Oh the Cuteness!

I know there's a lot of people out there that don't really like Valentine's Day for one reason or another. I, however, am not one of those people. I'll take any excuse to do something special, especially if it's for someone I love. When I was a kid I tended to make valentines for my classmates instead of buying the fold-and-tear variety, and it's a tradition that's carried over to my adult life: I'm knitting a little something special for Johnny this year. (Don't worry, he knows!) He found this fantastic cowl, made buy Susk and Banoo , on my Pinterest and asked me if I would make it for him. The moment I said yes he emailed me the link and bought the same yarn that was used for the one above! (Which, by the way, is Rowan Cocoon in Mountain . She used only 2 skeins and it looks like I'm going to need 3 to finish to the proper dimensions.)  I can't help but swoon for a man that buys yarn and looks up his own patterns! Susk and Banoo...

Well guys, I did it! I learned how to knit in 2009 and since then it's been an interesting ride. I made my first knitted piece, a sweater, in one month for Me-Made-May . In between then and now I've made a few cute knitted pieces   like these , and one sock (the second one is coming, I swear), and I've written one simple cowl pattern which I posted here for free . And now I've gotten confident enough with my knitting skills to create a little baby cardigan pattern! This newborn-size sweater (With real vintage buttons!) is made from Madelinetosh's Tosh Merino Light in Badlands . It's a fingering-weight superwash yarn and I love it so much! Johnny got me a gift certificate to one of my favorite local yarn shops and he helped me pick this one out with our hypothetical someday baby in mind. He also helped me look for a pattern, but we couldn't find one that had all the elements we wanted. The vision was for this to look like a little old man's sweat...

I wanted to talk a little bit more about the hat you saw in my Tahoe post ! I started this little beauty  in mid December and had it finished by the time new year's came around. Normally I'm not such a quick knitter, especially when I have to follow a pattern that has some substance, but I was on vacation and had little else but sit around in my parent's cozy house and knit. I found the pattern via Ravelry , and it's a free Debbie Stoller pattern called the All-Day Beret.  A very apt title as I have been wearing this thing all the time, I absolutely love it and I didn't even bother to block it! It's made from an aran-weight yarn Johnny picked up for me from his local yarn shop in Campbell, a hand-painted Lorna's Laces superwash merino . So heavenly soft and nice to knit with! The hat's pattern confused me a bit because I didn't realize you are working it with the wrong side facing you the whole time. It's technically reversible, but while ...