Road Trip Knitting

With the goal of visiting a place where we could see the totality of the eclipse this week, my family took our first road trip. 

We went all in: 5 national parks, 2 national monuments, 5 states, 16 days and 4000 miles traveled.

We began in North Dakota at Theodore Roosevelt Park.

Since we were in the car so much, I had tons of time for knitting. 

I was able to start and finish a vest, inspired by the fluffy clouds in the big sky

The other knitting project I brought along didn't get quite finished, but I made some serious headway on it. 

I had the book Yokes by Kate Davies, and it was hard to choose one pattern. I love everything in the book, and I will probably knit more as the years pass. 

I settled on Cockatoo Brae, which is the cover pattern. (photo from the book)

I dug through my stash and found some colors I liked. 

 As we traveled around, I realized that I was seeing all the colors of my yarn in the gorgeous landscape around us.

The lichen, the fauna, the water, the woods, it was all represented in my palate. 

We had a marvelous time, despite the odd 35 degree night, or swarms of flies in the outhouses. 

I can't wait to finish up this sweater, and be reminded of our travels.

Joining in with Crafting On.

Flurry of Back to School Sewing

So, this little peanut will be starting Kindergarten in about a month, and what's a crafty girl to do, but go into major dress production? 

I was flipping through the top children's fashion sites and saw this adorable dress from Mini Boden 

and thought to myself "Self, you can make that!'

So I grabbed a pattern for a basic jumper and added a face and ears. 

The mouse came out so cute, I let her pick out fabric for a cat.

 I had this knit dress cut out for about a year, so I finished that one up.

The original jumper pattern had a version with this faux Peter Pan collar, so I did one in this amazing Space Baby fabric. When I saw it in the shop I audibly gasped. I had made an outfit for The Elder when she was 6 months old (that particular lady is 13 now!)

Also on the Mini Boden site there were a lot of applique dresses and so I tried that too.

I still have a few more things up my sleeves, we'll see how many I finish up.
The Youngest is also my Last, so I feel a little extra pressure to get these made before she decides that she doesn't want homemade clothes anymore.
Joining Nicole for KCCO this morning