Simple Knits | Spring Giveaway

Spring and warm weather are right around the corner, so I think it's time to celebrate with a wee giveaway for our Simple Knits Knitalong!

We have two prizes for our Simple Knits Knitalong'ers from Firefly Fibers...  are you ready?

The first prize is one of my absolute favorites, a Milk & Honey lotion bar!

These lotion bars are perfect for getting your hands into (or keeping them in) shape for knitting after a long winter and perfectly soothing after digging in the the dirt. The limited edition heart bar is not only a special shape, but it's also a special scent... Lavender+Rose+Geranium!

The second prize is a new - and super popular - arrival at the shop... Stripey Fine by Spud & Chloe! Spud & Chloe hit it out of the park with their new 'stripey' version that mixes up delicious ice cream colors of Fine and we've got a skein of the Mint Chip colorway up for grabs!

I LOVE this yarn and can't wait to find time to knit with it myself, but with my current knitting list, the winner of this skein will most likely get to test drive it before me. *wink*

So, how do you enter to win? It's simple! Our KAL is being hosted in the Firefly Fibers Ravelry Group, so just join our Ravelry group, knit up that month's Simple Knits project and post an FO photo in our Simple Knits thread! You can join whenever and knit whatever projects you like - it's all about having fun and knitting a few small projects for yourself or others throughout the year. 

The winners for the spring giveaway will be randomly selected from the FO pics in our Ravelry thread once our March project wraps up, so you can still participate (and be entered to win) through the end of March.  

This month's project is the Clayoquot Toque from Tin Can Knits and I'll be casting mine on this weekend! I've already knit 2 for the shop, but I know there is at least 1 more on the horizon for me. It's a fairly speedy knit and it probably takes me more time to decide on colors.

The pattern is free here on Ravelry and it's great for stashbusting or you can get started with fresh yarn and start a collection of colors to mix and match - the shop favorites have been Kenzie, Felted Tweed DK and Acadia. The pattern is sized from baby to big and with the non-gender-specific motif, you can make one for everyone in the family!

Many thanks to everyone that's been participating! I hope to see a few new faces in the shop and on Ravelry as the year progresses. Also, thank you so much for the lovely feedback that you've been providing, it's been so much fun knitting along with you and sharing projects!

Here's to more Simple Knits in 2015!

Cheers!

Simple Knits | Colorful March

February flew by and I finished my Antler Mittens for our February project just barely in time and they're just about dry, so I'll share photos soon. Spring is right around the corner and what better way to celebrate the upcoming warm (or warmer) weather than with some color with some Fair Isle from Tin Can Knits with their Clayoquot Toque for our Simple Knits Knitalong project for March!

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I've actually already knit 2 Clayoquot Toques - one was an afternoon whim with leftovers of Rowan's Felted Tweed DK and the second was for the upcoming colorwork class at Firefly Fibers with Hikoo's Kenzie. I love both versions, but I dream of trying some of the other yarns I stare at daily, like Julie Asselin'sLeizu DK or The Fibre Company's Acadia.

Small colorwork projects are fabulous because they're the perfect opportunity to experiment with color combinations and test yarn options before committing to a larger project, like a Clayoquot sweater:

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Yes, this one is on my knitting wishlist and, even though I've already knit 2 Clayoquot Toques, I'll knit at least one more for our KAL to hopefully finalize a color combination. Maybe you can help me pick colors?

Both the hat and sweater are just 2 of the 14 knits in the new Tin Can Knits collection, Road Trip and the hat is also a free download courtesy of the lovely TCK ladies - thanks so much - but, believe me, you'll want the entire collection. *wink

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And... through March 8th, TCK is celebrating 5 years with an amazing BOGO sale on Ravelry. So, if you've been drooling over their patterns and books, this is the time to stock up!

I hope you're excited for our March project and I can't wait to see your yarn and color selection - remember you can join our knitalong at any time! If you need help selecting colors, just post a photo over in our Simple Knits Ravelry thread and I'm sure someone will be more than happy help you decide.

Lastly... we'll have our first giveaway once our March projects wrap up and I'll share the details on that soon!

Cheers!

Off the Needles | Sweater In A Day

Last Sunday... I woke up and decided that I was going to knit a sweater. In a day.

And I did...

Pattern: Oatmeal Pullover by Jane Richmond

Yarn: Brown Sheep Nature Spun Chunky in Charcoal

Raveled: Oatmeal in Charcoal

I get crazy knitting ideas on a regular basis, sometimes they turn out, sometimes they don't. I know about the risks as I go into it, but optimism usually wins and the yarn finds its way onto my needles.

This last weekend, I knew we were going to spend time with family to watch a football game and travel was required, so I gathered supplies for sweater (in a day) before the car ride.

The yarn looks a wee bit purple here, but it is in fact a nice charcoal grey and that Milk and Honey lotion bar is a necessity for all knitters - we stock them at Firefly Fibers and everyone loves them!

Anywho... I cast on in the car about 12:30PM on the way to our destination and made some pretty great progress during our visit...

I've been knitting a lot of pieced sweaters lately and I finally got to try Bristol Ivy's Provisional Bind Off that was featured here on Very Shannon's blog - it worked great and I highly recommend giving it a whirl if you've only used waste yarn.

So... I started the ribbed bottom edging in the car on the way home, finished it up at home and started sleeve #1 before heading off to bed that evening.

The next morning, I was back at it and finished up the first sleeve in the car on the way to an eye appointment (hubby was driving), then got the second sleeve going and wrapped up my sweater a little before noon for a sweater-in-a-day success!

Truth be told, this isn't my first Oatmeal Pullover. I knit the first about 2 years ago over a weekend, so I knew I could do it in a day... even with frivolous things like eating, sleeping, showering. Jane's patterns are so wonderful and well-written that if someone wanted to knit this on more than a 24-hour timeline, it could be a easily completed in a couple long weekends because of the large needles and chunky yarn.

Here are my freshly washed and blocked Oatmeal Twins:

I have some pretty lofty sweater knitting goals for 2015 and this was the perfect start to the year. I still have yet to organize my sweater plan -- it's currently just bouncing around in my head and being added to on an hourly basis -- so I'm hoping to sort that all out this weekend and I'll share some of the dirty details of my upcoming year of sweaters then.

Until then... I'm almost ready to bind off our first Simple Knits Knitalong project - Lansbury by Very Shannon.

With a little more than a week left in the month, there's still time to knit up the January project and join our KAL fun - several of the ladies at the shop are casting on this weekend.  Unless, of course, a sock WIP has somehow taken up residence in the same project bag as you see above. *wink*

Cheers & happy weekend knitting!