It only took until 2 months *after* the wedding to complete the engagement sweater. Just in time for cold weather. Brian is thrilled to have his own handknit sweater, and I am just happy there was enough yarn to finish it..

Pattern: Beck by Jane Ellison, from the Jane Ellison Queensland Collection
Yarn: Mystery worsted recycled from a j.crew sweater.
More project details on Ravelry

Modifications:

1. Size. The pattern jumps from a finished size of 37" for an XS to 43" for a S. I needed something more like 40". I swatched the cable pattern with 2-stitch ribs instead of 3, and worked it out for a size 40". It took a couple sketchbook pages to figure out the cable placements, but in retrospect, a pretty straightforward modification. I knitted in the round with 208 stitches for the body, and followed length measurements from the size S.

2. Collar. The collar is a bit shorter than the pattern suggests. I also decreased on the cast-off row, similar to the method I used on the urban aran.

Sure, everyone uses different yarns than patterns suggest, but this project took yarn substitution a step further. A couple years ago I was interested for a time in unraveling thrift store sweaters, as an economical path to decent yarns. These days, I mostly buy yarn at yarn shops. But this recycled yarn was still in the stash, and matched the gauge. No reason to buy more worsted brown yarn when I already had some, so, why not..

As the sweater progressed, 2 cabled sleeves and half of a cabled body later, it became clear that a yarn shortage was impending. Hrm. How could I possibly get more of the same yarn? Odds were slim that I'd find another matching sweater somewhere. Commercially available yarns might come close in color, but there would be a noticeable difference no matter what. But wait - I remembered way back when I posted about finding this yarn, a commenter mentioned that they unraveled the same sweater. Maybe they'd have extra? Amazingly, they replied, and they did have extra and would know in a couple weeks when their sweater was expected to be complete.

In the meantime, I decided to get as far as I could with the yarn on hand. I unraveled the swatches and finished the sweater body. Post-blocking, the body was just a bit long, so I took out an inch and a half from the back and front, and used that for the collar. After sewing in the sleeves, there is maybe a yard left. one yard!

Lesson Learned: You can get a sweater's worth of decent yarn for 5 dollars, but there may not be any more if you run out.

Folks, I write you now as a married person, one who had the great fortune of marrying someone who likes stopping at yarn shops. Not only did my new husband drive us to Maine and back, he kept one eye out for yarn shops along the way.

I like finding yarns when traveling. I imagine they carry a bit of vacation spirit with them. We got more yarns than I can probably get through this season, but even if I knit the sweater 2 years from now, it can still be a "honeymoon sweater".

Here's what I brought back from our Maine trip.

Peace Fleece, 5 skeins
I am itching to start on this one. This gray-green yarn will be for another "camping sweater", this time a basic turtleneck sweater with deep ribbed cuffs. I haven't decided how to construct it, maybe in the round with raglan sleeves.

Blackstone Tweed, for husband sweater the first
Maybe for the saddle-shoulder aran cardigan by Meg Swansen.

Bartlett yarns in Bark, for husband sweater the second
I love the color of this yarn.. brownish black and tweedy. For a manly version of the camping sweater, a basic crew-neck.

Sock Yarns
Sock yarns are so hard to resist. One is super bright yellow, and one "crazy ball" with colors that reminded me of Maine. The yellow will be for textured socks of some sort. The multi-colored ball looks like it will have long stripe repeats a la Noro. I am thinking about striping in a solid gray or black to break up the long repeats.

Wind-spun Wool
There from Hope Spinnery, a Maine mill where they spin yarn with wind power. The yarns come in lovely subtle colors. This is for a hat for my mom. I made her a hat a couple years ago, but she lost it on a trip and had the hotel staff scouring the laundry for it, to no avail. Time for a new one.

I think it would be great if there was a book or an iPhone app to locate yarn shops while traveling, complete with reviews and hours, so we go to the good shops at the right time. Does this exist? Google maps does a decent job, but more than once I've found the yarn shop out of business or relocated.

In case you're headed up the Maine coast, these shops were my favorites:
Heavenly Socks Yarns, Belfast, Maine
Knit Wit, Portland, Maine
Halcyon Yarn, Bath, Maine

Back in the depth of winter, I took a machine quilting class at Purl Patchwork. I bought fabric for this baby quilt back then too, solids for the front and the print for the backing. Then I started a new job and wedding planning and this project was set aside - until now.

The quilt front will be made of these half-square triangles, a color paired with white for each, to be pieced in a random arrangement. Each square will only be 3 inches, I like them small. But according to my calculations, the quilt will need on the order of 168 squares!

What do you think would be the best way to quilt this? I love the look of swirling circle quilt lines, but since this is my first quilt undertaking, maybe straight lines are the way to go.

(Printed fabric by Alexander Henry, solids are Robert Kaufman Kona Cotton)

A morning's sewing yielded this sundress.

Its the All-weekend Sundress from Heather Ross' book, Weekend Sewing. I thought it looked great in the book photos, but suspected it would be unflattering on me. It turned out okay though! Honeymoon worthy? I think so!

The fabric is cotton jersey from Mood. I almost went with navy, and perhaps will go back for it and make another dress. If I make this again, I'll lengthen the skirt 5 inches or so .

I ran into a strange problem with the elastic thread on the top and waist. On the first try it did not stretch enough and ended up tight. Stretching the fabric a bit while sewing fixed this.

Give this sundress a try! Its super easy.

Some people make quilts out of fabric scraps. I have yet to make a quilt (soon!), and the prospect of saving scraps for future quilts seems like it would be great for someone with a sewing room and lots of storage, not so much for my studio apartment. But those bits and pieces of fabric can be used for something, right?

I saved this weekend's scraps, in rag balls. it was a quietly productive weekend, and I had both time and energy to sit out on the porch and scrap them together. I have this idea to knit a small rug out of them. a welcome mat or a bath mat, like the one in Mason Dixon Knitting. Many more scraps will be needed for that. If only I had begun saving them a few months ago, there would be many rag balls by now. ah well.

I used this rag knitting tutorial to turn random scraps into balls.

For full pieces of fabric or garments, there's an easier way: Vintage Chica Rag Rug Tutorial