Alpaca goodness

So my fairy godmother (okay she is really my godmother and only sometimes a fairy) gifted me with some great natural color alpaca yarn that she found stomping the grounds of the Sedgwick County Fair this year. If you are ever in the Wichita, KS area in the beginning of July, you must make the drive to Cheney for the fair. It is a great time, fantastic food, furry friends and furious rides. The church lady pie and pronto pups are my personal favorites, but make a trip and find your own. It's a grand time.

Anyway.. M (my godmother) procured me two, 200 yard skeins of tan and brown alpaca yarn from a farm in Haven, KS. Now what oh what am I going to do with this lovely yarn? Well I'm going to bring you my very first pattern that's what.

I present to you my very first knitted pattern. Below is the ravelry pattern link for my new creation S's Snuggle Sack, inspired by my gifted yarn. If you're not a member yet, please oh please sign up. This is probably the single greatest resource for knitters and crocheters in the universe, second only to your local yarn store. Yes I know.. I'm charging a $1.50 for it, I figure if I make any money at all from this it will go into a little savings account for the little future babe. Now on to the back story.



R and I have been planning our future and a bebe is in the plan in a few years, so I've decided to make some gender neutral things to pack away for when the time comes. The carseat blanket was the first to be mafb (made/make ahead for baby).

M told me to make myself something nice, but I just couldn't resist a opportunity to mafb again. Please let me know if you find any errors in the pattern, it is my first so I welcome the input.

Also, in an effort to practice my patter writing skills I wrote up the pattern to a chemo beanie I made for a co-worker. It's a free pattern and you can download the pdf below. I hope you enjoy my designs. I'm really getting into this. Hopefully I can create more.

download now

S is getting her sewing groove back

Well what a difference a few days make.

This week I managed to finish my purse, lining and all as well as sew a garment from a tutorial, without an actual pattern to cut from.

The purse proved to be easy, all the mishaps were my own doing, not because the pattern had issues. Granted the pattern never said to line the darn thing, so that headache was all my own doing. However, after putting the thing in timeout for a few days, I regrouped and was able to accomplish something I'm very happy with.

Now the garment. It is from a tutorial from Sew, Mama, Sew. I originally stumbled on this lovely website a couple years ago when I was thinking about getting back into sewing. Granted I never really did get back into sewing until recently, I found my way back by way of their blog.


I decided to make the Super Simple Nightie. It looks perfect for those summer nights that are about to descend on P-Town. The forecast is calling for highs in the 80s coming up and with the decision for no window air conditioning this summer, if there is one thing I need, its being comfortable while I sleep.

I went fabric shopping (dragging R along for the fun) for the lining of the aforementioned purse and I found some super cute fabric (the whale print $2.75). Granted it was only a fat quarter, but it was too cute to pass up, so I dropped the money and off we went. I stumbled upon this tutorial before we went shopping so when I saw it I knew I wanted it for this project. From there I found the perfect bright yellow fabric ($7.99/yard but it was on sale 30% off) to coordinate. Picked up some blue rick rack and off I went. I used a bit of cream linen for the back side of the top portion as the fat quarter wasn't enough for both sides. I already had the linen in my scrap pile.

The tutorial was super simple to follow and I'm pretty happy with the result. It isn't form fitted at the top, it has a few gaps but it isn't tight around the top and it's very comfortable. I highly recommend the tutorial to anyone who has a sewing machine and an iron.

All in all I spent $10 for a great summer sleeper. For once when I set out to make something it didn't end up more than if I ran to the store and picked up something similar. The great thing is that this is fully customizable and exactly what I wanted.

I think I've rekindled the passion for sewing... Oh lord, there are just not enough hours in the day for all the hobbies I'm finding I enjoy. Poor R and B are going to have to help me manage my time better.