The Shawl is Growing

Hello Friends,

I hope you are having a good week so far. We ordered the save the date cards for our wedding on Monday and now we are waiting for them to come in the mail. I will have to ask our parents for addresses then get them sent off soon. It is a big first step to getting the wedding one step closer to happening in 6 more months.

I have knitted more of the shawl and am loving the detail of the K2tog, Yarn over, then purl the other side  that I did for four rows.As you can see in the photo there is not a lot of room left on the needles to grow this shawl, so I am planning on moving the shawl to bigger needles soon. This is such a fun shawl to knit and I like the pattern a lot so far. I am using the pattern Casual Lace Knit Shawl by Purl Avenue and you can find the pattern on Ravelry. I am using size US 6 circular needles and using Lion Bran Vanna's choice yarn in the colorway 'Dusty Green'.

I am still reading The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. I have been listening to the audio book 168 hours by Laura Vanderkam, but I am not enjoying it that much and I'd hoped. She focuses a lot on career choice and talks about not thinking anything you do in your job is "work" unless it gets you farther in your career or you love doing it. A lot of people do work at their jobs that are not self serving for their careers so I don't agree with that. Also I was hoping it would be more focused on planning your time outside of work and it isn't so I will move on. I will instead be listening to the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R Covey. I am looking forward to listening to this popular book and hope to learn a lot and be inspired. 

Joining along with Frontier Dreams for Crafting On and Unraveled Wednesday with As Kat Knits.

Thank you for visiting today and have a good day!

Knitting a Shawl

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. This weekend I have been busy seeing friends and doing some work on wedding planning by choosing our save the date cards. I chose four photos I liked from our engagement shoot and I can't wait to order the cards to send them out to everyone. Today has been a good day for getting things done at home. I need those days once and awhile to get some projects moving along and to accomplish my goals.

I also got a lot of knitting done today on a new shawl I started last week. I am knitting the Casual  Lace Knit Shawl by Linda Thach that was published in Purl Avenue and her pattern can be found on Ravelry.  I am using Vanna's Choice yarn by Lion Brand in the colorway of 'dusty green'. So far I love how the shawl is turning out and I like the simple pattern consisting mostly of knits, yarn overs, and purling the other side.

I am still reading the Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. It is an interesting book and really makes me more aware of how making positive habits can change your life. I am also currently listening to the audiobook 168 hours by Laura Vanderkam and it inspires me to make the most of my time and put it towards actions which bring me closer to achieving my goals.

What are you knitting and reading?

Thank you for stopping by today and hope you have a great day

Knitted Turkey Wine Bottle Topper Pattern

Hello Friends,


I hope you are having a good weekend. It is the Thanksgiving weekend in Canada and I went to my fiance's mom's place yesterday and we had a wonderful thanksgiving dinner. Liam's mom loved the turkey wine bottle topper I knitted for her. I was so glad that she liked it.I am sharing the pattern I made up below if you would like to make a turkey for Thanksgiving. This can also work very well as a finger puppet for children. I enjoy making these toppers because they are perfect for topping wine bottles given as gifts and are so festive and fun!

Materials needed:

Yarn: Bernat Cotton yarn for the red, brown, beige and black parts of the turkey.
Needles: 3.25 mm double pointed needles
Darning needle

Side of turkey

Back 

Pattern:

Body:

• Cast on 20 stitches
• Knitted seed stitch (k1,p1, next row p1,k1)
• Continue for desired length. I knitted in seed stitch until it measured 5 inches

Head and beak:

• Switch to the red yarn
• Knit 20 stitches around for desired length
• Beak: add the beige yarn and make one two stitches in the center of the head after about 8-10 rows. Place stitches on a cable stitch holder and move all red stitches divided onto two needles and knit back and forth for two rows.  Pick up the beige stitches and pick up the desired amount of stitches to make the size of beak you would like. then knit in the round and decrease until one stitch remains. I picked up 4 other red stitches.
• Pick up the previous knitting needles again that you put aside to knit the beak. Begin to decrease by knitting two together every 4th stitch, then 3rd,2nd,1 stitch every other row until you have 8 remaining stitches and bind off.

Wings:

• Cast on 6 stitches
• Garter stitch (knit both sides) until desired length.
• Begin decreasing by knitting two together when desired length of the middle of the wing
• Bind of when you get to one stitch remaining.
• Leave a long length of yarn when binding off around 8 inches to attach it to the body when you are finished.
• attach the wings to the side of the turkey just below where the red yarn begins for the head.

Back feathers

• Cast on two stitches with black yarn
• Make one stitch (M1) knit-wise every knit row until have 6 stitches across then stitch to brown yarn.
• Knit the right sides and M1 in the middle of the row, purl the wrong sides
• Knit until 17 stitches across
• Add on the beige color. knit 3 rows and M1 on knit sides
• Bind off:
• For top of feathers I used the channel island bind off method to get the feathers at the top to have texture. You can follow the YouTube video I used to do this method using Knit Purl Hunter's video.
• Leave a long length of yarn when binding off around 8 inches to attach it to the body when you are finished.
• *Repeat this twice to make two pieces and then sew them together and attach onto the back of the turkey body.
• Attach the feathers to the back of the head of the turkey (as pictured above) by sewing yarn behind the head to the feathers so the feathers stand up and do not flop backwards.

