As promised, I'm back with the final blogiversary giveaway for this year. From now until midnight on June 28th, you can enter to win a skein of Fable Fibers Folktale in Silver Birch and a set of matching stitch markers from Knitter's Pride.

Since this giveaway is to celebrate my first year of blogging,  you have to be a subscriber of this blog (somehow!) to enter. All of the usual rules and ways to enter apply - just use the rafflecopter widget below. Be sure to leave either your ravelry name or email address with your entry. I'll announce the winner in a new post on June 28th. Good luck!!
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Just because it has to be said, this is not a sponsored giveaway. I just want to share the love and say thank you for a fantastic first year.

I finished my Goldilocks yesterday! I even had enough time to block it and get some pictures before bedtime.

It was a quick knit once I made it past the first 10 rows. Getting started with the contiguous increases and the cable pattern required a lot of paying attention. As you can imagine, I don't get a lot of undistracted knitting time. Most of the time, my kids are with me when I'm knitting, which can lead to mistakes (like knitting instead of purling, or missing an increase). This sweet dress was completely worth the short-lived confusion. Grace even agrees!

Congratulations to this week's winner - Carmen (cnuland on Ravelry)! Carmen received an adorable child's sweater pattern called #144 Three Flavor Delight Top-Down Cardigan. I can't wait to see your sweater!

Since my last post was about a sweater for my son, I figure it's only fair to dedicate this post to the dress I'm making for my daughter. I'm knitting her a Goldilocks by Justyna Lorkowska. Justyna is hosting a KAL in her group on Ravelry for Goldilocks through the end of July, if you want to join in the fun! There's also a great thread that offers some tips for the pattern.

The pattern offers instructions for two lengths - a tunic and a dress. I'm knitting the dress. Grace is at an age where her chest measurement will likely stay the same (or only fluctuate slightly) for the next few years, but she's going to get taller. For reference her brother is 2 years older, but his chest measurement is only an inch bigger. So as she grows, the dress will still fit, it will just become a tunic and then a t-shirt. If I played my cards right, she could really get three years of wear out of this. I know that's pretty optimistic, but it could happen!

I decided to use Malabrigo Sock. I'm in love. It is the softest sock yarn - it drapes beautifully (more than I thought it would!), it's really light, and it's machine washable. It doesn't get much better than that. Oh wait, it does because I'm using Light of Love. Light of Love is the most gorgeous orangey-pink. I'm almost tempted to knit myself a sweater or top out of it.

I only have the sleeves and bottom cable details to finish on the dress, so I'm hoping I can finish today or tomorrow!

What are you working on (knitting or otherwise)?

If you haven't entered this week's blogiversary giveaway, you can do that here!

If you take a look at my Ravelry projects page, you can see that I really like knitting for kids. [Sidenote: every project gets added there, not every project gets blogged, so if you really want to see what I'm up to, you can add me on Ravelry, too!] I admit, the projects are heavily biased towards my daughter. What can I say - the girly patterns are so much cuter! I think I might have knit 2 hats for my son, ever.

Jack is 3.5 and has a total opinion about what he wears everyday. If we're staying home, he insists on pajamas (and I don't mind!). If we're going anywhere (and I mean anywhere - grocery store, playground, post office), his first outfit choice is always a button-down dress shirt and corduroy pants. Even in 85 degree heat. Last week, I tried to get him to wear shorts with his dress shirt (one battle at a time) and that didn't go well. He wore the pants.

Needless to say, if I knit him something, I want to make sure he's going to wear it. For almost a year now, I've occasionally asked if he wants me to knit him something. The answer has always been "no". A few weeks ago, we had a familiar conversation - I told him that I really want to make something for him, he said no. I figured that was my effort for the time being and we'd revisit soon. Imagine my surprise when a few hours later we had this conversation:

"Mama, do you want to make me a sweater? I might like that."
"I would love to. What color do you want it to be?"
"....hmmm....ALL THE COLORS!"


The next day, I got out the appropriately stashed yarn and let him pick. He chose a really great, deep blue and red. The blue looks either navy or bright depending on the light. I'm making him a Gathering Stripes and he already loves it. "Mama, did you knit the third stripe yet? How about the fourth stripe? .... How many stripes does it have now?"


Last night I finished the body and in the next few days I'll do the sleeves. It'll be finished in just enough time for Summer to be in full swing. I really hope he doesn't want to wear it everyday.

A big thank you to all of you for playing along with this week's pattern giveaway! The winner is Jesse! Jesse chose Pendulum by Amy Miller and I can't wait to see the color combination she comes up with!

Don't worry if you didn't win, this week's giveaway is another pattern giveaway! Just leave a comment below telling me when you learned to knit.  I absolutely love learning about why people fall in love with knitting! So, feel free to elaborate on the why or how if you want. As always, you can earn extra entries if you follow me on Twitter or Instagram.

Good luck and happy knitting!

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