Forest Floor | Knitting Botanically

The spring arrival of Botanical Knits had the wheels spinning for our shop samples - and maybe a little selfish knitting, too.

When the pre-order email arrived, there wasn't a question about carrying Alana's new pattern collection at Firefly Fibers - the question was... what shop yarns will we use for each of the projects?

This beautiful book includes 12 designs that are all lovely (yes, all) and I hope to knit my way through most, if not all, of the projects in the book for either the shop or myself.

As the owner of a LYS, I want knitters to have a quality and pleasurable knitting experience. As a knitter, I understand the importance of being able to sit down with yarn and a pattern to confidently knit my own version of what the designer has created. Handknitting is something that most of us enjoy at leisure - even if some of us are a bit obsessive about it - and a well-written pattern is worth every penny to make the most of our 'leisure' time.

Alana's Never Not Knitting pattern line quickly made a home in the shop just a few months after we opened. The pattern layout & presentation is simply stunning and her pattern instructions are so well written that they're do-able/knit-able for a variety of skill levels - from beginner to advanced with basic pattern reading skills - and Botanical Knits is more of the same.

I recently finished Forest Floor from the new collection:

Pattern: Forest Floor from Botanical Knits by Alana Dakos

Yarn: Suri Merino by Blue Sky Alpacas (416 Meadow)

Raveled: Forest Floor (shop sample) for Firefly Fibers

This was so much fun to knit and I can't wait to start the next project from the book!

This Forest Floor is a shop sample and you can visit Firefly Fibers to see it in person - maybe you can even help me decide on the next project!

I'll share snippets along the way on Botanical Knits and other project progress here on the blog, on my Facebook page, and on instagram... so stay tuned!

Cheers!

Clicking away...

This week has gone by much too fast and there's so much left to do yet before settling into the weekend. I have no doubt that it will all come together like it always does.

As you can see, it was another fabulous week for our CSA:

And I bound off the second sleeve on my Grace while knitting with the ladies at the shop this morning:

This sweater has been hibernating for a few months - according to blog and ravelry records, I cast on in January *blushing* - so it's finally getting some much needed attention.

I'm, of course, busy knitting away on class sweaters for our beginning and advanced sweater workshops this fall and juggling other class projects. I'm having a hard time narrowing down the choices, so...

What do you want to see on the upcoming class schedule?

Lattice-Work

I finished it! Yay! I love it and it's already gotten a lot of use this summer! Somehow it was almost a month ago when I shared my bottom rib progress and I'm just now sharing the finished project. Better late than never, right?

I made several modifications to knit in the round to avoid seaming and to try it on as I knitted - I'm happy with these mods. Very. Happy. This was a seriously fun knit, even if I was griping about missing the elasticity of wool during knit night/morning. It was really nice to knit something for myself and have the freedom to veer from the pattern, and veer I did!

Pattern: Cap Sleeve Lattice Top by Purl Bee – MODIFIED

Yarn: Skinny Cotton by Blue Sky Alpacas (30 Birch & 314 Gravel)

Raveled:  Cap Sleeve Lattice Top – modifications are noted

I love knitting with wool, but as far as cottons go, Blue Sky has hit this one out of the ballpark! With the multiple plies, the lace was a little slow going, but the stitch definition on the lattice and the twisted rib bottom is stunning. And then there's the drape, oh my! I'm already dreaming of knitting another Skinny Cotton garment next spring!

Cheers! Alisa