During the first few weeks of being engaged, I bought a wedding planner and started reading every wedding blog I could find. Hello, information overload! I thought wedding planning would be hard and scary but it’s only been two months and most of the important things are done. The wedding is still 11 months away so there’s a few  things I can’t do yet but I feel pretty good about everything. I can’t wait till next spring so I can get started on the fun DIY stuff.

Other than wedding planning, I’ve been doing some spinning and knitting. First, spinning:

I bought some very fine Merino fiber from Alafoss when I was in Iceland. I forgot to take a photo of the before but it came in 1 oz strips and was striped with purple, orange and blue. I tried to separate the colors somewhat but it’s still a marled yarn. I thought it would be ugly knit up but I actually love the scarf I made with it:

Next up, a merino/tencel blend from Yarn Chef:

Turned into:

I was able to retain the colors by splitting the braid in half. Now,what to make with it? I only have about 200 yards and was thinking of using white or black yarn to go with it. I may do something like this to showcase the gradual change in color. By the way, tencel is my new favorite thing to spin.

Everyone is having babies which means I get to knit cute baby sweaters like this tiny grandpa cardigan:

Pattern: Baby Sophisticate

Yarn: My Family by Muench Yarns

Needles: US 8

Notes: This is for Conor’s future cousin once removed,  little Liam, who is due in December.  Doesn’t this look like a sweater for someone named Liam? First, let’s talk about this yarn. I went  to the yarn store and asked for a super wash wool or wool blend for a baby sweater but was immediately met with a “We only have acrylic”.  I never use acrylic yarn because acrylic = plastic and plastic = gross and not fun to knit with but not this yarn. I reluctantly went over to feel it and was floored. This is the softest synthetic stuff I’ve ever touched and it was great to knit with. I’m still going nowhere near Red Heart but I’ve learned to feel before I judge.

The construction of the sweater is really simple but it was a fun knit. I love the garter stitch edging and the shawl collar. It usually takes me an hour or more to pick out buttons for a sweater but when I saw these leather buttons, I knew.

I need to figure out how to make one of these for myself. More photos below:

This photo shows the true color of the yarn.