On The Seventh Day Of Christmas. . . And Some of My Favorite Things

//On the Seventh Day of Christmas . . . for all of you crochet lovers out there - Crochet beauty, the Lucia Sweater. I haven't quite mastered crochet yet, but would love to!

//These are a few of my favorite things, namely knitting books. And this is an abbreviated showing. I have a lot of books I like but these are a few I pull out fairly often. Let me know some of your favorites.

xoxo Shannon

Top Ten Tuesday

1. Knitting Whimsy: this little guy is so cute found here.

2. Colorwork: Talk about color explosion, love this.

3. Embroidery: How about this for your next Christmas project?!

4. Knitting: Lovely. Rustic. Natural. French.

5. Yarn: Yarn pick for the day. This is so rustic looking and beautifully colorful at the same time. Rose    from Portugal dyed this yarn. Check her out at her blog.

6. Sweater Design: Here's an amazing sweater, Oshima by Jared Flood being modeled by Tanis Lavallee from Tanis Fiber Arts and done in her beautiful yarn TFA Blue Label in Atlantic and Red Label in Stained Glass.

7. Crochet:  Adorable doll by Lydia Tresselt.

8. Quilting: Bloom quilt by Amy Butler.

9. Felt work:  Weekend Getaway Satchel by Marta McCall.

10. Food: How about some apple cinnamon baked doughnuts with brown butter glaze! I know, this is not something I usually indulge in either, but it's that time of year, right? And how can you go wrong with anything from Joy the Baker?

Okay, those are my top ten for the day. Hope you all had a great weekend and you are enjoying the beautiful fall weather! 

Knitting updates: I am still working on my Oats cowl I showed you in the last post. I'm just finishing up the knit 1, purl 1 rib, will bind off and weave in my ends, and I'll be done!

The striped hat swatch I revealed a while back  is still waiting for me to figure out a pattern for it which I will do and will show you the results. I don't know about you, but I do struggle with finding enough hours in the day to get everything done. I guess it's called prioritizing, and it's something I need to get a handle one. Any pointers? This blog has been great for keeping me accountable though and that has been a very good thing!

The garter stitch coat is still a WIP. I have come to a stopping point (in other words, I'm stumped and don't know what to do). I'm at the point where I need to start the collar and can't quite figure out the directions. I. must. finish. it. 

//I'm going to leave you with this quote for the day:  

“Properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn't hurt the untroubled spirit either.”
― Elizabeth Zimmermann

xoxo - Shannon

How About Some Inspiration

I love the uniqueness of this sweater, the unusual textures going on and the visual interest that keeps you wanting to look at it.

Are you familiar with freeform knitting? Freeform is just like it sounds, freely knitting and/or crocheting small patches or "scrumbles"(as they are sometimes called) which are later joined together into an organic masterpiece. Check this out by Prudence Mapstone.

This yarn by Tereza Havrdova from her etsy shop inspires me.

And lastly, although there is so much beauty out there I could choose from it is overwhelming and hard to choose, but this vignette of lovely crochet work from gipsy bazar really talks to me.