new art

I can be so tempted while surfing around Etsy. Last week, while following a link originally found on Decor8 - i stumbled upon a beautiful ceramic bowl and had to have it.

It came beautifully wrapped (love the look of the bag, I may get inspired by this for Hug-a-dub-dub) and I love the finished piece.This will hopefully soon become part of an artful display of 'plates' on the dining room wall. Thank You Paloma's Nest!

Another fave on Etsy is Tabbatha Henry. I bought one of her pendants from her studio at christmas and always get compliments on it whenever I wear it.

Puff Sleeved Cardigan - Fitted Knits

A second finished project in one week! this may be a record for me.
Project: Puff Sleeved Feminine Cardigan by Stephanie Japel in Fitted Knits (ravelry link)
Yarn: Auracania Nature Wool in a dark blue
Needles: Size 6 mainly, a little bit of Size 5
Notes: I swatched for this. really I did. I chose size 5 needles as the appropriate size to get the right fabric. BUT - for some reason when I went to knit this sweater, I picked up the #6's and cast-on and didn't realize my mistake until I was 1/2 way through the first ball of yarn. So I just kept going.

It's not too terrible. The fabric is a little too drapey for the pattern and the whole thing ended up bigger than necessary and therefore not really 'fitted.' The first skein of yarn was very different from the following skeins. I liked the first one best, very little variation of color. The bottom half is a little more varigated than I had thought.

The peplum kind of looks like an afterthought, it's a bit bizarre but I do like it and I'm glad I did it and it's done.

January knitting

K's been asking for me to knit him a sweater for a long time. So, before christmas I took him to the yarn store and let him pick the color yarn (reddish brown Harrisville New England Highland) and over the holidays I cast on for the Children's Hooded Tunic #232. I did one of these already and liked the pattern and the result.

What seems like a million years later, but actually less than a month, turns out that there wasn't enough yarn for the hood (BIG disappointment!) but truly he's happy to have a new sweater all of his own.

Needles: 8 and 6
Mods: just the garter stitch neck instead of a hood.

couple of other quick picks. I did a yarn swap on Ravelry for the holidays and scored this precious alpaca/silk sock yarn from my pal in Australia. I love it and the socks are going to be tres chic.
My favorite christmas gift? This big, posh Emma Bridgewater tea pot. It also came with two matching mugs. Thank you UK Father Christmas! This is my new weekend teapot, it's a little too big for a weekday morning when i have to run out the door so quickly, but it's perfect for a wonderful Sunday morning with the family.