The Sweatshop of Lovers Blog

1. Look at lots of yarn.

Twisted - http://twistedpdx.com/

Happy Lady!

2. Shop for records.

PT in Mississippi Records

3. Cause trouble in the Portland Children’s Museum.

Lucas and PT Disregarding the Wobble Warning

4. Drink a lot of wine and eat a lot of food at the Newport Seafood and Wine Festival.

Crunk!

PT Loves the Sushi

Look at that Hot Cowl!

5. Touch a tsunami!

Oregon Coast

Lucas, PT, and Random Dog

What Tsunami Advisory?

6. See bald eagles!

Eagles We Haven't Killed!

7. Find a new place to live.

Cape Foulweather

8. Admire very large rainbows.

Whoa!

9. Finish your Dollar and a Half Cardigan!

Dollar and a Half, Pre-Block

10. Start your March Sweater, Mrs Darcy Cardigan.

Mrs Darcy!

DinoSweater!

Seriously? Seriously. I mean, seriously?

Duplicate Stitch Dinosaur Head/Tail

SERIOUSLY!

Dino Spikes!

If there are words for how cute this sweater turned out, I don’t have them.

I’m trying not to think about how big a pain in my ass it was to make all those spikes, seam them up, knit them all together, and then seam them to that sweater.

I’m also trying not to think about how much I hate doing duplicate stitch. The dinosaur head/tale part was super annoying.

Cute! But super annoying. I really hate when things have lots of colors.

There are a ton of pieces. I had to seam together. Like seven, not counting the spikes. It sucked.

Bear/Dinosaur/Bear/Dinosaur/Bear/DINOSAUR!

But if this bear looks this cute in this sweater, then imagine how cute a real baby will look in it!

Bad Bear/Dinosaur

Especially if the baby acts up and has to go sit in the corner as a punishment! Look at the back of that sweater! That is one hot back.

So, look at me sacrifice for the love of a baby! I think this means I’m a grown up!

Rav Project Page

Bow Headband: Quick, easy, and adorable, this double moss stitch Bow Headband is the perfect way to start working hand knits into your wardrobe! This is a great project for beginner (and knits up ridiculously quick if you’ve got some experience under your belt!). Monday March 15, 7-9pm. 2 hours, $20

Ruffled Crocheted Bib Necklace Workshop: Ok the crocheting is out of control this season! Put this whole Stefanie Fail of A Common Thread Ruffled Bib Necklace together by the end of this three hour workshop! Saturday March 20, 1-4pm. $40 with materials

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Beginner Knitting: Did you get on this mailing list in the hopes that eventually you will have the time to learn? Sign up for this beginner knitting class and learn how to cast on, bind off, and knit and purl. Monday April 12, 7-9pm, $25

Beginner Crochet: This is a great opportunity to learn the basics of crocheting! In this class we will learn to make a chain, single, half double, double, and treble crochet stitches, and how to crochet in the round. Use these mad skillz for Ruffled Crocheted Bib Necklace, Granny Square Workshop, and Granny Square Slippers. Tuesday April 13, 7-9pm, $25

Group Knitting and Crocheting: Come get help starting a project, finishing a project, picking a project, picking materials, or learning something new! 2 hours, $15

Knitting Book Club: Our next book club meet up will be this Monday, March 1st at 7pm. We are reading When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro! If you are interested in joining the book club, send me an email. Please don’t come with knitting questions as I won’t be teaching anything (so the book club can be free of course), just come to knit and chat about our book!

Here we are at the end of Month Two of the Knit a Sweater a Month Challenge! I’m so overwhelmed with pride every time I check in with our Ravelry group and get an email from someone with pictures of their finished sweaters.

This is our last February update! Get those sweaters finished up this week! I can’t wait to see them!

I had to sub in my DinoSweater for February because I couldn’t finish my Dollar and a Half Cardigan in time, what with the Ravelympics and everything. But DinoSweater is coming along and will be done by month’s end for sure.

Ok enough enough! I can’t wait to show you all the beautiful sweaters finished up this week!

Fitted Knits Cardi

Kathy knit the Fitted Knits Cardigan! Look familiar? I love this sweater! And Kathy did such a great job with the yarn choices.

Mirepoix Bodice

Robin has been finishing projects up left and right! Her Mirepoix Bodice sweater turned out so well! I’m constantly amazed at knitters who can tackle fair isle. The top of that sweater makes my eyeballs hurt just thinking about knitting it.

