If you were around Wooly Bully last year at all during our afghans for Afghans campaign, then you have probably seen the Firefly sweater.  It is one that I designed specifically for people who wanted a quick & fun project to knit for a4A, while at the same time making something functional, wearable & warm.  Many people knit this sweater as their very first sweater & I think that it is a perfect project for someone looking to learn the basics of raglan sweaters. 

Firefly is a simple, top down raglan style sweater knit with a placket of seed stitch down the front. 
Knitting this sweater is a great way to use up scrap yarns by changing colors throughout for a striped look, or just at the cuffs & waist band for a varsity look.  Some people have used intarsia techniques to add interest in the placket. 
You'll need to know how to knit, purl, work in the round & on dpns (or 2 circs) and how to use place markers.  The pattern also calls for using a Make 1 increase and K2tog as well as a tiny bit of seaming under the arms. 

The small size of this sweater can be expected to fit a child 10 months to 1.5 years while the large size may fit a child 2 -3 years of age.  These are of course guesstimates.  I always encourage people who are making this sweater for a specific child, to measure their torso & arms to ensure that they make the sweater & sleeves long enough.
If you make this sweater, I'd love to see pics.  If you wish to teach this sweater in a class, just contact me for my specifications.  Thanks!

I'm so happy to introduce our very first release in our Collaborations Line from TurtleDove Yarns. 

Jim James of My Morning Jacket was kind enough to collaborate with us to create this colorway, a blend of various deep oranges & varying shades of blue from slate gray to nearly black & just a touch of chocolate brown.  The band collectively decided to name this colorway Knot Comes Loose after a song on their album, Z. 

When you purchase a skein of Knot Comes Loose from our shop, you will receive a free pattern to make these fingerless mitts, appropriately named "My Morning Mitts."  The pattern includes sizing for mens & womens and will come in the post with your yarn. 

We are so happy with this first installment of our Collaborations Line.  Jim James was especially gracious in his participation & we are super appreciative.  Big Thanks to the entire My Morning Jacket band for being a part of this project. 

Recently my mother received an email indicating that Mars would be swinging into Earths orbit come August 2009.  The email indicated that the red planet would be visible to the naked eye - as clearly & as large as our own moon.   THAT would be amazing - to look up & see the Mars just like you were looking at the Moon!  It'd be like we were living in a scene from Dune or Land of the Lost.  (i sent my mom a link from Sky & Telescope, letting her know the email is a hoax).

I happened to be working on these socks at the time that my mom disclosed this supposed upcoming event to me.  The pomegranate colorway resembled the Red Planet & reminded me of the new trace elements discovered recently upon an expedition to Mars, thus the sock was aptly named Trace Elements.  

Construction:  This sock is knit using 2 circular needles, but could easily be adapted to using double pointed or magic loop method. 
I used a heel flap design & Kitchener toe technique.

Stitch Pattern:  The overall design of the sock has vertical lines - which is really nice for a sock if it is destined to be on my foot.  I always prefer that my socks have linear vertical elements rather than any type of horizontal lines.  I do not need a sock to make my legs look any more like sausages.  A thin, long line throughout a sock pattern creates length through my ankles & eliminates some self consciousness from my mind!

The Yarn: I chose to work with the TDY Magpie for this sock.  A) because no one believed me that it was in fact a fingering weight yarn because it is fluffy & bouncy, springy & full of body.  B) becaues it is fluffy, bouncy, springy & full of body.  and C) because i wanted you all to see just how the colors from the House Blend Collection work up. 

Our House Blend Collection yarns are not dyed in a traditional manner which can create patterns of stripes or repeating colors throughout your fabric.  Instead, our House Blend Yarns are dyed in a way that creates a wash of various shades of a single color or color family.  This method results in less frequency of pooling, flashing & striping.   This is one of my favorite ways to dye yarns & definitely one of my favorite yarns to knit.

Pattern coming soon    ish...

I loved this yarn when i pulled it out of the pot. 

The brown was so creamy (and i definitely prefer milk chocolate over dark) and the pink was pretty and thankfully didn't look like the pink elephant in Mercy's crib. 

I had originally dyed the 60" skein in these two colors at a 1:1 ratio.  If I knit socks out of this same yarn, I would have had thin, relatively equally spaced stripes of pink & brown.   While this appealed to me, I instead decided to use the yarn for a new scarf pattern. 

My limited math-brain couldn't have foreseen exactly what would have been the outcome, but I had a hunch...

Yea!  I love the way this yarn created this awesome zigzag pattern in my already zigging & zagging fabric!

I'm making this pattern available here on the blog.  Special thanks to Shari for testing it for me!  If you'd like to make this pattern using a TurtleDove Yarn, let me know with a quick email & I'll let you know what current colorways should give you a similar pattern effect.  Of course, this pattern would work up nicely in any semi-solid or variegated yarn.  Usually a rigidly vertical lace pattern (especially one as simple as this one) will not get lost in a variegated yarn.  But I know it would look lovely in a semi-solid as well.

This particular colorway is sold out.  But I'm dying up another batch of CuppyCake for the shop during the next couple of days. 

Cuppy Cake Scarf

Materials:
1 skein TurtleDove Pigeon Sock (or appx 400 yds of a fingering weight yarn)
US 5
darning needle

Cast on: 52 sts.

Row 1: Knit
Row 2 & all wrong side rows: K1, Purl across to last stitch, K1.
Rows 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, & 13: K1, *K2, ssk, K2tog, K4, (YO, K1)twice, repeat               from * to last 3 sts, K3. 
Row 15: Knit

Rows 17, 19, 21, 23, 25 & 27: K1, *K3, YO, K1, YO, K4, SSK, K2tog; repeat         from * to last 3 sts, K3. 

Row 29: Knit

Repeat these 30 rows (row 30 is a purl row) until scarf measures 60" or desired length. 
Bind off all sts loosely. 
Weave in all ends. 
Block, or don't for a fuller look.