I went to Stitches West

I went to Stitches West 2013 and all I got was:

A pattern book from weaverknits. I liked the cover pattern and this pattern. It helped that I could see both the sweaters being worn -- the designer herself wore the second one.

Some vintage buttons (or as I like to say, "budduns") from Buttons!, my favorite buddun vendor.

And lastly, some yarn on sale from WEBS. This was a good deal at $52 for the package of 10. I love looking at all the yarns at Stitches, but frankly, many of them are just too pricey for my blood. I usually spend no more than $70 for yarn for one sweater, and that's for the nice merino wools and blends. I just cannot convince myself to spend over $100 for sweater yarn.

FO: Dog sweater

This is a sweater for Sencha, a neighbor's dog. I didn't use any specific dog sweater pattern, but I sort of made up my pattern after looking at a few of them. I knit the sweater as two pieces, and then sewed up the side seams, leaving two holes for the forelegs. The neck and bottom hems have ribbing. The rest is stockinette, but as with all knitwear, one can customize this by putting some sort of stitch pattern on the back.

Below is a very rough schematic. I left out any measurements, since this needs to be customized to fit. I think this style will work for your basic tube-shaped dog, and I made the front and back pieces the same width. For the dogs with deeper chests, I think you might need to make a wider front, or perhaps a front that has more increases towards the middle and then decreases back down at the bottom. Or even better, maybe some short row shaping would do the trick for a deep-chested dog. Also, this sort of leg hole might not work if the dog has long legs since it would be hard to get the legs through.

And the winner is....

Lauren Helen -- Congrats on winning my big bag o' yarn. I'll email you shortly to get your contact info.

Big Bag of Yarn Giveaway!

I haven't held a giveaway in ages, so it's about time! I'm giving away many of the leftover skeins from my various knitting projects. I always seem to have at least a skein leftover when I knit sweaters because I don't know how much I will need when I stock up on yarn and I end up buying a bit too much. Here's what's in this pile:

• 1 skein Mirasol Tupa
• 1 skein Rowan Calmer
• 1 skein Knit One Crochet Too 2nd Time Cotton
• 1 skein Rowan purelife Revive
• 1 skein Elsebeth Lavold Hempathy
• 1.5 skeins Valley Yarns Northfield
• 1 skein di.Ve Autunno
• almost 3 skeins Fibranatura Heaven
• 1 skein Awana Kancha baby alpaca -- I've never knitted with this yarn. I won it in a contest, but I never knit with that fine a gauge

Of this batch of yarn, my favorites are the Hempathy and the Northfield. I've knitted at least two garments with each of these yarns. I love the drape of the 2nd Time Cotton, and I've knitted at least two garments with it also, but it's a bit too thick a gauge for summer pullovers. It's good for summer cardigans though.

To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment any time up until 12:00AM PST Monday February 11. Hmm -- that's just after the Lunar New year. Perhaps I will consider this a Lunar New Year giveaway!

Be sure to leave some clue as to how I can find you if you win. If your comment leads to your blog, that's good enough. Otherwise, a ravelry ID would work.

If you don't hear from me until then, Happy Year of the Snake!