A Shawl for My Little Princess

Last week, the Winter issue of Petite Purls went live. It's an adorable issue filled with accessories for the little ones in your life. My Princess Shawl is one of the fifteen patterns included in this issue. I am proud to be published in Petite Purls for the 3rd time in a row. Plus, this time my name made it on the front cover. It's a real honor to be included on that list of names.

As you all know, Melody adores shawls and hand knit items. She loves to be part of the design process when I am working. One day while perusing my stitch dictionary, she picked out a crown picot edging and told me it was a Princess Crown. I tucked it in the back of my mind for a future project for her. When I first saw Petite Purls' submission theme for the Winter issue, I immediately thought of a child's shawl inspired by Melody. And I knew I would be including the crown picot edging into the shawl design.

This is the swatch I used for my submission. When I knit a swatch for a shawl, I can make sure the math works out for the lace pattern and the edging of the shawl. Any adjustments that I need to make can be worked out in this triangle.

I included a picture of Melody to show scale. This is not something that I normally do since I usually design shawls for adults. But in this case, I thought it would be helpful to convey my idea.

The Princess Shawl takes only 1 skein of Spud & Chloë Fine to knit up the body of the shawl. For the edging, I used Vanna's Glamour for a bit of sparkle. Thank you to Spud & Chloë for the yarn support to knit up this sample. The wool and silk blend was a pleasure to knit with, shows the lace stitch definition well and blocked out beautifully.

Melody had so much fun modeling for the photoshoot. I did it in her bedroom and it came out well. She really hammed it up for the camera and was giggling the whole time. I love the 3 photos that the co-editor, Brandy, chose for the pattern page.

The shawl is also suitable for adults as a shawlette or neckerchief. In fact, I wore it to Vogue Knitting Live on Saturday and got lots of compliments. Please Ravel It for your queue or fave list. The pattern is available at Petite Purls.

My Little Girl

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. Things have been quiet on the blog because of holiday traveling and due to all my dead lines. I have been knitting away at a furious pace and also working on some new and exciting projects. But I had to pop in to wish my little girl a Happy Birthday! Yes, it's that time of year again. Her annual photos with Baby Bobbi Bear and Elijah are a tradition now. This was last year's and this was the year before.

She turns 4 yrs old today. As you can see, she is no longer a toddler. She has grown into a wonderful, charming and caring little girl. The joy that my husband and I feel with having her in our lives can not be put into words.

I am attending Vogue Knitting Live this weekend so I won't be able to celebrate with her. Instead, we celebrated early by bringing in cupcakes to school for her classmates. She got to be queen for the day and it sounded like she had a lot of fun. Happy Birthday, darling!

Knit Simple Winter 2011/2012

Knit Simple Winter 2011/2012 just hit the newsstands yesterday. I am so excited that my Lace-Panel Wrap made it onto the front cover of the magazine. My first cover! The Lace-Panel Wrap is part of the Shawl We Knit? story. There is a workshop section in the magazine that teaches you how to work the simple lace stitches for all 4 of the shawls in that story.

Right now, Knit Simple is having a contest. You can win a yarn kit to make my Lace-Panel Wrap. The yarn used is "Ecco" yarn from Zitron/Skacel Collection. Enter the contest HERE. You can add the project to your Ravelry queue or favorite it, HERE.

My second design for Knit Simple is the Bobble Cowl. It is part of the Knitting By Numbers story. All the projects are knit with 1, 2 or 3 balls of yarn. The cowl is knit with 2 skeins of Blue Sky Alapacas Techno. The yarn is light and warm because it's made by blowing baby alpaca into a mesh tube of silk. You can add the project to your Ravelry queue or favorite it, HERE.

*All photos are from Knit Simple Winter 2011, photos by Paul Amato.*

Rustic Tuscan Apple Cake

Apparently, I didn't get enough of baking last week. The day after Thanksgiving, I was ready to fire up the oven again. I had book marked this recipe, Rustic Tuscan Apple Cake, a few weeks ago and it has been calling to me. The recipe was quick and easy to make. You just mix up the batter and throw in the apples. It was the perfect activity to do with Melody. She was so happy that she got to help make the cake.

The recipe calls for 00 Flour, but I used All Purpose Flour and it was fine. Since I had plenty of heavy cream leftover from the Thanksgiving baking, I whipped up some fresh whipped cream to go with the cake. Um yes, the cake was delicious and whipped cream does make everything 100 times better. :-)

Thanksgiving

I have a lot to be thankful for this year. This year we are spending Thanksgiving at my friend's house in Brooklyn, NY. I am looking forward to spending time with friends I haven't seen in a while. We have been so busy with work and every day life that it's nice to slow down and relax for a bit.

This is my contribution to the Thanksgiving desserts this year. I had a lot of fun making these treats and hope everyone will enjoy them.

Maple Nut Tart ready to go into the oven.

Making the chocolate ganache for the Chocolate Pumpkin Truffles.

The finished Chocolate Pumpkin Truffles.

Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes dipped in Chocolate Ganache.

A perfect 2-3 bite treat after the Thanksgiving meal.

My little TinkerBell wishes you all a Happy Halloween!

Petra Shawl in Knitscene Winter 2011

Back in April, I showed you all these gorgeous skeins of Madelinetosh Tosh Vintage that I received to make a secret project. The colorway is called Terra. The yarn is a worsted weight, 100% superwash merino wool. It's super soft and squishy.

The color is eye catching. I got so many compliments on the color of the yarn whenever I was knitting this project in public. Even non-knitters would come up to me to comment. One afternoon, I was knitting this at the playground while Melody played. A group of mothers who were leaving the playground came and told me what a gorgeous color it was before they left.

The Knitscene Winter 2011 issue preview went live a few days ago, so I can finally reveal my project. The Petra Shawl is knit from the bottom up in one piece. All three sides of the shawl is bordered by a bobble border.

The worsted weight yarn makes this a quick and cozy knit. It takes approximately 600 yards (549 m) of worsted weight. Now that the weather is getting cooler by the minute, I want to knit one for myself.

Photo from Knitscene

The print versions of Knitscene should be hitting stores on October 25, but if you can't wait, you can buy the digital edition immediately. You can add my Petra Shawl to your queue or favorite list on Ravelry.

___________________________________________________
Are any of you going to Rhinebeck? It's that time of year again. Yes, the New York State Sheep & Wool Festival is this weekend. This will be my first year attending the whole weekend. I will be sharing a house with 11 knitters near Rhinebeck. It should be a lot of fun!

Please say hi if you see me walking around in a haze of yarn fumes. This year, I am participating in Rhinebeck Bingo by being a square on the bingo card and as a player. Allegra and Brandy, the editors of Petite Purls, won't be able to attend this year, but they sent me some post cards to hand out to knitters. So be sure to ask me for one if you see me.