Do you ever get hit with inspiration and you have to start a project RIGHT NOW? And finish it, RIGHT NOW? Of course you do. That’s what startitis is. I was hit with a crazy bout of this type of quilting madness last weekend. It was as though I hadn’t sewn anything in weeks and the ideas were just pouring out of my fingers. Being that I sew for a living, when the mood strikes to stay at the sewing machine on the weekend, I know I’m on to something.

It feels like I didn’t really get that much knit in 2009 and that’s partly true. I didn’t really have much personal knitting or sewing time and if I’m honest, I didn’t feel much like knitting for the middle half of the year. My mojo has come back in full swing though and if my plans for 2010 work out the way I’m thinking, I’ll get a tonne done and I’ll be able to share all the secret projects too come Q3.
Let’s recap and nutshell this past year’s projects, shall …

A few weeks ago I taggged along on a business trip to LA while The Husband was speaking at UCLA.  While I was packing the night before we left, I realized in horror that I had nothing on the needles to take along to knit. Well, I DO have a pair of socks, but ugh, they are not singing to me. I scrounged around in the stash and dug up some Sereknity Sock Options Good Harbor in the colourway Winter of my Discontent. I’d bought this yarn at SPA last …

I’ve knit a fair few sweaters for myself, but I was still searching for that perfect sweater.  The Husband got his on the first try, lucky duck, but I still hadn’t found that sweater I reached for when the temps dropped.  Actually, I do have one I reach for, but it’s cotton from Old Navy and isn’t going to last more than a few months, plus it isn’t…you know…wool. And I didn’t make it. So the quest for my go-to sweater continued. At the end of last winter, I got …

At the very last minute before Rhinebeck this year, I decided to knit a Rhinebeck sweater. For those that aren’t familiar with the tradition, basically you knit a sweater to debut at the New York Sheep and Wool festival. In true Caro procrastination fashion, I ordered my yarn 10 days before Rhinebeck. Crazypants, right? Then when the yarn didn’t ship right away,  I panicked for a minute and then just zipped over to my LYS to grab two skeins of Cascade Eco wool to cast on right that second (exactly  …

Can I just say how exciting it is to knit and finish something that isn’t secret knitting? It seems the whole of my time the last few months has all been secret knitting. (It seems like that because it HAS been all hush hush stuff.) Finally though, an FO I can show.
I give you Piper from the Fall 2009 Twist Collective.
I probably could have knocked this out in an afternoon, but after so much deadline knitting the last few months, I decide to really take my time with it and …

Seems an appropriate way to celebrate 5 years of blogging; the Studio Raglan is finished. Finally!

The basic pattern for this started with Barbara Walker's Classic Raglan Pullover from Knitting from the Top. Realistically though, I only used the numbers for the cast-on and then just knit on my own from there. I was winging it almost the whole way but with a raglan, that's easy to do.

I'm fairly happy with how it came out, even if it's just a touch too big in the arms and the chest. When …

Remember waaaaaaaaay back in September of 2006 when I started that brown coin quilt? This weekend I finally finished it. Normally on Saturdays the last thing I want to do is spend another 8 hours in front of the sewing machine (hazards of sewing for a living) but I was feeling the need for an FO.

The quilt top had been finished for a while, so all that needed to be done was to baste the top to the backing and batting and quilt the darn thing. I chose the …

On the flight home from holidays in Vancouver, I cast on for Thorpe with a scrap ball of Cascade 220 leftover from Husband Sweater #2. I had weighed it before I left so I knew I would be tight on yardage, but I decided to give it a whirl anyway. By the time I changed planes in Houston with only 3 rows left on the second ear flap, I ran out of yarn. I wove in the ends on the rest of the hat, spit spliced the tiny bits together …

I knit Coronet back in December 2006. Again, like most of my handknits, it didn't see much wear in Austin. Boston, however, gave it new life. If it's cold enough for a toque, this is the one I reach for every time. The cabled band around the bottom is perfect for non-helmet-like toque wearing. It gives it just enough of a chunky weight that it doesn't suck down to your melon giving you that little desired Q-tip look. Plus it's perfect to wear straight across my eyebrows in that old-school …