Jellybean – Yards of Happiness

Stitching Status: Quiet Weekends

Between errands and brunch with friends, I spent a nice chunk of time knitting in the evenings and binge watching The Good Fight on TV. If you ever watched The Good Wife and miss it, all 10 episodes of the spin-off The Good Fight are on CBS all access and you can subscribe for free for a week. I’m already up to episode 8 – it’s so good.
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And the girls have been happily tangled up in my knitting. We are getting a new couch this week so we took the old one out and put in a bench for the girls to look out the window in the meantime. That means I haven’t had the best seating options (sitting in a chair with two dogs is not comfortable and they don’t like to share my lap and I don’t love sitting in the husband’s man cave in the basement). For the most part I’ve been sitting on a pile of pillows on the floor with blankets and have been playing fetch with Jellybean while Cher goes between the bench and a blanket next to me.
Mischief
On occasion they’ll play nice and share the bench together and stare out the window occasionally barking at dogs and their owners walking by. And then occasionally they bark at nothing at all and scare the crap out of me.
Sisters 😊
But despite the barking and sitting on the floor I’ve made great progress on my improvised sweater. I finished the body and decided to do an i-cord bind off for the end instead of ribbing. The scoop neck is pretty deep so I added about 2 inches of ribbing to the neckline to bring it up a bit – I’ll still need to wear a tank top with it but that’s how I typically wear my v necks. I decided to use the leftover darker yarn I paired with the lighter top color on my Colorblocked Boyfriend Cardigan. It picks up the dark flecks in the other yarn. I kind of love that this is all bits and pieces of leftover projects coming together. I love it when you can use every last drop of yarn on the skein.
Sunday night progress
I’ve been kind of just making this up as I go along and making decisions on the fly. Adding in a new color and just having fun as I go along. It’s kind of nice to not follow any pattern. I’m down to the sleeves and I’m thinking since it’s a deep scoop neck and it hits me at the hips, with not do a bell sleeve? I just feel like a fitted sleeve wouldn’t look right but who knows, I may not like it and can always rip it back but that’s also part of the fun of creating this with colors I just love. Here’s hoping I finish up this week!

Little Things & Lots of Color

There are lots of little things I’ve been loving lately that I thought I’d share. I mentioned the other day that I won one of the extra prices in the Summer of Basics Makealong for making Jellybean a tiny Angelina pullover to match mine. Well, I got to pick a field bag in the color of my choice (I love my field bag but the first versions just came in plain canvas) so of course I chose the bright cobalt blue. When it arrived I thought it was only fitting to put Jellybean in her sweater and pop her in the field bag.
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She’s so tiny and so cute that I have to share that silliness with everyone else. You’re welcome.
I’ve also been pouring over the latest issue of Pom Pom QuarterlyPom Pom Quarterly, I recommend grabbing a digital copy or ordering a paper copy. I’m obsessed with a couple of sweaters (I can see myself knitting this one for myself after the holidays). But there was a column by Anna Matlz and illustration by Amy Blackwell that just got me.
Loud Slow Fashion
Anna wrote about the slow fashion movement but touched on something about the movement that has felt a bit off-putting to me. Whenever we talk about fashion, style or basics it’s about neutrals like gray, white, camel and black. Those are the colors I have the least of in my wardrobe. So even when I posted pics for the Summer of Basics Makealong it was obvious that I stuck out like a sore thumb with my rainbow cardigan contrasting against a lot of neutrals. And don’t get me wrong, if neutrals are your thing, rock on (my BFF Jess lives in black but I always put her in color). It’s just not me. Here’s one quote I loved (it was full of many):

I wholeheartedly agree with the growing call for respectful and conscientious consumerism…However I cannot get on board with the dominant approach to achieving such a wardrobe. You see, when I hear terms like ‘neutrals’, ‘classic’, ‘timeless’, ‘chic’, ‘staples’ or ‘basics’ I start to squirm with ornery conviction…

She leans more towards the colorful and unique to fill her wardrobe much like I do and I felt like someone got how I feel about color being a vital part of a wardrobe.
Loud Slow Fashion
These are some of my favorites I’ve made for myself and they get worn repeatedly. Why? Because the color makes me happy whenever I put them on and isn’t that what it’s all about? I think I’m going to have to start using the hashtag #loudslowfashion moving forward.
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And the really dope illustration on the article was by Amy Blackwell. Of course I wanted to see more of her colorful work and that lead me to her website where I bought one of these hand painted sweater brooches! How adorable is this? I can’t wait to pin it on one of my many winter coats.

So those are the little things that I’m obsessed with lately. Have any of you grabbed that copy of Pom Pom Quarterly? What do you think about color as a neutral?

September 13, 2017September 13, 2017 by IamDWJ Categories: Color, Jellybean, Knitting, My Dogs, rainbows, Things That Bring Me Joy, Tools & AccessoriesTags: #yardsofhappiness, Color, knitting, loud slow fashion, Pom Pom Quarterly, Yarn 9 Comments

FO: Mint Madness

Last week was a little rough, I got hit out of the blue with a nasty virus and was down for the count for the entire week and into the weekend. Fortunately in between naps and dog snuggles I was plugging away on my latest finished object, the one I’m calling Mint Madness.

This started as a sketch and a way to mix up some yarns I already had.
Mint madness sketch
You may remember when I went to Neighborhood Fiber Co for a dye workshop and I made this very pretty mint yarn…well I still hadn’t made anything with it. When I popped over to Fibre Space a few weeks ago I saw this limited edition colorway from Neighborhood Fibre Co. called Swoon. My brain said this is the bridge color I needed because I also had a gorgeous stash of their vibrant cobalt shade, Georgetown. Mint, flecks of cobalt and a little bit of bright yellow and I was good to go!
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After my last saddle shoulder sweater I wanted to make another one just to work on my technique. This one isn’t perfect but I still love the end results. I’ve got to work on picking up my armhole stitches a bit better but hey, that’s why you keep on practicing. And with Cher asleep on one side and Jellybean constantly tangled up in my work, I’d knit in between naps and doses of medicine.
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And in the end, I got a cozy open cardigan for fall, that I’ve already worn to walk the dogs in the morning.
Mint Madness
I decided that I wanted to do a lot of ribbing on the sleeves so I can pull back the cuffs and had a three quarter sweater if I wanted or pull them all the way down to have a cozy cuff that goes a little over the wrist. And I added bright blue pockets for a pop of color and because every sweater is made better with pockets. To make the pockets I held stitches back at my desired point and then cast on the same number to keep knitting across. Once I got to my desired body length I knit the pockets and then knit those stitches to the body and then seamed the sides once I was finished.
Mint Madness
I also went back and forth on whether or not there would be buttons but I just didn’t think buttons would work with everything else I had going on. So I skipped them and I’m glad I did. This is really one of those pieces I want to throw on whether it’s over jeans and a t-shirt or a dress. So now I’m almost over my cold and I’ve got a cozy sweater perfect for cool fall mornings. I’m pretty happy.