Finished Object Friday

Last week I was at Stitches East, which turned out great. It was fun to meet new students and see others who have been in my classes before. I had great times with the other teachers who are my pals, and came home with some more awesomely complicated yet elegant contract knitting from Gwen.
I really appreciate everyone's support and generous congratulations about my Knitter's cover. It is one of the fun things of life that I'll always remember. Really, the real congratulations go to Alexis, Rick and Natalie and everyone at Knitter's for their great eye and the amazing visual impact of the magazine. They do such a great job. I'm well aware that this is a super-lucky break for a fairly new designer, and I have no illusions about the challenges ahead for getting published. This does give me a lot of motivation to keep on going, though.

So, this week for Finished Object Friday, I celebrate two double-whammies: Both of these are done, and they are completely from stash. No new yarn was purchased or harmed in the making of these items.

First is a blanket for Afghans for Afghans. I missed the clothing campaign, but I think I'll be able to get two blankets sent in time. This one is made of some gifted Lopi. I know it won't be the softest blanket, but it might be the warmest, and babies look so nice in red. It is a basic big block design and it went very quickly once I decided to just get it done. I would estimate that this has been sitting in my bedside knitting basket for over 2 years. Confession is good for the soul. Now I'm letting it go and I'm thrilled.

Next is a vest from Stephanie Japel's excellent book Fitted Knits. She did it in a solid color, but in the spirit of stash shopping, I used two harmonizing colorways of Berocco Keltic, a nice wool blend in tweedy, subtle gradating stripes. I changed the bottom rib to corrugated rib, sacrificing the stretch, but I'm thrilled with the two-color results and got lots of complements on this while wearing it at Stitches. It was a fun, fast knit. Next time, I would work the darts even smaller to accommodate my mostly flat chest. It is warm to wear and perfect for fall and winter when a vest can make a huge difference in feeling just right-not too warm, but not chilly. This is already a favorite, and its fitted silhouette is a very strong enticement to do that weight training to keep the tummy IN!