1st FO Friday and WIP Weekend of the New Year!

Well Happy New Year everyone! I do hope you all had a safe and fun New Years weekend! I must apologize for the belatedness of this (very large) post as we have had a record-breaking busy week this week! Wowzer! Seriously, probably the busiest week since I began working at Jimmy Beans! As usual, we feel lucky and grateful to be so busy, so thank you to all for contributing to that! Here’s to an even busier 2011!

I have a few FO’s to share with you this week, as well as some fun works-in-progress. You might find that this post is sort of an homage to Madelinetosh yet again. We just can’t help it! All of us ladies around here have googly eyes and stomach butterflies whenever we see and/or knit with her yarn. It’s just so amazing! So anyway, here’s what we’ve done this week:

Sharon finished her version of Annabella’s Cowl from Churchmouse Designs. She knit it with 1skien of Tosh Merino DK in the Terrarium color and 1 skein of Rowan Kidsilk Haze in the Hurricane color. In order to make the whole cowl out of 1 skein of each, she opted to do a shortened version of this pattern. Instead of wearing it as a hood, she has a really generous and lovely cowl. Her modification also included widening the cowl at the stockinette section to sit on the shoulders a bit better. I was so inspired by the lovely outcome of her cowl that I decided to finally knit one of my own! I’ve seen several other ladies at the shop knit this, but I just had to do it once I had seen it in this yarn. So awesome! I cast on last night in the Tosh Merino DK in Amber Trinket with a strand of Kidsilk Haze in Dewberry. I’ll be doing similar mod’s to mine as Sharon did on hers, except I cast on 88 sts to widen it a bit as I am quite a bit taller and broader in the shoulders than she is. So exciting! These yarns are such a dream to work with, and on size 9 needles, this pattern goes super fast...I think it may only take a few days to work this one up!

Amber started working on this lovelyhat just before the holidays. It was a gift for her best buddy and housemate. This was Amber’s first project with any sort of a lace pattern and I think she did a great job! The pattern is a free one from Debbie Stoller and Stitch Nation Yarns. It’s called the “All Day Beret” and Amber knit hers in the Bamboo Ewe “Mermaid” color. All of Debbie Stoller’s Stitch Nation Yarns are so fun and vibrant! At $4.99 a ball, they are great for a variety of projects and very reasonably priced. I’ve been eyeing several colors of the “Full o’ Sheep” to make some French Press Felted Slippers for gifts for next Christmas! I know it’s early but I am determined to make handmade gifts happen this year and that means starting early!

Our final FO for the week comes from Jeanne but was made as a gift for Sandy. Jeanne knitted Sandy this darling little Flower Pin made from leftover scrap yarn...I believe this was Koigu? The pattern comes from the Brave New Knits book we all have been raving about this fall. We all got so excited when the author (and Sandy’s good friend) Julie Turjoman came to the shop and did a book signing! So fun! Jeanne’s sock-weight version of Kat Coyle’s Lace Flower pin is darling don’t you think? I’m thinking it would be really cute made into hair clips and adorned with some of the many pretty vintage buttons I have stashed away...hmm so many cute gift ideas!

As for WIP’s for the weekend, we have quite a few things going here. As I mentioned before, there was that spontaneous beginning of an Annabelle’s cowl last night, although I really have no business starting another project. I should be logging in some time on Nick’s Sweater which is about 2/3 of the way complete. I suppose I could just leave that to this little guy. He really seems to like knitting away on it (I wish)-- more like snoozing... Usually this happens while I am trying to work on the project at hand. As you can probably tell, this can be a bit of a problem...

Actually, I have also been working on the Madelinetosh Mara Shawl. A free pattern from Madelinetosh’s website. It’s a pretty popular pattern, as almost 1,200 people have knitted it on Ravelry, and it’s so lovely when finished. You’ll remember I posted Victoria’s Mara in Tosh DK Amber Trinket back in December. I’ve also knit a smaller version once before in the Berocco Lustra yarn for a gift, but I am looking forward to wearing this new one in the Tosh Merino Light! I chose the “Posy” color because I was feeling the need for a little more rosy pink in my life. (I’m planning to make a matching Posy colored beret in the Merino DK, but we’ll save that for another post.) The Mara pattern is great because it is very easy knitting and it’s a great intro to shawl construction! I even recommended it to Amber for her first shawl, and she cast on immediately in the Hand Maiden Casbah yarn. It’s looking so pretty in the “Beach House” color.

Other WIP’s this week include this beautiful Beaded Beret by Churchmouse Designs that Sandy is knitting for her mom’s 84th birthday! She’s making it in the Tosh Merino Light Lepidoptra color. (Yes, Tosh again! I told you we were in love!) Ailene is working on this awesome ribbed hat for a friend based on the Ann Norling #55- Head Huggers pattern. She’s using the classic standby Cascade 220 Superwash yarn for this project. Always a good call for gift knitting!

That’s it for this week’s FO’s and WIP’s! I hope you all are making good progress on your own projects! Thanks for reading and I’ll see you again next week!

Happy knitting!

Kristen