Birgitte Lace Pullover

Robin also finished up this beautiful lacy number, the Birgitte Lace Pullover. I have never knit a mohair project I haven’t wanted to set on fire, so this sweater totally motivates me to try it again! So pretty and super flattering.

Short Sleeved Cardi

Ksana finished up this super cute Short Sleeved Cardigan for her mom from Fitted Knits. (Mom, don’t get any ideas!) It turned out fabulous! I love the color, even though Ksana says that the teal is really hard to photograph. If it is anything close to the color we see, we all want one!

Robert's Sweater

Alexandria (rav) knit this absolutely beautiful sweater for a very lucky little boy named Robert! It’s Bear Necessity and that intarsia work is stunning! I NEED to get better at intarsia so I can rock a sweater like that! So cute.

Five days left! Go get knitting!

When we last saw DinoSweater, he was just some bottom ribbing and a couple body rows.

Real Live Normal Sweater!

Then he turned into a normal baby sweater! Complete with PU button hole and button bands. I’m seaming as I’m going because there are a ton of pieces to this sweater! If I waited to the end this sweater would languish in a pile of pieces forever.

On With The Hood!

I knit this hood separately and attached it.

Baby Sweater+Hood=CUTE!

I’m not around babies very much. My friends who have babies don’t live in Chicago. And when there is a baby around I’m not one of the first to jump up to hold it. I just figure I’d let the baby loving girls hold the babies while I just keep knitting. So the idea of something fitting into this sweater blows my mind.

Bear Sweater?!

Like, my teddy bear from when I was three fits into this sweater. Very well, actually. He looks quite dashing!

But yeah. Someone fitting into this sweater makes me nervous. It seems like it would be easily kicked or squashed, like my cats are constantly.

What Now?

This also makes me nervous. Stegosaurus spikes, why you gotta? So much seaming. So much crap! If I were to make this sweater again I would change the entire pattern.

… Yeah I said it. And I know you are all going to hold me to it. I’m ok with it.

Also! Anyone reading this living in Portland?! I’d love to meet you! If you are in the Portland area send me an email at allyson[at]thesweatshopoflove[dot]com so we can have a knitting coffee meet up this Sunday, February 28th.

I’ll be there avoiding snow, so we should get our knit on together for sure!

So I’ve had my Ravelympics plan for quite a while. Hoodie Devoted, which is just waiting for some lining, (pictures soon), and the Bella’s Mittens, which I was going to switch to be hand warmers.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned this on the blog before, probably because I’ve got some reservations about it and am trying to focus my attention on the good as opposed to all the issues, but my little brother and his girlfriend are having a baby.

As a sister of course I want my brother to be happy, and he is, and despite his age, etc etc etc, etc. etc. etc. He and his girlfriend are really excited about having a baby, and I, of course, have to follow suit.

DinoSweater!

I’ve had this sweater in my brain since seeing it in the Holiday 2003 Family Circle Easy Knitting Magazine. That is right. For SEVEN YEARS.

I Mean, SERIOUSLY?!

Adam was huge into dinosaurs when he was little, and even if he wasn’t, this would still be one of the cutest sweaters ever!

DINOSWEATER!

I accidentally bought yarn for it yesterday. Lion Brand Wool Ease Worsted in Avocado. And it was staring at me. I put it in a bag and hid it in the closet and I could hear it yelling, ‘DINOSWEATER! DINOSWEATER!’

What’s a girl to do?

And this is seriously throwing off my Knit a Sweater a Month Challenge! I’ve still got Dollar and a Half sitting on my work table like 90% finished. So I might just make this my February sweater, finish up Dollar and a Half as a bonus sweater, then knit something else for March.

You know what? I don’t even really care. LOOK AT THAT DINOSWEATER! It’s got stegosaurus spikes down the back! Come on, now.

Hoodie Devoted!

(You ever see a picture of yourself and not really believe that is you?)

Hoodie Devoted, my first Ravelympics project, is complete! Started Friday night, finished Thursday afternoon. How is that for devotion?

Hoodie in the Sun

I’m in love. The stitch pattern was fun and interesting and the bobbles weren’t annoying. That is all you can really ask of a pattern, right? Ravelympics Project #1 Finished!

I made some serious modifications. I didn’t check my gauge, because it’s a hood, who cares?, but it was HUGE a gusset time so I changed that all up. I also changed it from being a pullover hood to being more of a cape.

