Linking up with Ginny today for Yarn Along! I can't tell you how relieved I am to finally have this one done. You will not be seeing me doing any intensive color-work again any time soon. This was on the needles for close to a year, mostly just because I wasn't enjoying the project all that much and was therefore only working on it sporadically. It is the Annas Sweater with some obvious modifications. I did more repeats of the pattern to size it up (something like 30% more), knit until I reached my desired length (or was too sick of knitting the body to stand it anymore), but left the size of the sleeves alone since the author said they were rather large.

The fun part of knitting this was all the new skills I learned. This was my first steeked project, and I also learned the steek sandwich and the i-cord bindoff (with buttonholes!) Okay, that was fun. I made a seed stitch band around the bottom of the sleeves and body, but used the steek sandwich around the neck and front. I made a lot of mistakes while making this project (some of which I fixed, some of which I noticed when it was pretty much completed, oops), but I'm still proud of it.

The yarn is Quince and Co. finch, and I finished the sweater off with some leather buttons ("very country club" Alan said). I'm just glad it still fits her!! (Also, how silly is she.) Raveled here.

Linking up with Ginny for Yarn Along today! I can't help but knit this pixie hat for every baby in my life. Indy and Tenny each have (had) one (Tenny's may be lost since I haven't been able to find it for several months - he has quite the penchant for removing his hat in the grocery store and waving it precariously around). It's just such a quick and easy knit, since it is knit flat and then seamed along the back, and of course it's so darn cute. I knit the 3-6 month size for my niece Jane, who is just coming up on three months, and it fits well with a little room to grow. Of course I didn't check my gauge so I have no idea if the size is really true, but I'd say it seems to be.

I was able to use up some stash wool for this - Stonehedge Fiber Mill's Shepherd's Wool for the body of the hat, and Spud and Chloe's sweater yarn for the contrasting trim and tie. This hat actually calls for a button neckband, but since I have found that to stretch out on the hats I've previously knit, I replaced it with a simple i-cord for tying this time around - no button scrounging required. Raveled here.