back my bus pass. Even during the last 3 years while she was so sick, she would call to ask how I was doing. She was the most honest, loving, caring and beautiful person I've known and certainly the best of all of us cousins. I'll miss her more than I can let you know.

She leaves behind her mother, three sisters, two little girls, numerous cousins and countless friends. I pray she's up in heaven now with my Grammy Hilda, both of them smiling down on us and hoping we don't cry for them too long.