Finished Hood!

Mods:

Gusset: Beg with Row 5, work even in cable pattern for 6 more row. BO all sts.

Attach Gusset to Sides: Fit gusset in to top, seam sides of hood together around gusset and down center of hood.

Rib Yoke: Not so much! PU 120 sts around bottom of hood, do not join. Starting with a RS row, work in K2, P1 to end, ending with K2. Cont in pattern for 4 rows.

Dec Rows -  Work 2 sts, dec1 st, work in pattern to 4 sts from end, dec1 st, work 2 sts.

Work Dec Row every row till ribbed section measures 5 inches. Loosely BO all stitches.

The... BACK!

I had a hell of a time figuring out what was going on with the back of this hood. There are only two pictures in the book and one of them is specifically to show the lining. The pattern calls for a gusset to be worked down from the center of the hood, and the sides to be seamed to the gusset. My hood was already HUGE, so I modified the gusset and just seamed the sides together.

It was seriously the right call to use my Caron One Pounder I had left over from a slipper project. I was worried it would be stiff and scratchy, but no part of your skin touches the yarn. My lining is this beautiful silk material I found in a remnant bin and feels like you have a seriously warm cloud wrapped around your head.

Spend money on what counts! For this project it was definitely the lining.

Pre-Lining

Of course I had to go out and buy ANOTHER pound of brown yarn because I ran out right as I was finishing the ribbed section. So I’ve got about 98% of that pound left. Again. This will be in my stash forever.

Every woman, at some point in her life, should take a pair of scissors to her own head.

I Start at the Top

I’ve never gotten my hair professionally cut. I went from having my mom cut my hair to just doing it myself.

How's it Looking Back There?

I use to have really long, curly hair. Three summers ago I just cut it all off myself. It was one of the most liberating things I’ve ever done. I wasn’t hiding behind my hair anymore. I couldn’t hide behind anything! It was just me and my face.

Oh God.

It is terrifying, though, every time I do it. My brain is saying, ‘WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!’ But I keep telling myself, ‘It’s just hair! Nothing bad can happen!’

CLEAN!

When I’m done cutting it always looks terrible. It’s greasy from touching it so much and flat and I feel like I look like a boy. I think about how people won’t be able to tell that I’m a girl.

Short and Cute

And then it dries.

Real Cute.

And I look like a girl.

Right?

A cute girl. Who didn’t just spend $60 on a hair cut. Who just balls-ed out on her OWN HAIR! Crazy/scary/amazing/stupid/kinda hot.

Granny squares are great stash busters, are fun to make, and can be turned into practically anything! I myself am getting ready to seam them together into an adult sized pair of footie pajamas.

There are still spaces left in my Granny Square Workshop this Saturday, February 20th from 1-4pm! I’ll have a ton of fun yarn available for you to turn into granny squares of all shapes and sizes, then turn those squares into anything! Blankets, skirts, sweaters, coasters, pot holders, and even… slippers! Learn the skillz in Granny Square Workshop and use those skillz in with Purl Bee’s fun Granny Square Slippers!

I’m always accused of loving on knitting way more than I love on crocheting (and it’s completely true), but not these next few weeks! Hurray for crochet!

Be sure to check out my The Sweatshop of Love’s Knit Kits!

Email me if you have any questions about these classes or if you want to sign up. I look forward to hearing from you!

See you soon,

Allyson

Winter Classes:

Granny Square Workshop: Another way to use crochet! Granny squares are fun stash busters that you can’t mess up because they are supposed to be ugly, these little guys can be used for anything. Bags. Coasters. Blankets. Change purses. Granny Square Slippers. Saturday February 20, 1-4pm. $40 with materials

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Granny Square Slippers: Know how to crochet granny squares and want a fun way to use them? Did you take my Granny Square Workshop and want to use all the knowledge I dropped on you? Crochet up some of these fun Purl Bee Granny Square Slippers. Part one is granny squares, part two is assembly. Tuesdays March 9 and 16, 7-9pm. $40

Bow Headband: Quick, easy, and adorable, this double moss stitch Bow Headband is the perfect way to start working hand knits into your wardrobe! This is a great project for beginner (and knits up ridiculously quick if you’ve got some experience under your belt!). Monday March 15, 7-9pm. 2 hours, $20

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Ruffled Crocheted Bib Necklace Workshop: Ok the crocheting is out of control this season! Put this whole Stefanie Fail of A Common Thread Ruffled Bib Necklace together by the end of this three hour workshop! Saturday March 20, 1-4pm. $40 with materials

Madison Cowl: A little daintier than the my Cabled Cowl, this cowl is great for staying warm during the Chicago thaw and unbuttoning for some stylish warmth inside. The Madison Lace pattern is fun and intuitive, and the buttons add a fun pop! And don’t forget to knit up some matching hand warmers! Wednesdays April 7 and 14, 7-9pm. $40 And buy the Madison Cowl Kit here and get the class for $10!

