Happy Halloween from Mario and Luigi

There's been no time for blogging lately, and precious little time for knitting. That's because today was Halloween and I was on a deadline.

A deadline to make all of this.

That's two pairs of overalls.
Two raglan long sleeve shirts.
One adult male's pants;
shirt;
and vest.
One princess dress, complete with lined bodice, lined skirts, peplums, puff sleeves and a train.
Two crocheted hats
and one ridiculous pillow hat.

I also made those little boys, but I did that back in 2016, so it doesn't really count.

Anyways, busy, busy busy.

Plus I've been thesis writing. passed 20,000 words this weekend. 5 bajillion more to go.

Hope you had a happy October 31st, however you celebrate it.

Knit everything twice - Mix and Match Sweater

This summer, Mina Phillip (@knittingexpat) asked if I would be interested in test knitting a baby sweater she had designed. I've test knit for her before, and she knows I have little ones, so I am pretty sure that's why I got the ask.

The pattern was released last month, the lovely Mix and Match Sweater.

I of course, being a mmother of twins, knit it twice.

The pattern is titled Mix and Match, because Mina provides options for plain stockinette or textured sweaters, short or long sleeves, and with or without short row shaping around the neck and hem. The brown one I knit first, with short in both places, but didn't love them in the back of the neck, so I only did the short row shaping on the hem for the green one.

I knit mine from some Lion Brand Yarn Hearland in Kings Canyon (green) and Sequoia (Brown) click those links for the project pages. I thought acryclic would make for easy to wash sweaters, and to be fair, I didn't want to invest in more expensive yarn for a test knit. I used about a skein and a half of each and picked them up on sale at Micheals.

This past weekend I dressed the boys up all cute and took the out to play in the yard and try to grab some cute photos showing off their little sweaters. Some turned out great.

Others not so much. That's Dom at the wheel, making that face becaus his brother is trying to fit in the car behind him.

They do play together nice sometimes tho.

Boreal Forest Cowl and Hat

When I hear the term Boreal Forest, I think of Northern Ontario, where I grew up, and driving along highway 17 from Sault Ste. Marie to Thunder Bay. It's very nostalgic for me, and moreso now that I've been living in the Alberta Praries for the past 8 years.

Last year when I saw the first pattern released in Curious Handmade Presents Knitvent 2016 (Helen Stewart) was a colourwork cowl called Boreal Forest, I knew I wanted to knit it ASAP.

Boreal Forrest Cowl Designed by Renee Callahan.

It was just so pretty, plus I love stranded knitting, something about it makes projects fly off the needles.

Problem, I didn't have any pretty worsted weight yarn in my stash in the colours I wanted for this project.

Solution, I did have a couple skeins of bare Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Superwash Worsted in my bin of undyed yarns, and a fearless aditude towards dyeing yarn with food colouring.

You can watch me dye this yarn in this video here (click the link to watch on YouTube).

And the yarn turned out beautifully!

I knit up the cowl straight away last winter.

Here's a shot of my floats, so lovely and even, you can kind of see the trees through them.

And had enough yarn leftover to knit the matching hat this fall.

Boreal Forest Cowl and Boreal Forest Hat project pages.

I did modify the hat a little to lengthen it (notes on my project page describe the simple changes), but other than that, I have a beautiful set ready to be gifted this Christmas.

Oh yeah, have I mentioned that it's only 71 days until Christmas? it seems like a lot (I mean it's not even Halloween Yet) until you consided how long my list of gift knitting is, and also that I have to finish writing my thesis by then (thesis update, 100 pages!!)

How far in advance do you start your holiday knitting, and do you still manage not to get everything done in time like me?