Snood:

• Cast on 3 stitches in red yarn
• Garter stitch for 3-5 rows and bind off
• Leave a long length of yarn when binding off around 8 inches to attach it to the head when you are finished.
• Attach the snood just below the beak

Eyes:

• Use black yarn and sew desired eye size onto the front of face. I knitted into the inside of the head and came through the back of work and tied on a stitch to back to fasten.
• Sew the eyes using the yarn then come through the back and fasten the yarn on the wrong side (inside of the head) do the same for the second eye.

Finishing notes:

• Assemble all of the pieces together using the yarn from binding off the pieces. Make sure to leave enough yarn hanging from beginning pieces to use to weave in the ends and tighten the work at the end and fasten so it does not come apart.
• There will be a lot of threads to weave in when you are finished especially in the back with switching to three different colors. 
• You can change any of the colors given in this pattern or even change the size or length of the pieces to make your turkey unique.

Your turkey is done! Enjoy and Happy Thanksgiving!

Thank you for visiting today and hope that you make the turkey for your next thanksgiving dinner to give to the host or to enjoy for yourself. I have not tested out this pattern since making the one turkey so I hope that it works for you. Please let me know in the comments if you knitted it and how you like the pattern.

Knitting a Turkey for Thanksgiving

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I have taken today off work and it feels so good to have time to myself. I decided to take a few days off work around my birthday this year to give myself time around one of my favorite times of the year, which is right around my birthday, Thanksgiving, and fall. My birthday is tomorrow, I will be 31 years old. Turning 31 makes me reflect on how fast time is going by. I think of how life is going to change a lot in my thirties with getting married next year,starting a family, and buying a house. There is so much to plan and do right now with the wedding coming up and the year coming to an end. I have also become very consumed with knitting and reading lately and this could take up most of my days easily. Today I met up with my fiancé Liam during his lunch near his work and I have done a workout, knitted, read, and chatted with my mom. I did a lot of knitting today on the new project I have started.

I am knitting another wine bottle topper, this time it is a turkey! I am knitting it as a gift for my future mother-in-law and will be giving it to her on Saturday for Thanksgiving  on top of a bottle of wine. I hope that she likes it as much as she liked the bunny wine bottle topper I made her for Easter this year. I have a couple of days left to finish it. So far I have the body done and am starting the head and the beak of the turkey.

I have knitted the body of the turkey in the seed stitch pattern to give the body of the turkey some texture to resemble the feathers they have on their bodies. As seen in the photo above, the head of the turkey is going to be simple knit stitch in the color red. The beige stitches are the start of the beak of the turkey. I will be knitting some wings also in the seed stitch to give them texture. I drew up a diagram of the turkey plans as this was something I did not find online. I find it fun to make my own patterns and I am using some of the design from the bunny topper to guide me with the body and the head decreases. I will share the pattern with you all when the turkey is complete in the next post.

I am still reading the book The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. It is so interesting to learn about habits and how they affect our lives and how we go about our days. Another book about habits that I will be reading next and might have taken a peak at already is called Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin. My sister read it and loved it, so I am so excited to read this one next.


Joining along with Frontier Dreams for Crafting On and As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday.

Thank you for visiting today and I hope that you have a wonderful day

Knitted Pumpkins and Reading On

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I have been busy with work and wedding planning tasks. I can't believe my wedding is only seven months away now. There is still so much left to do, but we have a lot of it planned now and I am getting excited for the big day as it gets closer. I am also happy that it is Fall now and it is getting chillier. I love the cooler air when we can wear sweaters and dress cozier which is perfect for inspiration for knitting and knitting some projects like scarves, hats, mittens to keep us warm. I also feel inspired to knit pumpkins this time of the year for Fall and Halloween. I found a pattern for knitted pumpkins on Ravelry by Katrina McNerney. I knitted two pumpkins, one in orange and one in white and they were so fun to knit.

Pattern: Knit pumpkin by Katrina McNerney

The knitted pumpkin looks like the photo below as you are knitting a tube shape in the round to make the pumpkin. The photo below was taken last night before I filled it with polyester stuffing and closed up the top and bottom of the pumpkin.

This pattern was easy to follow and makes for a great quick knit to make something festive for this time of the year. I used orange and white yarns to knit the two pumpkins. The white pumpkin was larger because the Loops & Threads Select Wool in the white colorway was thicker than the  Loops & Threads Impeccable orange yarn. I love how they turned out and I also knitted up the i-cord stems in brown cotton Bernat yarn to top it off.

I have been reading The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. I think this book will help me to understand how habits that we form make our lives flow better and so far I learned that there is a part of our brain that actually works to help us to remember how to do things so that we can have more time and brain capacity for other thoughts and actions. I am trying to get into creating more positive habits in my life especially when it comes to getting ready for work so I am more organized and just do what I need to do to have a good work week instead of rushing around to get things done. This will allow me to take the guessing out of my schedule during the week and follow a schedule so I can be more receptive to new opportunities at work with less thought and just the use of habits helping be to be more successful.

Joining along with Frontier Dreams for Crafting On and Small Things for Ginny's Yarn Along.

Thank you for visiting my blog today! I hope that you have a great weekend