Pictures! People like pictures, right?

Now that I have delivered this to its recipient, I can share my latest FO.

This is the blue & green "Raitaritarin Raita-asu/ Striped Outfit for a Stripeknight" (Ravelry project link) I made for Lisa, one of my favorite knitting friends, who is having her first child sometime between Any Day Now and hopefully not too much longer than the middle of next month. We were in Hawaii for her first shower, but the knitting circle at Piedmont Yarn had a shower for her yesterday, which was an awful lot of fun.

This was exactly the project I'd been waiting for to use up the leftover Karabella Aurora 8 (Rav link) from a Tulips cardigan I made a while back for my niece. I thought I might run out of the teal, but wound up with just under 2 ft left. Perfect! I love this yarn; it's a multi-ply construction that some people might find a little splitty, but I don't generally have much problem with that, and it's SOOOO soft and smooth, with great stitch definition and sproinginess. It converted my SIL, who was surprised to hear that it was wool, and previously didn't like knitted wool garments because of the itchiness. It's so smooth, in fact, that when I'm weaving in ends I usually try to go through a strand or two to make sure it will hold.

And here's where I reveal my dirty secret: my model for the sweater is none other than ...

yes, a roll of paper towels. I don't have any babies around to model my baby clothes, so I'm usually scrounging around the house for items to give the clothes a little shape for photos, instead of laying them out flat. I've used 5lb bags of flour, 3-d wall art, and even martini glasses before. This time? Paper towels. Whatever works, right?

The extra fun part (and the proof that sometimes my good intentions actually work out) of this project was realizing Thursday night that I needed some way to wrap the gift, and wouldn't have time to run out to the store before the shower. I have some fat quarters of pretty colors of quilting cotton, and decided to try my hand at making a Japanese Knot Bag to present the sweater in, something Lisa could use afterwards for a project bag. It was my first attempt, and I basically cobbled together the essentials of several different patterns and tutorials to come up with my best guess effort at it. I'm actually pretty pleased with the result:

I need to work on my stitching technique, especially the handstitching to seal the tops of the handles. I have more fat quarters I plan on using to make more of these and perfect my own version, and Bente at Piedmont Yarn is already asking me to consign them through the shop. We shall see. I need to figure out how to make them better and faster before they would be worth my time to sell.

I do have more pictures to share, and there will be even more after I go tonight to pick up the two floor looms I seem to have acquired. However, all of that can wait for another post.