Picking Pumpkins at Smiling Hill Farm

We went Smiling Hill this weekend, picked some pumpkins, petted a goat or two and took a ton of photos.  Beautiful fall day and adorable kid? It's hard not to.

Since we last came in the spring, the petting zoo goats have gotten a lot chubbier and LMC's gotten more independent. She wanted to be wherever the bigger kids (3-5 year-olds) were: climbing on the trains and planes, driving the John Deere-a-saurus, riding the mini tractors, going down from the top of the tall slides. She also wanted no help in carrying her pumpkins of choice. Is it any surprise that we've switched to the booster seat from the high chair at home? This girl is ready for her seat at the table.

With the pumpkins brought home and her costume finished last night (she's gonna be so cute!!), we're all ready for Halloween here. The only thing left to do is pick out the kind of takeout we want for Friday night (a Cleaver Halloween tradition).

Do you have a favorite pumpkin patch or Halloween tradition? When I was a kid in California it was Stanly Lane for pumpkins every year and my mom would sew whatever incredibly complex costume I desired that year (as chosen from the back of the Simplicity or McCall's pattern book at JoAnn's) including full renaissance dress. I figure this is probably my last year before LMC has an opinion about what she wants to be for Halloween (maybe one more?) so I'm trying to make it a good one.

Me-Mades: Minoru Jacket, Lamina Sweater

Introducing: Lamina

For the first of three posts about my designs for the Strata and Line Collection, I decided to start with Lamina.

I wanted Lamina to be one a simple, very wearable sweater . The original idea was do to an all-over stripe (below), but after some design tweaking, I went with a solid body and striped sleeves and collar.

The decision to keep the body solid makes for a slightly interesting, though not difficult construction.

At its most basic, Lamina is knit in the round from bottom up with saddle-shoulder shaping and some gentle waist shaping. The saddles themselves are knit back and forth and seamed from underarm to shoulder and then rejoined to work the cowl neck in the round. Because the stripes are contained to the arms, it’s also a relatively quick knit.

It was also a huge pleasure to work with the yarn on this pattern. The yarn is the Woolen Rabbit’s  Grace in Myrtle and Straw. Grace is a beautiful merino yarn that comes in sizable 525 yard skeins. There are few yarns I think I’ve enjoyed knitting with more – it was just so pretty, lovely to work with, and the colors really make this design pop. Tea Leaves/Forever in Blue Jeans would be another fabulous color combo. I just picked up some more Woolen Rabbit yarn at a recent local fiber event so I can work more with her yarns.

Lamina is available for download as a solo pattern for $6.00 USD or can be purchased from my Ravelry store with my other two designs from the collection, Latitude and Longitude for a discounted $12 with the coupon code LINE.

Lamina

$6 USD

If you want to queue it up on Ravelry, the collection can be found here.

Introducing: Strata and Line

I'm pleased to announce the release of my first collaboration with Bristol Ivy: Strata and Line

a collection of four sweaters and three accessories exploring stripes in all their varieties.

Click here to view a lookbook of the collection or you can download the lookbook PDF here.

The patterns are available for purchase individually on Ravelry for $6 USD/Sweater, $4 USD/Accessory or you can use the following codes to get the complete individual designer collections for $12:

For the four Bristol Ivy patterns: STRATA

For my three patterns: LINE

I hope you enjoy the collection and I'll be posting more about the inspiration behind my patterns in the coming days!