Knitting: Dyed Cabled Pullover for Lesotho

Since I've memorized the raglan pullover pattern for these sweaters, I decided to try a few more radical changes.

For this sweater, I added a cable ("Stitch Plait", p.114 of The Knitting Stitch Bible) down the front.

I also dyed the entire sweater when it was done, simply because it was a dull grey. I used six packets of Orange Kool-Aid for this one, and the camera just doesn't do it justice.

You can see a little more of the orange highlights in this photo, but it's still not the same as seeing it in real life. I'm very pleased with how it turned out!

Knitting: Black & Pink Patterned Sweater for Lesotho

... And yet another sweater for the children of Lesotho. :)

I took the same basic raglan sweater pattern and tried a different variation this time.

I did the yoke in all black, stockinette stitch. Then I switched to the dark pink, alternating strips of a pattern and stockinette. It's hard to see in the photos, but it does show up quite well in real life.

I used a decorative stitch from The Knitting Stitch Bible called Textured Stitch on the Diagonal (p.81).

I really like how this one turned out! It used a little more yarn, and it appears to be a tad bit bigger. I'm not sure if that's because of the different stitch or not, but I'm still very happy with it.

Knitting: Green & Pink Striped Sweater for Lesotho

I made another striped sweater for the children of Lesotho. This time I used green and pink together.

These are both very soft wool. The pink is a merino/angora blend, while the green is a super-soft wool.

You can't see the color very well in the first photo, but this is a little closer:

I originally thought the green would appear more green. Unless you look at it in bright sunlight, it does appear to be almost black. Oh well, perhaps they'll enjoy the novelty of a sweater that changes colors when you step outside! :)

Cards: More VW Beetle Bugs

Sorry to have dropped off the face of the earth for a week! :) My mother and nephew were visiting, and we were busy getting things ready for his upcoming graduation, as well as the usual visiting.

I made some more of these adorable VW Beetle cards because I just couldn't resist.

This is my favorite color for the actual cars, so I had to make at least one.

How's this for a cute green car? I know I've seen one of the real cars in a similar green, although it had a custom paint job to make it look like a frog. I dearly love these little cars because they have so much personality!

I'm pretty sure either of these cards could go for men or women (or boys/girls), so I'm very happy to have some more versatile cards in my stash.

Just a reminder, you can find this free template here on Stamp-n-Design's blog. You can also see the other cards I made with this template at this post.

Cards: Hot Air Balloons

These hot air balloons were another image I printed out onto patterned paper awhile back and never got around to using. They are also free images from Bird's Cards.

I purposely left the sentiment off these so I could add it in that space at the bottom as the needs arise. I especially like this method of cardmaking, since my cards are more versatile this way.

I also tried to use up every scrap of paper so I didn't have to store the scraps. As a result, I made several of each card until all the scraps were gone.

Cards: Wingback Chairs

Here are some more premade items I've been holding onto for awhile.

I printed these free digital stamp chairs [from Bird's Cards, I think] onto patterned paper awhile ago and cut them out. I fully intended to do something with them, but they sat in the envelope for over a year before I pulled them out a few weeks ago and decided to make cards with them.

Wingback chairs are my personal favorite when it comes to chair styles, so I didn't use much embellishment. I just added a few Nestabilities frames, pearls and then popped the chairs up on dimensionals.

I really like them, and they can be used for just about any occasion!

Cards: Little Girls Are Heaven's Flowers

I pulled out a bunch of miscellaneous supplies I had premade (flowers and such) and came up with these frilly cards that will work great for girly birthdays or baby girl congratulations cards.

I'm slowly working through my stack of embellishments I had premade for fun. These flowers are a fine example of that. I've had them for over a year now. I'm so glad to finally have used them on something!

The stamping wasn't exactly flawless on this one, but I'm keeping it. It has been so long since I stamped that I didn't think about the bulk of the embellishments and how it would affect me pressing down on the stamp. Oh well, lesson learned! :)

Knitting: Black and Pink Striped Sweater for Lesotho

I really like how this sweater came out! The black is a super-soft lambswool from an unraveled J Crew sweater. The pink is a bright, fun color harvested from an unraveled Express sweater (75% merino/25% angora). Together, they made one of the softest sweaters I've ever felt. Knitting this sweater was a treat for my fingers.

The striped effect was a lot easier the second time around.

I love how it turned out! Since the children in impoverished countries tend to be smaller than our well-fed children, this 4T size should fit children in a pretty wide age range.

Knitting: Black and Green Striped Sweater for Lesotho

Here's another striped sweater for Lesotho, similar in design to the red striped one I made for India. This one is made from unraveled thrift store sweaters. The green and white are a nice, soft wool. The black is soft lambswool.

The size of this stripe is much better, and I even got adventurous and matched it up on the sleeves, too. :)

Knitting: Black and Blue Striped Sweater for Lesotho

Ever since I saw the feature photo for the Basic Seamless Raglan Pullover, I knew I wanted to try making it in stripes. I was a bit intimidated by all those color changes and ends to weave in, though, so I made a few sweaters before I attempted it. Now that I've tried it, I realize it's no big deal, as long as you pay attention to how many rows your stripes are (so that the sleeves will match up with the body of the sweater).

I really like this sweater. The yarns are so nice and soft, both recycled lambswool from thrift store sweaters (American Eagle and Old Navy). Although I used to think wool was scratchy, this yarn was a dream to knit with. I like it even better than acrylic - it was actually softer!

Now that I've gotten the hang of taking apart the thrift store sweaters, I have quite the stash going. I try to unravel a few sweaters each week, so I have yarn waiting for my next project. I'm not feeling a bit guilty about it, either, since almost all of it is going to charity - AND I'm using it up pretty fast. :)