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Madison Hand Warmers: No more mittens! Quick to knit, a great introduction to lace pattern-work, and the perfect last minute gift. Wait, what am I saying?! WE AREN’T KNITTING GIFTS! You know you want a pair of these cute hand warmers for yourself to match the Madison Cowl you just knit yourself. Thursday April 15, 7-9pm. $20 And buy the Madison Hand Warmers Kit here and get the class for $10!

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Beginner Knitting: Did you get on this mailing list in the hopes that eventually you will have the time to learn? Sign up for this beginner knitting class and learn how to cast on, bind off, and knit and purl. Monday April 12, 7-9pm, $25

Beginner Crochet: This is a great opportunity to learn the basics of crocheting! In this class we will learn to make a chain, single, half double, double, and treble crochet stitches, and how to crochet in the round. Use these mad skillz for Ruffled Crocheted Bib Necklace, Granny Square Workshop, and Granny Square Slippers. Tuesday April 13, 7-9pm, $25

Group Knitting and Crocheting: Come get help starting a project, finishing a project, picking a project, picking materials, or learning something new! 2 hours, $15

Knitting Book Club: Our next book club meet up will be Monday, March 1st at 7pm. We are reading When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro! If you are interested in joining the book club, send me an email. Please don’t come with knitting questions as I won’t be teaching anything (so the book club can be free of course), just come to knit and chat about our book!

While my Dollar and a Half Cardigan takes a break for my Ravelympics projects, there are a TON of finished sweaters this week that I can’t wait to show off to y’all!

Java Fold Back Cardi

Gloria finished her February sweater in January and her January sweater in February, but who is counting? I love the fun buttons! They were made for that sweater.

Sexy Vesty

Tracy knit this beautiful vest, Sexy Vesty, for her sister. I’m not a big vest wearer but I am all over this vest! I put it in my queue for sure.

Barfly Pullover

Clara finished her first sweater, the Barfly Pullover, and it looks amazing! I love that bottom shaping and the neckline. This sweater is really flattering on her!

Aquitaine Pullover

Robin, who is knew to the group, posted her January sweater this week, the Aquitaine Pullover. I love the lace detail! This sweater is from the new Interweave, so if you had it on the mind grapes take a look at Robin’s project page because she made some really helpful notes!

Diva Tunic

Liz knit another Diva Tunic! This one for her sister. Remember the sweater she knit for herself last month? It’s like knitting two socks! Only, really large socks. They both look fabulous! I bet Liz will be knitting something else for March, though!

Liesl

Here is our second Liesl sweater! This one also completed by Liz. She is a knitting fool! The color is great and you can really see the detail in the lace pattern. So pretty!

Trellis & Vine Pullover

Becca (rav) finished the Trellis & Vine Pullover that has been sitting on her needles for a long time! This sweater was in my queue for a while, then I dumped it, but now it’s going back in for sure. I love how it’s less fitted than in the pattern pictures. It is such a beautiful pattern for a roomy pullover!

Granny Square Jackets

While not knitting and made out of previously made granny squares, it’s still ok! Marolee made two granny square jackets by … seaming together granny squares, of course! Makes my granny square slippers look like a walk in the park! I know how hard it is to seam those up.

Placket Sweater

Kris knit up this adorable Placket Neck Pullover! The yarn she used, the Brown Sheep Serendipity Tweed, has beautiful yellow flecks throughout! Such a beautiful choice.

Congratulations to everyone who finished this week! I love seeing the variety of projects coming into the group. Non knitters are always shocked when I explain this project to them. How can you find 12 different sweaters you want to knit?

I’m pretty sure I could knit a sweater a month for the rest of my life and STILL not get to all the beautiful sweaters out there I’d like to knit.

We’ve even had some new people join this week! Our Knit a Sweater a Month Challenge Ravelry Group is up to 148 members! And my mailing list is growing, too. Please don’t hesitate to join us!

Now get knitting!